U.S. Rejects Iraqi Retaliation Threat Over "Smart" Sanctions
WASHINGTON, May 22 (News Agencies) - The U.S. State Department on Tuesday rejected Baghdad's threatened retaliation against a U.S.-British proposal to maintain strict controls on military sanctions against Iraq while easing those on consumer goods.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States had contacted countries neighboring Iraq to discuss how to counter potential threats.
President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday repudiated the so-called "smart" sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council as "more stupid than their predecessors."
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz in addition warned Baghdad would hit back by suspending the oil-for-food program wherein Iraq exports crude oil under U.N. supervision to finance imports of humanitarian supplies.
"We have to make clear it's unacceptable for any U.N. member state to threaten other states with retaliation for compliance with a U.N. resolution," Boucher said.
"We're in discussions with these countries and their economic officials to make sure that we have ways to protect their economies from any possible Iraqi economic retaliation on this," he added.
The proposal would maintain strict controls on sales of products to Iraq that could have military use while easing restrictions on consumer goods. It was to be presented Tuesday to all 15 members of the Security Council.
U.S. and British diplomats made clear they would prefer to move ahead quickly with their proposal in order to approve it by June 3rd, when the oil-for-food program comes up for renewal.
Boucher insisted there was broad consensus within the Security Council on the objectives, but diplomats said the first cracks appeared among the Council's permanent members as they began discussions of the resolution Monday.
China, Russia and France have said they did not want to impose a deadline on deliberations, especially concerned with lists of products allowed for export to Iraq, which are subject to approval by the U.N. sanctions committee.
The draft was discussed during a closed-door meeting of representatives of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
