Iraq plans to use United Nations channels to seek billions of dollars in damages from Israel for the 1981 surprise strike on its nuclear facility at Osarik, according to Iraqi legislator Mohammed Naji Mohammed.
He told an Arabic-language newspaper that the cabinet has approved the plan and added, "Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs petitioned the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council to demand that Israel pay compensation ... for the 1981 bombing."
The claim is based on a U.N. resolution passed after the aerial strike on the reactor that “strongly” condemned the Israeli operation, which has been credited for preventing it from achieving the capability to produce nuclear weapons.
A U.N. Security Council resolution passed after the attack on the Osirak reactor in June 1981 "strongly condemns" Israel's air raid and states that “Iraq is entitled to appropriate redress for the destruction it has suffered, responsibility for which has been acknowledged by Israel."
The international body’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had told the Security Council that safeguards had been "satisfactorily applied" in Iraq, but the Council later censured the Iraqi regime for not cooperating with IAEA inspectors.
Iraq also plans more lawsuits in other matters relating to the U.N. oil-for-food program during the reign of Saddam Hussein, who was accused of fraud.
"We have asked an American lawyer to prosecute the [American] companies that violated the law regarding the oil-for-food program," said the Iraqi minister for commerce.