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Iraq Rejects U.N. Decision to Create Study Panels Iraq Rejects U.N. Decision to Create Study Panels
By Waiel Faleh
Associated Press
February 1, 1999BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq has criticized the U.N. Security Council's decision to create panels to assess Iraqi disarmament, humanitarian needs and the fate of missing Kuwaitis, saying the move would mean "nothing but procrastination."
The Iraqi News Agency quoted a government spokesman as saying that Baghdad was not consulted before the Security Council agreed Saturday to form the panels in a first, modest step to break a diplomatic logjam over Iraq.
"The work of the three panels on Iraq will take several months, which means nothing but procrastination and maintaining the unjust blockade on Iraq," the INA quoted the spokesman as saying on Sunday.
Iraq wants the Security Council to condemn U.S. and British aggression, including the mid-December airstrikes and the recent conflict over the "no-fly" zones, the agency said.
The government also called on the council to lift economic sanctions "immediately and unconditionally."
U.N. sanctions - which limit the sale of oil and bar other financial transactions - were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which sparked the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The Security Council has said they will not be lifted until Iraq has complied with resolutions that require it to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. and British airstrikes from Dec. 16-19 were aimed at punishing Iraq for failing to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. Afterward, Iraq said it would not allow the inspectors back in the country.
Iraq has also begun challenging the no-fly zones set up by the United States and its allies after the Gulf War to protect Iraqi Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south.
In southern Iraq, six U.S. and two British planes fired on two military sites in response to "Iraqi provocations," according to a statement released by the U.S. Central Command at Macdill Air Force Base in Florida.
It was the first time since the December airstrikes that British planes were involved in attacks, the British Defense Ministry said.
There was no damage to the allied planes, which returned to unidentified land bases and carriers, according to the statement. Damage to the Iraqi sites was being assessed.
In the north, an Air Force F-16CJ Fighting Falcon launched a high-speed anti-radiation missile, called HARM, at a radar system north of the city of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, said a statement from the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey.
Also Sunday, the INA said that Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf sent a letter to the Security Council complaining of U.S. missiles that struck the southern city of Basra on Jan. 25.
Iraq says at least 11 people were killed and 59 people were wounded in missile strikes in and around Basra, 230 miles south of the capital, Baghdad. U.S. officials acknowledge that one missile went astray.
"American and British aircraft, based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait ... targeted many sites, including residential districts in Basra itself and surrounding villages, causing the death and injury of many people," the letter said, INA reported.
The United States, meanwhile, continued diplomatic efforts to create a united front against Iraq, with a visit to Kuwait by Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk.
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