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Iraq to Defy UN Resolutions over
"Smart Sanctions"
CAIRO, May 19 (Islamonline & News Agencies)- Iraq will boycott UN Security Council resolutions that may comply with a newly proposed US-British sanctions regime on Baghdad, a pan-Arab newspaper reported Saturday.
The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper quoted the Iraqi envoy to the United Nations, Mohamed Al Duri, as saying that he informed the international organization of Iraq's intentions if the Security Council adopted any measures in line with the US-British plan to introduce "smart sanctions" against Baghdad.
According to the Arabic daily, Duri threatened that Iraq could breach the UN "oil for food program" if the permanent members of the Security Council did not oppose issuing further resolutions related to the decade-long sanctions.
Duri said Iraq would defy any Security Council decisions just as it did in resolution 1284.
The news came after Britain, a permanent member of the Security Council, said Friday it would back the United States proposal which will mark a dramatic shift in UN policies towards Iraq.
The proposal would end controls on civilian goods going to Iraq but tighten bans on weapons-related materials while maintaining a close watch on Baghdad's oil revenues.
A British-drafted resolution, expected to be circulated next week to all 15 Security Council members, is the first translation of the new US policies towards Iraq under the administration of US President George W. Bush administration. Britain is drafting the plan after lengthy negotiations with the US and other council members, news agencies said.
"In essence we are ending sanctions on ordinary imports to Iraq but replacing them with a tightly focused set of controls on military and 'dual use' goods," a British official said.
However, the new resolution would keep financial controls in place and still compel supplies to Iraq to be paid from an account controlled by the United Nations that contains revenues from its oil sales.
Al Hayat paper published what it called an exclusive copy of the U.S-British embargo proposals that included details on what countries bordering Iraq, such as Jordan, Turkey and Syria, are expected to do especially in terms of their economic ties with Baghdad.
The aim. Britain says, is to get a vote in the 15-member Security Council on the resolution before a next six-month phase of the oil-for-food program, which begins on 4 June. That plan, instituted in late 1996, allows Iraq to sell unlimited amounts of oil, with proceeds put in a UN escrow account. The funds are then used to purchase food, medicine and other goods.
At present, food and medicines as well as some other items, such as bricks for construction and educational materials, are allowed to reach Baghdad without being approved by the council's sanctions committee. Under the British plan, other goods, from bicycles to sewing machines, would be allowed to reach Baghdad without approval from the committee.
The BBC online service reported that Britain and the US do not intend to relinquish the escrow account. This means Iraqi contracts for supplies probably will still move through the United Nations' bureaucracy, albeit at a faster pace.
The new proposals, however, would forbid foreign investments and loans to Iraq, except those already approved for upgrading Baghdad's oil industry. But council sources said a big question was whether Iraq's neighbors could be persuaded to co-operate.
Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, reportedly said Monday that Baghdad would halt oil exports to Jordan and Turkey if they co-operated with US sanctions plans.
Iraq's Minister of Health Omeid Medhat Mubarak criticized the continuation of the blanket embargo for 11 years, that has affected the implementation of health plans and programs as well as being negatively reflected on the Iraqi society, the Iraqi News Agency said Thursday on its web site.
In a speech delivered in the meetings of the World Health Organization in Geneva, head of Iraq's delegation to the meetings, said 81,804 children died in the year 2000, whereas 8,903 children under the age of five died in 1990
He gave details of the role of the U.S and U.K representatives at the Sanctions Committee in impeding the delivery of medicine to Iraqi patient in time.
Baghdad has continuously called upon the international community to ease the impact of the sanctions, imposed in August 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
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