Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has warned that his country should prepare for "a new confrontation," in a fresh attack by Baghdad on the plans for a revision of the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq by the UN, said reports.
"We are on the eve of a new confrontation. That is why it is our duty to be prepared for it," the president was quoted as saying during a cabinet meeting to discuss the "smart sanctions."
Britain, with US backing, has put forward a draft that would abolish the embargo on civilian trade with Iraq, while tightening a weapons ban and controls on smuggling outside a UN oil-for-food deal.
"The main goal of the enemy is to break Iraq's national will and colonize us with new methods and under new names," Hussein was quoted by AFP as saying, explaining "this could be through controlling Iraqi funds and by preventing Iraq from developing itself."
Earlier Saturday, an Iraqi foreign ministry official said Iraq no longer considered itself bound by the oil-for-food program after the UN renewed the humanitarian program for only one month, as opposed to its customary six-month renewal, said AFP.
"The UN has violated the letter of this agreement in prolonging it by one month instead of six," said Naji Al Hadithi, state minister at Iraq's foreign ministry, to reporters.
"When a party violates its commitments this means that the agreement has been broken and Iraq will act in consequence," Hadithi said.
"Iraq believes itself equally exempt as all engagements within the body of this agreement have been revoked" by the UN, he said.
On June 1, the UN Security Council agreed to a one-month rollover of the oil-for-food program, while the council debated British and US efforts to push through a revised form of the economic sanctions, which have been enforced against Baghdad since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Iraq retaliated by halting all sales under the oil-for-food program as of June 4, an estimated 2.4 million barrels per day.
The oil-for-food program, in operation since late 1996, permits the sale of Iraqi oil under the supervision of the UN in order to provide humanitarian aid for Iraq's general population.
However, the program has come under attack internationally for the security council's delays and blocks on items purchased for Iraq's civilian population, based on the argument the purchased items have a dual military use.
Within the same context, Iraq's Health Minister Omeid Medhat Mubarak told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Saturday that "US and British representatives at the UN Sanctions Committee have placed holds on 11 contracts Iraq has concluded with world companies under the oil-for-food formula."
The suspended contracts included spare parts for dental apparatus, beds for burn victims and elevators, he told the agency.
The contracts also included autoclaves to sterilize dentistry tools, lab materials, environmental equipment to measure air pollution, pharmaceutical materials for a drug factory, and equipment for radiotherapy centers - Albawaba.com
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