US 'stepping on Russian interests in Iraq'

Russia’s Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov today accused the United States of trying to step on Russia’s economic interests in Iraq.

He said the casualties from the first days of the war confirmed it was “indeed a big mistake” and said Moscow would oppose any bid to give a US occupation of Iraq international legitimacy through the United Nations.

And he called an American request for countries to expel Iraqi diplomats as “strange”, suggesting it was part of a US strategy to trample on existing oil contracts between Iraq and non-US companies.

“We will have to defend our interests so that the contracts which were signed under Saddam Hussein are not annulled as lacking legal force and to make sure the Iraqi debt owed us is respected,” he said.

Baghdad owes Moscow at least €6.7bn in Soviet-era debt.

The request to expel diplomats and freeze Iraqi assets was “not made by accident,” Ivanov said.

“In this way, they are saying that everything before today was illegal, all contracts signed before are illegal, and legality begins with the arrival of a new administration, even a temporary one.”