UN extends oil-for-food, US ups pressure on Iraq

The United Nations Security Council yesterday voted unanimously to extend the oil-for-food program with Iraq for another six months in resolution 1281.

The full extension comes following two-week and one-week extensions of the program, both of which Iraq rejected, after the expiration of the most recent six-month term. Under the terms agreed on yesterday, Iraq will be able to produce up to $5.26 billion in oil and oil products for a 180-day period and sell the goods to fund the purchase of humanitarian supplies for Iraq's citizens.

The resolution calls for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to report to the council 90 days after the start of the new term and prior to it's end on Iraq's distribution of supplies to civilians, the program's ability to meet humanitarian needs, and on Iraq's ability to produce sufficient quantities of petroleum to reach the limit set by the program.

The US has raised new accusations that Iraq is allowing oil to be smuggled in violation of UN sanctions. US State Department deputy spokesman James Foley said yesterday, "Recently declassified satellite photography.... reveals that Iraq continues to smuggle oil in violation of UN sanctions."

He said a November 26 photo showed Iraqi tankers in the Shatt al-Arab "in the process of loading gasoil at a facility associated with the Basra refinery in southern Iraq" which he said is not allowed under UN sanctions. "The gasoil being loaded onto tankers in this photograph is being smuggled illicitly outside the Oil-For-Food Program to supply revenue that is totally under the regime's control," Foley added.

These accusations come as the US is working in the UN Security Council for the approval of a resolution that will conditionally suspend economic sanctions on Iraq in return for the return of UN weapons inspectors to the country.