The Netherlands should ease the sanctions against Iraq. The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament calls the cabinet to "aim at a more humanitarian sanction-regime against Iraq".

Foreign Minister Van Aartsen earlier advised the Chamber against the motion of PVDA [Labour Party] and D66 [Democrats]. The result of the vote was by the narrowest margin: 71 MPs voted in favour, 70 voted against.

The Second Chamber wants to see Van Aartsen taking a position within the United Nations favouring sanctions that hurt the regime of Saddam Hussein and which spare the [Iraqi] people. The sanctions were established by the United Nations in 1990 after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.