Deadlock in U.N. on curbs: Iraq

BAGHDAD, JUNE 27. Iraq said today that a U.S.-British resolution at the United Nations to revamp Iraqi sanctions was grinding to a halt after Russia rejected the proposal. ``Prospects for passing the draft resolution are weakening, if not reaching a deadlock,'' Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Tariq Aziz told reporters.

``The most important development is that Russia has said it will not allow the U.S.-British...draft resolution to pass.'' Russia told the Security Council yesterday it would reject the resolution if it was put for vote. It made its own proposals for suspending the embargoes that were imposed when Baghdad invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

The U.S. and Britain turned this down, leaving the 15-member U.N. Security Council at an impasse. Mr. Aziz, also Iraq's Acting Foreign Minister, said he had sent his Under-Secretary, Mr. Riyadh al-Qaisi to the United Nations in New York to ``read out the Iraqi statement which affirmed our rejection of the resolution''. Iraqi envoys at the U.N. said Mr. Qaisi would speak tomorrow, the third day of a debate on sanctions that started yesterday.

Also set to speak are Iraqi neighbours Syria and Turkey, both of which import Iraqi oil Ootside an oil-for-food deal with the U.N. The British-drafted resolution seeks to ease restrictions on the import of 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 would also place tighter control on oil exports to neighbouring countries, imposing U.N. control on a trade of an estimated $1 billion per year that goes directly to Iraq rather than through the closely supervised U.N. oil-for-food programme.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Mr. Sergei Lavrov, told the Security Council yesterday that the U.S.-British plan would not avert a ``humanitarian catastrophe'' in Iraq and would devastate Baghdad's economy. ``We cannot agree to this draft resolution, which certainly cannot go through,'' he said. The Iraqi Vice- President, Mr. Taha Yassin Ramadan praised Russia for ``rejecting the Anglo-American proposal and standing with its friends against imperialist schemes,'' the ruling Baath party newspaper Al-Thawra reported today.

- Reuters

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Wahid threatens to impose emergency
Next     : Kenneth Clarke joins Tory leadership race