IRAQ: Sanctions reprieved for whom? asks UAE paper

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Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, May 9 2003 (IPS) - A United Arab Emirates (UAE) newspaper has said that US endeavors to put its hands in all emerging business opportunities in Iraq in favor of US firms will create great "anxiety and animosity internationally."

The Dubai-based ‘Gulf News’ is of the opinion that the sanctions that were introduced against Iraq in 1990 and the resultant "food for oil" program carried out by the UN have created nothing but "much corruption" on both the UN side and the Iraqi side, "with a lot of the funds going directly to leaders in the Saddam Hussein regime, to prop up their lavish lifestyle, including the building of some 30 luxurious palaces."

"Now, with the United States effectively in control of Iraq, the US wants an end to sanctions, in the belief that in doing so, it will pave the way for more supplies to be delivered to Iraq, greater aid and sustenance and, for the rebuilding of the country," the paper commented in its editorial today.

However, many leaders around the world are more suspicious, it believes. They see, the paper adds, the ploy of ending sanctions more aimed at ensuring greater benefit to US industries, where already a number of plum contracts have landed.

"It is presumed that once the sanctions are lifted by the UN Security Council, it will not be long after that the UN will release control of the sale of Iraqi oil and the distribution of funds. Since there is no effective government in place in Iraq, it is assumed that the sale of such products will be undertaken by the civilian administrator that the US has just put in place over Iraq. It is probably for this reason that the US is finding objections to their proposal," ‘Gulf News’ noted.

The paper wrote that there were plenty of competent Iraqis capable of managing their country and for the US to assume otherwise was fallacious.

"It also smacks of the US wanting to hog all and any of the business that may emanate from Iraq, and that is certain to create great anxiety and animosity internationally," it concluded.