Iraq To Resume Oil Exports

The Iraqi Cabinet decided Sunday to resume oil exports from midnight May 7, national television reported.

"It was decided to resume oil pumping after the expiry of the one-month period, which means after midnight of May 7," Iraq television said in reporting a cabinet meeting chaired by President Saddam Hussein.

In a statement broadcast on the state-run service, the Cabinet said its April 8 decision to suspend oil exports for 30 days "did not find a response from Arab oil-producing brothers to take similar measures so that it would succeed."

Referring to Iraq's unilateral suspension of oil exports, the Cabinet statement added: "Suffice that we expressed the conscience of the (Arab) nation."

The television quoted Saddam as saying during that meeting: "We consider that the Palestinian stand has triumphed, thanks to the determination of the heroic Palestinian people."

Saddam announced the suspension as a move to press the United States and other allies of Israel to put pressure on the Israeli government.

Iraq suspended all oil exports to protest against Israel's military offensive in the West Bank, and it called on other oil-producing states to follow suit.

Baghdad exports oil under a U.N. humanitarian food-for-oil swap, permitted as an exception to U.N. sanctions imposed in 1990 as a punishment for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.