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DATE=09/28/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT (L)

NUMBER=2-267228

TITLE=IRAQ/KUWAIT

BYLINE=GREG FLAKUS

DATELINE=CARACAS

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

EDITORS NOTE: Lengthy portion in Arabic being sent to Bubble for use by Arabic service.

Intro: Iraq's vice president says his country does not pose a threat to neighboring Kuwait, in spite of Baghdad's accusations that Kuwait is stealing oil from Iraqi deposits. Taha Yassin Ramadan made his comments to reporters after the close of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, summit in Caracas, Venezuela. VOA correspondent Greg Flakus was on hand and filed this report.

TEXT: Reports that Iraq is threatening Kuwait are untrue, according to Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan. He says such stories originate with what he called "the Zionist view" in the United States. He accuses Washington of spreading fear in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in order to justify maintaining US military bases on their territory.

Kuwait recently consulted with the United States after Iraq accused Kuwaiti oil drillers of extending their pipes under the border in order to tap deposits within Iraq. Relations between Baghdad and both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been strained ever since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait ten years ago. In the early part of 1991, a US-led coalition pushed Iraqi forces out of of Kuwait and later the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq.

Mr. Ramadan calls the continuance of those sanctions unjust. He says a call for lifting the embargo against his country would have been included in the final declaration of the OPEC summit if it had not been for two members who objected.

/// Ramadan act (Arabic) Establish, then fade under. ///

He says two close friends of the United States, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, prevented the call against the sanctions from being adopted. The Iraqi vice president says representatives of all other OPEC member nations were in favor of the statement.

At the same time, however, Mr. Ramadan says no attempt was made to discuss this or any other matter with the Kuwaiti representatives at the summit. He says his country will have no dialogue with Kuwait in Caracas or anywhere else. (signed).

NEB/GF/PFH