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Below are stories from CNN, Reuters (via the New York Times), and The Associated Press that feature some of Tariq Aziz's responses to a recent UN sanctions-related draft proposal. As of 10:25 (EST), The BBC World Service, The Guardian (UK), and the Washington Post did not have any references to Aziz's statements, and I could not access the Financial Times' Web-site. ***************************************************************** http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9911/06/iraq.un/index.html Iraq rejects new U.N. proposal to lift Gulf War sanctions November 6, 1999 Web posted at: 10:47 p.m. EST BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's deputy prime minister on Saturday angrily rejected a United Nations draft proposal aimed at easing international economic sanctions, a proposal that would have also allowed for the resumption of U.N. weapons inspections. "Tricks that are being made are unacceptable," said Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister. "We made it clear that the decision all honest men and women expect is a decision to lift the sanctions without conditions, to stop this crime, not to put old wine in new bottles and to cheat to make tricks, to show that there is a change. Aziz pledged that his government will resist any new U.N. demands to cooperate with foreign weapons inspectors, while punishing economic sanctions remain in effect. Iraq says the sanctions, imposed as part of the cease-fire that ended the Persian Gulf War in 1991, have claimed well over a million lives due to insufficient medical and food supplies. U.N. inspections for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were included as part of that agreement. Members of the U.N. Security Council have been meeting for months to devise a new policy that would prompt Iraq to allow the resumption of weapons inspections, suspended last December. Iraq's failure to cooperate frustrated weapons inspectors, who pulled out of the country. Shortly thereafter, the United States and Great Britain launched airstrikes against Iraq. Baghdad says it has met all security council resolutions governing the cease-fire agreement and therefore all sanctions should be lifted. "There is no change in the proposals which are being made and we are standing firm against these maneuvers. They are not going to reach a reasonable conclusion to the Iraqi people's tragedy," said Aziz. British Ambassador to the U.N. Jeremy Greenstock called for a security council meeting on Friday to discuss how to ease sanctions and resume weapons inspections. He said he expected the council to reach a conclusion on the issue soon. Correspondent Rula Amin, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. ***************************************************************** http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-un.html November 6, 1999 Iraq Rejects UN Sanctions Talks, Hails British MP Filed at 5:56 p.m. EDT By Reuters BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq, welcoming the arrival of a convoy led by a British MP campaigning for an end to economic sanctions against Iraq, rejected efforts at the U.N. Security Council to ease the embargo as unacceptable trickery. Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, receiving the convoy led by MP George Galloway who arrived in Baghdad late Saturday, said the embargo must be scrapped entirely. ``The tricks which are being made there are not acceptable,'' Aziz said, referring to the latest consultations in New York by the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. `There is no change in the proposals which are being made and we are standing firm against these maneuvers,'' he said. ''They are not going to reach a reasonable conclusion to the Iraqi people's tragedy.'' Iraq says the U.N. sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait have claimed well over one million lives. It says it has met all Security Council resolutions governing the cease-fire ending the 1991 Gulf War and therefore all sanctions should be lifted. Ambassadors of the permanent members of the council met at the United Nations Friday to discuss a potential resolution that would ease sanctions against Baghdad in return for Iraqi compliance on arms control. British ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who called for the meeting, said that he expected the five powers to reach a conclusion soon on how to ease sanctions against Iraq following a deadlock for nearly a year. ``There is a very very bad, rather criminal, position by the United States and Britain,'' Aziz said. ``Iraqis will continue their struggle no matter how long it takes in order to protect their country and unity.'' ``There is only one solution and that is the lifting of the criminal sanctions,'' he said. Galloway's group, travelling aboard a double-decker London bus, received a red-carpet welcome by hundreds of Iraqis in Baghdad, the final destination of its two-month campaign. The Iraqi News Agency INA said hundreds of school children lined the highway near the city of Ramadi, 65 miles west of Baghdad, to welcome the convoy, which had left Amman Friday on the 600-mile drive to the Iraqi capital. INA said Iraq's parliament issued a statement hailing Galloway, who belongs to Britain's ruling Labour party, for ''raising his voice against the embargo.'' ``This humanitarian tragedy which is continuing against the Iraqi people has moved the conscience of free and just people of the world such as Mr Galloway,'' it said. Galloway's group left London in early September and toured France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Jordan. The campaign is dubbed the ``Mariam Convoy'' after Mariam Hamza, a six-year-old Iraqi girl whom the British MP arranged to be taken to Scotland in 1997 to receive treatment for leukemia. She returned home last year after recovering but suffered a relapse in August. Mariam, blinded and apparently suffering brain damage, was sent to Amman for treatment last month. ***************************************************************** http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=HOME&SITE=MDBAE NOVEMBER 06, 17:39 EST Iraq Slams Proposed U.N. Resolution By LEON BARKHO Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz on Saturday pledged that his government will resist any new U.N. demands to cooperate with foreign weapons inspectors, while punishing economic sanctions remain in effect. Aziz made the remarks as he and other senior Iraqi leaders gave a hero's welcome to British Labor Party legislator George Galloway, who arrived in Baghdad to highlight the plight of Iraqis under U.N. sanctions. ``There is no change in the (U.N.) proposals which are being made and we stand firm against such maneuvers,'' Aziz said. The U.N. Security Council is close to reaching an agreement on how to formulate a new policy vis-a-vis Iraq following almost a yearlong deadlock. The United States strongly backs a British-Dutch proposal that will conditionally ease sanctions on Iraq if it allowed U.N. weapons inspectors to resume their disarmament activities in the country. The inspectors left Baghdad shortly before the United States and Britain mounted air and missile strikes on Iraq for failing to cooperate with them properly. No inspections of Iraq's lethal arsenal have taken place since then. Aziz blamed the United States for the continuation of sanctions imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990. ``There's a very, very bad, rather criminal position, by the United States,'' he said. Young girls sang the praises of Saddam as they showered Aziz and Galloway with roses and offered dates and yogurt - symbols of warm welcome - to the guests. In his 1963 double-deck bus, Galloway said, he traveled 9,400 [word missing], visiting 11 countries, to drum up support for the removal of sanctions on Iraq. Galloway was accompanied by 11 human rights activists from Britain, Scotland, France and the United States. ***************************************************************** Nathaniel D. Hurd The Center for Global Analysis (CGA) 2161 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02140 CGA Telephone#: 617-492-4570 Personal Address: c/o Aun Rahman 7 Scottfield Rd., Apt. 3 Allston, MA 02134 Telephone#: 617-738-9037 E-mail: nhurd@email.com ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. 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