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French President Proposes Suspending UN Vote on Modified Sanctions Against Iraq
Visiting French President Jacques Chirac suggested here on Tuesday the UN Security Council put off a vote on an Anglo-American proposal to modify international sanctions against Iraq previously scheduled on Tuesday.
Chirac made the suggestion in an interview with a popular Moscow radio after Britain and the US dropped the plan in the face of Russia's threat to veto the plan.
"If we could not agree on a single text it was better to put off a final decision for a time. And I believe that is what will happen in the end," Chirac told the independent Ekho Moskvy radio on the last day of his three-day visit here.
Russia opposed the proposal on the ground that it offered no time-frame for the lift of the sanctions, which were imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion into Kuwait.
The plan had called for the introduction of "smart sanctions", under which the U.N. oil-for-food program would be modified to allow Iraq import civilian goods more easily, while making it harder for the country to obtain military supplies.
Russia had proposed an alternative under which the sanctions could be suspended if Iraq agreed to allow a resumption of UN supervision to ensure it had no weapons of mass destruction.
Noting the difference between Moscow and the West, Chirac said he, however, shared Russia's concern on easing Iraq's sufferings and "on ultimately lifting sanctions."
"President Putin and I share a position that it is vital to open Iraq's borders to the world and ease the sufferings of its people," he said.
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