Iraq seeks Israel raid compensation
Baghdad appeals to UN over 1981 bombing of the Osiraq nuclear reactor, MP says.
A UN security council resolution passed after the attack on the Osiraq reactor in June 1981 “stongly condemns” Israel’s air raid.
It says that the security council “considers that Iraq is entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered, responsibility for which has been acknowledged by Israel”.
Israeli officials said at the time of the attack that they were concerned that the reactor could be used to produce nuclear weapons.
But the security council said after the air raid that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had testified that its safeguards had been “satisfactorily applied” in Iraq.
Rather, the security council said, the Osiraq attack constituted “a serious threat to the entire safeguards regime” of the UN nuclear agency.
In subsequent years, the security council would censure the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, the executed former president, for not complying the IAEA inspections.
Meanwhile, Iraq commerce minister was reported as telling the AFP news agency that Baghdad would file lawsuits in the US against foreign firms for alleged fraud in a UN oil-for-food scheme under the government of Saddam Hussein.
“We have asked an American lawyer to prosecute the companies that violated the law regarding the oil-for-food program,” Safaldin al-Safi said, but did not give any further details.
French newspaper Liberation said on Tuesday that the Iraqi government has demanded a total of $10 billion in compensation from 93 companies for alleged violations of the terms of the programme.