Global Policy Forum

By Bernie Woodall

Russia has told its key counterparts on the U.N. Security Council it would reject a U.S.-British resolution to revamp sanctions on Iraq if the measure were put to a vote, diplomats said. "We cannot allow it to pass," Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, said in a weekend letter to the United States, and presumably to Britain, France and China also, the envoys reported.

Ivanov stopped short of using the word "veto" but council diplomats said late on Monday it was clear Moscow was threatening to kill the measure. Russia, the United States, Britain, France and China are permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council with veto power.

"This is not a negotiating stance. This is what they plan to do," said one council member.

Russia, Iraq's closest ally on the council, has long opposed the embargoes. Ivanov last week criticized the U.S.-British plan and said he would probably offer an alternative, which diplomats expected at a public meeting on Iraq, scheduled for late on Tuesday. Word of Russia's position came hours after Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the United Nations on Monday to speak at a major U.N. AIDS conference.

He told reporters after his address that the council might not meet its self-imposed July 3 deadline for adoption of the British-drafted resolution on the plan. "We have been unable to resolve all the technical issues,'' he said. If no resolution is arrived at, we will have to figure out what to do -- how to extend the current situation and how long."

Russia has raised objections to the plan for months, saying the United Nations should instead seek ways to move toward a suspension of the sanctions, imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

At issue is a resolution that seeks to ease restrictions on civilian goods, retain bans on military hardware and come to an agreement on a lengthy list of ``dual use'' supplies that can be used for both military and civilian purposes. It also aims to stop smuggling, worth about $1 billion a year, and have the monies paid to a separate account rather than to Baghdad directly.

On Monday, Iraq's ambassador in Moscow, Mozher al-Douri, said Baghdad would favor Russian firms doing business in the country in return for Moscow's opposition to the resolution.

Before the sanctions were imposed in 1990, Russia supplied Baghdad with military goods worth up to $8 billion to be repaid with oil. Its only chance to recoup some of the outstanding debts is if sanctions are lifted and Russian firms are allowed to invest in Iraqi oilfields.

The new resolution would be part of the oil-for-food plan, an exception to the sanctions, which allows Iraq to sell oil to meet basic demands of ordinary Iraqis. The plan has expanded over the years to a large variety of goods but Iraq's oil revenues are put in a U.N. escrow fund out of which suppliers are paid.

Powell acknowledged the list of ``dual use'' goods was in dispute. ``Where the difficulty has arisen is we have been unable to resolve the various technical issues with the list. And that has become quite a problem which all sides have been working out,'' he said.

Iraq stopped oil flows on June 4 and threatened to stop trade with its neighbors if the resolution were adopted. If the council does not reach an agreement on changing the sanctions, it would probably continue the current oil-for-food plan. Powell, however, would not be drawn into a discussion about how long the program might be extended.

In order to get sanctions suspended, Iraq has to allow U.N. arms inspectors back into the country to check on its weapons of mass destruction programs.

That requirement is contained in a December 1999 resolution, which Russia says needs to be refined. The inspectors have not been allowed back into Iraq since they left on the eve of a December 1998 bombing campaign.