Iraq may resume oil exports within two days, Iraqi Ambassador Mohammad Al-Douri said Monday, July 9. "Everything will be normalized, I hope as early as possible, maybe tomorrow, maybe in two days," Al-Douri told AFP.
Earlier Monday, the United Nations and Iraq reached an agreement on conditions for a 150-day extension of the oil-for-food program. The accord paves the way for the rapid resumption of Iraqi oil exports, which were suspended June 4, diplomats said.
An exchange of letters at the UN headquarters in New York will formalize the agreement, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. At the same time, Al-Douri said Baghdad will "continue to fight for a complete abandonment" of a US-British proposal to replace the current sanctions regime against Iraq with so-called "smart" sanctions. "It is a question of national independence," he added.
Faced with the threat of a Russian veto, Britain and the United States earlier this month set aside their efforts to adopt narrower sanctions against Iraq that would have scrapped the 11-year-old embargo on civilian trade while tightening controls to prevent Baghdad from smuggling oil and illegal weapons. ― (AFP, UN)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
