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Iraq, Saudi Border Set To Re-Open After A Decade of Closure
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An
Iraqi baby receives dangerous antiquated treatment due to lack
of supplies.
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With additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem, IOL Staff Writer
BAGHDAD, June 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – After over a decade of closure, the main crossing between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, will reopen once UN monitors who will handle the border post have been named, a UN official said in Baghdad Sunday.
The border has been closed since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
"Everything is ready for the reopening of the Arar border crossing. All that remains is to appoint the UN inspectors" who will monitor imports into Iraq, the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), on the condition of anonymity.
An official at UN headquarters in New York had confirmed on Wednesday, June 19, 2002, that the United Nations had reached an agreement with Iraq on the reopening of the Arar crossing, 210 miles (340 kilometers) southwest of Baghdad, after Iraq lifted its objection to the stationing of inspectors on its side of the frontier.
Baghdad had earlier insisted that the monitors be posted on the Saudi side of the crossing, as is the case with other neighboring countries.
The opening of the Arar post will bring to five the number of entry points for goods imported to Iraq under a UN oil-for-food program, which is designed to alleviate the impact of sanctions imposed on Baghdad since the Kuwait invasion.
Critics of the oil-for-food program, introduced in 1996 to allow Baghdad to sell crude under UN supervision to meet its people's humanitarian needs, have maintained that the program has not qualitatively alleviated the suffering of the Iraqi people and that many of the supplies never reach their intended targets.
A member of UNICEF Baghdad, the United Nations Children’s Fund set up in Iraq to monitor the status of children in Iraq, told IslamOnline during a recent trip to Washington D.C. that many children in Iraq still do not have access to vital supplies and that the status of the hospitals in Iraq are incredibly below any acceptable standards.
The member went on to comment on the lack of medicines and equipment in the hospitals, which he said directly results in the deaths of children from otherwise treatable ailments.
Three top United Nations officials, including two former heads of the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq have resigned their posts in protest to the U.S.-led sanctions and the failure of the program to effectively alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.
A reported 1.2 million Iraqis have died as a result of the 11-year-long sanctions. UNICEF Baghdad reports that over half of the dead are children.
The others are on the borders with Jordan, Syria and Turkey and at Iraq's port of Umm Qasr on the Gulf coast.
Worth mentinong that paragraph 25 of the Memorandum of Understanding between Iraq and the UN on the implementation of oil-for-food says Iraq's imports shall be checked by independent inspectors appointed by the UN secretary general.
Paragraph 26 states that the number and location of inspection points shall be decided by the secretary general in consultation with the Iraqi government.
Over the past 12 years, the Arar post was opened only occasionally to allow Iraqi pilgrims into Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites.
Saudi exports to Iraq under the oil-for-food program are currently sent through Jordan.
According to Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mahdi Saleh, Baghdad has imported more than one billion dollars worth of goods from Saudi Arabia within the framework of oil-for-food.
However, much of those funds still remain in a UN holding committee and have not been released to Iraq in order to allocate the funds and supplies to the Iraqi people.
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