Blix is back to the Security Council hoping to return to Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, April 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Security Council meets Tuesday, April 22, with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix in an attempt to remove one of the hurdles in the way of determining the United Nations' post-war role in Iraq.

Russia again insisted Monday that the inspectors return to Iraq to confirm that it has no banned chemical, biological or nuclear weapons before the UN's 13-year-old economic sanctions are removed.

A permanent Council member, Russia has the power to veto any resolution to lift sanctions and unlock doors to potentially lucrative markets in Iraq, one of the largest oil exporters before the embargo was imposed.

However, the United States, having failed to get UN approval for military action to strip Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of his alleged weapons of mass destruction, seems in no mood to let Blix verify that the job was completed successfully.

In Rome, U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs Marc Grossman said it was "hardly realistic" to let UN inspectors back into Iraq, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Blix, for his part, has said the world would like to see "a credible report" on the elimination of Iraq's arsenals, a point endorsed by British junior foreign minister Mike O'Brien.

"The UN inspectors are clearly a possibility for doing that," O'Brien told BBC radio. "We are talking to the Americans and other allies and indeed the UN about how verification can be carried out," he added.

A Council diplomat said countries such as Russia and France, whose anti-war stance was sharply criticized in Washington, might delay the removal of sanctions if they saw a threat to their economic interests.

After Blix, the Council will be briefed by Benon Sevan, director of the UN oil-for-food program, which has swelled into a 10-billion-dollar-a-year business since it was set up six years ago to cushion Iraqi citizens from the impact of sanctions.

Iraq is believed to owe 57 billion dollars for contracts in sectors such as energy and telecommunications which were frozen when sanctions were imposed.

Russian Interests At Risk

According to one estimate, 90 percent of the deals were with Russia, but a close adviser to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested in an interview published Monday in Moscow that the contracts might be worthless.

"There is a high probability that all previous deals with Russia will be declared meaningless," Richard Perle told the business daily Kommersant.

"Of course this is something for the new Iraqi government to decide, but I would be surprised if Russia wins the support of the new Iraqi leadership - the same support that it received from (Saddam) Hussein," he said.

Many Council members want to give the UN a say in the formation of that government, perhaps by asking it to organize constitutional talks similar to the December 2001 Bonn conference which led to the interim administration under Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

The comments threatened to undermine already testy relations between Moscow and Washington amid efforts from both sides to ease the tensions ahead of a meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

Russia has vowed to defend its oil interests in Iraq, through international courts if necessary.

Its leading private oil company LUKoil holds a 68.5-percent share in a consortium to develop the West Qurna-2 field with the Iraqi energy ministry and two other Russian companies under an agreement signed in 1997.

LUKoil was to invest some four billion dollars in the site's development by 2020 under the deal. But the company was unable to exploit the site due to existing UN oil embargoes on Baghdad.

The company estimated the site has oil reserves of some 20 billion barrels.

Washington officials have said that Iraqi oil must be used to benefit "the Iraqi people" - the remark, implying a U.S. decision-making role, drew concern in Moscow - but have so far failed to specify the future of Iraqi oil fields which are now guarded by U.S. troops.

As a first step for a real UN role, a diplomat said, the Council would ask UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a special representative to Iraq.

Diplomats in the United Nations say the administration of Bush is itself divided over how much influence the UN should be allowed in Iraq.

The appointment of a UN special representative would encourage donor countries to contribute financially to the reconstruction of Iraq or make troops available for a security force if the council approved one, they said.