The United States yesterday proposed lifting all limits on Iraq’s oil-for-food sales, hoping to discredit Saddam Hussein’s claims that the West is starving his people.
But Baghdad rejected the proposal, and further escalated Gulf tensions by claiming ownership of part of Kuwait’s “land and coasts.”
The exchange came as American jets fired missiles at Iraqi air-defense batteries for a fourth straight day in the northern “no-fly” zone. There was no word on damage.
At the United Nations, the United States modified its strategy of economic pressure against Saddam yesterday by saying Iraq should be allowed to sell all the oil it can – provided the proceeds go to pay for food and medicine.
But Baghdad said the U.S. proposal was “meaningless” because Iraq was already exporting as much oil as the depressed world market could bear.
Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nizar Hamdoon, urged an end to all U.N. sanctions and denounced the U.S. plan as “a cover-up for their entire Iraq policy.”
France, which has been critical of the sanctions, called this week for lifting the oil embargo and installing a monitoring system to prevent Saddam from acquiring new weapons of mass destruction.
The Clinton administration said yesterday it was willing to discuss the French plan – but Iraq said it would settle for nothing less than an end of all sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.