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US Shifts Attack on Iraq Trade: Washington Post
The Bush administration is crafting a plan to overhaul sanctions on Iraq that calls for posting United Nations monitors just outside the country's borders and at key foreign airports to prevent President Saddam Hussein's regime from importing military goods, The Washington Post (WP) reported Monday.
To entice neighboring countries to cooperate they would be allowed to buy Iraqi oil at discounted prices. Some or all of their payments might be deposited into special accounts that Iraq could use only to buy imports from these neighbors, such as Jordan, Syria and Turkey.
The United Nations would draft a list of oil companies authorized to buy Iraqi petroleum, aiming to eliminate shadowy middlemen believed by Western officials to be making illegal payments to Hussein's regime.
US officials now hope to hammer out all the specifics by June, when the Security Council is scheduled to review Iraqi sanctions.
American and European officials said the sanctions proposals advanced so far have been welcomed by key members of the Security Council, including France and Russia, though discussions on technical details are just beginning.
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