The US Treasury Department added the names of 55 former senior Iraqi officials, known as the Department of Defense's 55 "Most Wanted" figures, to the Foreign Assets Control list, freezing any accounts in US jurisdiction and prohibiting them from having any transactions with US persons.
The United States will also submit the 55 names to the United Nations for designation under UNSCR 1483, which requires all member states to freeze without delay funds or other financial assets or economic resources of Iraqi state bodies, corporations, or agencies located outside of Iraq, as well as funds or economic resources removed by Saddam Hussein, senior officials of the former Iraqi regime, and their immediate families.
The Treasury Department has located well over $1.2 billion in previously unknown Iraqi assets and is working to facilitate the return of those assets to the Iraqi people through the Development Fund for Iraq, according to the press release.
According to the Department of Defense, 32 of the 55 designated today have been captured or have surrendered to coalition forces. “Any assets belonging to these individuals must be returned to the Development Fund for Iraq and used for the good of the Iraqi people as required under the resolution,” according to a June 24 press release.
“The Treasury Department has already returned over $660 million in Iraqi assets previously frozen in the US to Iraq where it has been used to pay civil servants and pensioners and to provide capital for Iraqi Ministries as they resume operation,” the official US release asserted.
“Additionally, the Treasury Department, working with allies, has located well over $1.2 billion
in previously unknown Iraqi assets and is working to facilitate the return of those assets to the Iraqi people through the Development Fund for Iraq.”
Among the former senior Iraqi officials on the Foreign Assets Control’s list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) are Saddam Hussein; sons Qusay and Uday; Abid Hamid Mahmud, Saddam's presidential secretary and key advisor; Ali Hassan al-Majid, presidential advisor and senior member of Revolutionary Command Council;
Also on the list are Hikmat Mizban Ibrahim al-Azzawi, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance
Minister; Amir Rashid Muhammad al-Ubaidi, Minister of Oil; and Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih, Minister of Trade. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
