Security Council Agrees to Terms for Iraqi Oil Sale

The five permanent Security Council members agreed Wednesday to authorize Iraq to sell as much as $1.6 billion in oil over six months to buy food, humanitarian supplies and pay war damages.

The resolution--rejected by Baghdad because it virtually strips Iraq of control over its oil revenue--won general agreement from the United States, Britain, China, France and the Soviet Union, according to Western diplomats.

Accepted by the five countries with veto power, the draft will now be passed on to the rest of the Security Council for possible amendment. Some nonaligned nations are expected to protest its restrictive terms, intended to keep the money from oil sales out of Saddam Hussein’s hands.

Iraq’s U.N. ambassador, Abdul Amir Anbari, said his government will refuse to sell its oil unless the resolution is modified. Iraq had requested permission to sell $1.5 billion in oil, but without conditions.

Western diplomats called the oil sale a onetime exception to the U.N. sanctions regime and said sanctions were not being lifted or eased, because Iraq has lied in its declarations about what weapons it has and has not satisfied Security Council cease-fire demands.