New Delhi: India was prevented from providing pencils to hapless Iraqi children during the Gulf War as the UN Security Council felt that graphite contained in the item would help Baghdad's quest for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), a new book has revealed.

Concerned by the complete collapse of the education system in the war-torn Iraq, the Indian embassy in Baghdad proposed to provide pencils to the local students.

However, attempting to export pencils proved to be an "enlightening experience," writes former Indian Ambassador to Iraq, Ranjit Singh Kalha in his just-released book, "The Ultimate Prize".

"To help Iraqi school children, we planned to supply pencils from India so that, at the very least, the children would not be handicapped while attending school. However, before that could be done, it had to be approved by the Sanctions Committee of the UNSC," Kalha, who retired as secretary in the ministry of external affairs, writes.

"For months our request lay with this committee and we received no answer. The committee consisting of the members of the Security Council had to take a unanimous position and some members probably hoped that their non-action would tire us out."

As India persisted, it soon became clear that there were hesitations that had nothing to do with our request to export pencils to Iraq.

"These hesitations were part of the larger game to keep the Saddam regime off-balance. As we persisted, much to our surprise the request was turned down on the ground that pencils contained graphite that was a dual use item!," he notes in his book that also contained declassified documents.

The UNSC imposed economic sanctions on Iraq for its invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990, prohibiting all imports (except medical supplies) and exports, unless the UNSC permitted exceptions.

Source : PTI