IRAQ-CONFLICT: UN oil for food program rejected

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is from the Qatar News Agency (QNA)

MOSCOW, Apr 1 2003 (IPS) - Iraq has rejected the UN’s oil for food humanitarian program, the Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Abbas Khalaf, said on Tuesday.

"Such decision of Baghdad is dictated by the fact that powers to conclude contacts in the framework of the program have been transferred to the UN secretary-general, and not the Iraqi side," he told Itar-Tass news agency on Tuesday.

"The Iraqi side proceeds from the assumption that Resolution 1472 of the UN Security Council on the resumption of humanitarian aid to Iraq in fact justifies the US-British invasion of our country," Khalaf said.