UN Security Council lifts key sanctions on Iraq

NEW YORK - The UN Security Council decided Wednesday to terminate three major resolutions that it adopted after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, in a significant step to restore Iraq’s international standing.

The decision to terminate those resolutions was made in consideration of major achievements and progress made by the Iraqi government recently in building a future different from the one under dictator Saddam Hussein.

The council terminated a major resolution it imposed in 1990 that ordered an embargo on weapons and military equipment to prevent Iraq from acquiring the technology to manufacture weapons of mass destruction under Saddam. Some, but not all restrictions were lifted.

The lifting of the weapons embargo allows Iraq to continue efforts to build a civilian nuclear programme. Baghdad has signed on to abide by nuclear non-proliferation treaties and protocols on nuclear safety with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The council also terminated an internationally held development fund for Iraq, and turned it over to the sovereignty of Iraq. The funds were created after the US sent troops into Iraq in March 2003. The funds used income from Iraq’s oil exports for its own development.

The third decision by the council was to end the so-called oil-for-food programme, which was created in the 1990s to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, using the proceeds from oil exports. A residual of more than $600 million from remaining contracts will be turned over the Iraqi government. The oil-for-food scheme was ended after the overthrown of Saddam in 2003.

US Vice President Joe Biden presided over the 15-nation council because the US holds the rotating leadership of the body in December. The council adopted separate resolutions to repeal the three resolutions adopted in the past 20 years in its efforts to address the conflicts and humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

Biden said the council’s decision to terminate the three resolutions was taken in recognition of democratic progress made so far by the Iraqi government.

“Iraq has emerged from the depth of sectarian violence and its people have earned the chance for a much better future in the days ahead,” Biden said.

He said Washington has withdrawn 100,000 US soldiers from Iraq and ended their combat mission there, while leaving behind 50,000 other soldiers with the primary mission of advising and training Iraqi security personnel.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the council that his country still needs international support to continue the tasks of rebuilding the country as well as reforming its political and constitutional institutions. He said a new Iraqi government will be formed “very, very soon”.

Baghdad will host a summit of Arab states in March as a “clear signal of progress and the embrace of Arab fellow countries”, Zebari said.

The council held a minute of silence before it voted on the resolutions in tribute to US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, who died Monday. He was also a former US envoy to the UN.