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Iraq Slams France On Supporting 'Smart Sanctions'
BAGHDAD, July 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iraq's most influential newspaper blasted Sunday France for supporting a U.S.-British plan to revamp 11-year-old sanctions, saying French oil companies would not be allowed to invest in Iraq, news agencies reported.
Babel newspaper, owned by Iraq's President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, said a French official had taken part in wording the Anglo-American draft resolution which is aimed at easing sanctions on civilian trade while continuing to ban military imports and restricting a list of "dual-use" goods.
It would also place tighter control on oil exports to neighboring countries, imposing U.N. control on trade of an estimated $1 billion per year that goes directly to Iraq rather than through the closely monitored U.N. oil-for-food program.
"The French official who took part in the wording of the vicious 'smart sanctions' draft resolution knows very well that it does not lead to lifting the embargo but rather brings Iraq under colonial influence for a long time," Babel said.
France indicated support for the U.S.-British plan, but said it wanted foreign investments in Iraq's oil industry, which the United States and Britain reject.
Babel said that Paris had suggested the investment in order to guarantee its oil companies investments in the Iraqi oil sector.
"Nobody will believe that Iraq will allow French oil firms to work in Iraq after this strange stance taken by the French government toward Iraq," Babel said.
French company, TotalfinaElf, enjoys exclusive negotiating rights for the huge Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq and has been close to signing deals for some time.
Iraq, which has been under a sweeping embargo since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, has accused France over recent weeks of working behind the scenes to promote a British draft resolution backed by the United States.
Al-Jumhuriya, an Iraqi government daily, urged all countries to "come down clearly against the U.S.-British plot against Iraq ... or they will bear the consequences. "
"Iraq can no longer keep quiet on suspect and hostile positions," the newspaper said.
Iraq, though not a member of OPEC's production quota system because of the UN sanctions, sits on the world's second largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.
Baghdad had said it would favor Russian firms doing business in the country in return for Russia's opposition to the introduction of a new "smart sanctions" regime on Iraq.
Russia told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday it would reject the resolution if it were put to the vote. Instead, it made its own proposals for gradually lifting sanctions.
Baghdad said it would study the Russian plan.
Meanwhile, Russian ultra-nationalist lawmaker, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, left Sunday for a visit to Iraq to support Baghdad's rejection of the "smart" sanctions proposed by Britain and the United States, Russia's NTV television reported.
Zhirinovsky, who is heading a parliamentary delegation, is due to meet with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, NTV added.
"It is important to see for oneself how the country has been ravaged over the last 10 years" by the UN sanctions, he said before his departure.
"One and a half million Iraqis have died and on July 3 a decision will be made about the extension of the sanctions in an even worse form for Iraq. It stands alone, under a total blockade and in diplomatic isolation," Zhirinovsky added.
The right-wing deputy is a frequent visitor to Baghdad and has consistently advocated boosting relations with Iraq, a long-time Middle East ally of the former Soviet Union.
The United Nations is seeking to reach agreement on the U.S.-British proposal to impose smart sanctions on Iraq before a July 3 deadline.
Iraq halted its U.N.-supervised oil exports June 4 to protest the one-month extension of the oil-for-food program instead of the usual six months - an extension that gave Britain and the United States more time to work on their proposal.
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