Iraq, U.N. Start Talks on Easing Ban on Oil Sales

Against a background of American skepticism, Saddam Hussein’s regime and the United Nations opened a round of talks Tuesday on possible partial suspension of sanctions on sales of Iraqi oil to relieve widespread deprivation within Iraq.

Iraqi Ambassador Abdul Amir Anbari sounded a note of optimism as he joined the U.N. legal counsel, Hans Corell of Sweden, for more than two hours of discussions.

“If we are left alone--the Secretariat [of the U.N.] and the Iraq delegation--without pressure or interference from other parties, I believe we would be able to work out a workable solution to the satisfaction of all parties,” Anbari told reporters.

But James P. Rubin, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, countered that the talks will be successful only if the Iraqis have come to New York to accept conditions set down in a Security Council resolution passed in April--and not to try to dilute the resolution by renegotiating it. He called the possibility of Iraq accepting the resolution in its entirety “a big if.”

In previous attempts to work out a settlement on the sale of oil for humanitarian needs, the Iraqis balked at conditions that they insisted were an affront to their sovereignty. But there are indications that economic conditions have become so woeful in Iraq under more than five years of sanctions that President Hussein may be ready to swallow such an affront these days.

“We’ll know soon enough if the [Iraqi] team has come here ready” to work out the details of acceptance of the resolution, Rubin said. If so, he went on, “We’ll be happy that they’ve finally taken ‘yes’ for an answer.”

Under the terms of the resolution, Iraq would be allowed to sell $1 billion worth of oil every 90 days, provided that it used the bulk of the income to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. The purchase and distribution of these goods would be monitored by the United Nations to make sure that the Hussein regime is not using the funds for other purposes.

On top of this, Iraq would be required to spend $130 million to $150 million of its earnings every 90 days on the Kurdish population in northern Iraq and to pay the expenses of the U.N. Special Commission in charge of dismantling all Iraqi programs developing weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq also would be forced to set aside up to 30% of the income in a special U.N. fund paying compensation to the victims of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 that led to the Persian Gulf War.

The resolution requires Iraq to use the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline to Turkey for most of its oil exports, easing the problem of monitoring the sales.

In past attempts at working out a way to sell oil for humanitarian needs, Iraq had less incentive because it harbored some hope that Russia and France would soon persuade the Security Council to lift all sanctions against Baghdad. Those hopes were dashed last year when Rolf Ekeus, the director of the U.N. Special Commission, uncovered evidence that Iraq had been misleading the inspectors and hiding some aspects of its weapon programs.

On the eve of the talks, Doctors Without Borders, the humanitarian organization, reported a worsening of the state of Iraqi health.

Dr. Renaud Tocket, who coordinated relief activities for the organization in Iraq before the war, returned from a trip there and said: “There are many malnourished children. It is much worse than we saw before. Food is scarce, and many families cannot afford to buy it. . . . Medicines are in short supply.”

Anbari told reporters that he thinks the present round of talks will last seven to 10 days and will be succeeded by a second and possibly a third round.