World

Iraq Assails U.S. Aid Proposal

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 11, 1999 / 8:13 AM EST / CBS

On the heels of four consecutive days of cat-and-mouse clashes with U.S. warplanes, an Iraqi Cabinet minister Friday dismissed a U.S. proposal to remove the cap on Iraq's oil exports and demanded anew that all U.N. trade sanctions on the country be lifted.

Trade Minister Medhi Saleh's comments came a day after the United States proposed eliminating the limits on Iraqi oil exports under U.N. resolutions -- provided all the income be supervised to ensure it is spent only for food and other humanitarian goods.

"Iraq will not allow its people to be turned into a camp of refugees under the British and American plan," Saleh said, apparently referring to Britain's support for the U.S. proposal.

"Iraq will not accept anything short of a comprehensive lifting of the unfair embargo," the minister said in a statement carried on the official Iraqi News Agency.

The Iraqi rejection came amid renewed tensions in the region, where four consecutive days of cat-and-mouse clashes between U.S. warplanes and Iraqi air defenses took place this week in the country's northern no-fly zone. The U.S. on Friday agreed in principle to provide Turkey with Patriot missiles in the event of a wider clash.

Meanwhile, the U.S. also proposed a further easing of sanctions Friday to allow Iraq to buy the spare parts necessary for beefing up its oil production. The action would only apply toward parts that would help Iraq export more oil in conjunction with the U.N.-monitored oil-for-food program.

Under the current oil-for-food program, Iraq is allowed to export up to $5.2 billion worth of oil every six months as an exception to the U.N. trade sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The United States put forward its plan at the United Nations to counter a French proposal which would lift the oil embargo and change the focus of the monitoring system to ensure Iraq does not acquire new weapons rather than hunt out those it may already have. Russia submitted a similar proposal, which would abolish UNSCOM, the U.N. weapons inspector group headed by Richard Butler.

Under current U.N. resolutions, sanctions against Iraq cannot be lifted until arms inspectors verify that Baghdad has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.

Iraq's resistance to the U.N. arms inspection program has led to a series of crises that culminated in four days of U.S. and British airstrikes on the country last month to try to force Iraq's cooperation. Iraq responded by saying it would not allow inspectors to return.

The American proposal also gives Iraq more freedom to purchase spare parts for its dilapidated oil industry and promises no further delays in approving contracts submitted by Iraq.

But Saleh said Iraq needs a total lifting of the sanctions for the government to be able to meet its people's needs, saying the oil-for-food program had "proved its failure in alleviating the human suffering of the Iraqi peope as it only meets 10 percent of their needs."

Iraqi oil officials said that without major investment to repair their industry, the best the country can do is increase output by 500,000 barrels a day, boosting exports to 2.5 million barrels a day.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said that without a rise in world oil prices -- which have fallen by half over the past year the U.S. proposal would almost certainly fail to improve the lot of the 22 million Iraqis.