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Iraq rejects UN resolution, with or without amendments: paper Tuesday, 14-Dec-1999 4:40AM Story from AFP BAGHDAD, Dec 14 (AFP) - Iraq will reject a UN Security Council draft resolution on a conditional suspension of sanctions even if amendments are made to win Russian support, official newspapers warned on Tuesday. Al-Jumhuriya said the amendments were "devoid of content" and only designed to avert a Russian veto on the British-drafted resolution which would restore arms control over Iraq. "They were simply introduced to satisfy the demands of Russia and China as well as the French formula, which wants to achieve a consensus," the newspaper said ahead of the postponed vote in New York. Britain has put the vote off until Tuesday at the earliest, as the Security Council discussed last-minute amendments. The resolution would set up a new arms control body, unconditionally remove the ceiling on Iraq's oil exports, and ease restrictions on its imports of humanitarian supplies. It would also offer Iraq the chance to have other trade sanctions suspended if it cooperates "fully" with the arms inspectors and makes progress on key disarmament tasks to be defined by the inspectors. Russia wants more precise criteria to be set, fearing that hardliners Washington and London will never acknowledge Iraqi cooperation. The vote was originally due on Friday, after months of wrangling. Then it was scheduled for Monday, before Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock, decided to allow more time for consultations. "Iraq's rejection will remain complete so long as this resolution does not satisfy its most fundamental rights for an immediate and total lifting of the embargo," in force since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, said Al-Jumhuriya. Another official daily, Al-Iraq, urged the Security Council to improve its relations with Baghdad. "To establish good relations with Iraq, the Security Council has no choice but to respect its commitments under Paragraph 22 of Resolution 687," the paper said. It was referring to the link between a lifting of the embargo and the elimination of Iraq's banned weapons of mass destruction, a condition which Baghdad argues has been completed. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full archive and list instructions are available from the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi