U.S. and Russian officials met yesterday in Geneva to discuss revising U.N. sanctions against Iraq (see GSN, Jan. 18).  The discussions focused on implementing “smart sanctions” — removing purely civilian goods from the list of goods whose trade is restricted by U.N. sanctions and aiming sanctions at “preventing the regime from rearming,” said a U.S. official.

“The goods review list clearly benefits the people of Iraq,” the U.S. official said.  “The United States will continue to work with Russia and other Security Council members during the next four months to agree on any appropriate refinements to the goods review list.”

The talks, which followed meetings in Moscow last December, were expected to end today.  Russia has advocated an end to the sanctions (see GSN, Jan. 16), while the United States and the United Kingdom have tried to implement “smart” sanctions, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Jan. 11).  Russia and the United States reached a temporary compromise last November (Alexander Higgins, Associated Press/Moscow Times, Feb. 7).

As part of that compromise, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution in late November that renewed the oil-for-food program until May 30, 2002, and called on the council to adopt a goods review list focused on blocking Iraqi imports of potential military goods (see GSN, Nov. 30, 2001).  Iraq can currently import food, medicines and certain other goods to repair infrastructure under the oil-for-food program (see GSN, Jan. 14).

The United States and Russia still disagree on the sanctions, a Russian official said Monday.  “It is hard to expect results from this round of talks.  Most likely we will need another meeting.  Reaching agreement is proving very difficult,” the official said, but added that Russia hopes the two countries can reach a deal by the summer.

U.S. and Russian officials will decide whether to hold later discussions after this session, U.S. spokesman Dave Hamill said (Agence France-Presse/Jordan Times, Feb. 7).

U.S. Might Act Alone

Meanwhile, the United States remains committed to changing Iraq’s leadership and is willing to take unilateral action, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the U.S. House International Relations Committee yesterday.

“We still have a U.S. policy of regime change because we believe [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein should move on and that the Iraqi people deserve better leadership ... Regime change is something the United States ... might have to do alone,” Powell said (U.S. State Department release, Feb. 6).

U.S. President George W. Bush is “examining a full range of options” regarding Iraq, Powell said.  He refused to say if Bush is considering military action or economic and diplomatic measures.

“How to do it?  I would not like to go into the details of the options,” he said, but added Bush is considering “the most serious set of options that one might imagine.”

Most Arab countries and some U.S. allies have expressed concern about possibly aggressive U.S. intentions regarding Iraq (see GSN, Feb. 6).

Iraq Continues to Pursue WMD, Must Allow Inspectors to Return

Powell said Iraq is still trying to develop nuclear weapons and the country is a year or more away from attaining that goal (see GSN, Feb. 6).  Iraq must allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return, he said (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 7).

“Saddam remains a threat,” CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee yesterday.  “Iraq continues to build and expand an infrastructure capable of producing WMD … Iraq retains a significant number of nuclear scientists, program documentation and probably some dual-use manufacturing infrastructure that could support a reinvigorated nuclear weapons program,” Tenet said (U.S. State Department release, Feb. 6).

“Let the inspectors in, but without conditions,” Powell said.  “We don’t trust you, and that’s why we need inspectors, and that’s why they have to be free to do it any way that they think is appropriate to establish that you are not conducting the activities that we suspect you of, which you claim you are not doing,” he said.

Powell and Tenet testified a week after Bush said in his State of the Union address (see GSN, Jan. 30) that Iraq, Iran and North Korea form an “axis of evil” (Todd Purdum, New York Times, Feb. 7).

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