The United Nations Security Council's five permanent members have agreed on a new system of sanctions against Iraq, the White House said Tuesday.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer announced the action in Washington. "This is a step forward," he said.
He said the move would be discussed by the full Security Council and voted on this week.
Fleischer cheered the move as beneficial to the people of Iraq, but said they would not see the full benefit if Saddam Hussein "continues to manipulate" the oil-for-food program.
"He undermines the program with illicit oil sales and schemes to force buyers to provide cash kickbacks," Fleischer said.
The Bush administration has sought to overhaul Iraqi sanctions, saying the oil-for-food program has been exploited so often that the sanctions are like "Swiss cheese."
Fleischer did not provide details of the changes being made to the sanctions, except to say they would tighten controls over efforts by Iraq to "acquire destructive weapons" and allow freer flow of humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people.
Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the Security Council and one-time opponent to revising the sanctions, played "a very constructive role" in developing the agreement reached Tuesday, Fleischer said.
Last November, Russia agreed to approve by May 30 a new list of goods that would need UN review before shipment to Iraq. In turn, the United States would discuss a comprehensive settlement of the sanctions, including steps that would lead to suspending the military embargo on Iraq.
Iraq was hit with strict sanctions after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The oil-for-food program began in 1996 to provide food and basic humanitarian goods for the Iraqi people, and evolved into a main element of the Iraqi economy after it was expanded to cover public services such as education and water supply.
Under the current structure of the oil-for-food program, most contracts for humanitarian goods are approved by a UN monitoring committee. Any of the 15 Security Council members can place an individual contract on hold.
Under the proposed system, all humanitarian contracts would be forwarded to two UN agencies responsible for dismantling Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The two agencies - the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency - would have 10 days to raise any objections.
(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2002)
