Sanctions Against Iraq

JERUSALEM - Beginning his first major overseas trip as secretary of state, Colin L. Powell was thrown on the defensive yesterday over the issue that a decade ago made him a hero to Americans and Persian Gulf Arabs: U.S. policy toward Iraq. Arriving in Cairo to a hostile reception in the Egyptian news media, Powell was treated to further criticism of United Nations sanctions against Iraq at a joint news conference with Egypt's foreign minister, Amr Moussa, after meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

THE resignations should be a wake-up call for Washington. Hans Von Sponeck, the United Nation's assistant secretary general and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, announced his resignation last week after 15 months on the job, because he became convinced that "every month, Iraq's social fabric shows bigger holes." The next day, the chief of the U.N.'s World Food Program in Baghdad, Jutta Burghardt, quit as well, also to protest how the economic sanctions against Iraq are eroding its society.

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.

UNITED NATIONS -- While the conflict in Kosovo has played out, diplomats have quietly been trying to address problems in another trouble spot: Iraq.A new proposal making the rounds at the United Nations would allow suspension of some economic sanctions against Iraq if the country opens itself to inspection by a new U.N. agency.The agency, the United Nations Commission on Inspection and Monitoring (UNCIM), would, according to a proposal being circulated by British and Dutch diplomats, take over all "assets, liabilities, staff and archives" of the controversial U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM)

UNITED NATIONS -- As delicate negotiations over a new international policy on Iraq go on behind the scenes, President Saddam Hussein is complicating his situation in the United Nations Security Council with a stream of bellicose statements directed both at his enemies and at friends such as Russia, France and his Arab neighbors.Iraqis also are sending mixed signals about their ties to the United Nations, which administers a huge oil-for-food program in their country. Iraq has said it will never allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return, but has generally cooperated with aid workers.

DEALING with Iraq's tyrant, Saddam Hussein, does no involve a choice between force and diplomacy. Neither provides hope of restoring the arms inspection process without the other.In reneging on his commitments to the United Nations, ordering U.N. arms inspectors out of the country, Saddam Hussein is counting on his persistence and focus where foreign powers are fitful and anxious to move on. This crisis could have been ended years ago, with economic sanctions against Iraq lifted, had he allowed the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM)

NEW CANAAN, Conn. -- Inside a two-story building in this leafy suburb, a staff of 60 is overseeing an American air invasion of Iraq.This week, AmeriCares, a private relief agency, is running what government officials say is the first American-led humanitarian mission to Iraq since the Persian Gulf war in 1991: a three-day airlift that will bring 80,000 pounds of medical supplies to Baghdad by tomorrow.AmeriCares' airlift is one of a growing number of efforts by Americans and U.S. nonprofit groups to circumvent the nearly 8-year-old U.N. sanctions against Iraq.

Not everybody in this country is egging President Clinton on to bomb Iraq. One voice at least is raised in protest, from Hampden.Ellen Barfield thinks the sanctions imposed in 1990 are bad enough. But the prospect of more bombing "horrifies" her.Barfield's is a voice in the wilderness, literally and figuratively. She is a peace activist linked to an organization called "Voices in the Wilderness," formed two years ago in Chicago. Its aim is to end the sanctions against Iraq, imposed by the United Nations as punishment for its invasion of Kuwait.

When you picture Iraq, what do you see? Visions of Saddam Hussein? Hidden containers of anthrax and nerve gas? Scud missiles on alert?Having visited Iraq last spring, this is what I see: dignified Muslim women begging on Baghdad street corners; young boys hawking cigarettes and kerosene to help support their families; a father running with his child into a hospital emergency room because there are so few functioning ambulances; a middle-aged man with diabetes...

BEHIND U.S. ACQUIESCENCE in the partial lifting of economic sanctions against Iraq and Saddam Hussein's acceptance of limitations on his national sovereignty lies the geo-political reality of Iran. While Iraq remains the chief irritant in the Persian Gulf, Iran is currently the greater threat. Hence, it is in the U.S. interest to restore and maintain equilibrium, as best it can, in the oil-rich Iran-Iraq-Saudi Arabian triangle.Humanitarian concerns are very much at stake in the U.N. Security Council's decision to allow the Baghdad regime $2 billion in oil exports over the next six months, with the proceeds to be distributed under strict U.N. supervision.