• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Dear Mr. Speaker,

The Arab Parliamentary Union, of seventeen members, held its 31 annual meeting in Sanaa the capital of the Yemen Republic from 16-18^th of March, 1998.

All the speakers and heads of delegations made policy statements. The following themes were the common denominators :-

That sanctions imposed on Iraq, Libya and Sudan are unjustified and should be promptly ended, that the denominating powers in the Security Council ( with special reference to the U.S.A ), should respect international Law and refrain from double standard practices, that the military build up in the gulf region associated with threats of use of force, is totally unacceptable and such forces should withdrawn from the area, that the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people in their home country should be fully implemented and that the Arab countries need a practical programme to establish an Arab common market.

The specific issues were fully taken up in the Political Committee and detailed positions were formulated. The final Declaration adopted included the following five points concerning Iraq :

1. Sanctions on Iraq should be terminated without delay and without new conditions. The agreement between Iraq and the U.N is welcomed as a first step to end the sanctions.
2. Requests the U.N to formulate a timetable for the inspection operations.
3. Welcomes the progress achieved by Iraq to implement the Security Council resolutions and looks forward to end that as soon as possible.
4. Emphasizing solidarity to respect the territorial integrity of Iraq, its independence, and its national sovereignty, and rejecting any sort of regional or international interference in its internal affairs.
5. Dialogue and peaceful negotiations should be followed and the refusal to use force.

    A sixth point welcomed Iraq's proposal to receive a parliamentary fact finding mission concerning missing and detained individuals.

Dear Mr. Speaker,

The final Declaration especially the foregoing five points concerning Iraq were unanimously adopted reflecting the public opinion in the Arab countries which was expressed in various forms during the last crises with the U.S administration. It is now obvious that the U.S administration has a political agenda concerning Iraq different from the Security Council resolutions. The government of Iraq has accepted the Security Council resolutions and implemented them with good faith.

We request that the agreement reached with the Secretary General of the U.N on February 23^rd should be properly implemented without unjustified delays, or new pretexts.

Having faith in your wisdom and sense of justice, please accept our best regards.