WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's plan to overhaul sanctions on Iraq calls for posting U.N. monitors just outside the country's borders and at key foreign airports to prevent President Saddam Hussein's regime from importing military goods, the Washington Post said Monday.
Countries neighboring Iraq would be enticed to cooperate in exchange for the chance to buy Iraqi oil at discounted prices, the Post said, quoting U.S. and European officials who have been working on the proposals.
Some or all of their payments might be deposited into special accounts that Iraq could use only to buy imports from these neighbors, such as Jordan, Syria and Turkey, it said.
Washington's plan calls for the United Nations to draft a list of oil companies authorized to buy Iraqi petroleum, aiming to eliminate shadowy middlemen believed by Western officials to be making illegal payments to Hussein's regime, the Post said.
The State Department last week said Washington had made progress in talks with Arab states on revised sanctions against Iraq, but officials said the United States was unlikely to have written proposals ready in time for this week's Arab summit.
Secretary of State Colin Powell last month said he found broad agreement among Arab leaders for the concept of easing the restrictions on civilian goods while tightening restrictions on military equipment, especially when related to weapons of mass destruction.
Few details of the Bush administration's plan to revamp sanctions against Iraq have been disclosed to date. The Post said some of the elements now emerging could be adopted by the United States alone.
Others would require steps by the U.N. sanctions committee and perhaps a resolution from the 15-member Security Council, where these measures would have to win assent from longtime critics of the embargo such as France, Russia and China.
The Post said U.S. officials hoped to hammer out all the specifics by June, when the Security Council is scheduled to review Iraqi sanctions.
By that date, the administration also plans to have answered two other central questions about its Iraq policy: what kind of support to provide to Iraqi opposition groups, and whether to change the enforcement of the "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq, according to the Post.
The Post quoted U.S. and European officials as saying the sanctions proposals advanced so far had been welcomed by key members of the Security Council, including France and Russia, although discussions on technical details are just starting.