According to Ritter, former U.N. Special Commission Chairman Rolf Ekeus gave the green light to Ritter's Israeli gambit. He denied the charge. About Iraq Iraq is a Middle Eastern nation about twice the size of Idaho, with a population of about 21.7 million, bordering the Persian Gulf between Iran and Kuwait. Saddam Hussein has been president of Iraq since 1979. The country's president and vice president are elected by a two-thirds majority of the Revolutionary Command Council.
Members serve four-year terms.
Activities of political parties are severely restricted. Opponents of the regime can be found among disaffected elements of the ruling Ba'th party, Army officers, tribes, and Shi'a religious, and ethnic Kurdish dissidents. The Ba'thist regime engages in extensive central economic planning and management of industrial production and foreign trade, leaving some small-scale industry, services, and most agriculture to private enterprise. The oil sector dominates the Iraqi economy, which had a 0 percent growth rate, according to 1997 estimates. Financial problems, spurred by massive expenditures to support an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s and damage to oil export facilities, have triggered austerity measures, including taking on national debt and rescheduling of foreign debt payments.