Russia has told its key counterparts on the UN Security Council it will reject a US-British resolution to revamp sanctions on Iraq if the measure is put to a vote, diplomats said on Monday.
They told Reuters that Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in a weekend letter to the United States, and also presumably to Britain, France and China, said: "We cannot allow it to pass."
Ivanov stopped short of using the word "veto," but council diplomats said it was clear Moscow was threatening to kill the measure.
Russia, the United States, Britain, France and China are permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council with veto power.
"This is not a negotiating stance. This is what they plan to do," said one council member.
Word of Russia's position came hours after US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the United Nations on Monday to speak at a major UN AIDS conference.
He told reporters after his address that the council might not meet its self-imposed July 3 deadline for adoption of the British-drafted resolution on the plan, Reuters quoted him as saying.
"We have been unable to resolve all the technical issues," he said.
"If no resolution is arrived at, we will have to figure out what to do -- how to extend the current situation and how long."
Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the council, has raised objections to the plan for months, saying the United Nations should instead seek ways to move towards a suspension of the sanctions, imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
At issue is a resolution that seeks to ease restrictions on civilian goods, retain bans on military hardware and come to an agreement on a lengthy list of "dual use" supplies that can be used for both military and civilian purposes.
It also aims to stop smuggling, worth about $1 billion a year, and have the monies paid to a separate account rather than to Baghdad directly.
Moscow intends to present its own proposals to the council late on Tuesday when a public debate on Iraq is scheduled.
For the first time, 15 members of the Security Council will hold a public debate with non-council members on UN policy toward Iraq, allowing the nation's neighbors to give their own opinions of the proposal, AFP said.
Experts from the five permanent council members will also meet for two days Tuesday and Wednesday, in an attempt to reach agreement over the main stumbling block: putting together a list of civil- and military-use technology and equipment that Iraq may not freely import.
June 1 was set as the target date for agreement following the Security Council's move to extend its humanitarian "oil-for-food" program by just one month, instead of the usual six months, in order to discuss amending the sanctions.
In reprisal, Iraq interrupted all of its UN-supervised oil exports, equivalent to 2.3 million barrels per day.
A diplomat told AFP that "important progress" was made by Paris and Washington, but no accord has been reached on the matter.
US, British and French diplomats pursued their negotiations on the main text of the resolution. The main disagreement has been in relation to the French proposal to not only free up trade with Iraq but also to build up its devastated economy by authorizing investments and services.
Russia, meanwhile, called for the council debate in a bid to escape from its isolation "by showing that Iraq's neighbors had also experienced difficulties" with the US project, the diplomat said.
Those countries, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, are hostile to the project, which would be a severe blow to their fragile economies.
In mid-June, during UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's visit to the Middle East, they called on him to bring the matter before the Security Council.
Experts say Iraq's three neighbors receive some $300 million to $600 million per year in direct exchanges with Iraq carried on outside UN control.
Two of these nations, Turkey and Jordan, are also Washington's strategic allies and therefore find themselves torn between two positions, according to the diplomat.
However, Egypt's decision not to speak before the Security Council on Tuesday will add to their embarrassment, diplomats told AFP - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
