Talabani off on European tour

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani has left Sulaimaniya on a European tour that includes France and Poland. The visit aims to “foster economic, political and trade relations between Iraq and those two countries,” Talabani told reporters, including a correspondent for IraqiNews.com news agency, at Sulaimaniya International Airport. Accompanied by the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, finance, and science and technology, the vice president of the Kurdistan region, the heads of the investment commissions in both Iraq and Kurdistan, the president said that he would call on the French government to help “bring Iraq out of Chapter VII” of the UN Charter. UN Security Council Resolution 678 was the legal authorization for the Gulf War, which was passed on 29 November 1990. It gave Iraq an opportunity to withdraw from Kuwait by 15 January 1991 and authorized UN member states in cooperation with the government of Kuwait to use “all necessary means to uphold and implement” Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which authorizes the use of force to restore peace. Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets forth the powers of the UN Security Council to maintain peace. It allows the council to “determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression” and to take military and non-military action to “restore international peace and security.” SS (S) 1