Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mahdi Saleh protested Sunday that Israel had blocked the entry into the Palestinian territories of two consignments of humanitarian aid sent by sanctions-hit Iraq.
"The Zionist authorities banned the entry of food and medicine sent to our people in occupied Palestine at the initiative of President Saddam Hussein," said Saleh, quoted by the official news agency INA.
He said "this criminal measure is not surprising coming from the Zionist entity which kills and besieges the Palestinians, just like the United States which has placed a siege on the Iraqi people for the past 10 years."
Iraq has been under UN sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Its aid consignments to the Palestinians were sent out last week via Jordan on 100 trucks loaded with rice, flour, sugar, cooking oil and baby milk, all goods which are rationed in Iraq itself because of the embargo.
Saddam has also decided to donate five million euros (4.2 million dollars) to families of Palestinians killed in the intifada and to support the anti-Israeli uprising, as well as offering to treat Palestinian casualties in Iraqi hospitals -- BAGHDAD (AFP)
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