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A "Yes" May Cost France Oil Contracts

From: Nathaniel Hurd <ndhurd@DELETETHISemail.com>
Subject: A "Yes" May Cost France Oil Contracts
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 10:20:04 -0500 (EST)

Agence France Presse, the Associated Press, and the New York Times reported that the Iraqi
government (through a daily newspaper owned by S. Hussein's son) has "warned" France that French
companies may lose Iraqi oil contracts if France votes in the Security Council to link arms
inspections with suspending sanctions.

The Agence France Presse, Associated Press, and New York Times articles are reproduced below.

*****************************************************************

December 5, 1999 11:42 GMT

SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 1299 words
HEADLINE: Iraq warns France of high price to pay for UN vote
DATELINE: BAGHDAD, Dec 5
BODY:
An official Iraqi newspaper warned France on Sunday of a high price to pay if it sides with the
United States in a UN Security Council vote linking a suspension of sanctions to a new disarmament
regime.

Such a vote would be "the last straw for Iraqi-French relations," said Babel, a daily run by
President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday.

As a result it would be "only logical for the French (oil) companies Elf and Total to close their
offices in Baghdad and lose the immense concessions which they have won but not yet exploited."

"The numerous advantages which French companies enjoy on the Iraqi market could also be halted,"
Babel said, protesting that Iraqis had "suffered a lot because of the position adopted by the
French government."

Iraq has rejected in advance a British draft resolution at the Security Council that makes a
suspension of sanctions conditional on Iraqi cooperation with a new arms control panel.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Saturday that a vote on the resolution could come
"very, very soon."

The Security Council has been divided on Iraq policy since an air war waged in December 1998 by the
United States and Britain, which both take a hard line against lifting sanctions.

But a senior US official at the United Nations said Friday that the resolution would finally be
voted on within the next week.

The United States backs the British draft, while France has not announced its position but played a
role in enhancing a UN humanitarian programme under the resolution.

After having accused Paris at length over several days of abandoning its circle of "friends",
Baghdad is counting on Moscow, which has multi-billion dollar interests tied up in Iraq, to block
the resolution.

Sanctions have been in force since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Baghdad insists its weapons of
mass destruction have been eliminated and that the time has come for a full and unconditional
lifting of sanctions.

Iraq's leading official daily warned France on Sunday of a high price to pay if it sides with the
United States in a UN Security Council vote linking a suspension of sanctions to a new disarmament
regime.

Such a vote would be "the last straw for Iraqi-French relations," said a commentary in Babel
written by Abdel Razzak al-Hashemi, who was Iraq's ambassador to Paris when Baghdad broke
diplomatic ties during the 1991 Gulf War.

As a result it would be "only logical for the French (oil) companies Elf and Total to close their
offices in Baghdad and lose the immense concessions which they have won but not yet exploited."

"The numerous advantages which French companies enjoy on the Iraqi market could also be halted,"
Hashemi said, protesting that Iraqis had "suffered a lot because of the position adopted by the
French government."

Iraq has rejected in advance a British draft resolution at the Security Council that makes a
suspension of sanctions conditional on Iraqi cooperation with a new arms control panel.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Saturday that a vote on the resolution could come
"very, very soon."

The Security Council has been divided on Iraq policy since an air war waged in December 1998 by the
United States and Britain, which both take a hard line against lifting sanctions.

But a senior US official at the United Nations said Friday that the resolution would finally be put
to the vote within a week.

The United States backs the British draft, while France which has an interests section in Baghdad
has not announced its position but played a role in enhancing a UN humanitarian programme under the
resolution.

After having accused Paris at length of abandoning its circle of "friends", Baghdad is now counting
on Moscow, which has multi-billion dollar interests tied up in Iraq, to block the resolution.

The commentary in Babel, which is run by President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, noted that France had
fought against Iraq in the US-led multinational coalition in the conflict over Kuwait.

France took part "in the attacks and the destruction of Iraq's infrastructure," Hashemi said.

"An historic opportunity presents itself today (for France) to allow Iraqis to forget the past and
turn over a new page," he wrote, warning that "French interests and its standing in the whole
region" were at stake.

Iraq's leading official daily warned France on Sunday of a high price to pay if it sides with
Washington in a UN Security Council vote linking a suspension of sanctions to a new disarmament
regime.

Such a vote would be "the last straw for Iraqi-French relations," said a commentary in Babel
written by Abdel Razzak al-Hashemi, who was Iraq's ambassador to Paris when they broke diplomatic
ties during the 1991 Gulf War.

