US Secretary of State Colin Powell wound up his seven-country Middle East tour Monday, February 26, leaving Damascus for Brussels amid signs of movement over UN sanctions on Iraq. Syria was the last stop on a three-day whirlwind tour of the region that also took in Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
A senior US official said the United States hoped to get consensus on modifying at least some UN sanctions on Iraq by next month when leaders of the Arab world, who are highly critical of the restrictions, meet in Jordan.
"We would like to see progress on the policy before the Arab (League) summit on March 27," the official told reporters accompanying Secretary of State Colin Powell en route to Syria from Saudi Arabia.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Powell had heard deep concerns about the curbs from various Arab leaders during his Middle East tour, including those from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
In response to those concerns, Powell had been exploring modification of the sanctions with those leaders and had been convinced of the wisdom of easing or removing entirely restrictions on civilian goods while tightening them on military items, the official said.
"We have been quite pleased with the reaction," the official said. He noted a need "to make a better case" for the sanctions which have been blasted by Arab leaders for hurting the Iraqi people despite US insistence that Saddam Hussein's regime was in fact responsible for their suffering.
"We think that there is a clear understanding on the directions we are taking," the official said. "We believe there is substantial support for what we're doing. We obviously have more to do before we get to the point of execution of new policy, but this trip has built our confidence in these efforts," the official said.
On the issue of Iraqi oil going via a pipeline to Syria, the official said: "It's our information that oil is going through the pipeline. As you know, the Syrians have said that they're testing (the pipeline). We have no direct evidence of quantities other than what they're selling on the markets, which goes beyond what they normally sold.
A second senior US official, who also declined to be named, said after Powell's talks in Damascus with President Bashar Al-Assad the two sides talked about Iraq and the Middle East peace process on both tracks, Palestinian and Syrian, and a "proposition to bring the Iraqi pipeline under UN auspices."
Earlier Monday, the Middle East Economic Survey, MEES, reported that Washington had asked the United Nations to change the way Iraqi crude is sold to cut down on the middlemen who have emerged since Iraq's decision to levy a surcharge.
"The United States and Britain are also trying to stop the flow of Iraqi oil to Syria, but it is doubtful if they can succeed in doing so while turning a blind eye to the cross-border trade with Turkey and Jordan," it said.
Iraq increased oil production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January as end users, mainly in the US market, started snapping up most of its UN-authorized oil exports through small companies and traders, who pay the surcharge.
Ahead of Powell's visit, Syria's official media counseled US Secretary of State Colin Powell to focus on peace efforts in the Middle East and not on Iraq. "The Bush administration's first achievement in the region should be to focus all the attention on how to bring about a just, durable and comprehensive peace," wrote the Syria Times, an English-language daily, on the eve of Powell's brief stop in Damascus.
The US official accompany the Secretary of State said Powell would return to Washington after meeting talks with NATO and European allies in Brussels on Tuesday and recommend the changes to the sanctions on Iraq to President George W. Bush.
Then, Washington would consult with friends, allies in the region who backed the Gulf War as well as those opposed to the sanctions and the UN Security Council, so that a consensus on formal changes to the sanctions could be reached, the official said.
Earlier Monday, Powell held talks in Saudi Arabia, after which Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said his country and the US favored a revision of the sanctions on Iraq, while stressing the need for Baghdad to abide by UN resolutions.
"The two sides agreed on the need to go ahead with a revision of the embargo imposed on Iraq and to find a way to end the suffering of the Iraqi people," said Prince Saud. "It is necessary at the same time to guarantee that the Iraqi regime abides by the resolutions of the UN Security Council, linked to the situation between Iraq and Kuwait," Prince Saud was quoted by the SPA agency as saying. — (AFP, Damascus)
by Matthew Lee
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
