On Tuesday, Executive director of the United Nations oil-for-food program said that the UN effort in Iraq has made an important positive impact on the country's citizens, adding that much more must be done to help respond to their needs.
"Irrespective of all the complaints and criticisms leveled against it, the program has indeed made, and continues to make a considerable difference in the day-to-day life of the Iraqi people all over the country," Sevan told a closed-door meeting of the Security Council, according to IRNA.
Recently returning from an official visit to Iraq, his first since 1997, he stated that he had found "an ocean of difference" marked by improvements in several sectors, a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) in Tehran said.
Meanwhile, Sevan also warned against complacency, pointing out that it was "incumbent on all parties concerned to fully cooperate and to make a concerted and determined effort in order to maximize the benefits of the program for the Iraqi people and mitigate, to the extent possible, the unintended consequences of the sanctions on the daily life of the average Iraqi citizen."
On Tuesday, the Office of the Iraq Program reported that the total volume of Iraqi crude exports last week dropped to an amount of 10.3 million barrels.
Sevan further expressed that the diminishing levels of exports was most likely a consequence of retroactive pricing, a policy which he said made it much more hard for contract holders to receive an abnormally high premium for Iraqi crude oil.
Moreover, he appealed to all parties, including the Baghdad government, to resolve the issue in order to avoid a disruption of oil exports from Iraq, which is the sole source of revenue available to the program. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
