Iraq Oil Sale Issue Passed to Security Council

Members of the U.N. Sanctions Committee failed to agree Wednesday on a quick formula for a sale of oil by Iraq to finance humanitarian relief and passed the emotionally charged issue to the Security Council for consideration starting today.

In Baghdad, news agencies reported tension on the eve of a deadline for Iraq to disclose details of its weapons programs, with many fearing a U.S. air attack.

Diplomats attending the U.N. meeting said that both the United States and Britain are pressing for a tightly controlled mechanism to ensure that relief supplies reach ordinary Iraqis and are not diverted to President Saddam Hussein’s loyalists.

Some Western diplomats insisted that Baghdad reveal the full extent of its monetary reserves before the United Nations approves a temporary lifting of economic sanctions. The proposed oil sale would be the first since the sanctions were imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait last August.

On Monday, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the head of the U.N. humanitarian program in Iraq, told the Sanctions Committee that Iraq already faces serious food shortages and health emergencies and every passing month brings the nation closer to famine. At the same time, some Western nations stress that the sanctions have been a useful tool in forcing Hussein to disclose key aspects of his weapons program.

After the meeting, Austria’s U.N. Ambassador Peter Hohenfellner, the committee chairman, called on the Security Council to “consider as soon as possible all questions related to the resumption of oil (sales),” and added that “there must be a response to the humanitarian needs. . . .”

Today is the deadline Iraq was given to submit a final list to the United Nations of any biological, chemical or nuclear weapons it may have, as well as missiles. These weapons must be eliminated under the terms of the Security Council resolution ending the Persian Gulf War.

President Bush has threatened that the U.S. military may resume air strikes against Iraq unless it declares all its major weapons. But Bush, asked about the threat, minimized the importance of today’s deadline, saying “Don’t play that up too much.”

Lt. Gen. Charles Horner, who directed the allied air war, said it would take several days at least to destroy all of Iraq’s remaining nuclear facilities, if the President gave the order.