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Iraq Assails U.N. Decision to Review Ties

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From Reuters

Iraq on Sunday criticized a U.N. Security Council decision to review all aspects of its relations with Baghdad, as U.S. and British warplanes hit targets in Iraq in an escalation of aerial attacks over the weekend.

Iraq said the U.N. review decision made Saturday would mean months of delay while sanctions imposed after Baghdad’s 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait remained in place.

The Iraqi News Agency quoted a government official as saying the Security Council should condemn the U.S. and Britain’s December airstrikes against Iraq and lift U.N. trade sanctions immediately.

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U.S. spokesmen said American and British warplanes hit targets in the north and south Sunday.

A U.S. jet based in Turkey fired a missile at an Iraqi radar site in the Western-imposed “no-fly” zone over northern Iraq, while eight U.S. and British jets attacked two communications facilities in the southern no-fly zone.

An Iraqi spokesman said Baghdad was not consulted by the Security Council over its decision to set up three panels to assess all aspects of Iraq’s ties with the U.N.

“The work of the three panels on Iraq set up by the Security Council will take months and will mean nothing but procrastination and maintaining the unjust embargo on Iraq,” the spokesman said after a meeting of top officials chaired by President Saddam Hussein.

The three panels, first proposed by Canada, are to assess disarmament, the condition of the Iraqi people living under sanctions, and the accounting for missing Kuwaitis and others during Iraq’s 1990-91 occupation of the tiny nation.

In Kuwait, a U.S. official coordinating efforts to change the Iraqi leadership said he hoped regional rival Iran would cooperate with the campaign to topple Hussein.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, speaking in Switzerland on Sunday, said the U.S. and Britain should stop using military force against Iraq and instead try to help forge an international consensus on how to end the crisis.

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