ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97052202.NNE
DATE:05/22/97
TITLE:22-05-97 U.S. UNDECIDED ABOUT RENEWAL OF IRAQI OIL DEAL, ENVOY SAYS
TEXT:
(Richardson: "Oil-for-food" program has problems) (580)
By Judy Aita
USIA United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- "The United State Government has not yet decided
whether to support the extension" of the resolution which allows Iraq
to export oil to buy humanitarian supplies, U.S. Ambassador Bill
Richardson said May 22.
Richardson said that while the United States recognizes that serious
shortages of food and medicine due to the mandatory economic embargo
on Iraq still exist, U.S. officials have not been able to determine
whether the U.N. scheme to allow Iraq to sell oil is having the
desired effect.
The so-called "oil-for-food" plan set out in Security Council
resolution 986 allows Iraq to sell $2,000 million of crude oil over
six months under close U.N. supervision on a renewable basis in order
to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies for Iraqi
civilians suffering the effect of the almost seven-year-old economic
embargo. The plan calls for strict monitoring by the U.N. to ensure
that the supplies go to Iraqi civilians in need. There is also a
requirement that the U.N. oversee the distribution of supplies in the
northern Kurdish area.
The resolution will be up for renewal June 7.
"We recognize that the humanitarian situation is still as difficult as
it was in 1995," Richardson said during a meeting with journalists.
"We also recognize that Iraq is no closer to meeting its obligations
and seeing the sanctions lifted than it was in 1995. So the same
arguments in favor of 986 that were valid then are valid today."
"However, we're not in a position to say that Iraq and the U.N. have
implemented the resolution as it was intended," said Richardson, who
is the chief U.S. envoy to the U.N.
"We expected the operation of 986 to be far more transparent than it
has proven to be in practice," he said.
There are two areas where the U.S. needs to see more details before it
will decide how to vote: the distribution of supplies to Iraqi
civilians and the program for the Kurds. As one of five permanent
members of the Security Council with veto power, a "no" vote from the
U.S. would end the oil sales.
The U.S. is evaluating "Iraq's distribution methods and the means by
which the U.N. is observing the distribution" and well as the
implementation of the program in northern Iraq, Richardson said.
Richardson also said that should the U.S. go along with the renewal of
resolution 986, "you should not expect us to agree to an increase" in
the amount of oil to be sold.
Responding to criticism that as a member of the Security Council
sanctions committee, which approves all Iraqi contracts to purchase
the humanitarian supplies under 986, the U.S. is interfering with the
process, Richardson said that U.S. actions "are not politically
motivated."
"We have put a large number of contracts on hold because Iraq has
failed to endorse the contracts -- a simple requirement which Iraq had
insisted upon -- or because they were for items that were not included
in the distribution (lists)," he said.
"We insist, and continue to insist, that Iraq, the (U.N.) secretariat,
and the (sanctions) committee follow precisely the requirements of the
council's resolution," he said.
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