Assistance to the Palestinian people – Letter from Iraq

Letter dated 23 January 2001 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of

the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations

addressed to the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter dated 23 January 2001 from Mr. Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq, concerning the discussions which were held in the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) on 8 and 18 January 2001, the interventions of the United States and United Kingdom representatives and their attempts to adduce unfounded arguments and obstruct Iraq’s request to allocate 1 billion euros to supplying the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people, which demonstrated the double standards, arrogance and blatant hypocrisy of the United States representative.

The Minister urges you, yet again, to exert every effort to ensure that the members of the Committee authorize Iraq’s request with all possible speed.

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

(Signed) Mohammed Al-Humaimidi

Chargé d’affaires a.i.

Annex to the letter dated 23 January 2001 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of

the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations

addressed to the President of the Security Council

I am sure that you are aware of the discussions which were held in the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) on 8 and 18 January 2001 under the chairmanship of the representative of Norway to the United Nations, Ambassador Peter Kolby, concerning Iraq’s decision to allocate 1 billion euros to the Palestinian people, as I have informed you in my letters, the most recent being the letter dated 19 December 2000 (S/2000/1217, annex).

I am also sure that you are aware of the interventions of the United States and United Kingdom representatives and their attempts to adduce unfounded arguments and obstruct Iraq’s request to allocate 1 billion euros of its assets to supplying the urgent humanitarian needs of the fraternal Palestinian people.

The Palestinian people, which is suffering under the most repugnant form of abominable, racist colonial rule, represented by the Zionist entity that is occupying the Palestinian territories, is in the most urgent need of genuine and prompt humanitarian assistance. Iraq’s wish to support and relieve the families of the martyrs and wounded of the intifada, help the owners of the houses and properties damaged by the Zionist aggression and provide the embattled Palestinian people with food, medicine and basic requirements on a basis of equality with the fraternal Iraqi people, is not prompted by any narrow concept of assistance, which is normally based on self-interest, but by its membership of the Arab nation, which unites the people of Iraq with the fraternal people of Palestine.

The discussions which were held in the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) on 8 and 18 January 2001 clearly exposed the irrationality of the proposals put forward by the United States representative and made clear the degree of malice felt by the United States Administration towards the Arabs. The United States and United Kingdom officials are not the legal guardians of the Iraqi people and assets: the Iraqi people has sole right to dispose of its assets. In the letter dated 26 November which I addressed to you (S/2000/1119, annex), I explained the circumstances surrounding the Iraqi request to allocate a portion of its oil revenues to supply the urgent humanitarian needs of the Palestinian Arab people.

The double standards, arrogance and blatant hypocrisy of the United States representative mean that he does not see the extent to which Iraqi assets are being squandered as a result of the transfer of more than US$ 11 billion of the Iraqi people’s money to the so-called Compensation Fund. More than US$ 1 billion has been spent on the operational expenses of the Office of the Iraq Programme and the so-called Compensation Commission, mostly in paying the inflated salaries of its employees, the cost of their first-class air travel and in buying cars and furniture for their grandiose offices. The United States representative, who is deeply mired in a policy of double standards, does not seek to prevent these vast sums being deducted from the Iraqi people’s assets and frittered away. On the contrary, he supports that waste, which is in fact the theft of Iraqi property. However, when Iraq wishes to support its brother Palestinians and share its own basic sustenance with them, the United States representative is vehemently opposed and weeps crocodile tears over Iraq’s financial assets. In his sickening political hypocrisy he is oblivious to the fact that the most basic rules of justice and impartiality are required for humanitarian assistance, in particular when a people is subjected to the most offensive forms of occupation, killing, maltreatment and siege, as is the Palestinian people.

Furthermore, the United States representative makes no reference to his own obduracy or that of the United Kingdom representative on the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) and the fact that they have placed on hold 1,762 contracts, for sectors including health, electricity, agriculture, water, sanitation, education, irrigation, oil and communications, under the various phases of the memorandum of understanding. In this immoral manner, and for reasons that are concealed from no one, they have prevented the most basic humanitarian necessities from reaching the Iraqi people.

The continuing and worsening suffering of the Palestinian Arab people in the occupied territories caused by the daily Zionist aggression makes it incumbent upon all just and honourable people throughout the world to take a principled stand against the suffering of this embattled people and against the attempts of the United States and the United Kingdom to prevent food and medicine reaching this steadfast people as it faces the most loathsome butchery, maltreatment and destruction at the hands of gangs of Zionist murderers.

In view of the foregoing, and in order to expedite the dispatch of food, medicine and basic humanitarian needs to the Palestinian Arab people, I reiterate yet again the request of my Government that you should exert every effort to ensure that the members of the Committee authorize Iraq’s request with all possible speed.

(Signed) Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq