Iraq will continue to reject any US or British-proposed "smart" sanctions aimed at revamping the embargo imposed on the country in 1990, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri stressed Monday, November 19.
"Our position is clear and unequivocal. We accept no modification of the (oil-for-food) accords signed between Iraq and the United Nations," Sabri told Iraqi satellite television. Iraq expects to see the United Nations "renew for a new (six-month) period the oil-for-food program," phase X of which comes to a conclusion at the end of November, Sabri said.
The program was introduced in 1996 to allow Iraq to sell oil under UN supervision to meet its people's humanitarian needs. The UN Security Council in July put off indefinitely a vote on a revised sanctions regime after Russia threatened to use its veto and opposition from Iraq's neighbors.
The reforms would scrap the embargo on civilian trade with Baghdad while tightening controls to prevent oil smuggling out of Iraq and illegal arms imports into the country. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on November 15 that the United States and Britain were studying with Russia and other nations a revised plan for "smart sanctions" on Iraq.
The revised plan will permit Iraq to import all products not related to defense and will prevent it from importing products used to develop weapons of mass destruction, Straw told Al-Hayat newspaper.
Straw gave no details but was quoted as saying the plan was modified and improved, coming closer to positions expressed by Iraq's neighbors Jordan, Syria and Turkey. These three countries had expressed reservations about the smart sanctions regime. — (AFP,Bagdad)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
