Bush Administration calls for end of UN Iraq sanctions

Bush Administration calls for end of UN Iraq sanctions
By Edwin Chen and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers - 4/16/03


St. LOUIS -- President Bush today called on the United Nations to quickly lift its decade-long economic sanctions against Iraq, allowing the country to freely sell oil to help pay for its reconstruction.

"Now that Iraq is liberated, the United Nations should lift economic sanctions on that country," Bush told about 1,000 workers in an often politically flavored speech at a Boeing jet fighter plant here.

Exuding a sense of vindication, the president declared that the war against Iraq also demonstrates to terrorists and tyrants alike that America and its allies will act "in our own defense, instead of drifting toward tragedy" -- a reference to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Bush spoke shortly after the Department of Homeland Security lowered the domestic terrorist threat level to yellow -- a midrange status. The threat level had been at orange, the second-highest status, since shortly before the war began.

The U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, forbid member countries from buying Iraqi oil other than through a closely regulated oil-for-food program. A vote of the U.N. Security Council would be required to lift the sanctions, and some diplomats said the U.S. may have to agree to readmit U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq as a condition for approval.

"These are sanctions that prohibit countries from buying oil, or from selling goods to Iraq, other than through the oil for food program. And those are no longer needed," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan. "In the future, Iraq should be able to trade freely."