As a result it would be "only logical for the French (oil) companies Elf and Total to close their
offices in Baghdad and lose the immense concessions which they have won but not yet exploited," he
said.

"The numerous advantages which French companies enjoy on the Iraqi market could also be halted,"
said Hashemi.

Iraq has rejected in advance a British draft resolution at the Security Council that makes a
suspension of sanctions conditional on Iraqi cooperation with a new arms control panel.

US State Department spokesman James Rubin said Saturday that a vote on the resolution could come
"very, very soon."

The Security Council has been divided on Iraq policy since an air war waged in December 1998 by the
United States and Britain, which both take a hard line against lifting sanctions.

But a senior US official at the United Nations said Friday that the resolution would finally be put
to the vote within a week.

The United States backs the British draft, while France which has an interests section in Baghdad
has not announced its position but played a key role in enhancing a UN humanitarian programme under
the resolution.

After having accused Paris of abandoning its circle of "friends", Baghdad is now counting on
Moscow, which has multi-billion dollar interests tied up in Iraq, to block the resolution.

The commentary in Babel, which is run by President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, noted that France had
fought against Iraq in the US-led multinational coalition in the conflict over Kuwait.

France took part "in the attacks and the destruction of Iraq's infrastructure," Hashemi said.

A ruling Baath party official, meanwhile, said the extension of the UN oil-for-food programme was
nothing more an American "joke" and a ploy to pressure the Security Council into passing the
British draft.

"The Security Council ... will assume responsibility for the continuation of the embargo and the
agression aimed at exterminating the Iraqi people," said Abdel Ghani Abdel Ghafour.

Iraq has rejected stopgap extensions of the oil-for-food programme since the last phase run out on
November 20 and taken its oil off the world market.

The humanitarian programme -- launched in December 1996 in renewable six-monthly phases -- allows
Iraq to export crude to finance imports of food and medicine under UN supervision.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 5, 1999

*****************************************************************

December 5, 1999; Sunday 14:01 Eastern Time

SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 942 words
HEADLINE: Report: Iraq will cut trade ties with France if it supports U.N. resolution
BYLINE: LEON BARKHO
DATELINE: BAGHDAD, Iraq
BODY:
France will lose all of its trade benefits, including lucrative oil development deals, if it
votes in favor of a U.N. resolution backed by the United States and rejected by Iraq, Iraq's most
influential newspaper said Sunday.

The warning in Babel, the daily newspaper owned by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Odai,
singled out French oil giants Elf Aquitaine and Total, which have deals nearing completion for the
development of two of the world's largest oil fields.

If the resolution is passed ''logic says that both Elf and Total will have to close their offices
in Baghdad and leave. That means they will lose the huge oil investment opportunities they have
been granted,'' Babel said in a front-page editorial and were signed by Abdulrazzaq al-Hashimi, a
senior member of the ruling Bath party.

Iraq also ''will put an end to the preferential treatment given to French companies,'' it said.

Russia and China Iraq's closest allies among the five permanent Security Council members as well as
France have favored suspending sanctions soon after Iraq allows U.N. weapons inspectors to return
and demonstrates compliance with them. But the United States and Britain demand a longer waiting
period and Iraqi answers to outstanding questions about its disarmament.

Attempts to reach a compromise have dragged on nearly a year, but a vote appears to be drawing
near. Lately, Iraqi state-run newspapers have accused France of leaning toward the U.S.-British
position on Iraq in the Security Council. The direct warning, however, was new.

Babel did not say whether Iraq would punish its other two major trading partners Russia and China
if they agree to the proposal. Both have signed deals to develop oil fields in Iraq.

The United States is pressing U.N. Security Council members to reach agreement on the proposed
resolution which charts a new policy toward Iraq that would restart U.N. weapons inspections as
well as upgrade the humanitarian program in the country.

U.N. arms inspectors left Iraq almost a year ago on the eve of U.S.-British airstrikes. The
government had vowed not to let them return. Nizar Hamdoon, a deputy foreign minister said Saturday
that Iraq would only allow the inspectors back if U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion
of Kuwait were abolished.

France is among Iraq's major trading partners under the U.N.-approved oil program, which permits
oil sales worth dlrs 5.2 billion every six months despite the sanctions. French exports to Iraq
were estimated at a half-billion dollars during each the past two phases of the program.

France will lose all of its trade benefits, including lucrative oil development deals, if it votes
in favor of a U.N. resolution backed by the United States and rejected by Iraq, Iraq's most
influential newspaper said Sunday.

