International   

`Iraqi oil revenue will be placed under U.N.'

An Iraqi fills a barrel with petrol, smuggled from Mosul in Iraq, at the northern part of Kurdish-controlled Mosul Lake in northern Iraq on Sunday. — AP

Cairo March 30. The United States and Britain will place Iraq's future oil revenue in a U.N.-supervised account, said the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in an article published today in Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram.

The U.S. ``President (George W.) Bush, Prime Minister (of Spain Jose Maria) Aznar and I have pledged Iraq's oil will be placed in a U.N. trust fund to benefit the people of Iraq and renew a once great nation,'' wrote Mr. Blair.

``We will work together towards lifting U.N. sanctions as soon as Iraq meets its obligations,'' he added, referring to the embargo imposed after Baghdad's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

``I want all Iraqis — Arab, Assyrian, Kurd, Turkoman, Sunni, Shiite, Christian and all other groups — to share in the fruits of this new, prosperous Iraq, united within its current border,'' Mr. Blair said.

``British military forces will withdraw from Iraq as soon as practicable. We hope to see the early establishment of a transitional civilian administration,'' he stressed.

Mr. Blair's comment comes amid British press reports of differences between him and Mr. Bush on the role of the U.N. in post-war Iraq, including supervision of the vital oil sector.

Britain wants a prominent role for the U.N. while the U.S. is wary of its slow bureaucracy, offering the international organisation a backseat with mainly humanitarian prerogatives. — AFP

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Strategy on track, no supply shortage: Franks
• `Iraqi oil revenue will be placed under U.N.'
• Cook wants British troops pulled out
• Massive rally in Pak.
• I did not overrule military planners: Rumsfeld
• Saddam rewards bomber's kin
• Dhaka terms U.S. request unwarranted
• U.S. rules out pause in campaign
• Chinese students denounce U.S. campaign
• Indian ship turned back by coalition forces
• 30 Israelis hurt in attack on mall
• Rise in number of journalists behind bars in 2002: report
• 'Pak. atomic bomb was ready in 1984'

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu