BAGHDAD: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Baghdad yesterday that the UN is considering scrapping sanctions imposed on Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime before the 2003 US-led invasion.
Ban, on a surprise visit to Iraq, met senior Iraqi officials including Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to discuss the issue a day after the Shi'ite premier's allies swept to victory in provincial elections.
"The UN is in the process of reviewing all the resolutions and on my return, I will discuss this issue with the Security Council," Ban said at a joint Press conference with Al Maliki.
Al Maliki said: "We discussed the ending of UN sanctions on Iraq, which were imposed after the aggression of the previous regime. We asked for a review of all the resolutions imposed on Iraq, so we can return to the rank of normal nations."
The UN slapped comprehensive sanctions on Iraq after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Although many of those were lifted after 2003, an arms embargo and some financial restrictions were left in place.
Ban met President Jalal Talabani soon after his arrival in the Iraqi capital.
"I came to Iraq in order to congratulate the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government for the provincial elections and to show the support of the international community during this momentous time," he said.
The UN provided the Independent High Electoral Commission with assistance in organising the poll which was held in 14 of 18 provinces.
Also, the success of Sunni Arab parties in Nineveh may have made the still-violent northern province more inhospitable to Al Qaeda in Iraq at a time when the group's cohorts overseas are also losing interest in the country, defence analysts say.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Joe Biden said his country would have to be "more aggressive" in prodding Iraq's government to forge political reform.
Biden said before heading off to Munich on the first overseas trip by a key player in the Obama administration that provincial elections had shown that progress was being made but more needed to be done.
Top US legislators also visited Iraq as part of a week-long trip there and to Afghanistan to assess US efforts to stabilise and rebuild the two war-torn countries.
The top Republicans in the House of Representatives, Minority Leader John Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor, led the six-person delegation, which was also to visit Kuwait as part of the trip.
Separately, the Philippines will reassess its current ban on sending workers to Iraq, Nigeria and Lebanon and may lift it in areas with lower security risks because of the global economic crisis.
l Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
The air raids targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers Party in the Khakurk region of the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq.
About damn time
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Originally Posted by Rapax
