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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 August 2000 Issue No. 494 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 10 - 16 August 2000 Issue No. 494
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons The purely vindictive
There is no longer any possible justification for prolonging the embargo imposed against Iraq. And any reasons cited for its continuing by those members of the international community keen on its pursuit are both politically and morally invalid.
The war for which we were all sorry has already taken place. The embargo imposed against Iraq was one of its outcomes, an outcome that we accepted only reluctantly at the time. But no possible case can be made to continue the suffering of the Iraqi people, to deprive children and old people, the sick and the infirm of the medicines they need. This is a situation nobody in their right mind -- Arab or non-Arab -- can be comfortable with. There is no shadow of doubt in my mind that it should end.
Let us start with the Arab League, which really should formulate a unanimous Arab stand on this issue. Let the Arab League present the UN Security Council with a proposal to end the embargo. And let this step be preceded by intensive consultations with the Council's member states, detailing the Arab position forcefully and at whatever length proves necessary.
In the unforgivable event that one or more states veto the proposed lifting of the embargo a clearly argued case for its ending would at least have had the effect of rendering any justification null and void in the eyes of the world, exposing it for what it is, an example of the purely vindictive.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
