Palestine-Israel Conflict

Iraq hits at UN for hypocrisy on Israel

Ewen MacAskill in Baghdad
Thursday May 2, 2002
The Guardian

The Iraqi deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, accused the United Nations of double standards yesterday for imposing sanctions on Baghdad for 11 years, but failing to take any action against Israel for blocking a fact-finding inquiry into military action at the Jenin refugee camp.

"The secretary general cannot challenge America and its ally Israel," Mr Aziz said in Baghdad as he tried to step up the pressure on the UN ahead of the opening of three days of talks on allowing UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq.

The Iraqi foreign minister, Naji Sabri, was due to meet the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in New York. Sources in Iraq insist that Baghdad is ready to bow to international pressure by allowing the inspectors back in, a move that would reduce tensions and might prevent war. It could also open the way to ending UN sanctions.

President George Bush claims that the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, is secretly building an arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and developing nuclear ones, and has hinted at military action if Iraq continues to refuse to allow the weapons inspectors back in to check. Tony Blair has lined up with Mr Bush on the issue.

Mr Aziz said Mr Annan's handling of the Jenin fact-finding issue was proof of double standards, arguing that while the UN stood firm on its resolutions on Iraq, it had done little in the face of Israel's resistance to security council resolutions, even those supported by the US.

The UN imposed sanctions on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. Weapons inspectors, claiming obstruction by Baghdad, left the country in 1998 ahead of a US-British bombing raid and Iraq has refused to allow them back in.