THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190284
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
U.N. and Iraqi negotiators adjourned ``oil-for-food'' talks Monday until next month, and both sides said a dispute over how to distribute aid to Iraqi Kurds was hindering an agreement.
The talks will resume here April 8, giving Iraqi President Saddam Hussein time to reconsider his government's rejection of the U.N. demands as an infringement on Iraq's sovereignty.
The Security Council refuses to lift economic sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait until U.N. inspectors verify that Baghdad has stopped work on weapons of mass destruction.
The sanctions include a ban on oil exports. But the Security Council has offered to let Iraq sell $1 billion in oil every 90 days under international supervision to buy food and medicine for its people, who have been hard-hit by the sanctions.
U.N. spokesman Sylvana Foa said the two sides had made ``considerable progress'' during the latest round of talks, which began March 11. A first round was held in February.
But the talks have failed to resolve the most contentious issue: how to distribute food and medicine to Iraqi Kurds, who have been battling the Baghdad government for decades.
The U.N. offer requires that $130 million to $150 million of the food be distributed to the Kurds. The two sides disagree over who will distribute the food.
The United Nations also wants Iraq to make clear to the Kurds that the aid is from international sources, not from the government.
U.N. officials said the Iraqis wanted to avoid any distribution system that questioned the ``territorial integrity'' of Iraq. The Iraqis argued that a separate distribution system for the Kurds would do just that.
``There is really only one basic issue, which is how to organize the distribution plan,'' Iraqi chief negotiator Abdul Amir al-Anbari said after the talks.
Meanwhile, the chief U.N. weapons inspector accused Iraq on Monday of a ``pattern'' of defiance, saying it had blocked his team from entering suspected weapons storage sites five times in the previous 10 days.
Rolf Ekeus, in a briefing for the Security Council, said the Iraqis had eventually relented in each of the five cases. He said no illegal weapons were found, but at one site, smoke was seen rising from an incinerator. ILLUSTRATION: U.S. Navy
The Norfolk-based aircraft carrier George Washington travels south
through the Suez Canal Saturday. The George Washington, commanded by
Capt. Malcolm P. Branch, is en route for duty in the Persian Gulf in
support of U.N. sanctions against Iraq under Operation Southern
Watch.
by CNB