ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:97052202.NNE

DATE:05/22/97

TITLE:22-05-97  U.S. UNDECIDED ABOUT RENEWAL OF IRAQI OIL DEAL, ENVOY SAYS



TEXT:

(Richardson:  "Oil-for-food" program has problems) (580)

By Judy Aita

USIA United Nations Correspondent



United Nations -- "The United State Government has not yet decided

whether to support the extension" of the resolution which allows Iraq

to export oil to buy humanitarian supplies, U.S. Ambassador Bill

Richardson said May 22.



Richardson said that while the United States recognizes that serious

shortages of food and medicine due to the mandatory economic embargo

on Iraq still exist, U.S. officials have not been able to determine

whether the U.N. scheme to allow Iraq to sell oil is having the

desired effect.



The so-called "oil-for-food" plan set out in Security Council

resolution 986 allows Iraq to sell $2,000 million of crude oil over

six months under close U.N. supervision on a renewable basis in order

to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies for Iraqi

civilians suffering the effect of the almost seven-year-old economic

embargo. The plan calls for strict monitoring by the U.N. to ensure

that the supplies go to Iraqi civilians in need. There is also a

requirement that the U.N. oversee the distribution of supplies in the

northern Kurdish area.



The resolution will be up for renewal June 7.



"We recognize that the humanitarian situation is still as difficult as

it was in 1995," Richardson said during a meeting with journalists.

"We also recognize that Iraq is no closer to meeting its obligations

and seeing the sanctions lifted than it was in 1995. So the same

arguments in favor of 986 that were valid then are valid today."



"However, we're not in a position to say that Iraq and the U.N. have

implemented the resolution as it was intended," said Richardson, who

is the chief U.S. envoy to the U.N.



"We expected the operation of 986 to be far more transparent than it

has proven to be in practice," he said.



There are two areas where the U.S. needs to see more details before it

will decide how to vote: the distribution of supplies to Iraqi

civilians and the program for the Kurds. As one of five permanent

members of the Security Council with veto power, a "no" vote from the

U.S. would end the oil sales.



The U.S. is evaluating "Iraq's distribution methods and the means by

which the U.N. is observing the distribution" and well as the

implementation of the program in northern Iraq, Richardson said.



Richardson also said that should the U.S. go along with the renewal of

resolution 986, "you should not expect us to agree to an increase" in

the amount of oil to be sold.



Responding to criticism that as a member of the Security Council

sanctions committee, which approves all Iraqi contracts to purchase

the humanitarian supplies under 986, the U.S. is interfering with the

process, Richardson said that U.S. actions "are not politically

motivated."



"We have put a large number of contracts on hold because Iraq has

failed to endorse the contracts -- a simple requirement which Iraq had

insisted upon -- or because they were for items that were not included

in the distribution (lists)," he said.



"We insist, and continue to insist, that Iraq, the (U.N.) secretariat,

and the (sanctions) committee follow precisely the requirements of the

council's resolution," he said.

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