Global Policy Forum

By Peter Baker

The United States and Russia reached agreement today on a new international sanctions regime against Iraq intended to allow civilian goods to be sold to the ostracized Arab country while tightening restrictions on items that could be used for military purposes, according to a U.S. official.

The accord resolved a year-long standoff over how to overhaul the economic embargo imposed on Iraq following its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and appeared to clear the way for the U.N. Security Council to approve the revised sanctions as early as next month.

The agreement may help defuse tension between Washington and Moscow at a time when President Bush is considering military action to topple President Saddam Hussein's government as part of his war on terrorism.

As Iraq's close ally and chief economic partner, Russia has consistently blocked tougher sanctions and warned the United States against an attack. However, analysts said today's compromise, which still requires President Vladimir Putin's approval, suggested the Kremlin wanted to find a way to work with the White House rather than simply complain ineffectually.

If approved by the Security Council, the new sanctions regime would revamp the oil-for-food program enacted in 1996 that allows Iraq to sell limited quantities of petroleum to pay for food and medicine and to rebuild the country's infrastructure. After months of talks that ended here today, Russia agreed to a "goods review list" of products that cannot be sold to Iraq without Security Council approval.

"It's designed to make clear that the international community is interposing no barrier on goods going to Iraq's civilian economy but it is determined to keep rigorous control over things that Iraq could use to resuscitate its military capabilities," said John Stern Wolf, assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation, who led the U.S. delegation here.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reported "definite progress in the coordination of parameters for a future formula" for Iraqi sanctions and announced that "draft documents will be submitted to the U.N. Security Council," which it predicted "will adopt a corresponding resolution." In the meantime, U.S. officials said they would try to persuade Russia to agree to an American demand to subject cargo trucks and dump trucks to U.N. monitoring because of evidence that Iraq has converted them into military vehicles.

The two sides said they did not address the potential of a U.S. attack on Iraq. Bush has named Iraq as part of an "axis of evil" that he said includes Iran and North Korea because of Iraq's efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The U.N. sanctions will remain in place until Iraq allows the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, who must certify that Baghdad has eliminated its programs to obtain those weapons. The inspectors have been barred from the country since 1998.

"Russia is more ready to make concessions in the sanctions area in hopes that it might postpone or even divert U.S. military operations," said Alexander Pikayev, a military specialist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research organization.

Dmitri Trenin, a Moscow-based military analyst, said Russian leaders understand they cannot preempt a U.S. attack but want to strike a deal in which any new U.S.-installed government in Baghdad "will be mandated to honor its obligations to Russia and in exchange Russia won't kick and scream if there's an attack."

The Bush administration has tried to overhaul the Iraq sanctions since taking office a year ago, but its "smarter sanctions" proposals have been blocked by Russia. After the two countries grew closer following the Sept. 11 attacks, Russia agreed to consider a list of banned products to be adopted by May 30, and Washington agreed to extend the oil-for-food program pending negotiations.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.