U.N.’s Authorized Oil Sale Figure Too Low, Baghdad Says

Pledging that all profits from a limited resumption of oil sales would go to feed and care for its people, Iraq said Saturday that a ceiling imposed by the United Nations would be too low.

Communications and Transport Minister Abdel-Sattar Muini said the $2.4 billion being suggested at U.N. headquarters would not be enough to meet Iraq’s needs.

“Whatever the size or amount of oil that will be sold, this amount will not be enough to satisfy requirements,” he said.

He was commenting on a report by U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar that Iraq needs 50% more oil sales than the ceiling of $1.66 billion approved by the Security Council last month. Perez de Cuellar said Iraq would need to sell the extra oil to avert “full-scale famine and a major human disaster.”

The council’s Aug. 15 resolution stipulated that Iraq would not have direct access to oil profits, must pay certain U.N. costs and set aside a third of the amount raised to go toward war reparations.

Muini said Iraq was better placed to decide its priorities than the United Nations and needs all revenue from the oil it would be allowed to sell--without any deductions--to meet pressing humanitarian needs.

The priorities, he said, “will be food, medicine, humanitarian needs and certainly they will never include military requirements.”