The United Nations Security Council last week finally agreed to an overhaul of sanctions that were imposed against Iraq 11 years ago at the end of the Gulf War.
The 15-member council voted unanimously to replace a blanket ban on a whole range of goods with “smart” sanctions, which are specifically targeted at military and dual-use equipment.
The United States and Britain hailed the resolution as a significant change, aimed at meeting humanitarian concerns and easing the sanctions regime. But Iraq dismissed the change as cosmetic.
Russia, Iraq’s only ally among the big powers, had blocked the move to “smart” sanctions at Iraq’s request for more than a year.
The shift in sanctions policy is part of diplomatic manoeuvring, amid US threats to invade Iraq next year and depose President Saddam Hussein.
UN sanctions have been largely discredited in recent years. Most countries want them dropped, but the US and Britain insist that they be kept in place. Both the US and Britain were urged to make concessions after a humanitarian crisis caused a high death toll in Iraq, including a disproportionate number of children.
The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, welcomed the new resolution, saying that “it will bring a significant reduction in UN bureaucracy to allow swifter delivery of goods to Iraq”.
But Iraq’s UN ambassador, Mohammad al-Douri, protested that the new system “will prevent any development of the Iraqi economy for the future” by blocking the import of agricultural, electrical and sanitation equipment.