Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, July 18, condemned the "endless" continuation of UN sanctions against Iraq, but also urged Baghdad to accept the return of international arms inspectors.
"We think that the system of sanctions is not productive. We need to make sure that Iraq is not producing weapons of mass destruction. We have to convince Iraq to accept observers, and then move towards the lifting of sanctions," Putin told a Kremlin press conference.
"The endless prolongation of sanctions or updating them in our view will not achieve" the goal of the punitive measures, the Russian president added.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Wednesday, July 18, said they planned to work together to overcome their countries' differences on UN sanctions against Iraq.
"We agreed to further our close co-operation, including in the UN Security Council. That would enable us to agree on the solution that would result in the final Iraqi settlement," Ivanov told reporters.
"I look forward to working with our Russian colleagues at the United Nations in New York to see if we can find a way to move forward with respect to Iraq," Powell said, after the pair had shared a working breakfast. "I appreciate the minister's forthcoming comments that we should work to find a solution," he added.
Russia is pushing for the UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq to be suspended and then lifted completely in exchange for Iraq resuming cooperation with UN disarmament inspectors.
At the start of the month, Moscow blocked a US-backed British "smart sanctions" proposal to scrap the civilian trade embargo on Iraq while tightening controls to prevent it from smuggling crude oil and illegal weapons.
As a result, the UN Security Council decided to extend the oil-for-food deal by five months, which allows Baghdad to export a limited amount of oil to buy food and medical supplies.
Iraq has been under a tight sanctions regime since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, which saw Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces driven out of occupied Kuwait by a US-led international coalition. ― (AFP, Moscow, Rome)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
