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| Sunday, 11 May 2003 |
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EU Commissioner says U.S. out to seize Iraq's oil COPENHAGEN, Saturday (Reuters) A European Union commissioner said on Friday he believed the United States aimed to take control of Iraq's oil and was "on its way to becoming a member of OPEC". Poul Nielson, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, was speaking after the United States and Britain introduced a U.N. draft resolution that would phase out an existing oil-for-food humanitarian programme for Iraq. "They (the United States) will appropriate the oil," he told Danish public service DR radio news on return from a three-day trip to Iraq. "It is very difficult to see how this would make sense in any other way." "I think that the United States is on its way to becoming a member of OPEC," he added, referring to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. In Brussels, the European Commission distanced itself from Nielson, saying he had expressed his personal views and not those of the EU's executive body. "It is not the Commission's position," a spokesman said. A U.S. State Department spokesman later dismissed Nielson's remarks, saying: "I noticed also that the European Commission didn't back up the statement. I guess I'd call it ridiculous blather." Nielson, a Dane, said he did not expect U.S. troops who toppled Iraq's Saddam Hussein in a war launched in March would withdraw soon from the Arab state, whose oil reserves are estimated by industry experts to be the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia's. "It is very unclear what the Americans will end up doing. That they would pull out quickly does not look realistic," said Nielson, whose visit to Iraq included talks with U.S. administrator Jay Garner. The tough U.S.-British draft Security Council resolution would end 12 years of U.N. sanctions against Iraq and give them control of the country's oil revenues for at least a year. |
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