Letter: Rethink UK sanctions on Iraq

Sir: Geoff Simons (Letters; "Iraqis killed by sanctions", 1 August) is correct in pointing out yet more gaps in New Labour's supposed ethical foreign policy, but his point needs further emphasis.

The UK is not merely a member of the Security Council which renews sanctions on Iraq every two months, but is also, alongside the US, the principal supporter of the sanctions regime. Britain therefore bears considerable responsibility for the deaths resulting from what is termed in polite political conversation "the containment of Iraq". The sanctions policy was barbaric in the aftermath of the Gulf War in 1991, it is even more barbaric six years later, when it no longer appears to serve any purpose other than to maintain the status quo in the Middle East. Despite the attempts of Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, to make the sanctions policy look positive, killing is killing, it is not kindness. Seven years is too long, it is time to rethink the sanctions regime.

SIMON FAULKNER

Campaign Against Repression and For Democratic Rights in Iraq, North West

Manchester