The UN and Iraq

The UN Security Council five member permanent states today will hold a meeting to reconsider the sanctions imposed on Iraq, at the request of Russia who announced on Tuesday it will oppose the draft project " called smart sanctions " proposed by both the US and Britain.

News reports said that the UN Security Council defined a period until July 3rd to reach an agreement on the American- British proposal. This makes it necessary that representatives of the five permanent states at the UN Security Council which are China, the USA, France, Britain and Russia have to define whether they will extend the "oil for food" program for a new short period of six months or one year as usual.

To this effect, news reports said that the efforts made to amend the sanctions imposed on Iraq since August 1990 reached a deadlock on Tuesday as Russia had threatened to use the veto, noting that with this Russian stand, the proposed project will not be expected to be debated for voting before a period set by the UN Security Council for itself expires on July 3rd.

At a time when British and American officials continue their efforts to make Moscow change her position and support their plan by the fall of July 3rd, yet, diplomats say that Russia seems determinant to continue its rejection.

To this end, the Iraqi ambassador at the UN Muhammad al-Douri said on Tuesday that the Iraqi deputy foreign minister Riad al-Qeisi will arrive today ( Thursday) at the UN in order to take part in the discussions taking place at the UN Security Council concerning Iraq.

Al-Douri renewed Iraq's opposition to the project of reviewing the sanctions. A project proposed by the US and Britain.