16 June 1999
US WOULD SUPPORT SUSPENSION OF IRAQI SANCTIONS
(Burleigh links sanctions to disarmament) (710) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- The United States will support a resolution allowing for the suspension of sanctions against Iraq if Baghdad cooperates with the United Nations in eliminating its weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh said June 16. The two issues for the US are "real disarmament" and "financial controls on the Iraqi economy," Burleigh told journalists outside the Security Council's meeting rooms. Security Council members are working on a draft resolution proposed by Great Britain and the Netherlands that will hopefully allow UN arms inspectors back into Iraq after more than ten months of confrontation between the UN and Iraq. The draft resolution proposes establishing a new organization to replace the UN Special Commission overseeing the destruction of Iraqi weapons (UNSCOM) with a group called the United Nations Commission on Inspection and Monitoring (UNCIM). It would require UNCIM to list the key remaining disarmament tasks for Iraq and reaffirms the resolutions that spell out Iraq's obligations under the 1991 cease-fire agreement. It would also allow Iraq to export an additional 500,000 tons of oil and 1,250,000 tons of petroleum products to Turkey during a 180-day period and sets out how the additional proceeds would be spent. The draft resolution would also exempt Hajj pilgrimage flights that do not transport cargo into or out of Iraq from the sanctions regime. Upon receipt of reports from the UNCIM executive director and the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iraq has demonstrated full cooperation with UNCIM and the IAEA for an additional period of 120 days and completed tasks set out by the agencies, the council would "suspend for a period of 120 days, renewable by the council, the remaining prohibitions against the import of commodities and products originating in Iraq," the draft says. Burleigh pointed out that disarmament "is the requirement of all the resolutions with regard to Iraq" for the United States. The new draft "links the suspension proposal with actual compliance" with what was commonly referred to by current UNSCOM Chairman Richard Butler as a "road map" of what tasks have to be completed by the Iraqis to fully comply with the council's demand that Iraq eliminate its nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic missile weapons and their programs, the ambassador said. "So we're pleased with that," Burleigh said. "The second thing is we insist on serious financial controls on the Iraqi economy so we can be assured of what they are importing and this is also assured in this resolution," he added. "We have some problems with some small parts of it, but by and large it is something the U.S. can support and we hope others on the council will too," Burleigh said. The United States will support a suspension of sanctions "as long as it's linked to compliance with disarmament requirements," the ambassador stressed. "The problem with other proposals has been that it's been cooperation on the ground with the new UNSCOM and there is a big difference," he explained. "One is simply allowing an office to open. That is what cooperation means -- an office open and a functioning of the arms control people on the ground in Iraq." But the British/Dutch draft resolution also requires "completing disarmament tasks," Burleigh said. "That is what we describe as compliance." "So we have both cooperation that is required with the new UNSCOM organization -- they call it UNCIM -- and compliance with disarmament resolutions," he said. The United States would support "any suspension triggered by compliance with disarmament resolutions -- in other words, the original resolutions and cooperation with the new UNSCOM on the ground." "So if those two points are pursued -- that they actually cooperate with the new UNSCOM on the ground and they follow the disarmament tasks laid out by the new executive chairman of the new UNSCOM," the United States will go along with the resolution," the ambassador said. "But that's as far as we're prepared to go," Burleigh said. The council has not begun a formal discussion of the resolution and diplomats did not give any indication on when that might begin.
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