August 7, 2010Iraq told to settle issues before cancelling curbs
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council called on Iraq on Thursday to address all outstanding issues related to Kuwait, oil-for-food programme contracts, and disarmament so it can cancel sanctions and more than 70 resolutions adopted after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
In a resolution adopted unanimously extending the UN’s civilian mission in Iraq for a year, the council said it recognised “the importance of Iraq achieving international standing equal to that which it held” before the first resolution was adopted immediately after Iraq’s invasion.
Iraq’s UN Ambassador Hamid Al Bayati told the council on Wednesday that “the most important issue facing Iraq ... remains to get rid of the burden” of resolutions adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which can be militarily enforced.
US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said canceling the resolutions is also “a priority” for the United States.
“I’m encouraged by the steps that have been taken” thus far, he said in Washington. “There are some steps that Iraq itself needs to take.”
Iraq still has outstanding issues with Kuwait, including demarcation of the border, accounting for 600 missing Kuwaitis and the $24 billion debt Baghdad owes Kuwait as reparations for the invasion.
In May 2003, weeks after the US invaded Iraq, the council lifted economic sanctions against Iraq, opening the country to international trade and investment and allowing oil exports to resume.
In June 2004, it lifted an embargo on the sale of conventional weapons to the government. But there are still limits on some activities related to the possible production of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and missiles with a range of more than 150 kilometres are still banned.
The Security Council welcomed Iraq’s decision to adhere to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s (NPT) additional protocol that allows unannounced inspections and reaffirmed the importance of Iraqi ratification “as soon as possible.” It also welcomed Iraq’s intention to join The Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation.
The council called on the Iraqi government “to take all other necessary steps to meet its outstanding obligations, including to work with due haste and diligence to close the oil for food programme.”
The $64 billion oil-for-food programme, which ran from 1996 to 2003, aimed to ease the suffering of Iraqi civilians living under sanctions imposed by the council after the Kuwaiti invasion. It was the biggest humanitarian programme in UN history, but a UN-sanctioned investigation found widespread corruption, involving thousands of parties, that bilked the programme of $1.8 billion.
Bayati said a ministerial committee recommended paying 26 disputed oil-for-food contracts partially or entirely and to resolve the remaining 39 disputed contracts in the coming months.
He said Iraq had expected — and still expects — the Security Council to lift all restrictions on disarmament, weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles because of the many steps the country has already taken.
AP
