Over 2,200 Contracts Shelved by UN Sanctions Committee:IraqThe United Nations Sanctions Committee has put on hold 2,212 contracts Iraq signed with other countries under the UN oil-for-food program since 1996, Iraqi Trade Ministry said in a statement released on Friday.The statement said that the contracts, which worth 5.116 billion U.S. dollars, cover trade, oil, health, electricity, agriculture, education, communications and other social sectors. Iraq has regularly criticized the UN committee for suspending its humanitarian contracts signed within the framework of the UN oil-for-food program. Iraqi Trade Ministry said on May 3 that a total of 1,710 contracts with a value of 3.6 billion dollars were adjourned. The statement condemned the United States and Britain, the only members at the U.N. Sanctions Committee to have ever put on hold the humanitarian contracts Iraq signed with other countries under the UN oil-for-food deal, and also slammed the UN deal for failing to ease the Iraqis' suffering. The oil-for-food program allows Iraq to export oil and buy UN- monitored imports of food, medicine and other basic needs to offset the impacts of the decade-old United Nations sanctions. Iraq has been under stringent sanctions ever since its 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait. |
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