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US Says Iraq Sanctions Will Remain
By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, November 17, 1998; 9:20 p.m. EST
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States made clear
Tuesday that economic sanctions against Iraq will not
be lifted at the end of a review of Baghdad's
compliance with U.N. resolutions.
The U.N. Security Council has promised to launch a
review when U.N. weapons inspectors confirm Iraq has
resumed unconditional cooperation. Baghdad wants the
review to bring an end to the oil embargo imposed after
its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
But Deputy U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh said the U.S.
government has always viewed the comprehensive review
as just that -- a review of Iraqi obligations and the
many questions it hasn't answered.
``We don't see the sanctions lifting as the end result
of the comprehensive review,'' he said.
Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon said Tuesday night
that Baghdad believes it will be able to convince the
Security Council that it has meet ``the bulk of the
requirements'' in the resolutions.
``If the comprehensive review comes up with a
conclusion that Iraq has done so, the sanctions
obviously and logically should be lifted,'' he said.
Burleigh stressed that while the council has focused on
resolutions demanding elimination of weapons, the
United States is also demanding its compliance with
resolutions calling for an accounting of missing
Kuwaitis, looted Kuwaiti property and government
archives.
To show that the United States considers the fate of
Kuwaiti prisoners ``an extremely important issue'' for
Iraq to resolve, Burleigh called a sudden news
conference and brought along Ibrahim Al-Shahine,
vice-chairman of the Kuwait National Committee for
Missing Persons and Prisoners of War Affairs.
``Eight years after the war of liberation of Kuwait,
still we have over 600 people that Iraq refuses to give
any information about,'' Al-Shahine said. ``The Iraqi
authorities refuse to give information of who's alive
and who's dead.''
Hamdoon denied having any prisoners of war and said
Iraq was cooperating on the matter.
Burleigh dismissed Baghdad's suggestion that sanctions
should be lifted incrementally in proportion to
Baghdad's compliance.
``It's not allowed under the resolutions. And as far as
I know, there's no member of the council arguing for
incremental lifting of sanctions,'' Burleigh said.
But Hamdoon said ``the council may well decide at the
end of the comprehensive review to lift the sanctions
partially,'' which he insisted has been envisioned in
Security Council resolutions.
The Iraqis have charged the United States with
misinterpreting U.N. resolutions to prolong the process
of lifting sanctions.
(c) Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
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