The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the European Council of Ministers should reconsider their attitude to sanctions against Iraq, according to the Fianna Fail MEP, Mr Niall Andrews.
UN sanctions against Israel were being flagrantly ignored while resolutions on Iraq were rigidly enforced, he said. The only thing sanctions against Iraq were doing was creating division and disharmony in the Middle East. "The whole issue is about oil and about `divide and conquer'," he said.
The Dublin MEP was speaking from Amman in Jordan yesterday after a "symbolic" humanitarian flight to Baghdad, with £10,000 in medicines. The flight was the first from Ireland since sanctions were imposed in 1990 after the invasion of Kuwait.
It was time, he said, for the UN Security Council, of which Ireland is a member, to sit down and reconsider the economic sanctions. The Security Council should now review sanctions.
Calling on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the EU Council of Ministers to review their attitude, he said he would be writing to the Minister about his trip and would be reporting to the president of the EU Parliament. He would also be appealing to the Government, as a member of the Security Council, for a review of the sanctions.
Since the war, infant mortality in Iraq has doubled, and 500,000 children have died in the past 10 years, according to the International Red Cross.
Mr John Teeling of Petrel Resources, the exploration company, provided the aircraft, and Mr Andrews got clearance for the flight from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations. Mr Teeling and Petrel Resources' managing director, Mr David Horgan, were on the flight to Baghdad, as was Mr Andrews's son, Cllr Chris Andrews, and Mr David Harmon, Fianna Fail's EU press officer.
Mr Andrews also visited Baghdad University. Its president, Dr Abdul-Ilah Y al-Khashab, suggested they make contact with universities in Ireland to reopen exchanges.
