Allies Work to Modify U.N.'s Iraqi Sanctions - U.S.,
Britain Want to Ease Pressure on Civilians.
Washington Post, 5/17/01
By Colum Lynch and Alan Sipress.
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 - The United States and Britain will launch a
diplomatic campaign next week to overhaul the
11-year-old sanctions on Iraq, marking the first substantial step by the Bush
administration to carry out a new policy for
confronting Baghdad.
British officials, working with their American counterparts, said today they
were preparing to offer, as early as Monday, a draft
Security Council resolution that would eliminate most restrictions on Iraq's
civilian imports while tightening controls on military goods and oil revenue.
"This is a very big shift. We are effectively ending sanctions on
ordinary civilian imports and replacing it with a very tightly
focused control regime," a British diplomat told reporters. "If our
proposals are adopted by the Security Council, Iraq will have no excuse for the
suffering of the Iraqi people."
In recent months, U.S. envoys have been meeting in Europe with British,
French and Russian officials to lay the groundwork for the resolution. The Bush
administration has sought to reach agreement on the contours of a new sanctions
policy before
June 4, when the United Nations is scheduled to decide whether to renew the
oil-for-food sanctions program.
"We have been working on this for a long time," said James B. Cunningham, the acting U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "We hope to adopt the resolution by the end of the month."
While pushing for "smart sanctions" that could win renewed
international support, the Bush administration also has been
reviewing other elements of its Iraq policy. U.S. officials said they expect to
complete an evaluation this month of how best to
enforce the two no-fly zones over Iraq and provide support for opposition groups
trying to oust President Saddam Hussein.
The broad outlines of the sanctions plan have gained a "reasonably
positive response" from France, Russia and China,
Iraq's traditional advocates on the 15-member Security Council, according to the
British official. U.S. and European officials have said France is upbeat about
the overall proposal, since it could satisfy a longstanding French demand for
the lifting of civilian sanctions, while Russia and China have withheld detailed
comments.
But U.S. and European officials said they expect intense negotiations among the five permanent Security Council members over the specifics of the new plan, in particular the list of items that would still be barred from Iraq.
Under the proposal, Iraq would be free to import any goods not specifically
designated for the council's review. Last week, after an internal Bush
administration debate among State Department and Pentagon officials over which
items could pose
a military threat, the United States and Britain agreed on a proposed list and
presented it to Russia, China and France.
The list would include all military imports and many "dual use"
items, such as high-powered computers and advanced
telecommunications equipment, that have both civilian and military applications.
"There will effectively be no sanctions on all
other goods entering Iraq," the British official said.
U.S. and European officials said they expect negotiations among council
members about whether to allow the resumption of
international investment in Iraq's oil industry, a step that could benefit
French, Russian and Chinese companies. They also
anticipate tough bargaining over whether Iraqi revenue deposited in the U.N.
account could be used to pay off Baghdad's debts, a change favored by Russia,
which is owed several billion dollars.
The draft resolution would maintain the existing escrow account into which
Iraqi oil revenue is deposited and then spent on
imports that meet Security Council conditions. It would also likely allow the
resumption of international commercial flights to
Baghdad.
The Bush administration plan would authorize Iraq to export oil through Syria
under U.N. auspices in an effort to halt the
smuggling of more than 100,000 barrels a day outside international control. It
would also allow the U.N. to compensate
countries neighboring Iraq with money from the escrow account if Baghdad
retaliated against them for cooperating with the
import restrictions.
Iraq has asked Russia to oppose the new resolution and has put its neighbors
on notice that it will punish them if they support
the plan. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz warned Jordan and Turkey on
Monday that Iraq will cut off trade with them if they cooperate.