Russia is working "seriously" for a lifting of the UN sanctions in force against Iraq since 1990, a Russian envoy said during talks in Baghdad Saturday.
"Russia is working seriously to find a means to secure a lifting of the sanctions as soon as possible," Nikolai Kartuzov told Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf. "My country is determined to develop its relations with Iraq," the senior foreign ministry official said, quoted by the official news agency INA.
Sahhaf, in turn, expressed Iraq's appreciation of Russian support "for its legitimate demands for a lifting of the unjust embargo," slapped on Baghdad for its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
On December 14, the Russian foreign ministry said only a suspension of UN sanctions could save Iraq. "A true solution of Iraq's humanitarian crisis is impossible while the economic sanctions last," the ministry said in a statement, adding that Russia would continue to actively lobby the UN Security Council to suspend the embargo. — (AFP, Baghdad
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
