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Hello Milan, Everyone. Not sure I completely agree with your interpretation, but you did well to point out some things I overlooked. Sorry, this response will be a little scattered. Paragraph 21 looks particularly disturbing: "Decides that the Security Council shall review the provisions of paragraph 20 above every sixty days in the light of the policies and practices of the Government of Iraq, including the implementation of all relevant resolutions of the Security Council, for the purpose of determining whether to reduce or lift the prohibitions referred to therein;" So yes, it looks like the requirements of other resolutions could be used to justify the continuation of sanctions. But what is "relevant"? Not only are there no criteria for relevance given, we're not even told what it is that the resolutions are to be relevant to. And then we have paragraph 22: "Decides that upon the approval by the Security Council of the programme called for in paragraph 19 above and upon Council agreement that Iraq has completed all actions contemplated in paragraphs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 above, the prohibitions against the import of commodities and products originating in Iraq and the prohibitions against financial transactions related thereto contained in resolution 661 (1990) shall have no further force or effect;" You're right that exports to Iraq are not mentioned, but I don't see how an interpretation holding that this paragraph calls for the lifting of half the sanctions can be accurate. There is no (explicit) mention of the other half of the sanctions anywhere else. What will it take for them to be lifted? The resolution would not likely leave this question unanswered. I can't see the Security Council making such a gross oversight. And paragraph 19 talks about "ensuring" payment by Iraq. I can't imagine that this can be interpreted as meaning Iraq does not have to pay, but I think you're right to point out that all paragraph 22 says is the the SC must approve the program outlined in paragraph 19. If your interpretation (and correct me if I'm not understanding you properly) is sound, then 687 calls for half the sanctions to be lifted once Iraq has fulfilled disarmament and all other "relevant" (whatever that means) requirements. And despite the call for Iraq to "adhere scrupulously" to its debt obligations and the explicit statement that Iraq must, under international law, pay damages resulting from the Gulf War, Iraq need not live up to these requirements before sanctions are lifted. I can't see that this is what was meant and I don't see that this is what is actually said. I will say that all of this is unclear. Poorly written resolution. Maybe I'm just frustrated. Another point about "relevant" resolutions is that they must be about something to "implement". Sometimes SC resolutions are just condemnations. Lastly, and I think most importantly, if the conditions of these "relevant" resolutions must be met before the SC can "reduce or lift the prohibitions referred to therein" , then why does it say in the very next paragraph that half the sanctions can be lifted when the disarmament conditions are met and when the paragraph 19 program is set up? Does this mean that Iraq gets to export once it disarms and then other countries are allowed to sell to Iraq once all those other "relevant" resolutions are taken care of? Maybe. At this point I'm a little lost. Andrew Loucks The Global Movement to End the War against Iraq - www.leb.net/globalmewi Hamilton, Ontario, Canada ******************************************************* "Each of us has an instrument to bring to the vast orchestra of humanity" - Jean Vanier ******************************************************* -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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