Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said on Monday that Iraq would reject US-British proposals to liberalize sanctions against Iraq and demanded a complete lifting of the 11-year-old embargo, said Reuters.
"We have nothing new but to tell all our friends and brothers our opinion that we will reject the so-called 'smart sanctions', which are more stupid than the (current) sanctions," Saddam was quoted by the official INA news agency as telling a cabinet meeting.
"They have failed, but what is the alternative?...The alternative...is for the sanctions to be lifted...
"This proposal is the kick of a dying mule that we have to be prepared for, but it will, God willing, miss its target."
It was the first time Saddam had expressed a clear view on the proposals to ease the sanctions, Reuters said.
Key members of the UN Security Council were discussing the plan on Monday.
Russia and China voiced doubts that a resolution could be adopted before the next six-month phase of the UN
oil-for-food program for Iraq begins on June 4.
WARNING ON OIL-FOR-FOOD
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said Iraq would suspend the oil-for-food program if the United States interfered with its renewal.
"The resolution to renew the program is a technical one...If the United States tries to insert American elements that serve its aggressive plans, Iraq will suspend the program," Aziz was quoted by INA as saying.
Aziz gave no further details but his comments echoed remarks made by Iraq's UN envoy Mohammed Aldouri in New York, who said Baghdad was looking for a simple rollover.
Saddam said that by pushing for "smart sanctions", the United States was admitting the failure of the sanctions regime that had been in place since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990:
"Although (the sanctions) have hurt Iraq, at the same time it cost America dearly in terms of its international reputation...and it lost its good relations with the Arab people."
In an effort to counter critical world opinion of the decade-old sanctions, Britain, working with American officials, has proposed scrapping the embargoes on all non-military imports to Iraq, from bicycles to whisky.
State-run Iraqi daily newspaper Al Thawra said in an editorial that the British proposal was an attempt to transform its citizens into a "destitute people," the ITN news service said.
Al Thawra also accused France, which generally has supported Iraq in the Security Council, of inspiring the proposal.
French officials have said the British proposal included ideas they have raised in the past year, but they want to see a final text before deciding.
Al Thawra said the plan, developed in consultation with Washington, was aimed at "increasing the suffering of the people and not decreasing it ... and imposing total control over Iraq's oil resources." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
