Iraqi Official to Yemen for Talks on Signing Free Trade AgreementIraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan left for Yemen Sunday for talks on signing a free trade agreement between the two Arab countries.Upon his departure, Ramadan told the official Iraqi News Agency that during the visit, he will discuss with the Yemeni side issues concerning the signing of the free trade agreement. "I am confident that the visit will achieve fruitful and positive results," he said. Iraq has already signed free trade agreements with Egypt and Syria, in an effort to break the 11-year-old United Nations economic embargo, imposed on it after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Ramadan added that he will also explain Iraq's position on the sanction regime to Yemeni officials. "Iraq will not accept any proposal that does not include the total and unconditional lifting of the embargo," he said. Yemen, which sided with Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, has called for the lifting of the embargo. Last March, then Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdul Qader Ba Jammal, who is now prime minister, visited Baghdad, becoming one of the highest-ranking officials of the Arab world to visit the embargo-hit country since the Gulf War. |
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