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International
U.S. to Urge U.N. to Lift Iraq Sanctions
2003-05-08
EFL
The United States will press the U.N. Security Council to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq and phase out the oil-for-food humanitarian program over the next four months. The resolution also would create an international advisory board — including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — to audit how income from Iraq's oil industry is spent and ensure it is being used to benefit the Iraqi people.
Inviting Kofi to an audit is like inviting Libya to be on the UN Human Rights Commission.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States expects to present the draft this week. The debate in the 15-member council will be key to judging how much the bitter split that broke out over the question of invading Iraq has healed.
My prediction: vapors emitted, sparks flying, resultant occasional explosions...
A senior Russian official said that rather than lifting sanctions, Moscow only wants a suspension of the embargoes on food and medicine — suggesting that a new confrontation may be in the works. But there were indications Germany might not be an obstacle this time, and many council members have said they really want to avoid another bruising battle and to try to find a consensus — something Annan has also been pushing for.
Germans coming to their senses?
Don't count on it too heavily. Giving us what we want at this stage will be regarded as justification for the war. Can't have that. Gotta contain the hegemons, y'know...
Powell and President Bush both adopted a conciliatory tone. In Washington, Bush insisted ``the mood that existed before the war has changed and people want to work together for the good of the Iraqi people.'' After meeting Annan, Powell predicted the U.S. resolution will unite the international community, and referred to France, Russia, Germany and China as ``our lamentable friends.''
Then his lips fell off. It was so embarrassing...
He told the Foreign Policy Association's annual dinner Wednesday night that the resolution will ask the United Nations ``to play a vital role,'' saying it can be a great help in humanitarian assistance and political reconstruction.
His definition of 'vital' is different than Dominique's.
``More importantly, it will be a resolution that can bring us all together to sing Kumbaya around the campfire give the Iraqi people a better life and hope for a much brighter future,'' Powell said. Council diplomats who have seen the resolution said it calls for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It would also phase out over four months the oil-for-food program, which has been feeding 90 percent of the country's 24 million people. Phasing out the program would end U.N. control over the oil revenues. The United States wants to use that money to pay for Iraq's reconstruction. U.N. humanitarian programs that have been operating under the oil-for-food program would be ended as well, though U.N. officials already have started setting up new programs in Iraq and coordinating between other aid groups. Russia and France, which both had lucrative contracts with Saddam Hussein's government under the oil-for-food program, have not been in a hurry to end it.
Every day the money sits in a French bank is a good day for them.
Russia has already circulated its own draft resolution calling for Annan to run the oil-for-food program, including taking charge of Iraq's petroleum sales and future development of its oil fields until an internationally recognized Iraqi government comes to power.
And they would then delay said recognition as long as they could. Wotta sweet plan.
The United States has launched a diplomatic offensive to win support for the new U.N. resolution, sending Assistant Secretary of State Kim Holmes to Moscow and Berlin and putting Iraq on Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's agenda in Pakistan, which currently holds the Security Council presidency.

The council diplomats did not say whether the draft U.S. resolution addresses the possibly contentious issue of weapons inspections in Iraq. Under council resolutions, U.N. inspectors must certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been eliminated along with the long-range missiles to deliver them before sanctions could be lifted. The United States has deployed its own inspection teams to search for weapons of mass destruction - and top U.S. officials have said they don't want U.N. inspectors to return any time soon.
"Hans, go home already!"
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said that Moscow wants sanctions lifted as soon as possible, but in accordance with council resolutions, meaning the world body must be certain Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Russia favors a ``temporary solution'' involving a resolution that would suspend sanctions on goods including food and medicine.
Take all the time you like. Meantime we'll re-build Iraq and let them sell their own oil. And kiss your debt repayments goodbye.
France also has made a proposal that doesn't meet U.S. wishes. It wants to suspend the sanctions, phase out the oil-for-food program, have U.S. and U.N. inspectors work together, and lift sanctions when a legitimate Iraqi government is in place. But France's U.S. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte said in an interview in Washington that ``we want to find the best possible solutions in the interest of the Iraqi people.''
"As we define it, of course. We are French, and so we know better."
Germany's national security adviser, Bernd Muetzelburg, met with Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, on the sanctions question. Afterward, Germany's U.S. Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters his country would not stand in the way of a pragmatic resolution of the sanctions issue.
Unless Dominique and Jaques tell them otherwise.
Posted by:Steve White

#4  not only double-checking the lab results, but tracing the paper trail on all the Made in France labels.
Posted by: Dishman   2003-05-08 15:14:22  

#3  You know, this debate would be a wonderful forum for the US to present the evidence on the WMD we have found in Iraq. My feeling all along is that we have been collecting information and double checking on the samples at multiple labs in order to do a massive dump when the time is right. It's time.
Posted by: Steve   2003-05-08 10:48:20  

#2  The U.S.is lifting our own sanctions(can't remember what they are,there are 4).The way I figure it is we tell the AoW"Lift the sanctions"if they don't we(CoW)bust the sanctions with all of the food/medical and reconstruction contracts going to companys from the CoW.
You know Dominique thier ass'!
Posted by: raptor   2003-05-08 06:42:40  

#1  And while he is at it: go after the Iranian Shia-pets. Kill those savages!
Posted by: Anonon   2003-05-08 06:07:09  

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