Sanctions Against Iraq

Browsing the antiques markets of London a few years ago, McGuire Gibson, an expert on Mesopotamian art and archaeology at the University of Chicago, found some of his worst fears confirmed: Dealers offered him antiquities probably smuggled from Iraq, which sits astride the remains of several ancient civilizations.Cylinder seals, which were once used on tablets of wet clay in something like an ancient version of notarization, were for sale by the bagful. There were clay tablets with cuneiform writing from as early as the Babylonian period and other objects of uncertain origin.

WASHINGTON -- Opening the first crack in the tight economic sanctions imposed on Iraq 5 1/2 years ago, the United Nations agreed yesterday to let Baghdad resume selling oil on the world market to help feed and care for a desperate civilian population.It was the first loosening of sanctions against Iraq since the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the Persian Gulf war the next year.Oil prices dropped, then rose again as the market reacted. Analysts predicted that the additional oil eventually would dampen prices for crude oil, perhaps resulting in lower prices at the gas pump.

WASHINGTON -- Defying nearly five years of intense world pressure, Iraq has preserved a weapons arsenal powerful enough to wreak mass destruction in the Middle East and is trying to improve it, according to U.S. and United Nations officials.U.S. officials believe that Iraq is hiding warheads containing chemical and biological agents, as well as dozens of Scud missiles capable of reaching Persian Gulf adversaries and Israel. Iraq has 7,000 skilled technicians ready to resume development of nuclear weapons once international pressure eases, the officials say.Iraq has managed to hang on to that arsenal in the face of nearly five years of economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the most intrusive arms inspections ever conducted.

When Iraq was growing anthrax and botulism diseases to use as weapons in the 1980s, it was embroiled in a seemingly endless war that it had started against a more populous country, Iran. When Iraq (it now says) dismantled these weapons, it was preparing a war of conquest against a smaller neighbor that it claimed had no right to exist, Kuwait.Iraq threatened at that time to invade a less populous but richer neighbor, Saudi Arabia. And it hurled ballistic missiles at population centers in still another country it maintained should not exist, Israel, in hopes of distracting Arab states from its own aggression against some of them.

Iraq's recognition of Kuwait and its border is a positive step toward qualifying for lifting of United Nations sanctions against Iraq.But sanctions should not be lifted until all U.S. requirements are met. U.N. inspectors must be satisfied Iraq is clean of weapons of mass destruction. Rolf Ekeus, head of the U.N. Iraq disarmament commission, spoke of the need for more documentation on chemical and biological developments.Although France and Russia managed to block the U.N. Security Council from imposing an exclusion zone at the 32nd parallel below which Saddam Hussein's major military forces may not go, that is still a reasonable objective of U.S. policy.

If the United Nations were to lift its sanctions against Iraq and allow it to resume oil sales in the world market, a number of benefits would flow to American consumers, at least for the short term, experts agree.But the consequences for the other major Persian Gulf oil producers besides Iraq would not be pleasant.In the United States, gasoline prices and electricity bills could be expected to drop, if only briefly."Inflation would decline," said Henry Schuler. "That would reduce pressures on interest rates.

WASHINGTON -- Yesterday's tragedy over Iraq puts a harsh spotlight on the United States' determination to keep punishing Saddam Hussein's regime at a time when that policy is already under strain.Driven by commercial and political self-interest, France, Russia and even a couple of Persian Gulf monarchies have begun to retreat from a U.S.-led coalition that since 1991 has blocked any easing of sanctions against Iraq or the strict enforcement of no-fly zones innorthern and southern Iraq.The commercial embargo is what has prevented Baghdad from emerging anew as a major oil exporter.

BRICKBATS are showering Bill Clinton because he told the New York Times that if Saddam Hussein "wants a different relationship with the United States and the United Nations, all he has to do is change his behavior." Except for his suggestion that U.S. relations with Iraq could be normalized, he was right.George Bush has left the United States in an impossible dilemma. He has said the Iraqis must overthrow Saddam Hussein before the United States will support a lifting of U.N. sanctions.Since the Iraqis are unable to meet that demand and Saddam will not agree to it, the prospects for a near-term improvement in the crisis are slim.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Western diplomats are advocating United Nations sanctions and hinting that force is an option. Arab League officials are trying to defuse the crisis. Washington is telling U.S. citizens to evacuate an enemy pariah nation.There is defiant rhetoric about Arab unity. Bitter bombast about Western imperialism. Talk that a military action could fuel Muslim fundamentalism.It sounds like an eerie rerun of the slow slide to last year's war against Iraq.Yet this time the enemy is not Saddam Hussein's Iraq -- but Libya, led by Washington's longtime nemesis, Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

UNITED NATIONS -- The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have decided to continue sanctions against Iraq, but they agreed yesterday to allow Baghdad a one-time exception to sell up to $1.6 billion worth of petroleum, with part of the money to be used to buy food and medical supplies.Along with the permission to sell the oil comes a tough set of restrictions that would make sure that others, including the United Nations and countries with war-related claims against Iraq, get paid first.