U.S., Russia Reach Deal on Iraq Policy
By Edith M. Lederer
The Associated Press UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Russia have reached a compromise to renew the UN humanitarian program in Iraq that could lead to an overhaul of UN sanctions against the oil-rich nation next year.
Under the compromise, Russia agreed to approve a new list of goods that would need UN review before shipment to Iraq by June 1, a key feature of an earlier U.S.-British proposal to overhaul sanctions. The United States in turn agreed to Russia's long-standing demand for "a comprehensive settlement" of the sanctions issue — including steps that would lead to lifting the 11-year-old military embargo.
A draft resolution incorporating the agreement was circulated to all 15 Security Council members Tuesday night. The council was scheduled to hold closed-door consultations on the draft Wednesday and was expected to approve a resolution before the current phase of the oil-for-food humanitarian program expires at midnight Friday.
The draft calls for a six-month extension of the program, which allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil on condition that the proceeds are spent on food, medicine and other humanitarian goods and war reparations.
It also says the council will adopt a list of dual-use and military-related goods that would need approval from the UN committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq. The council must act within the next six months so the list could be implemented starting June 1.
The list was part of a U.S.-British sanctions overhaul plan that would tighten the military embargo on Saddam Hussein's regime and clamp down on Iraqi oil smuggling, while easing the flow of civilian goods into Iraq through the oil-for-food program. Washington and London shelved the plan when the Russians threatened a veto in early July.
Russia, Iraq's closest Security Council ally and a major beneficiary of contracts to purchase Iraqi oil and to sell Iraq humanitarian supplies, saw the goods review list as a threat to its commercial interests.
In the compromise — reached after high-level contacts between Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell — Moscow agreed to adopt a list. The other 14 council members already had reached agreement on a common list when the U.S.-British plan was put aside in July.
Diplomats hailed as an important concession the U.S. decision to support Russia's call to clarify a controversial December 1999 Security Council resolution that would ease sanctions in return for Baghdad's cooperation with weapons inspectors.
The United States long has maintained that the resolution needs no clarification, and that Baghdad must allow weapons inspectors back into the country before sanctions are lifted, a demand repeated Monday by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Iraq has rejected the 1999 resolution, insisting it has already eliminated its weapons of mass destruction and would only consider allowing inspectors back into the country after sanctions are lifted.
The U.S.-Russia agreement that will be part of the new resolution is likely to anger Iraq, though it is unclear Wednesday how Saddam's government will respond.
On Tuesday, Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammad al-Douri, said that Baghdad would only accept a simple, six-month extension of the oil-for-food program, "without adding anything to it."
Bush's warning Monday that Iraq faces consequences if it produces weapons of mass destruction has focused attention on the sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. They can only be lifted if UN inspectors determine that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been dismantled along with its long-range missiles.
Responding to a question about possible options as a result of Bush's warning, al-Douri said, "We hope that the option is a peaceful solution, normal relations between Iraq and the United States."
"We are always in favor to discuss, to sit together, to discuss issues on which we are [having] different positions," he said.
Al-Douri's conciliatory comment was in sharp contrast to a statement from a government spokesman in Baghdad quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency who said his country wasn't afraid of U.S. threats and was prepared to defend itself.
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