U.N. to Consider Lifting Iraqi Sanctions

AP | 4/17/03 | EDITH M. LEDERER

[kattracks]

U.N. to Consider Lifting Iraqi Sanctions

By EDITH M. LEDERER .c The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Security Council will take up the thorny issue of lifting U.N. sanctions against Iraq next week, and diplomats say the debate is likely to be long and difficult despite U.S. requests for quick action.

With the U.S.-led coalition now in control of almost all of Iraq, President Bush urged the United Nations on Wednesday to lift sanctions that have choked Iraq's economy for nearly 13 years.

But lifting the sanctions is linked to U.N. certification that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed - and that issue is part of a broader debate on what the U.N. role will be in postwar Iraq. The sanctions question also hinges on the sensitive issue of the return of U.N. weapons inspectors.

Mexico's U.N. Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the current Security Council president, said Wednesday that members will be guided by two resolutions that establish the legal conditions for suspending and lifting sanctions.

The Security Council imposed sanctions banning all countries from importing any Iraqi goods, including oil, four days after Saddam's forces invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The sanctions were later modified to allow oil revenue to be used to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian items for the Iraqi people.

A key resolution in April 1991 called for the destruction of all Iraqi nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and missiles with a range of more than 93 miles. The resolution set up a U.N. inspections commission to oversee the process. It stated that sanctions can be lifted only when the council has agreed that Iraq has completed disarmament.

In December 1999, the council adopted another resolution creating a new inspection agency and providing for the suspension of sanctions for renewable 120-day periods if U.N. inspectors reported that Iraq had cooperated ``in all respects'' with them and shown progress in fulfilling key remaining disarmament tasks.

Even before Bush urged the lifting of sanctions, the council scheduled a briefing on Tuesday by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who has been in charge of the latest search for any Iraqi chemical and biological weapons and prohibited missiles.

Mexico's Zinser said that meeting will examine ``what will be the next step to be taken by the inspectors and by the Security Council.''

Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered U.N. inspectors to leave Iraq along with the rest of the U.N. international staff for security reasons just before the U.S.-led war began on March 19, but he has pressed for their return as quickly as possible.

The United States, however, has fielded its own disarmament teams inside Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction and has not invited U.N. inspectors to return. Instead, it has tried to hire away some U.N. inspectors.

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said U.S. officials in Washington were still discussing the specifics of lifting sanctions.

``We visualize some kind of a step-by-step procedure with respect to post-conflict resolutions regarding Iraq,'' he said. ``Certainly one of the issues we're going to have to deal with early on is sanctions.''

The Security Council was bitterly divided over the war, which it did not endorse. But Russia, France, Germany and China, which led the opposition, want the United Nations to play a major role in rebuilding Iraq, and diplomats said that will make any negotiations on lifting sanctions difficult.

Council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia and other members are certain to press for U.N. inspectors to certify Iraq's disarmament and to have a role in continuing monitoring and verification. Before agreeing to any suspension or lifting of sanctions, many council members also want a better idea of what the U.N.'s future role will be, the diplomats said.

04/17/03 02:20 EDT

[Humidston]

*Fingers in ears*

Hey UN, who cares what you think?

[Steve Van Doorn]

Well Iraq has to sell the oil to someone.

[Ruth A.]

Do I hear 12 years?

[Humidston]

If the issue is too difficult for them to handle, they can always ask our president to work it out for them.

[philetus]

The UN is just like the dems filibustering the judge nominations.
If they don't get their way, they don't want to play.

[LaraCroft]

The UN has done such a sterling job of overseeing the sanctions in the past 12 years that of course they should continue to use the food for oil program that kept millions of Iraqis from starving to death.

And now that they don't have Saddam to appease in spending the money, they can really put it to some good use.

As a matter of fact, instead of the limited humanitarian role that Bush wants them to play, he should step back and let Kofi actually run the country. We should also pay them millions in rebuilding, and of course to set up the new government, and help them with the oil, for free of course, until they get the money coming in on a consistant basis.

Wow.. scary that there are some people who really think like this, eh? Why are we even mentioning the UN in serious conversation, and why is our Government not leaving it immediately?

[Hugin]

How about we stop funding the UN until they remove sanctions from Iraq, and remove countries like Syria, Cuba and Sudan from the Human Rights Commission, for starters. Once they do that we will resume some limtited funding, subject to other conditions to be announced.

[TheLooseThread]

So the UN can not even handle the most cut-and-dry issue.

This is like, duh.