May 17, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Allies plan to ease Iraqi sanctions

LONDON, May 17, Graphic News: Britain, with backing from the United States, on Wednesday proposed an end to all the decade-old sanctions on civilian goods to Iraq, except for Òdual-useÓ weapons-related materials, officials said.

A British-drafted resolution -- expected to be circulated next week to all 15 Security Council members -- is the first translation into concrete measures of new policies toward Iraq by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.

U.S. military planners are also looking at strategies to shut down Operation Northern Watch which is flown out of Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey.

The Bush administration is expected to end air patrols as Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld formulates his strategy to cut U.S. military active-duty personnel, currently about 1.4 million, and use the money to finance modernization and national missile defence.

The ending of sanctions on ordinary imports to Iraq will be replaced with a tightly focused set of controls on military and dual-use goods.

ÒIraq will be free to meet all of its civilian needs without impediment,Ó a British official said. The aim is to get a vote in the 15-member Security Council on the resolution before a next six-month phase of the oil-for-food program, which begins on June 4.

But the document may not include any details on what countries bordering Iraq, such as Jordan, Turkey and Syria, are expected to do. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who visited the region earlier this year, proposed placing monitors along their borders to control smuggling and banning contraband items.

The oil-for-food program -- instituted in late 1996 -- allows Iraq to sell unlimited amounts of oil, with proceeds put in a U.N. escrow account. The funds are then used to purchase food, medicine and other goods Baghdad has ordered to ease the impact of the sanctions, imposed in August 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

The new resolution would continue to keep financial controls in place and still compel suppliers to Iraq to be paid from the U.N. oil revenue account.

Agreeing on a list of contraband goods, already being compiled by the United States and Britain, is expected to be a point of contention. Currently, more than $3 billion worth of contracts are blocked because of possible dual-use purposes or faulty paperwork. The United States and Britain have been at odds for years with France, Russia and China, which want the embargoes suspended. 

London and Washington want to ensure that by allowing free trade in all civilian goods, President Saddam Hussein will no longer be able to accuse the West of being responsible for the suffering of his people. 

However IraqÕs deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has already warned its neighbours, Jordan and Turkey, not to co-operate -- or else Baghdad will cut off oil exports to them.

ÒWe will close the pipelines, stop the trucks and there will be no trade,Ó Aziz said, according to extracts of his speech broadcast on Iraqi television.
/ENDS
Sources: Reuters, Aviation Week and Space Technology