NEGATIVE/ROGUES/IRAQ

LIFTING SANCTIONS ON IRAQ WILL DESTABILIZE THE REGION

LIFTING SANCTIONS WILL EMBOLDEN IRAQ’S MILITARY ACTIONS

EDITORIAL; The Dominion (Wellington) January 18, 2001 SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 10 HEADLINE: Keep pressure on Saddam //VT2002acsln

It is not good enough to say that times have changed. Saddam's son Uday, a murderist thug and rapist, wants to include Kuwait in an Iraqi map on parliament's emblem. Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz is adamant that United Nations arms inspectors will not be allowed back, which means that Iraq's remaining stocks of chemical and biological weaponry are still on hand for future use -- and that sanctions will continue to damage the economy.

Lifting sanctions would not do a thing for Iraq's people, but would embolden Saddam. That would be intolerable.

ABANDONING SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAQ WILL RADICALIZE NATIONS IN THE REGION

Ben Macintyre February 17, 2001, The Times (London) HEADLINE: Bush warning over weapons of mass destruction //VT2002acsln

Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of State, conceded that sanctions are being widely evaded but cautioned against abandoning them.

"The sanctions are being violated, at least by subterfuge, by too many countries, but the US has absolutely nothing to gain by abandoning them. That would encourage other radical regimes in the region," Mr Kissinger said.

AN END TO SANCTIONS ON IRAQ WOULD TIP THE OIL BALANCE OF POWER TOWARDS IRAQ AND THREATEN SAUDI ARABIA

Mideast Mirror, January 5, 2000 HEADLINE: Iraq playing into U.S. hands by rejecting latest UN resolution //ACS-LN-1-23-2000

Iraq has enormous hydrocarbons potential which if exploited to the full would radically change the "balance of oil power" in the world, and especially in the Middle East, in Iraq's favor, Chalabi reasons.

This is what the U.S. and the Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, fear. Thus, the longer Iraq and its oil industry remain under blockade, the more that serves Washington's strategy of keeping Iraq's oil output down in order to strengthen its control over the Gulf's oil and prop up the Gulf regimes that revolve in its orbit.