As Conditions Worsen, Iraq Accepts Terms for Oil Sale

With a crisis of malnutrition and disease looming this winter, Iraq on Monday agreed to meet U.N. conditions for implementing a deal to sell limited amounts of its oil to fund its massive humanitarian needs.

But top Iraqi officials accused the United States of putting up obstacles to the oil-for-food deal, and they asserted that the $2 billion in revenues permitted over the next six months would satisfy only a fraction of the country’s requirements.

In a concession, President Saddam Hussein’s government agreed to grant independently chosen U.N. monitors freedom of movement inside the country to oversee the planned distribution of food and medical supplies.

Baghdad’s action ended a six-month impasse with U.N. Security Council members, especially the United States. Iraq agreed in principle to the oil-for-food plan in May but wanted to have control over the U.N. inspectors in the country.

The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Nizar Hamdoun, said he hopes oil sales can begin as early as next month. But the Security Council must still approve the pricing mechanism under which the Iraqi oil will be sold, a vote U.N. officials said could take place Wednesday.

It would be the first time since the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 that Baghdad would be allowed to sell oil on the world market.

Sales are to be closely monitored to ensure that revenues go solely for humanitarian purposes and are not diverted to prop up the Iraqi regime or strengthen its army.

Although an oil-for-food deal has been offered to Iraq since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Hussein had steadfastly refused it on grounds that it restricted Iraq’s sovereignty. When Iraq decided to embrace the plan in May, it said it was only doing so in the hope that it would lead to the lifting of all the economic sanctions that now ban it from selling oil.

The larger sanctions will remain in place until the United Nations is satisfied that Iraq has destroyed all its long-range missiles and abandoned all attempts to develop nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Iraq says it has complied, but U.N. arms monitor Rolf Ekeus says he believes six to 16 Iraqi missiles remain unaccounted for, and there are question marks over its other weapons programs.

Relief officials say the oil revenues cannot come too soon, because food stores inside Iraq are nearly exhausted and funds are dwindling. “For us it would make a big difference. We could meet our targets and we could certainly do a lot more,” said Phillippe Heffinck, the senior officer for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Iraq.

At crowded markets here, families sell off treasured possessions--books, wedding rings and clothing--to obtain money for food.

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