Duma Vice-Speaker: Only UN Security Council Entitled to Lift Sanctions Against Iraq

"There can be no automatic lifting of sanctions against Iraq", believes Lyubov Sliska, first vice-speaker of the State Duma and leader of the Russian delegation to the NATO parliamentary assembly. In a comment on the declaration of the American president insisting on lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq, she stressed the sanctions were "imposed by the United Nations Security Council, which is the only one entitled to lift them".

The "transitional period" in Iraq "should not be drawn out", Slizka believes. "The Iraqi nation must resolve the issue of its country's future, just as oil and other resources of Iraq belong to it. The role of the United Nations and all members of the United Nations Security Council should consist in aiding Iraq to overcome the current complicated stage", said Lyubov Sliska.

Iraq "should be a democratic, stable and predictable member of the international community", she emphasised.