If the resolution is passed ''logic says that both Elf and Total will have to close their offices
in Baghdad and leave. That means they will lose the huge oil investment opportunities they have
been granted,'' Babel said in a front-page editorial signed by Abdulrazzaq al-Hashimi, a senior
member of the ruling Baath party and former ambassador to France.

Iraq also ''will put an end to the preferential treatment given to French companies,'' it said.

Babel did not say whether Iraq would punish its other two major trading partners Russia and China
if they agree to the proposal. Both have signed deals to develop oil fields in Iraq.

Later Sunday, Saddam met with several members of Iraq's highest legislative body the Revolutionary
Command Council to discuss the U.N. resolution.

''The meeting stressed Iraq's rejection of the evil British draft resolution and Iraq's position
not to deal with any formula that does not contain the comprehensive and unconditional lifting of
the sanctions,'' the official Iraqi News Agency said.

U.N. arms inspectors left Iraq almost a year ago on the eve of U.S.-British airstrikes. The
government had vowed not to let them return. Nizar Hamdoun, a deputy foreign minister said Saturday
that Iraq would only allow the inspectors back if U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion
of Kuwait were abolished.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 5, 1999

*****************************************************************

December 6, 1999, Monday, Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 12; Column 5; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 709 words
HEADLINE: Iraq Opens a War of Words Against Its French Friends
BYLINE: By BARBARA CROSSETTE
BODY:
A few days before the United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on a new arms
inspection system for Iraq, the Iraqi government threatened France yesterday with retaliation
against its diplomats and oil companies if it supports the proposal.

The government of Saddam Hussein apparently senses that it can no longer rely on France -- and
perhaps not on Russia either -- to block the resumption of inspections after a year of indecision
by the Security Council and no monitoring in Iraq. So Iraq has gone on the offensive with articles
in its controlled press and with comments from officials.

Western diplomats say that Iraq is in effect asking the French and Russians, who have considerable
financial interests in Iraq, to choose between potential business deals -- and the repayment of
Iraqi debts -- and good relations with the United States and a number of European countries also
pressing for new inspections.

Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister and intermediary with the United Nations, spent four days
in Moscow last week trying to persuade Russia to continue to oppose the weapons monitoring plan. At
the end of the visit, Russian officials, including Moscow's United Nations representative, Sergey
Lavrov, would say only that they were still studying the draft Security Council resolution.

At the United Nations, Western diplomats say that France has been drawing closer to supporting the
plan, which has undergone many revisions over six months. The Iraqis began criticizing France
recently for this apparent willingness to require new inspections as a key to suspending sanctions
on Iraq that were imposed over its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. But yesterday's attack, in the
newspaper published by President Hussein's son Uday, was the most pointed to date.

The newspaper, Babel, said Iraq should break off relations with France and expel French oil company
representatives. Two companies, Elf Aquitaine and Total S.A., have been talking with Iraq about
joint development of large oil fields in the south of the country.

The draft resolution before the Security Council would create a new arms-inspection system to
replace the United Nations Special Commission. That body was formed by the Security Council after
Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Persian Gulf war to monitor a requirement that Iraq rid itself of weapons
of mass destruction.

The commission has not been able to function in Iraq since inspectors were evacuated before British
and American bombing raids a year ago. Iraq barred their return after the air strikes, and the
Russians led a campaign against efforts to revive the commission, including personal attacks on its
chairman, Richard Butler, who resigned in June.

Russia, and to a lesser degree France, argued at first for a substantial easing of the sanctions
against Iraq as an incentive for Iraqi cooperation. The United States and Britain argued that there
could be no relief for Mr. Hussein until weapons inspections resumed and the Iraqis complied with
the inspectors.

The current version of the resolution reflects the American view that there has to be compliance
and that intrusive inspections on the ground must be permitted. But significant differences remain
over how to evaluate Iraqi compliance and in what time frame. There are also disagreements over the
powers to be assigned to the chairman of a new inspection commission.

The Iraqi leadership has been enraged in recent weeks by shorter-than-usual extensions of the
program that allows limited sales of oil, despite the sanctions, to meet civilian needs. And Iraq
has repeatedly said that it will never let any inspectors back in unless sanctions are lifted
first. Some council members say, however, that this may be Iraq's opening position for the hard
bargaining that will follow if the resolution passes.

If the French -- who protested the most recent extension of the oil-sales plan by not voting at all
-- support the arms control resolution, the focus will be fixed on Russia and China, either of
which could veto the proposal. Those countries supporting the new plan are negotiating hard to
secure a Russian abstention. If they are successful, supporters of the plan assume that China will
follow suit.

http://www.nytimes.com

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: December 6, 1999

*****************************************************************
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