IRAQ-U.N.: Baghdad Plans New U.N. Talks to Sell Oil

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23 1996 (IPS) - The Iraqi government is preparing to send a delegation to New York to discuss a year-old plan that would allow Baghdad to sell a limited amount of its oil, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has confirmed.

If the planned discussions go well, Iraq, the world’s fourth- largest oil producer, may be able to sell oil for the first time in nearly six years.

Iraq has rejected the plan in the past, claiming that its conditions interfere too much with the country’s sovereignty. But, after meeting with the Security Council Monday, Boutros-Ghali said Baghdad is ready to discuss the plan seriously.

Few U.N. diplomats, however, expect any quick progress on the issue. Baghdad is expected to maintain its objections to any plan that would condition oil sales on tight U.N. monitoring of how Iraq spends the proceeds and the routing of the oil to be sold.

Nevertheless, the planned discussions, likely to be held within the next few weeks in New York, are the first real glimmer of progress in implementing Security Council resolution 986, referred to as the “oil-for-food” plan. It would allow Iraq to sell two billion dollars of oil every six months in order to buy needed food and medicine.

Roughly half the proceeds would go to U.N. trust funds to compensate the victims of Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The rest, to be monitored by the United Nations, must be spent on humanitarian needs.

The apparent change in Iraq’s attitude dates from last week, when Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, wrote Boutros-Ghali to tell him “we would be prepared to enter a dialogue with you provided that no conditions were placed upon us.”

What was new, according to Boutros-Ghali, was that Aziz accepted the terms of 986 as the basis for talks and did not demand that an alternative plan be considered.

In response, the United Nations last week firmed up plans to meet with Aziz and an Iraqi delegation in New York to discuss how 986 can be implemented.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvana Foa said Tuesday that no date has yet been set for the talks. The United Nations is still deciding on who will comprise its team of logistical, legal and technical officials to discuss the oil plan, she said.

Last year, Iraqi officials said they could accept the deal, but only if Baghdad could determine which pipelines would be used to ship the oil. But the Security Council insisted that the bulk of the oil initially flow through Turkey. Iraq balked over this condition, and the talks stalled.

The United States and Britain, Iraq’s two nemeses on the Security Council, are adamant that Iraq must accept the strict terms of 986. The two nations have effectively halted any progress toward lifting the overall U.N. embargo against Iraq which has been in place since August 1990.

U.S. officials have repeatedly dismissed Iraqi reports that the sanctions are causing widespread malnutrition and disease. Madeleine Albright, Washington’s U.N. ambassador, has argued that, if Iraq is truly concerned about its humanitarian needs, it should accept the “oil-for-food” deal.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS that Washington does not share Boutros-Ghali’s optimism that a major breakthrough was in the offing.

Boutros-Ghali told the Council Monday that “his letters indicate that they (the Iraqi government) want to negotiate on the basis of good faith,” the official said. “But we’re still skeptical.”

In any case, he added, Iraq must not use the new talks to push for any changes in the deal.

“Absolutely nothing can be changed,” he said. “They have to take 986 as a whole; they can’t take it in bits and pieces.”

British Ambassador John Weston refused to predict how much leverage Boutros-Ghali has to revise the Security Council’s plan for limited oil sales.

“The ball is in the secretary-general’s court,” Weston said.