22 November 1999
Iraq Stops Humanitarian Oil Sales
(Albright calls Iraqi approach "cynical") (700) By Will Kramer Washington File Staff Correspondent United Nations -- Iraq stopped selling oil November 22 and suspended its participation in the United Nations oil-for-food program, despite the Security Council's extension of the program for another two weeks a few days earlier. A UN spokesman confirmed that the flow of oil from Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan had ceased. He said that by November 23 Iraq will finish the sixth phase of the oil-for-food program, completing oil deliveries to ships in the Gulf port of Mina al Bakr. The UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said the Iraqi ambassador to the UN left a message on the home telephone of UN legal counsel Hans Corell advising the UN official that Baghdad would not sign an extension of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as called for by the Security Council. Eckhard emphasized that Iraq had not yet confirmed in writing its intention to end participation in the oil-for food program or its refusal to sign the MOU. An official at Iraq's SOMO state oil marketing organization told Reuters in London that there are no plans for further deliveries. "This is what our government has said. We will not export for the next two weeks," he said. In addition, Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed said his government is going to take a "wait and see" approach towards resuming exports. The Security Council adopted Resolution 1275 on November 19 as a temporary means of continuing the oil-for-food program while council members try to reach an agreement on a resolution that would extend the humanitarian program for another six-month period. Baghdad wants a complete lifting of UN sanctions imposed after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and objects to conditions such as the oil-for-food program and the renewal of UN weapons inspections. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called Iraq's actions a cynical strategy by President Saddam Hussein. "To me it's a sign of the great cynical approach that Iraq -- Saddam Hussein -- has taken, both towards his own people and vis-à-vis the international community," Albright said during a visit to Slovakia November 22. "I think Iraq has shown its true colors once again by turning down the possibility of having food and medicines for its people by selling more oil," Albright said. U.S. diplomats at the UN said Iraq's actions would not affect efforts to work out the differences on both resolutions. Eckhard also stressed that the humanitarian program in Iraq would continue for the time being despite the country's latest disagreement with the Security Council. "Supplies are continuing to arrive normally," he said. "There are more than $2,000 million worth of humanitarian supplies and oil (spare parts) and equipment contracted by Iraq and approved by the sanctions committee which have not yet arrived in Iraq and another $2,000 million available in the escrow account." The oil-for-food program allows Iraq to sell about $7,300 million worth of crude oil every six months to buy food and medicine for a population hit by economic sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Recently Iraq has been exporting 2.2 million barrels of oil a day, about 5 percent of all internationally traded oil. The U.S. draft resolution would continue the current oil-for-food program allowing Iraq to sell $5,200 million in oil over the next six months to buy food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods along with some agricultural, electrical, water, sanitation equipment and supplies as spelled out in a UN approved plan. The resolution would also include the provision that if oil prices stay high and the cap reached before the end of the six months, the council would allow additional sales up to about $2,000 million to make up for past Iraqi shortages in earlier phases of the program. Included in the resolution would be a request for the UN to undertake a study and report back to the council by January 15, 2000, on Iraq's needs for electrical and oil industry equipment and spare parts above what is currently authorized in the oil-for-food regime. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)
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