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BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tareq Aziz, said Thursday that pressure from Washington to prevent flights into Baghdad it says is in defiance of the U.N. embargoes are crumbling. "U.S. pressure is beginning to crumble and fail because it is not acceptable, neither legally nor morally," said Aziz in Baghdad. "America has its point of view but it cannot impose its wish on others," Aziz said after holding talks with the Jordanian delegation that arrived on a flight from Amman Wednesday. "Some are succumbing to pressure but when this pressure reaches the degree of insolence that characterizes that of the United States, people begin to reject it," he said. Urging an increase in the number of flights to Baghdad in defiance of 10-year-old international sanctions, Aziz said, "It is a normal situation because the embargo is rejected and everyone wants to see it lifted." U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on September 26 that Washington was "very concerned" about continuing flights to Iraq, but declined, however, to characterize the flights as "sanctions busting." Five planes, three Russian, one French and one Jordanian, have landed in Baghdad since mid-August despite strong U.S. condemnation. Iceland, India, Syria and Yemen have all expressed their desire to send planes to Iraq. A second French flight is planned from Paris on Friday with about 100 passengers, including several well-known personalities. Iraq is under international sanctions put into effect after its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, including an air embargo, which is at the heart of the controversy. The United States and Britain say that U.N. authorization is needed to flights to Baghdad, while France, like China and Russia, maintain that the U.N. resolutions do not cover an air embargo and therefore a simple notification of flight plans suffices. |
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