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Gulf papers call on Arabs to move against Iraqi sanctions

DUBAI: Two Gulf Arab newspapers said on Tuesday the resignation of the top U.N. humanitarian official in Baghdad had shown the extent of the human tragedy afflicting Iraq after 10 years of international sanctions.

The comments were made in separate editorials in the official al-Ittihad newspaper of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar's al-Rayah daily.

The papers said comments by Hans von Sponeck, a German career U.N. official, criticising the nine-year-old U.N. sanctions against Iraq, were a slap in the face of the United Nations and called on Arabs to move to end the sanctions.

"Sponeck's comments on the human tragedy in Iraq are the best proof of the extent of the calamity that afflicts the (Arab) nation and what is happening shows that the sanctions are not intended against a regime but rather an aggression against a people," al-Ittihad said.

Von Sponeck, who has asked to be relieved of his post as of March 31, angered the United States and Britain for criticising trade sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

He said the humanitarian oil-for-food programme he heads had not met the minimum requirements of the 22 million Iraqi people.

Qatar's al-Raya said the fact that von Sponeck was the second coordinator of the programme to quit over similar complaints, indicated that the scheme had failed to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people.

"This resignation comes after the resignation of the previous coordinator, Denis Halliday, thus showing that it was no longer a valid scheme to use, especially after those running it spoke about the big gaps in it and after failing to end the human suffering of innocent Iraqis," the newspaper said.

It urged Arabs to overcome their divisions and to stop worrying about potential Iraqi threats.

"It is not logical that the region would continue to be under the shadow of threats and fear of an alleged Iraqi threat when we should be seeing economic development that conforms to the logic of the new millennium," al-Raya said.

"We say to the Arabs, have mercy on Iraq and the people of Iraq. Crying tomorrow would not bring back what we had forfeited yesterday," it added.-Reuters