Craig R. Whitney
New York Times
December 23, 1998
PARIS - In the wake of the British and American bombing of Iraq, France proposed today that the United Nations should set up a new system for monitoring Iraq's arms programs and let it export oil, but make sure none of the revenue is used to buy weapons.
In an interview, Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said: "We think that seven years of monitoring by the U.N. Special Commission, plus the strikes that have taken place, nave created a new situation.
"The objective we all have in the Security Council is for Iraq not to become a danger again, and with everything that has been inspected and monitored, and all that has been destroyed, we think we can move from inspecting the past, so to speak, to making the future safer."
"We think that should be done by the Security Council because its authority and its role have been put at a disadvantage," fie said, echoing criticism by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in Parliament of the way the British and American bombing had bypassed the Council.
"The United States itself speaks of unity being necessary in the Security Council," Mr. Vedrine said. "If we really think the Security Council is Important, we have to make it the key player again."
Asked to explain French ideas for a new system of United Nations monitoring, first called for by President Jacques Chirac on Sunday after the bombing ended, Mr. Vedrine said:
"First, we need a system of surveillance of arms, to verify that Iraq doesn't have more arms than it is allowed and doesn't embark again on a policy of acquiring weapons of mass destruction. We don't pretend to have a detailed plan worked out, and we'll have to talk with all our partners in the Security Council. But there should be both technical means, cameras, etc., and on-the-spot inspections, but we think that can't be done by the U.N. Special Commission in its present form the way it has been done in the past."
Asked whether, like Russia, France believed that the commission's head, Richard Butler, should be replaced, Mr. Vedrine did not answer directly.
"The question of personalities has been posed by several members of the Security Council, particularly by Russia, quite clearly, but I think you have to consider the question of personalities as a function of the job that has to be performed," he said.
"Second," he went on, "'our thinking is that if we can agree on an effective system of continuous monitoring, one that provides adequate guarantees, we should be able to lift the embargo on Iraqi oil sales - I'm not saying lift all the sanctions, there are other sanctions besides oil, and that's another problem."
But, he said, "The oil embargo has already been modified with the petroleum-for-food program. What happens to revenue from those sales is quite closely monitored, making sure they are used for the population and not for buying arms, for example. It shouldn't be that much more complicated to monitor the revenue from sales if the oil embargo is lifted. That's a sensitive issue, it's not something the Iraqis want."
"We haven't made detailed proposals, we're simply in the process of discussion," said Mr. Vedrine, who has been on the telephone in the past two days with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook.
"We have expressed some ideas, but we think it has to be discussed with our Security Council partners," he said. Other French officials said controls could include monitor Iraqi ports of entry to make sure that foreign goods bought with oil revenues were only those permitted United Nations resolutions.
Agence Presse
WASHINGTON - The United States would be willing consider expanding the United Nations program that permits Iraq sell $5.2 billion worth of oil every months, provided the proceeds used for food and medicine, Un Secretary of State Thomas R. Pickering said today.
Mr. Pickering added that the United States would take "a careful look at a Russian proposal for an "updated assessment" of the operations the special commission on Iraq. But he dismissed France's proposal change the inspection system. The United States intends to keep relying on "the technical and professional expertise" of the commission, Pickering said.
He also said that Russia's Ambassador to the United States, Yuli Voronstov, who was recalled last week to protest the attack on Iraq was due to return here this week.
