Sanctions on Iraq International public opinion every day is bombarded with news about numerous conflicts taking place throughout the world. However, there is a few which we are supposed to believe that they are well-solved by the international community with the UN at the head. One of those perfidous examples is Iraq. è 2nd August 1990 the iraqi army invaded Kuwait è 6th August the UN Security Council imposed a complete embargo on trade with Iraq è eatly in 1991 a US-led coallition mounted Operation Desert Storm starting with air strikes and culminating in a ground offensive. è the Iraqi army was defeated in 42 days – but there was no lifting of the embargo after the Allied victory Official motives for imposing sanctions: · to ensure the complete destruction of Iraq’s WMD programmes with the aim of preventing the possibility of a future invasion · to put pressure on the Iraqi government to cooperate with the UN’s team of weapons inscpectors (UNSCOM) · to prevent Saddam Hussein from importing the equipment to build new weapons - UNMOVIC – a new inspection team created by the UN in December 99 – disegined to be independent of Washington’s influence à in fact the old inspection body under a new name The disastrous effects of the sanctions: ¨ officially designed to prevent Iraq from aggression they struck principally ordinary Iraqi people ¨ according to tge UNICEF, before 1990, Iraq had one of the highest standards of living in the Middle East ¨ now : at least 200 children are dying every day – from malnutrition, a lack of clean water and lack of basic medical equipment and medicines to cure the treatable dise...
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