An Iraqi cabinet meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein on Wednesday decided to donate 10 million euros (about US$9.3 million) to support the Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israel, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
"President Saddam ordered to donate 10 million euros and transfer the money quickly to support the Palestinian intifada and the struggle of the Palestinian people," INA said.
This means that the aid to Palestine will come directly from Iraq rather than the United Nations, which controls Iraq's oil revenues.
Iraq, under sweeping UN sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, has been allowed by the UN oil-for-food program since 1996 to sell oil and use part of the proceeds to buy food, medicineand other essentials.
Iraq in 2000 requested the UN to allocate 1 billion euros (about US$930 million) from its oil revenues to support Palestine, but has hit snags due to the opposition of the United States and Britain.
Wednesday's decision followed Saddam's announcement on Monday that Iraq started from Monday afternoon to completely stop its oil exports for a period of 30 days, or until Israeli armed forces "unconditionally" withdraw from the Palestinian territories they have occupied.
Iraq has shown vehement support for the 18-month-old Palestinianintifada against Israeli occupation.
In addition to shipments of relief aid to Palestine, it has organized a 6.5-million-strong "Jerusalem Liberation Army" which vowed to fight along with the Palestinians against Israel.
The latest Israeli incursions, which have taken a number of Palestinian towns, including a siege of Arafat's headquarters, havetriggered strong reactions from the Arab world, especially in Iraq.
(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2002)
