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Iraq blasts US

on sanctions

BAGHDAD: An official Iraqi newspaper denounced the United States on Tuesday for hindering any attempt at the U.N. Security Council to lift or ease sanctions against Iraq.

"Once again the United States is back to its known media campaigns to distort facts...weave falsehoods and lies to create more impediments and hurdles on the path of any serious attempt by the Security Council to lift sanctions on Iraq," al-Iraq newspaper said in an editorial.

It said Iraq had honoured commitments under the 1991 Gulf War ceasefire and should be allowed ro resume exporting oil.

The sanctions, imposed on Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, include a ban on Iraq's oil exports. The Security Council's Gulf War ceasefire resolution 687 links the lifting of the oil embargo to Iraq's full adherence to U.N. weapons demands.

Washington insists that Iraq should also comply with conditions other than those related to the annihilation of its weapons of mass destruction before it can consider even an easing of the oil embargo.

The paper, blasting Washington for this attitude, said the United States, too, had to honour obligations under resolution 687 which was largely drafted by Washington shortly after the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein blasted the United States on Monday for rushing troops to the Gulf region, saying there was no justification for such a move.

He said Washington put its credibility in blance by insisting that the oil embargo on Iraq would remain even if it completed the destruction of its prohibited weapons.-Reuter