The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday morning that would allow a vast array of goods to be ferried into Iraq while setting aside those items that may be put to military use.
The new measure represents the most radical overhaul of Iraq sanctions since 1996, when Baghdad was allowed to trade oil for essential food supplies. It also spells a significant victory for the United States and its allies on the 15-member council, for it is seen as a way to deflate the argument that sanctions against Iraq end up punishing ordinary Iraqis.
"We believe it will facilitate greatly the movement of humanitarian and purely civilian goods to the Iraqi economy," the American envoy to the United Nations, John D. Negroponte, told reporters after the vote. "It's been a significant accomplishment, both politically and technologically."
The council passed the resolution by a vote of 15-0 even after a sharp rebuke from Syria, Iraq's ally and neighbor and the only Arab state in the Security Council. Syria had pushed for language in the resolution to acknowledge Iraq's right to defend itself, an apparent reference to ongoing discussions in Washington to consider military action to topple Mr. Hussein's government. Their proposals were rejected earlier this week.
Monday morning, in his remarks to the Security Council, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Mikhail Wehbe, said it was "high time" to lift the sanctions altogether. He also used the occasion to pointedly criticize the council for failing to compel Israeli cooperation with a United Nations inquiry into an Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp earlier this month. In the end, though, he said his country would assent to the resolution for the sake of unity and to help the Security Council "retrieve its credibility," particularly in the Arab world.
Iraq's representative, Mohammed Aldouri, had little to say about the resolution, except that it offered his country little to celebrate. The new system, he said, would impose expensive bureaucratic hurdles to the import of necessary goods. "I can tell you, my country, we are always unhappy to see these kinds of resolutions coming out of the Security Council," he said. "It will be very costly for Iraq."
He declined to say whether the resolution would prompt Baghdad to suspend the export of oil, as it did briefly in protest over Israel's military action in the West Bank.
At the moment, all imports into Iraq, except food and some medicines, are scrutinized by a sanctions committee of the council. Any member can block such imports. The United States has kept more than $5 billion worth of goods from reaching Baghdad since sanctions were imposed in 1990, when Iraq sent troops into Kuwait.
Under the new system, the sanctions committee will ponder the fate of only those items that figure on a lengthy list of goods that may have a military use. Two United Nations agencies will be responsible for culling those items that are on the list of "dual use" goods. The sanctions committee will have 30 days to decide whether those items that figure on the 300-page list can be allowed into Iraq.
Monday's resolution is the product of delicate negotiations between the United States, which has been flirting with the idea of military action against Iraq, and Russia, which is Iraq's staunchest ally on the council. The Russian ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, praised Monday's resolution as an important tool to restore Iraq's infrastructure, but said his country would continue to push for more. "It is only through the lifting of the sanctions that Iraq can rebuild its economy," he said.
(China Daily May 15, 2002)
