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Iraq: Russia Creates New Export Controls for Dual-Use Items Russia yesterday published new guidelines for exports to Iraq of items with both civilian and military uses (see GSN, Jan. 16). Under the new guidelines, Russian companies that export items with potential military use to Iraq must obtain a license from the Trade and Economic Development Ministry as well as pass customs control. Information on such exports must be given to the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The revised guidelines replace controls created in 1997 and amended last year. Russia and the United States are holding talks on revising Iraqi sanctions, Agence France-Presse reported. The United States wants to create a list of dual-use items that would need U.N. Security Council approval before they could be exported to Iraq. Russia opposes the U.S. plan over fears it would reduce trade with Iraq, according to AFP (see GSN, Jan. 11). Russian officials have criticized the U.N. sanctions against Iraq as arbitrary, AFP reported. The U.N. sanctions committee is primarily concerned over contracts that supplied equipment for Iraqi factories built during the Soviet-era, said Yevgeny Yagupets, spokesman for Russia’s chief committee for economic cooperation for Iraq. “Russia wants all sanctions lifted once Iraq admits U.N. weapons inspectors,” Yagupets said (Agence France-Presse, Jan. 17). U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday urged Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to allow U.N. weapons inspectors back into Iraq. Unless Hussein does so, “we will have to deal with him at the appropriate time,” Bush said. “I expect Saddam Hussein to let inspectors back into the country,” Bush said during a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in Washington. “We want to know whether or not he is developing weapons of mass destruction.” Hussein yesterday said Iraq is ready for any U.S. attack. In a speech marking the 11th anniversary of the Gulf War, he said the Iraqi military had become more experienced, which would allow it to defeat the United States. Hussein said he hoped, however, that God would spare Iraq a confrontation with the “evil-doers” in the United States (South China Morning Post, Jan. 18).
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