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Three articles [reproduced below] about Iraq in todays (16th June)
Independent.
There is some conflict here: Cockburn's piece is titled "Iraq sees hope
for end to sanctions" and talks of a "sudden amity between Mr
Butler and Mr Aziz" while Winfield writes that
"The United States had hoped to transform the [oil-for-food] deal, which
must be renewed by the Security Council every six months, into a programme
that would continue as long as economic sanctions remain in place."
Gabriel.
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Baghdad warning on oil-for-food deal.
By Nicole Winfield in New York
Iraq warned the United Nations Security Council yesterday
that it would withdraw from the oil-for-food programme if
council members approved a resolution stipulating the
programme was an ongoing operation.
"We told all council members that this would mean
disengaging Iraq from the programme," Iraq's UN
ambassador, Nizar Hamdoon, said yesterday after
delivering the warning to the council president, Antonio
Monteiro of Portugal.
Iraq was barred from freely exporting oil in 1990 following
its invasion of Kuwait. In 1996, the council approved the
oil-for-food programme, which allows limited exports of
Iraqi oil to fund humanitarian supplies and to compensate
Gulf War victims.
The United States had hoped to transform the deal, which
must be renewed by the Security Council every six months,
into a programme that would continue as long as economic
sanctions remain in place.
Late last month, the US tried in a draft resolution to link
that proposal to the approval of a $300m (185m) shipment
of spare parts for Iraq's oil industry. But the proposal ran
into resistance from Britain and other council members.
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Iraq sees hope for end to sanctions
By Patrick Cockburn
RICHARD BUTLER, head of the United Nations team
monitoring the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction, has said in Baghdad that he hopes outstanding
issues will be resolved in the next two months. He said
agreement has been reached with the Iraqi government on
the inspection process.
It is all very different in tone from Mr Butler's previous
visits. Standing next to Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi deputy prime
minister, Mr Butler said: "Mr Aziz and I will take stock on
9 August, and it is my earnest hope that when we do that
we will be looking at a slate which has been pretty well
ticked off."
Previously, Iraq routinely denounced Mr Butler, the former
Australian ambassador to the UN, as no more than an
American agent, determined to prevent economic sanctions
on Iraq being lifted by always demanding fresh information
on its biological, chemical, nuclear and missile
programmes.
Only last week, the Iraqi newspaper Babal, controlled by
Uday, the elder son of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein,
said, in reference to Mr Butler that it was time to "stop
courting this mad dog".
It even suggested, continuing the analogy, that, abandoning
Iraqi traditions of tolerance and courtesy, "the time has
come to chop off the tongue of this dog".
The sudden amity between Mr Butler and Mr Aziz is hard
to explain. But both sides are on their best behaviour. The
critical moment for Iraq will be Mr Butler's next report in
October on Iraq's compliance with UN resolutions on
eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
Baghdad wants to show to sympathetic members of the
Security Council that it has done all in its power to meet
the demands of the UN Special Committee (Unscom) on
weapons of mass destruction, which Mr Butler heads.
Mr Butler, for his part, was criticised by Russia and France
during the last crisis between Iraq and the UN in February
for his belligerent rhetoric towards Iraq. At one moment he
even implied that Baghdad might attack Israel and raze Tel
Aviv.
His more moderate approach during his present visit to Iraq
may not necessarily lead to a clean bill of health for Iraq
in
October.
After the UN envoy delivered his last, very negative, report
on Iraq's compliance with UN resolutions in April, General
Amr al-Saadi, adviser to President Saddam on Unscom,
told The Independent: "The role played by Butler to serve
American policy against Iraq is worse than any role played
by an ordinary spy." He said the April report implied that
Iraq had done nothing to eliminate its weapons since 1991.
General Saadi said one of the problems for Iraq was that in
1995 it handed over relevant documents on its weapons
programmes secreted to the UN by General Hussein
Kamel, who defected to Jordan.
"We don't have a copy," Saadi said. "We don't know what
the documents say. They (Unscom) come up with selective
quotes from them, which we haven't seen before. The
papers provide a gold mine for procrastination."
The US and Britain are eager to maintain sanctions on Iraq,
but not to repeat the confrontation of February. The US is
scaling down its task force in the Gulf, which was
dispatched with much fanfare at the beginning of the year.
One aircraft carrier and Stealth bombers have been
withdrawn.
Officials in Washington say they are prepared to be more
flexible in allowing Iraq to spend money for humanitarian
and development purposes, so long as they can prevent
Saddam Hussein from gaining control of cash inflows from
Iraq's oil revenues. These are limited to $4bn every six
months by the lack of spare parts for the Iraqi oil industry.
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US will fund opposition to Saddam
By Andrew Marshall in Washington
the uniteD STATES will announce a new strategy for
boosting the Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein this week.
Propelled by Congress and anxious to fill the vacuum left
by the disintegration of previous policies, the US will
announce a programme of $5m (3.1m) to assist the
opposition. The plan is likely to include some support for
Shia opposition groups based in Iran for the first time.
The US established the Iraq National Congress (INC) as
the main channel for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
support after the 1991 invasion of Kuwait. But relations
with the INC deteriorated and support was switched to the
London-based Iraqi National Accord. Both were
effectively wiped out on the ground when Saddam's forces
moved into Iraqi Kurdistan in 1996.
Since then, the opposition has fragmented with infighting
and lack of resources and presence on the ground
apparently dooming it to impotence.
But pressure has built up for a new policy. Congress has
pushed for a more active stance to overthrow President
Saddam and the existing policy of containment through
weapons inspections and sanctions is starting to look
threadbare.
Last month, Congress approved the $5m along with plans
for a new radio station broadcasting to Iraq, and this week
the administration is expected to announce how the cash
will be spent.
The money will be overt rather than secret, and is likely to
be put towards boosting the democratic credentials of the
opposition. One possibility would be to support moves by
the opposition to create a council of national unity, drawing
together all the different factions. A meeting was held in
London last February organised by the INA to enable the
organisations to speak with one voice, and there have also
been suggestions that something approximating a
government in exile might be formed in London.
The US is anxious to demonstrate that it does not regard
the current Iraqi regime as salvageable, as do many of its
erstwhile allies in the Gulf War coalition. Instead, it will
underline that it is working towards a new regime, formed
from the democratic opposition. But with the evaporation of
the opposition it has found it hard to claim that there is an
alternative.
The US's discussions with the opposition have included for
the first time a Tehran-based group, the Supreme Council
for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri). As the name might
suggest, it has little in common with the US and has been
working very closely with the Islamic regime in Iran. But
alone of the opposition groups, it has ground forces in Iraq
which harass Iraqi troops in the south of the country. It
represents elements within Iraq's substantial Shia
minority.
Contacts between the US and the Sciri have accelerated
this year, with frequent trips by the movement's leader,
Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, to Kuwait, where US forces
and aircraft are based. Hamid Bayati, the organisation's
London representative, visited Washington last week and
met representatives of the US government.
Relations between the US and Iran have warmed
noticeably since the election of the moderate Mohammad
Khatami as Iran's President last year. Iran and the US
have few interests in common, but they do share a desire to
limit Iraq's aggression.
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