POLITICS-IRAQ: UN Security Council Cancels Sanctions Review

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 9 1998 (IPS) - Iraqi hopes that an October review of the eight-year-old sanctions regime imposed by the UN Security Councl would result in the end of the embargo were dashed Wednesday when the Council unanimously decided not to hold the review.

The Council’s action included a decision not to conduct any further such sanctions reviews “until Iraq rescinds its… decision of Aug 5”- which halted all cooperation with UN weapons inspectors.

The unanimous Council vote was the body’s first concrete punishment of Iraq since Baghdad froze cooperation with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) last month, ending surprise inspections of suspected weapons sites. For the United States, which has maintained a hardline stance against lifting sanctions, it was a rare victory in a year which has seen the cracking of the Council consensus on Iraq.

“There is quite a strong consensus there,” US Ambassador Peter Burleigh said after the Council vote. “We’re hopeful that the Iraqi leadership will get the message,” he added, arguing that compliance with UNSCOM in verifyign the scrapping of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction would be the only “light at the end of the tunnel” for Iraqis wishing to see sanctions end.

Even Russia, which with France has been leading efforts to ease sanctions and reward Iraq’s previous cooperation with UNSCOM, joined in the vote criticising Baghdad’s recent actions and called for a return to the status quo.

“The resolution clearly states that the Council doesn’t like the current situation,” Russian Ambassador Sergey Lavrov said. But he noted that the resolution also offers the possibility of a review of all Iraq-UN relations, although, he added, “Such a review can only take place after Iraq resumes full cooperation with UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

Iraq warned this week that it would end all disarmament work with the United Nations if the Council were to approve rescinding the October sanctions review. However, diplomats here have doubted that Baghdad will escalate the standoff over weapons inspections — particularly at a time when, so far, support for any military response by the United States and its allies remains weak.

In any case, Iraq’s supporters pointed to the fact that the resolution offers not merely the stick of continued sanctions, but also the carrot of considering a “comprehensive review” of “Iraq’s compliance with its obligations” once Baghdad cooperates with the weapons inspectors. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested such a review when the standoff began last month, and said he is prepared to follow up on it if Iraq complies.

The comprehensive review could offer Baghdad a way out of its current frustrating situation, in which its frequent rebuffs to UNSCOM tend to generate more of a momentum toward ending sanctions than its cooperation does. UN officials have argued that the sanctions — first imposed after Iraq’s short-lived invasion of Kuwait and later based on efforts to disarm Baghdad of biological, chemical, nuclear and long-range weapons — have shattered Iraq’s economy and worsened health care and living conditions.

Burleigh last week admitted that many Council members have long wanted a comprehensive review, which many believe could lead to a gradual easing of some sanctions. But the US diplomat argued that any such review will take place only after inspections by UNSCOM and the IAEA have resumed and have been verified by Annan.

The previous standoff over weapons inspections ended in February, when Annan personally negotiated with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow UNSCOM inspections of several presidential sites. But this time, the secretary-general has been more wary of personal involvement in the dispute.

“I have no immediate plans to go to Baghdad,” the secretary- general said Wednesday, adding that for now he was simply joining the Council in demanding that Baghdad resume cooperation with UNSCOM.

Annan, the Security Council and the US government were all sharply criticised this month by a former UNSCOM inspector and US Marine, Scott Ritter, who resigned from the inspection team after denouncing disarmament in Iraq as a charade. Burleigh denied Ritter’s charges, saying that Washington in particular had strongly supported UNSCOM inspections.