Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Mohammad Rasheed on Wednesday reiterated a threat to halt Iraqi crude exports if the UN Security Council adopted a British-US proposal to revitalize 11-year-old sanctions against Baghdad, reported Reuters.
"If there is a rollover of the memorandum of understanding without any additions of measures or paragraphs that hurt Iraq, then (Iraq) will deal with it positively," Rasheed told reporters.
"Otherwise, it will halt crude exports."
When asked to comment on the suggestion that the Security Council extend oil-for-food for a month, delaying the normal six-month renewal, Rasheed said: "We don't comment on suppositions."
With the Security Council divided on Iraqi policy, the United States and Britain are expected to delay a vote on measures to overhaul sanctions against Baghdad past their self-imposed Friday deadline.
Several council members were quoted as saying on Tuesday that skepticism from Russia over the proposals could not be overcome before June 3, when the current phase of oil-for-food expires.
The remaining question, they said, would be whether the program would be extended for a month in its present form or for six months, as Moscow wants, while negotiations continue.
A decision is expected by Friday.
The oil-for-food program, created in December 1996, is a major exemption to sanctions imposed on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990.
It allows Iraq to sell oil with the proceeds put in a UN escrow account.
The United Nations then pays suppliers of goods Baghdad orders, while also placing money in a fund to compensate Gulf War victims.
In an effort to counter critical opinion in the Arab World and beyond of the sanctions, the US-British resolution frees the import of all civilian goods imported to Iraq but keeps the escrow account intact.
It bans military weapons outright but includes a list of hundreds of supplies that can have military and civilian uses.
These goods would have to be evaluated individually by council members.
Russia and China, both sympathetic to Iraq, say the complicated list needs far more time to analyze than the United States and Britain want.
"We believe one month is not enough," Russian envoy at the Security Council Gennady Gatilov said.
France offered a series of compromise proposals, obtained by Reuters, that would have the council approve of the general plan but take an extra month for the list.
Iraq has rejected the French proposals and Russia has not agreed to them either, the agency added.
Meanwhile, the Security Council committee monitoring the sanctions against Baghdad has established the first list of electricity-related supplies that qualify for "fast-track" approval - an accelerated process for getting humanitarian goods to Iraq, the UN news service said Wednesday.
According to the UN Office of the Iraq Programme, the panel, which is known as the "661 committee" for the resolution which established it, approved a list of 100 items in the electricity sector for quick processing.
Under the fast-track system, the designated items can be approved directly by the office without first going through the 661 committee, said the news service.
A total of eight sectors are now covered by fast-track procedures: electricity, food, health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, housing, and oil industry parts and equipment.
Since the adoption of the first lists of designated items in March 2000, the office has processed 2,314 contracts worth over $4.76 billion under the fast-track system.
Meanwhile, over the past week, Iraq exported 15.6 million barrels of oil, earning an estimated €433 million (euros) at current prices, the office reported the same day.
Under the oil-for-food program, Baghdad is authorized to spend approximately 72 percent of its oil revenues on the humanitarian program, while 25 percent is allocated to the Compensation Fund which pays out damages arising from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The remainder is used to cover administrative costs – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
