UNITED NATIONS, March 21 (UPI) -- The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations Friday sharply criticized U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for facilitating the coalition attack on Iraq and accused Britain and the United States of threatening Iraq's very existence in aid of "the American and Zionist oil Mafia."
The blistering attack was so strong that a spokeswoman for Annan said he would issue a statement in reply Saturday.
Mohammed Aldouri met with reporters outside the Security Council whose members earlier had begun to consider draft resolution proposals for humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq, based on the so-called oil-for-food program. Annan's submission grants him sweeping powers over the program to allow the U.N. Secretariat and U.N. agencies to expedite help. The program is financed by the sale of Iraqi oil.
But, it wasn't just the aid program that Baghdad's envoy was incensed about.
Monday, two days before the allied strikes began, "the secretary-general decided to withdraw all international staff working in Iraq in stark violation of responsibilities of the United Nations," Aldouri said.
The move halted work in "in four of the most important fields of its (the United Nation's) work -- disarmament, peacekeeping, humanitarian work and development. The withdrawal of the Iraq-Kuwait monitoring (observer) mission, UNIKOM, allowed the United States and Britain to use the Demilitarized Zone between Iraq and Kuwait as a passageway for their invading forces," he said.
"The withdrawal of the oil-for-food program workers resulted in preventing the program from providing essential humanitarian needs for the people of Iraq," the Baghdad envoy said. "The withdrawal of U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors halted the work of the two agencies which were essential to verifying Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction."
Here is where Iraq was most concerned: the lifting of sanctions it has been living under for 12 years for failing to disarm following the 1990 Persian Gulf War. The oil-for-food program was set up to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people brought on by the Security Council-imposed embargo.
The ambassador said the secretary-general submitted a letter to draft resolution to the council "while in fact it is an American-British draft resolution" aimed at canceling U.N. resolutions, agreements between the United Nations and Baghdad and nullifying provisions of the U.N. Charter.
He said Annan's action canceled "particularly the principle of equity and rights among people, and the principle of equity and sovereignty between states, and the principle of respect of territorial integrity and independence of states, and the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of states."
Aldouri said the proposal would "transform the secretary-general of the United Nations into a high commissioner dealing with Iraqi funds available and the Iraqi fund established from the sale of Iraqi oil and allocate some of those funds for activities not related to the humanitarian program but to activities of political and intelligence nature."
The action was regrettable and deplorable, he said.
"The secretary-general submitted this draft resolution on the same day the United States and Britain committed their coordinated colonial barbaric attack on the people of Iraq," the envoy said. "It is a flagrant material breach of the international law, the U.N. Charter and the U.N. Security Council resolutions relevant to Iraq, all of which emphasize respect of Iraq's sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity."
What really got Aldouri upset was that Annan neither made "any statement condemning or deploring this attack" nor did he write to the Security Council "alerting that the attack threatens international peace and security with the gravest of dangers, and it threatens the faith and future of the United Nations at the heart."
Dubbing Annan's proposal an "American and British draft resolution," he said it calls for forfeiture of the Iraqi state "and is based on a despised, racist, colonial illusion that moves the tyrant despots in Washington and London, and that is the removal of the state of Iraq from existence and the transforming (of) Iraq and the region into colonies under the control of the world American and Zionist oil Mafia."
The ambassador called the draft measure "a great insult to the United Nations and its secretary-general, and a great disservice to the credibility of the international organization."
Aldouri said "the deep crisis facing the United Nations today, due to the American-British invasion of Iraq, and the failure of the United Nations in keeping the collective peace system based on the principles of the Charter, will deepen even further. The secretary-general of the United Nations did not take appropriate measures."
Quoting from U.N. Charter Article 100, Aldouri said, "The secretary-general and the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the organization.
"I thank you very much," he said and walked away, ignoring the shouted questions of reporters.
Earlier Friday, the Security Council, seeking to speed humanitarian aid to Iraqis, handed a committee of experts a proposed resolution to work on over the weekend. The 15-member panel gave it to experts on the old Iraq sanctions committee.
Ambassador Gunter Pleuger of Germany chairs the committee.
He told United Press International the meeting would be held in his country's high-rise mission to the United Nations, near the world organization's headquarters beginning Saturday morning.
It was expected it to be ready for a vote by mid-week.
