Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf has urged UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to put an end to the US and British blockages of humanitarian contracts, the official INA news agency reported Tuesday.
According to INA, Sahhaf met with Annan in New York Monday and explained that Washington and London were "blocking aid contracts and deliberately delaying their execution."
Aid contracts come under the oil-for-food program, introduced in December 1999 to allow Iraq to export crude oil in exchange for food, medicine and other necessities under close UN supervision.
Sahhaf also criticized UN Security Council resolution 1284, dubbing it an "injustice for Iraq", the agency said.
Resolution 1284, which Iraq has rejected, calls for its full cooperation with a new arms control panel, UN Monitoring, Verification and Control Commission (UNMOVIC), in return for a renewable suspension of the sanctions regime.
Iraq has been under sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.— (AFP)
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