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Iraq Threatens to Suspend UN Oil-for-Food Program
Iraq has threatened to suspend the United Nations oil-for-food program if it becomes a part of "the schemes and aggressive plans" of the United States, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported Tuesday.
"The oil-for-food program is an agreement between Iraq and the U.N. and if the U.S. seeks to include American components in it to serve its own schemes and aggressive plans, Iraq will suspend it," said Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister and Acting Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz while conferring with Arab ambassadors in Iraq late Monday night.
"The U.S. now resorts to new ruse represented by the 'smart sanctions' after it realized that the embargo (on Iraq) had begun crumbling," Aziz was quoted as saying.
Aziz warned that the U.S. tries to "dictate its hegemony not only on Iraq but also on its sisterly and friendly neighbors who have trade links with Iraq."
The latest warning came amid key members of the U.N. Security Council discussed on Monday new U.S.-British proposals to restructure the decade-old sanctions on Iraq imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The U.S. and Britain aimed to get a vote in the 15-member U.N. Security Council over the so-called "smart sanctions," designed to ease curbs on civilian goods but tighten controls on military equipment and technology to Iraq, before the end of this month.
The current six-month phase of the U.N. oil-for-food program is due to expire on June 3.
The humanitarian deal, launched since December 1996 and now in its ninth phase, allows Iraq to export oil in return for U.N.- monitored imports of food, medicine and other basic goods to offset the impacts of the sanctions.
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