Assistance to the Palestinian people – Letter from Iraq

Letter dated 20 February 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter dated 20 February 2001 from Mr. Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq. The Minister states Iraq’s firm commitment to supporting and assisting the people of Palestine, a commitment it has expressed by allocating 1 billion euros from the revenues held in the escrow account to meet the pressing humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and by the urgent dispatch overland of hundreds of truckloads of foodstuffs and medicines in order to bolster the steadfastness of the people of Palestine in coping with the siege and the Zionist military aggression. These trucks have, however, been assembling in Jordan for some time, so that the goods they carry may spoil and the Palestinian people may not be able to benefit from them.

The Minister requests you, in accordance with your responsibilities under the Charter, to make every effort to facilitate the passage of these hundreds of Iraqi trucks loaded with foodstuffs and medicines from Jordanian territory into the West Bank in occupied Palestine and also to ensure speedy agreement to Iraq’s request for the allocation of 1 billion euros to the Palestinian people as well as approval of the annex to the phase IX distribution plan that relates to the humanitarian needs of the fraternal people of Palestine.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter and its annex circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Mohammed A. Al-Douri

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

Annex to the letter dated 20 February 2001 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

For six months, the Palestinian Arab people has been subjected to a campaign of siege and military aggression that is being conducted by the Zionist usurpers in full view of the entire world for the purpose of inducing this people to renounce its land, the things its holds sacred, its identity and its national, inalienable rights. Over and above the military aggression being committed by the occupying Zionist forces while using the most up-to-date American weapons such as aircraft, helicopters, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery, incendiary munitions, dumdum bullets and toxic gases such as Sarin, the people of Palestine is also being subjected to a siege that has included curfews, the isolation of Palestinian towns and villages from each other and from the outside world, the withholding of electricity and basic services, the closure and, in many cases, destruction of factories, the refusal to allow farmers to go to their fields and the destruction and burning of crops. This savage Zionist campaign has left hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded and has caused enormous suffering to the Palestinian population.

The savage Zionist campaign has elicited the condemnation of the entire world. Iraq has expressed its firm commitment to supporting and assisting the fraternal Arab people of Palestine, and it has allocated 1 billion euros from the revenues held in the escrow account to meet the pressing humanitarian needs of the embattled people of Palestine and to assist the families of the dead and wounded of the Intifadah.

In addition to the foregoing, the Government of Iraq has sent overland, on an urgent basis, hundreds of truckloads of foodstuffs and medicines to bolster the steadfastness of the people of Palestine in coping with the siege and the brutal Zionist military aggression. These trucks have been assembling in Jordan for some time. They are carrying foodstuffs and medicines that are perishable and whose spoilage would prevent the Palestinian Arab people from profiting from them while the suffering caused by the military aggression and the siege is increasing day by day. On behalf of the Government of Iraq, we therefore request you, in accordance with your responsibilities under the Charter, to make every effort to facilitate the passage of these hundreds of Iraqi trucks carrying foodstuffs and medicines from Jordanian territory into the West Bank in occupied Palestine. We further ask you to do your utmost to ensure speedy agreement to Iraq’s request for the allocation of the sum of 1 billion euros from the funds in the escrow account to the Palestinian people as well as the expedited approval of the annex to the phase IX distribution plan submitted by Iraq, concerning which it is stated in annex I to your letter dated 13 February 2001 addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2001/143 [i.e. 134]) that consensus has yet to be reached in the Council in its regard. Iraq requests you to approve the annex to the plan so that it may conclude contracts for the purchase of food, medicines and other humanitarian requirements for the fraternal Palestinian people as quickly as possible.

I request you to urge the members of the Security Council to respond in an expeditious manner and to approve the annex to the phase IX distribution plan designed to meet the humanitarian needs of the fraternal people of Palestine.

(Signed) Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq