The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
This is what I could find out about the French proposals (from Associated Press): Essence of French proposal for lifting sanctions: * end to embargo on oil sales * replacement of weapons inspections à la Unscom with a less intrusive system of arms controls * the French also want to start discussions, break the deadlock, and of course give themselves and Russia freedom to take up contracts to help Iraq upgrade oil industry (lots of lovely oil dollars in it for someone) since at present Iraq is only able to sell $3billion/six months Features of the proposal: * focuses on preventing Baghdad from reacquiring "dangerous weapons" (???) rather than accounting for current or past arms (which has been the business of U.N. weapons inspections to date) * vague on how to ensure Iraq does not import materials related to WMD as well as what would be set up in place of UNSCOM * proposes "economic and financial monitoring measures" so that the United Nations is notified of each oil contract by buyers and Iraq. The United Nations could stop military-related items or those which have dual usage but could not restrict other civilian goods and services * does not mention the escrow account for oil revenues (set up by UN to pay suppliers and compensation for Gulf War) - no consensus on how import/export controls could be implemented without this account (or something like it) because of difficulty of monitoring on the ground International response: * US rejected major points (surprise surprise) * BUT Al Gore said "The United States is looking at ways to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian programs in Iraq, including lifting the current ceiling of funds which can be used to purchase food and medicine" * James Rubin (spokesman for US State Dept) repeated the usual stuff about no sanctions relief until all Iraq's WMD were eliminated * Britain listened to the French but said it preferred a trade-off later in the year between lifting embargo and arms control * Iraq not over-enthusiastic because of the call for an ongoing monitoring system to prevent further arms acquisitions - Iraqi government just sees it as exchanging one type of embargo for another (!) * Russia keen on proposals as a "way out of the dead end" BUT said that they were not sufficient on their own to provide a sound basis for UN SC Iraq policy Conclusions: * None expected for months -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html