As we enter the eleventh year of sanctions on Iraq, Iraqi children continue to die by the thousands every month due to malnutrition and lack of medicine. Iraqi people continue to suffer all kinds of horrors due to the appalling conditions of the siege imposed by the government of the United States of America and its allies.

Today, Iraqi generations grow up deprived of life's basic needs as a result of the many impediments forced by America and its allies in the Contracts Committee supervising the "oil for food" program. Added to that, the larger part of Iraqi oil sales is being siphoned off through the United Nations in the name of paying indemnities. At the same time, execution of many contracts is delayed, and the importation of many commodities and equipment necessary to Iraqis is being prohibited under absurdly false pretexts that they might have 'military applications'. Consequently, Iraq is prohibited from importing pencils, for example, and from importing equipment necessary to rehabilitate water treatment plants, water networks and sanitary disposal systems ravaged by the war.

American and British bombing on Iraq continues with a rate of three raids per week since 1998. The dimensions of the American-Zionist scheme begin to become clear now through news reports, however filtered, about the amounts of Western money being spent and the efforts being made to create sectarian drifts in the Iraqi south and ethnic drifts in the Iraqi north. This, according to the allegations of Western media, is aimed at shaking the stability of the regime in order to overthrow it. However, such practices in Iraq coincide with similar, albeit less transparent practices throughout the Arab world to foment sectarian, regional, and ethnic conflicts, from Morocco and Algeria, to Egypt and Jordan, to Iraq and the Arab Gulf.

Attempts to debilitate the Iraqi State and destroy its institutions through pauperization, starvation, and blockade are synchronized with similar attempts to incapacitate the state and disassemble its institutions in the entire Arab World. Thus, the siege continues partially to pave the way for the implementation of a wider "Middle East" project that will invariably fragment the Arab countries yet again, and spread the Zionistic political, economical, and cultural hegemony over microscopic and scattered sectarian and ethnic entities.

To work towards lifting the siege on Iraq, and to raise our voices high against such an injustice is a humanitarian, Islamic, Arab, and patriotic duty. This siege, though imposed by American - Zionist resolution, is actually implemented through Arabic and Islamic hands. The siege continues while normalization with the Zionist enemy progresses. In fact, the siege on Iraq continues in order to facilitate normalization with Zionists. Debilitating and isolating Iraq shifts the balance of power further in favor of the Zionist enemy, and assists in imposing Zionist terms on Arab governments in the so-called 'peace process'.

Therefore, those who seek to resist American pressures to accept the Zionist "peace" conditions, should first of all work on lifting the siege on Iraq, in order to restore the balance of power with the Zionist enemy. This is the first step that must be taken whether Arabs choose negotiations or war, although we, in fact, stand against negotiation with the Zionist enemy as a matter of principle.

The siege on Iraq in actuality is a siege on Jordan and many other Arab and Islamic States as well. Jordan, for example, has paid an enormous price for the sanctions imposed on Iraq, which was once the largest market for Jordanian exports. Why then should we accept to implement a siege that besieges us?! How can we choose to follow an irrational policy for ten years even though it is wreaking havoc on the regional Arab economy as much as it does on the Iraqi economy?!

Let us demand that Arab governments and decision-makers lift the siege on Iraq immediately, for the sake of their own economies, if not for the sake of doing their humanitarian, Islamic, Arab, and patriotic duty.

Let's raise our voices high: YES for lifting the siege on Iraq, NO for normalization with the Zionist enemy.

Let's raise our voice high: YES for lifting the official Arab and Islamic siege on Iraq.

YES for lifting the siege on Iraq for the sake of Palestine.

YES for lifting the siege on Iraq for the sake of preserving our Arab and Islamic identity.

YES for lifting the siege on Iraq for the sake of preserving our humanity..

YES for lifting the siege on Iraq so that we may never participate in the great conspiracy of silence.

YES for lifting the siege on Iraq, for it is a word of truth that has to be said.

The Association against Zionism and Racism (AZAR) Amman 6/8/2000

The Free Arab Voice (FAV)

Arab-American Democratic Committee

Arab Rennaissance Coalition