London, Jan 24 (Prensa Latina) Foreign occupation forces in Iraq have no legal authority to restructure the politics, society and economy of this Arab country and even less to call for elections, the London BBC radio station said Monday.

In an interview with the BBC, the president of the Arab Lawyer Association in Great Britain, Sabah Mokhtar, stressed that Geneva and Vienna Conventions stipulate that occupation troops of a state have no legal power to restructure it.

"Iraq is not currently a sovereign nation, but an occupied one, in which foreign forces have proclaimed a Constitution and legislation for elections and the creation of political parties," said Mokhtar when answering a BBC question about the motive of the Iraqi resistance to oppose the US-led elections scheduled for January 30.

The Arab leader added that the Iraq had 300 laws when the US-British forces launched their aggression in March 2003, most established in the 1920´s. He admitted some of those needed to be reformed, but they can only be changed by a legal authority.

Mokhtar also emphasized that a State in war can not legally call for elections, even less when at least 100 insurgent attacks are reported in Iraq daily.

Iraqi citizens fear to go to the polls, are unable to vote and there is no information about election candidates.

Addressing US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld´s recent statements, Mokthar said that elections should be properly held, despite irregularities prevailing in the Arab country.

If elections take place now it will only be because US President George W. Bush has made an incorrect decision, concluded Mokhtar.

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Informant: Walter Lippmann