Posted on 08/17/2002 11:30:54 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Russia, Iraq May OK $40B Deal
By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer
AP/Jassim Mohammed [22K]
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MOSCOW (AP) — Iraq and Russia are close to signing a $40 billion economic cooperation plan, Iraq's ambassador said Saturday, a deal that could put Moscow at odds with the United States as it considers a military attack against Baghdad.
The statement by Ambassador Abbas Khalaf came amid indications that Russia, despite its strong support for the post-Sept. 11 antiterrorism coalition, is maintaining or improving ties with Iran and North Korea, which together with Iraq are the countries President Bush has labeled the ``axis of evil.''
Washington is trying to rally support for a possible invasion of Iraq, which the United States accuses of supporting terrorism and of rebuilding its banned weapons of mass destruction program, but many U.S. allies are resisting the push. AP/INA [18K]
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German and U.S. officials confirmed Saturday that the U.S. ambassador to Berlin, Dan Coats, had questioned German officials about Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's opposition to attacking Iraq, an indication that Schroeder has irked Washington. Russia, a longtime ally of Iraq, has forcefully warned against a possible U.S. invasion.
Many opponents argue that an invasion cannot be justified without firm proof that the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
The chief United Nations weapons inspector, Hans Blix, told The Associated Press that he can't say with certainty whether Iraq has such weapons. ``If we knew — if we had real evidence that they have weapons of mass destruction — we would bring it to the Security Council,'' he said.
Blix spoke while waiting for Iraq's response to a letter from Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging the country to allow the return of weapons inspectors, who left in December 1998.
The pending Russia-Iraq economic deal is likely to be seen by Washington as another blow to its efforts to marshal backing for an attack. On Saturday, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said only ``We're confident that Russia understands its obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions and that they'll abide by them.''
Sanctions imposed by the Security Council after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons have been destroyed along with the long-range missiles to deliver them.
Moscow has supported lifting the U.N. sanctions, hoping that would allow Baghdad to start paying off its $7 billion Soviet-era debt and help expand trade. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday it had no comment on reports of an imminent economic cooperation agreement.
The agreement, which envisions new cooperation in the fields of oil, irrigation, agriculture, transportation, railroads and electrical energy, will most likely be signed in Baghdad in the beginning of September, Khalaf told The Associated Press.
Khalaf emphasized that the new cooperation deal, which is to include new projects as well as the modernization of some Soviet-built infrastructure, would not violate the sanctions.
In the current standoff with the United States, Iraq is counting on Russia to use its leverage in the U.N. Security Council and other diplomatic channels to deprive Washington of international support for a military operation, Khalaf said.
``First of all we need moral, political and diplomatic support. Because Iraq knows how to defend itself,'' he said. ``The main thing for us is that American aggression does not go through the U.N. Security Council and that America does not receive a U.N. mandate. ... Let America act (alone) as an aggressor. It will be condemned from all sides.''
Khalaf said he saw no contradiction between Russia's friendship with Iraq and its ties with Washington, which have strengthened since the Sept. 11 attacks.
``We see friendship among various countries and civilized peoples of the world as a positive step. Any enmity brings harm to a country,'' he said.
Under Putin, Russian foreign policy has sought to create a network of alliances to counterbalance alleged U.S. domination of international affairs. Although Putin has moved Russia closer to West — including increasing contacts with NATO and not raising objections to U.S. forces in Georgia and in former Soviet Central Asia — he also has pursued relations with countries that are anathema to the United States.
Last month, Russia announced a 10-year plan for nuclear cooperation with Iran. Under the plan, Russia would build five reactors in addition to the one currently under construction at Bushehr, Iran. Washington fears such cooperation could help Iran develop nuclear weapons.
This week, the Kremlin announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will visit Russia later in August for the second summer in a row.
I think that $40,000,000,000 for Russia is a HUGE deal. Maybe it is time to remove the Brezhniev era punitive Vanik sanctions so Russia could trade with America instead of being forced to deal with Iraq, Iran etc ...? Why Russia is under sanctions when China has the Most Favored Nation status?
This is fascinating! Can you provide when, for what and how much money US gave to Russia? Please provide the source too.
Do you have sources for this claim? I am sorry to be blunt, but it is a complete baloney. And your nose is getting longer.
Do you have some info on the amount of US aid to Russia?
Khalaf said he saw no contradiction between Russia's friendship with Iraq and its ties with Washington, which have strengthened since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Guess it all depends on which way the wind blows on a particular day.
OK, I search on this site and the proof for your outlandish claim of $25,000,000,000 help to Russia is not there. Your nose is getting longer and longer.
It could also be that they are as poor as paupers, as corrupt as Clinton, and have more Islamic voters than any other democratic country on the planet.
This doesn't make it "a good thing" that they're selling anything bigger than a firecracker to those crazy Irani imams, but it goes some way to explaining it.
I don't mean to preach, but at the end of the First World War, the Allies went out of their way to destroy Germany financially and then proceeded to ignore it.
In 1933, H.G. Wells wrote:-
"...it will certainly return upon a still more disastrous scale in twenty or thirty years' time if no political unification anticipates and prevents it. States organized for war will make wars as surely as hens will lay eggs, but the feeling of these distressed and war-worn countries disregarded this fact, and the whole of the defeated peoples were treated as morally and materially responsible for all the damage, as they would no doubt have treated the victor people had the issue of the war been different."
He was right, but it wasn't 20-30 years, it was 6 years after he wrote these lines that another conflict returned. At the end of WWII, we had learned something and, rather than punishing two entire countries, we gave Germany and Japan every assistance to rebuild. Now look at them.
In 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the West left the former USSR without any substantial assistance in re-building a political and economic framework along Western lines.
Granted, re-building a country which stretched almost halfway around the World was a daunting task, but we seem to have forgotten the lessons learned from WWI.
Russia is now bankrupt, corrupt, desperate, envious and increasingly disenchanted with the indifference shown by Europe, America and others towards its plight.
Hitler was elected by popular vote as the last act of a starving people surrounded by relative prosperity. Russia is in a very similar position to the post-WWI Germany at the moment and is equally open to the prospect of a crazy, charismatic dictator making his move.
Russia selling the bomb to Iran (because there's no doubt that this is what they're doing) is not the concern, because Iran is not really the concern.
The worry is what this means about the desperation of Russia and the extent to which they just don't care what we say anymore.
If we continue to ignore this, Russia won't be a democracy for any longer than it takes for another Hitler to rise up through the ranks. Very scary!
Maybe it is time to stop applying punitive anti-Soviet sanctions against Russia at the time when China and Saudies enjoy preferential trade with America? Why to force Russia to trade with others?
Actually everyone does and it happened under Yeltsin when Clinton was President.
It went something like this. Holy Spit! The USA has lost it's mind! Did you see that? They have used the pretext of an Islamic insurgency in Kosovo to prepare an invasion of Yugoslavia! Both us here in China and Russia are fighting these Muslim bastards and NATO may turn around and do the same thing to us. We are not as strong as we used to be commrades. Maybe India would like to join us? I mean they have been fighting Muslim insurgents too? Now with NATO dropping the self defense clause of its charter it can wage on offensive war fo rthe forst time and it will ignore the UN Security Council at will. We need to at least build a common front against this new threat.
I hope I jogged some memories of what Clinton's little war in Kosovo did.
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