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U.N. Security Council Renews Iraq's "Oil-for-Food" Program
The United Nations Security Council decided Thursday night to renew Iraq's "oil-for-food" program for another period of six months until December 5, 2000.
In a resolution, which was unanimously adopted, the Security Council allowed Iraq to sell as much oil as it can over this period, which begins on June 9.
The Security Council also allowed Iraq to spend 600 million U.S. dollars in this period for spare parts and equipment to upgrade its dilapidated oil industry.
The Security Council invited the U.N. Secretary-General to appoint independent experts to prepare by November 26, 2000, a comprehensive report and analysis of the humanitarian situation in Iraq, including the current humanitarian needs arising from that situation and recommendations to meet those needs, within the framework of the existing U.N. resolutions.
Iraq has been under stringent U.N. sanctions since its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The "oil-for-food" program, which was aimed at easing the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country caused by the sanctions, began implementation in late 1996.
The sanctions cannot be lifted until the United Nations is certain that Iraq has destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction in accordance with relevant U.N. resolutions.
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