Economic Sanctions

WASHINGTON -- The United States said yesterday that it had new evidence showing that President Saddam Hussein had spent money to build a sprawling amusement park to entertain his political followers instead of feeding hungry Iraqis.In a report intended to convince other governments to retain tough economic sanctions against Iraq, the State Department said the entertainment complex was detected in aerial photographs."Despite its claims that the people of Iraq are dying due to a lack of food and medicine, Saddam Hussein doesn't hesitate to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for the entertainment of Baath Party officials and cadres," said James P. Rubin, the State Department spokesman.

WASHINGTON -- Tacitly acknowledging that the U.S. campaign to contain Iraq is collapsing, the Clinton administration will support a proposal next week to ease economic sanctions against Baghdad and dilute efforts to monitor Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.The proposal would remove the limits on Iraqi oil sales permitted under a United Nations-administered program, U.S. and U.N. officials said. The oil sales proceeds are used to buy food and humanitarian supplies for the Iraqi people.

PRESIDENT Clinton has changed our TV channel from war in Iraq to the new war raging in Kosovo. But we should not lose sight of the continuing military and humanitarian tragedy in Iraq. In a clear breach of the goals of U.N. Resolution 687 -- the 1991 Iraqi cease-fire and sanctions resolution -- new weapons are being shipped, escalating tensions and threatening further death and destruction in the unstable and arms-bloated Middle East.But this time it's the United States, not Iraq, that is undermining international law and standing in violation of the resolution Washington drafted and guided to Security Council passage.

THE PRESSURE is now on the United States to end the unilateral sanctions it slapped on Libya in 1981 for alleged support of terrorism.It should consider doing so, following the lead of Britain, which on Wednesday ended the sanctions it imposed in 1984, after gunfire from inside the Libyan embassy in London killed Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher, who was keeping order at a demonstration outside.Further ensuring Libya's pariah status were United Nations sanctions inhibiting air travel and investment in Libya's oil industry.

MOSCOW -- Small countries that border Russia have never been in an enviable position, and when Moscow starts to throw its weight around it means just one thing: trouble.Trouble came to Georgia in February, and to Latvia and Norway in March. A new assertiveness is stirring in Russia, and the neighbors better watch out."Russia was disoriented for several years, and it had very little respect for itself," says Dmitri Trenin, an analyst with the Carnegie Moscow Center. "That can't go on forever."

WASHINGTON -- In the meadow of the president's mind, in the untended portion where foreign policy thoughts sprout randomly, this flower recently bloomed concerning the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests: "I cannot believe that we are about to start the 21st century by having the Indian subcontinent repeat the worst mistakes of the 20th century."What mistakes did he mean? Having nuclear weapons? Were it not for them, scores of thousands of Americans would have died in 1945 ending the fighting in the Pacific.

WASHINGTON -- In the summer of 1991, Americans lined the streets of the nation's capital to cheer the soldiers who had driven back the Iraqi aggressors and gape in awe at a 7-block parade of high-tech weaponry used to enforce what George Bush dubbed a "new world order."Amid the patriotic pageantry, many people overlooked the beginning of a scary experiment: Instead of overrunning Iraq and toppling the vanquished Saddam Hussein, the United States and its allies chose to watch him and contain him, using economic sanctions, inspectors and scientists.

WASHINGTON -- As American diplomats try to rebuild the once-powerful coalition that drove Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, they are being undercut at almost every turn.Russia declared its adamant opposition yesterday to the use of force against Iraq, and China appeared to agree.Egypt highlighted the general Arab unhappiness with the United States by announcing that it would boycott a U.S.-promoted Middle East economic conference.And France, while critical of Iraq, granted Baghdad's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, a high-level meeting in Paris while he was en route to the United Nations on Sunday.

WASHINGTON -- Bureaucratic logjams, Iraqi foot-dragging and deep-seated distrust hobble the United Nations' oil-for-food deal with Iraq, prolonging the suffering of millions.A year after Iraq was allowed to begin selling limited amounts of oil to buy food and medicine, no one is satisfied -- not U.N. officials, who say it fails to eradicate the causes of Iraqi hunger and disease; not the Iraqi people, who complain of inadequate and poor quality supplies; and not the United States, which is widely blamed in the Arab world for Iraqi misery from sanctions imposed for the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

An article in the Perspective section Dec. 7, "Two flaws exist in U.S. policy toward Iraq," suggested that Syria's dominance in Lebanon is a violation of United Nations resolutions. In fact, Syria's presence in Lebanon was requested by the Lebanese government, and the United Nations was never asked to consider it.The Sun regrets the error.THE LATEST skirmish between Iraq and the United States, while provoked by Saddam Hussein's expulsion of Americans on the United Nations monitoring team, demonstrates two fundamental flaws in U.S. policy.

