Iraq Eases Stance on Lifting of Sanctions
Iraq dropped its all-or-nothing stand on the easing of U.N. sanctions Saturday, clearing the way for the renewal of limited exemptions that allow it to buy badly needed food and medicine.
Also Saturday, an American U-2 surveillance plane flew another U.N. mission over Iraq, without interference. Iraq called the flight a violation of its airspace but has yet to try to make good on its threat to shoot down the U-2.
On the state-run Iraqi News Agency, Iraq’s Information Ministry declared that the government “does not oppose in principle the renewal of the oil-for-food agreement between Iraq and the United Nations.”
The announcement marked an about-face by Iraq.
Earlier this week, Iraqi diplomats were telling reporters in New York that their government was not interested in renewing the 11-month-old program, which allows Iraq to export $2 billion of oil every six months to buy humanitarian supplies.
The diplomats said Iraq sought nothing short of the total lifting of the embargo imposed after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Saturday, however, the Information Ministry said: “Iraq has accepted the oil-for-food deal as a temporary measure, not as an alternative to the complete lifting of sanctions.”
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