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Russia's Opposition Leaves "Smart" Sanctions Jammed
BAGHDAD, June 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Russia's opposition to the U.S.-British draft resolution for "smart" sanctions designed to revamp the 11-year-old U.N. embargo on Iraq, has left it at an impasse, Iraq's Deputy Prime
Minister Tareq Aziz charged Wednesday.
"The biggest development at the Security Council was Russia declaring it would not adopt the proposal," Aziz told reporters in Baghdad.
"The chances of seeing this proposal passed by the Security Council are growing slimmer and it (the draft resolution) has reached an impasse," Aziz said.
Russia told the Security Council Tuesday it could not accept the proposal and submitted a counter-proposal with a timetable for suspending sanctions, AFP news agency reported.
In a letter sent earlier, Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told his key U.N. Security Council counterparts that Moscow "cannot" allow a draft resolution to pass.
Ivanov stopped short of using the word "veto" in his letter, but council diplomats say it is clear Moscow is threatening to kill the measure, BBC online reported.
The move cast new doubts on the possibility of reaching an agreement by the council's July 3 deadline on proposals to end the civilian trade embargo on Iraq while tightening controls on oil and arms smuggling.
Russia's draft would indefinitely suspend the 11-year-old embargo on civilian trade with Iraq once the U.N. arms inspection team was fully deployed there, news agencies reported.
If adopted, the Russian draft would also transfer funds from the U.N.'s escrow account to the government of Iraq -- something that is unacceptable to Britain and the United States.
Meanwhile the Security Council's permanent members, are to hold a meeting Wednesday to review the U.S.-British " smart" sanctions, after Russia's opposition.
The U.S.-UK plan would be part of the oil-for-food scheme, which allows Baghdad to sell oil in order to buy basic goods for ordinary Iraqis.
The oil-for-food arrangements are expected to continue unchanged if the Security Council cannot reach an agreement on modifying the sanctions, BBC online reported.
In protest at the U.S.-British proposal for so-called "smart" sanctions, Iraq on June 4 suspended its exports of more than two million barrels of oil per day through the U.N. program.
Earlier Tuesday the U.N. Security Council postponed a public debate on its Iraqi sanctions policy from Tuesday to Thursday, when a senior Iraqi foreign ministry official is expected to take part.
The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed el-Douri, said that Riyadh al-Qaysi, an under-secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, would take part when the debate resumes on Thursday afternoon.
Al-Qaysi is expected to arrive in New York Wednesday night and might meet U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the ambassador said.
U.S. and British air strikes, the second in two days, attacked Iraqi artillery areas in southern Iraq on Tuesday.
The U.S. said the raids were in response to Iraqi anti air-crafts, saying the raids did not target any civilian areas.
Iraq said last week that twenty-three Iraqis were killed and 11 others injured when U.S. and British warplanes struck a football pitch in Tel Afr, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of Mosul last Wednesday.
Both Washington and London swiftly denied the attacks.
Iraqis have been under continuous U.S.-British air raids patrolling "no fly" zones in northern and southern Iraq since its 1991 invasion of Kuwait.
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