Syrian President Renews Call For An End To Iraq Sanctions
WASHINGTON, March 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday called for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, officials said.
Bashar's call for an end to sanctions came during talks with a delegation of the Arab Bar Association led by Farouk Abu-Issa, secretary general of the association.
"The talks dealt with the necessity of lifting the sanctions imposed on the Iraqi people and reactivating Arab solidarity, in addition to the role of the Arab lawyers in defending the Arab causes," said an official.
He said that the talks also included discussions concerning the current Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, against Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Bashar is not the only Arab leader to call for an end to sanctions, as many Arab nations view the sanctions as causing widespread suffering among ordinary Iraqis.
The talks came after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's weekend tour of the region in which he urged Arab leaders to help Washington make sanctions imposed on Iraq more effective.
In Brussels, a U.S. official said that Powell had obtained an agreement from Bashar on Monday to place the Iraqi-Syrian oil pipeline under U.N. auspices.
But Syrian officials did not comment on the Brussels report.
The official said that Powell asked Turkish foreign Minister Ismail Cem at a meeting in Brussels to follow Syria's example and take steps to prevent violations of U.N. sanctions.
Syria and Iraq, long ruled by rival wings of the Baath party, have recently thawed relations between one another after years of competition for the mantle claiming to be the nationalist champion of Arab rights.
