Iraq categorically denied Wednesday that it launched a border attack last month on Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh had alleged in a complaint to the United Nations, reported AFP.
"The Saudi message has no foundation. No violation can be proved, as Saudi authorities claim," Mohammed Aldouri, Iraq's representative to the UN, wrote in a message to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"This campaign of lies reveals the true aims of the Saudi authorities, who are backed by Washington and London, and who try to make believe that tension reigns on the Saudi-Iraqi border so as to prolong the embargo" imposed on Iraq by the United Nations, Aldouri wrote, in a message quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency.
Saudi ambassador to the UN Fawzi Bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi said that an Iraqi patrol crossed the border May 23 and traveled about 400 meters (yards) into Uwayqilah in Saudi territory, opening fire on the border patrol.
The Saudi troops retaliated, according to the letter released Tuesday, and in the exchange of fire "a number of Saudi soldiers were wounded." An Iraqi soldier found wounded was hospitalized and died a short time later of his injuries.
In the letter sent to Annan and the UN Security Council, the Saudi diplomat insisted the incident was not an isolated event and listed a dozen such incidents since March, when Iraqi forces fired on Saudi troops from the Iraqi side of the border.
Baghdad regularly accuses Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of violating Iraq's borders by providing bases for US and British warplanes that enforce flight bans in the north and south of the country – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
