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Friends, Wednesday's (26/04/2000) issue of the Arabic London-based Azzaman newspaper reported the following about a resolution taken by the European parliament on Monday. I have searched the news agencies but there was no mention of it so I had to translate Azzaman's report from Arabic myself. Also, it seems the European parliament site does not publish its resolutions immediately. The last one published today was that of 14/04/2000. I did my best, but hopefully we will have an official English version soon! The report must also be taken as Azzaman's interpretation of the resolution, and not as its original text. Some of the wording seems to resemble that used by Baghdad, not the European parliament! This comes as a surprise as Azzaman can be considered as an opposition newspaper. If you can read Arabic you can download the (.pdf) file from Azzaman's site www.azzaman.com (page 1) or I can e-mail it to you. Thanks, Hathal Translation: Azzaman, Wednesday 26/04/2000, page 1 European Parliament Objects to Military Operations against Iraq Paris: The European parliament demanded, for the first time, an end to the economic embargo on the people of Iraq, and a stop to the military operations by the US and Britain against Iraqi military sites. The parliament adopted the resolution unanimously on Monday (24/04/00). It was proposed by the French parliamentarians the De Gaullian Philip Mur Leon and the Socialist Sami Nyeer (spelling?), and it called for the necessity of putting an end to the great suffering that inflicts more and more damage to the Iraqi people, and which is doomed to lead to a serious humanitarian crisis. It also called for a stoppage of the aerial bombardment operations which "do nothing but increase tension in the region." The resolution called for the intensification of efforts to urge governments to take more realistic measures to quicken the breakage of the economic embargo for which thousands of Iraqis pay a hefty price daily. It also emphasized the rejection of policies which aim to interfere in the interior affairs of sovereign nations. In the same time, it emphasized the importance of considering the United Nations as the body directly responsible for the implementation of UN resolutions and of granting it the independence in directing its policies in general. Observers in the French capital think that the timing of issuing this resolution is directly related to some of the changes on the international scene. Western capitals seem to have had enough of American-British domination of everything that happens in the Middle East, and they may prefer to go through parliamentary councils to condemn that before proposing it on the 'official table' with all the diplomatic repercussions that may have. End translation -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi