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Iraq Protests to U.N. Over U.S., British Suspension of Contracts
Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammad Rashid Tuesday protested to the United Nations over the suspension of vital oil contracts by the United States and British delegates at the U.N. Sanctions Committee.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Rashid criticized the U.S. and British representatives for blocking contracts Iraq signed with foreign countries to import food, medicine and oil spare parts within the framework of the U.N. oil-for-food program.
During the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh phases of the U.N. humanitarian program, Iraq signed oil contracts worth 1.4 billion U.S. dollars with foreign countries, but only 300 million dollars worth of contracts were approved by the U.N. Sanctions Committee. The minister held the U.S. and Britain responsible for obstructing the approval of these contracts.
Iraq has claimed a total of 1,989 contracts Iraq signed with foreign countries during the past seven phases of the U.N. oil-for-food deal were put on hold, and among them nearly half were oil contracts.
Baghdad has frequently accused the U.S. and Britain of blocking vital imports to impede the implementation of the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Since the program was launched in December 1996, the U.S. and Britain have shelved contracts worth over three billion dollars for Iraq to buy humanitarian necessities.
Iraq has been under U.N. sanctions ever since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but the U.N. oil-for-food accord allows Baghdad to export crude in return for U.N.-supervised imports of food, medicine and humanitarian goods.
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