Lift Sanctions to Help Iraqis

Both the United Nations Security Council and the Bush administration bear responsibility for fixing relations badly damaged by the bitter quarrel over war with Iraq. Now that Saddam Hussein is out of power, it makes sense to quickly lift the sanctions imposed on Iraq a dozen years ago. It would be a good start in lessening the friction to have Security Council nations that opposed the war agree with the U.S. proposal to end U.N. sanctions. More important, it would benefit millions of Iraqis devastated by decades of war and restraints on economic activity.

Some council members are concerned that sanctions are the only legal basis for U.N. influence in Iraq and that removing them would legitimize the U.S.-led invasion. However, Russia and France said Thursday they supported lifting sanctions and left it up to the U.N. Security Council to determine the method. Moscow and Paris should understand that if they oppose quick action they risk being viewed as hypocritical, because for years before the war Russia and France lobbied to ease and eventually remove the economic sanctions. Russian and French companies were prominent among the firms doing business with Hussein’s Iraq.

U.N. diplomats say that before sanctions can be lifted, weapons inspectors must certify that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. U.S. forces have hunted for chemical and biological weapons since the invasion began, so far without luck. The Bush administration should let U.N. inspectors back into Iraq as soon as fighting stops in cities like Mosul and the U.N. can supply its own armed security force for the inspectors. After all, it was the Bush administration that pointed to those weapons as a major stated reason for going to war.

The U.S. also should give the U.N. a greater role in forming a new Iraqi government. The U.N. has experience in helping war-shattered nations recover, most notably East Timor; taking advantage of its expertise would diminish the perception that the U.S. is a colonial power installing a regime favorable to Washington.

The U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait barred any Iraqi exports. In 1995, the Security Council relented and allowed oil sales so Iraq could buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods. The U.N. controlled the escrow account, but Iraq picked its suppliers, favoring Russian, French and Chinese companies because of those nations’ support at the U.N. This time around, a new government in Iraq must make those decisions based on economic factors, not political favoritism.

With the war winding down, U.N. agencies have begun supplying food and clean water to Iraq. Those U.N. programs are part of the strength of the world body and demonstrate the ability of its agencies to transcend the politics that sometimes divide member nations. The Security Council should do its part in healing the wounds inflicted in the run-up to the fighting. Ending the sanctions would help Iraq control its destiny. If the council is reluctant to abolish the restrictions now, it should at least suspend them temporarily to give an interim Iraqi government, once one is established, more freedom to sell its main commodity -- oil -- and earn much-needed cash for rebuilding.