UN to weigh lifting Saddam-era sanctions on Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

UN to weigh lifting Saddam-era sanctions on Iraq
By JOHN HEILPRIN
The Associated Press
Friday, February 26, 2010; 3:13 PM

UNITED NATIONS -- Iraq picked up momentum Friday in its bid to remove the U.N. trade sanctions that have been hampering its economy for nearly two decades in punishment for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

With Iraq preparing for March 7 elections and U.S. combat troops getting ready to withdraw in August, the Obama administration has been pushing for the U.N. Security Council to provide a boost to Iraq's economy by lifting sanctions affecting billions of dollars in annual trade.

After a brief meeting Friday, the Security Council pledged in its unanimously adopted U.S.-drafted statement "its readiness, once the necessary steps have been taken, to review, with a view towards lifting, the restrictions" on trade in chemicals and other items that it first imposed in 1991, under two sanctions resolutions.

Those include chemicals such as pesticides that are used in Iraq's agriculture but also could be used in weapons-making.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022603508.html

[bemildred]

1. Isn't this somewhat overdue? nt

[DRoseDARs]

2. My jaw dropped. Wtf? n/t

[christx30]

3. I figured that this

was done years ago. Weird. Saddam is 6 feet under and the US has been there for YEARS. It's like finding out in 1973 that there are still Japanese internment camps in California. People have been suffering needlessly for years. Did someone just not get a memo or something?