|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Iraq: U.S. Focuses on Revising Sanctions The United States is focusing on persuading the U.N. Security Council to revise sanctions against Iraq rather than to return weapons inspectors to the country, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 3, 2001). Although U.S. President George W. Bush demanded in November to return inspectors to Iraq, the United States has been focusing on talks with Russia to revise the sanctions, said John Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (see GSN, Nov. 27, 2001). The council agreed in November to extend current sanctions and negotiate a further list of restricted goods with possible military uses (see GSN, Nov. 28, 2001). Under the U.S. proposal, Iraq would have to acquire U.N. approval before purchasing goods on the list. Russia, which opposed revising the sanctions before the November agreement, has pushed to clarify the 1999 council resolution that urges Iraq to allow weapons inspectors to return. Russia has asked the United Nations to commit to suspending sanctions if the inspectors return, the Washington Post reported. Negroponte suggested the United States would work to revise sanctions before seriously working to return inspectors to Iraq. “We need to focus on something you can really get done, while thinking about how we’re going to move on to the next thing,” he said. U.S. officials have rarely discussed Bush’s demand to enforce a return of inspectors, U.N. diplomats said, according to the Post (Colum Lynch, Washington Post, Jan. 11). Powell Calls on Iraq to Allow Inspections to Resume U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that revised sanctions, called “smart sanctions,” would emphasize that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, not U.N. sanctions, is responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people. Powell also urged Hussein to allow weapons inspectors to return. “Let the inspectors in. Prove to the world, as you have said, Mr. Saddam Hussein, that you are not developing such weapons. And the United Nations will come in and look and see whether this is true or not.” Powell refused to say whether the United States would react militarily if Hussein refused to accept the revised sanctions or to allow inspectors to return. “I would not make a statement now as to what might happen in the future,” Powell said (State Department transcript, Jan. 10).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
