Global Policy Forum

Russia has asked for a delay until next week of a U.N. Security Council vote on an overhaul of U.N. sanctions against Iraq aimed at easing the flow of goods to Baghdad, diplomats said on Wednesday.

The five permanent Security Council members with veto power, including Russia and the United States, introduced a resolution on Monday and had hoped for a vote on Wednesday. First Syria, a council member, wanted a delay and then Russian envoys told colleagues that President Vladimir Putin wanted to take a final look and sign off on the new pla n.

Russia, which helped negotiate the new plan, asked for the vote to be postponed until Monday but raised no new objections, the diplomats said. Central to the new program is a 160-page "goods review list" of items that may have dual military and civilian use and have to be evaluated separately before they can be exported.

Goods not on the list can go to Iraq after review by U.N. officials. Military items continue to be banned outright. Currently, any council member can block a contract to Iraq and the United States has put $5 billion worth of goods on hold. Russia, among others, have made sure many of their contracts are not on the list and are waiting for Washington to release them after the resolution is adopted.

SYRIA OBJECTS ALSO

Syria also raised misgivings about the new plan, with its diplomats first saying they needed further instructions from Damascus, which was studying the resolution that includes hundreds of pages of attachments.

But privately diplomats said Syria cited the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians, questioning why it should vote quickly on Iraqi sanctions when the council refused to condemn Israel for its offensive in the West Bank. Although the vote can go ahead without Syria, which does not have veto power, the United States and others wanted to preserve council unity. Ironically, Syria itself has been cited by diplomats and oil analysts for violating sanctions by illegally importing Iraqi crude oil.

The new plan promises to be the biggest change in sanctions procedures since the U.N. oil-for-food deal began in December 1996, an exception to the embargoes imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. This program allows Iraq to export oil and buy food, medicine and a host of other goods, with the proceeds placed in an escrow account from which suppliers are paid. The program, renewed every six months, expires on May 29.

SMUGGLING NOT CURBED

But U.S. officials fear Iraq has diverted illicit oil revenue and smuggled goods, possibly to use in rebuilding its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. The new resolution did not address that issue as U.S.-British proposals to stop smuggling were opposed by all of Iraq's neighbors.

Iraq, which wants the sanctions lifted, does not believe the new plan is an improvement. But Baghdad has not said whether it would suspend oil exports as it did over this past month to protest Israel's offensive in the West Bank. "The British and the Americans say this will make it easier for Iraq. They are wrong. The opposite is true. They will be able to hold up contracts as they wish," Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Aldouri said.

To prevent the United States from holding up contracts for years, new procedures require rulings within 30 days, unless information is missing in the supplier's application.

The process involves evaluation of items on the list by two U.N. agencies in charge of dismantling Iraq's chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic weapons: the U.N. Monitoring and Verification Commission and the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The list ranges from sophisticated engineering items, to some categories of fiber optic cables to information technology equipment.