The resolution sponsored by 17 senators recommending that the agreement committing the US to returning the Iraqi-Jewish archive to Iraq be re-negotiated will now go to the floor for a full vote. A House of Representatives resolution may be introduced. Report by JNS:
Efforts to keep a significant collection of artifacts seized from Iraq’s Jewish community by Saddam Hussein from being returned by the United States may be picking up steam on Capitol Hill.
With just months to go before a June deadline mandates the return of the religious archive, U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are shepherding a resolution that asks the State Department to renegotiate an earlier agreement reached with the Iraqi government. On Tuesday, the resolution passed unanimously in a voice vote in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and will now go to the Senate floor for a full vote that has not yet been scheduled.
“These priceless artifacts were stolen by the former government of Iraq,” Toomey, who introduced the bill on the Senate floor Jan. 16, said in a statement. “We should not ship the collection back to a country where their owners no longer reside.” (...)
Although a similar resolution has not yet been introduced in the House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) signaled the possibility something would make it to the floor, although he believes a stronger stance than that in the Senate resolution is required.
“All these are very nice sentiments, but we shouldn’t negotiate with” the Iraqi government, Nadler told JNS.org. “We should just negotiate with the descendants of the Iraqi Jewish Community and to see what they want to do with it. It’s their property.”
According to Nadler, the CPA was essentially the agent of the United States, meaning that Washington essentially negotiated with itself; there is no agreement, therefore, with Iraq’s current government to break.
“Why should we negotiate with the government of Iraq at all?” asked Nadler. “I don’t see that they have any business in this.
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US Senators issue archive resolution
Just overheard this brief but important item on the radio:
ReplyDeleteThe State Comptroller blasts successive Israeli governments for not allocating resources for the research of history and culture of the Jews of Arab countries and Iran.
More on this. It concerns the claims. The State Comptroller says that not enough resources were allocated, and even when the dossier was transferred from the Justice Department to the Senior Citizens party, the funding was scarce.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, there'll be a more detailed article on the subject somewhere.