Iraqi Ambassador Denies Rumours That Iraq Is Blowing up Oil Wells - 7 March, 2003

Suggestions circulated yesterday by the media that Iraq has blown up some of its oil wells in anticipation of war are not true, according to an announcement made today at a press conference by Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Abbas Khalaf. 'Iraq has nothing except for oil. There is of course agriculture, but oil is our main source of wealth and the key to our economic infrastructure. We cannot bomb it,' said the ambassador. He also announced that Iraq does not intend to start destroying its oil wells in the future, even in the event of war. 'Oil is our bread. We will protect our oil wells as though their were our children,' stressed Abbas Khalaf.