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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 28 Sep. - 4 Oct. 2000 Issue No. 501
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Death siege defied
By Salah HemeidFor years, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has argued that the devastating economic embargo imposed by the United Nations on his nation after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait would not be lifted by the Security Council. Hussein suggested that instead, sanctions would collapse when countries sympathetic to Iraq's plight stopped abiding by them.
Now that two of the council's permanent members, France and Russia, have started direct flights to Baghdad, the prospects for lifting the embargo appear to be better than ever. These flights represent a flagrant defiance of the positions taken by the United States and Britain, the two major powers which insist on keeping the draconian sanctions in place.
On Sunday, a Russian plane landed in Baghdad's newly opened Saddam airport. With this latest flight, the third within a week, the total number of civilian aircraft sent by Russia to Iraq during the last two months has risen to four.
Following Russia's move this week, France, Iraq's other traditional ally, also sent a plane to Baghdad to test the UN sanctions regime and affirm its solidarity with Iraq.
With much fanfare, Iraqi officials welcomed the Russian and French planes. These brought cargoes of humanitarian aid along with politicians, businessmen, physicians, athletes and artists. Meanwhile, Baghdad's state-run media hailed the arrival of the aircraft as evidence that the decade-long trade sanctions were collapsing despite US and British objections.
One of three Russian planes that landed in Baghdad this week in defiance of the 10-year-long UN sanctions
(photo: AP)
"The United States and Britain's claim that these trips violate the UN resolutions is absolutely not true,'' said Abdel-Razaq Al-Hashimi, head of the Iraqi Solidarity and Friendship Organisation, which welcomed the Russian and French planes at the airport.
Explaining Russia's actions, Yuri Shafranik, the head of the Russian committee which organised the trip, said, "We want to ease and end the so-called sanctions imposed on Iraq. A whole nation is being isolated by these sanctions and this is a criminal act against the Iraqi people.''
Responding to questions on whether France had defied the UN, the spokesman for the French delegation, Jihad Ferghali, a Frenchman of Lebanese origin, said: "There is no need for permission from the United Nations.''
The United States and Britain were swift in their condemnation of the moves by Russia and France, saying that the flights violate sanctions by rewarding Hussein's government economically. The two also insist all flights -- including humanitarian ones -- require permission from the UN Sanctions Committee.
Washington reserved particular ire for France, claiming that it deliberately circumvented the UN Sanctions Committee which normally approves humanitarian flights to Iraq. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We fail to understand why the French government, which has discussed this at the United Nations for some time, could not wait 12 hours to obtain the Sanctions Committee's approval for the flight.''
A landmark initiative, the flights to Iraq appear to have transformed opposition to the sanctions from rhetoric to action. Both Russia and France have consistently called for an end to sanctions, but their sending planes to Iraq represented the first time they actually violated them. Only last week these two countries asked the council to reduce Iraq's reparation payments to the victims of the invasion of Kuwait. Moscow has also repeatedly condemned British and US air raids on the no-fly zones imposed on northern and southern Iraq.
Some American analysts have accused France and Russia of hypocrisy saying that the two countries are motivated only by their considerable interests in Iraq's oil industry. Also motivating France and Russia, say these analysts, is their eagerness to call in billions of dollars owed to them by the Iraqi state. They argue that neither France nor Russia will push their violation of the UN sanctions further because to do so might jeopardise their strategic and economic interests in regard to the United States.
By sending their planes to Iraq, France and Russia succeeded in sending a clear message to Washington and London that the international community's patience with the sanctions is running out. Indeed, there are signs that Washington is increasingly feeling isolated from its allies over the embargo on Iraq.
The frustration and indecision of the US administration on how to deal with Iraq was evident in recent statements by US officials. Some Iraqi opposition leaders who met with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright earlier this month, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Albright used much of the time allocated for their meeting to complain about the mounting pressure on Washington by the international community concerning the easing of sanctions.
Related stories:
New battle of wills 7 - 13 September 2000
Hard to believe 3 - 9 August 2000
Remembering the occupation 3 - 9 August 2000
Death for oil 13 - 19 July 2000