WASHINGTON - - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Sunday that the severe sanctions the West is threatening against Iran could force a change in the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, especially since the country already is under severe economic distress. Speaking as officials from six world powers were preparing to meet with Iranian negotiators this Thursday to discuss Tehran's nuclear program, Gates noted that the unemployment rate is 40 percent among Iran's young people and asserted that past economic sanctions "are having an impact."

WASHINGTON - Filling up at the gas pump isn't just financially painful. Paying $4 a gallon also is creating headaches for the United States that are likely to spark new fighting overseas and to aggravate old conflicts. Iran, which trains, arms and finances terrorists across the Middle East, is raking in an extra $4 billion a month thanks to the increased price of oil. That money may show up as sophisticated new roadside bombs in Iraq or as rockets raining down on Israel, experts say. The cascade of cash also gives Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extra protection against the economic sanctions the U.S. is hoping will force Iran to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is considering designating Eritrea as a state sponsor of terrorism, accusing it of running arms to Islamic insurgents in Somalia, the State Department's top official for Africa said yesterday. American officials say Eritrea, on the Red Sea, has been trying to destabilize the fragile government in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. That government came to power after Ethiopian troops, backed by the U.S., invaded Somalia and toppled an administration run by radical Islamic militias.

Fresh from his fight over Iraq war spending, President Bush has been busy this week at the more constructive task of burnishing his humanitarian credentials. He's stepping up pressure on Sudan to halt the genocide in Darfur; proposing to double funding for global AIDS programs to $30 billion over five years, and installing at the World Bank a skilled negotiator knowledgeable in these and many related issues. And yet Mr. Bush's positive initiatives remain crippled by the global ill will engendered by America's pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration restored full diplomatic ties with Libya yesterday, rewarding a longtime foe for giving up terrorism and unconventional weapons, while tacitly encouraging Iran and other countries to follow suit. Completing a reversal that began three years ago, Bush administration officials said they will open an embassy in Tripoli and drop Libya from their list of nations that sponsor terrorism. C. David Welch, assistant secretary of state for the Middle East, said the announcement demonstrated that when countries "follow international norms, they will reap concrete benefits."

WASHINGTON - Iran's decision to resume its uranium conversion activity in defiance of Europe and the United States raises the specter of sanctions imposed against Tehran by the U.N. Security Council. Sanctions always have been a favorite punishment against the rogue state. But as the Iraqi case shows, they are easily breached and do little to bring about behavioral change. With no realistic military option, economic sanctions are always the fallback. In Iran's case, economic sanctions may be a double-edged sword.

TOKYO - The association of relatives of Japanese abductees to North Korea and ruling and opposition parties are calling on the government to impose economic sanctions on Pyongyang following an official announcement Wednesday that said the remains given to Japan by Pyongyang were not those of Megumi Yokota. The government for its part is waiting to see how North Korea will explain the discrepancy between the results of DNA testing in Japan and Pyongyang's claims that the remains were those of Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at age 13. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Wednesday night that talks with Pyongyang would continue despite the latest development.

This holiday season provides both humorous and sad money stories. In the midst of wondering whether we'll receive a surprise Lexus or Jaguar with a red bow on Christmas morning, or whether Santa will reward us for knowing the answer to the business-related question that Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings got wrong, it's easy to lose perspective. There are more important considerations in the world than Donald Trump firing someone on The Apprentice television program. The sad story is the United Nations' oil-for-food scandal unfolding this holiday season.

Because of federal regulations, Goucher College has to move this winter's Cuba study-abroad program. The new location? Probably Miami. "Obviously, Little Havana isn't the same thing, and it would radically change the context of the class," said Eric Singer, Goucher's director of international studies. "We have no choice." Schools across Maryland and the nation are scrambling to deal with the federal government's recent ruling that prohibits academic programs in Cuba unless they are at least 10 weeks long.

WASHINGTON - President Bush eased economic sanctions on Libya yesterday, rewarding Col. Muammar el Kadafi for renouncing weapons of mass destruction and opening opportunities for American companies to do business in his nation. The action, announced by the White House while Bush was in Florida, had been anticipated for many weeks. But it was nonetheless drastic, since it softened a hard-line policy that has been in place for years against a leader who was once an enemy of the United States.