BAGHDAD, June 16: Iraq on Sunday accused the United States of trying
to sabotage its oil-for-food
lifeline, warning that crude
exports could drop below one million barrels per day due to the
contested UN pricing mechanism.
It's a plot by the US administration and its lackey, Britain,
to further harm the Iraqi people. It's a criminal plot that will
lead to death,
vice president of Iraq's parliamentary committee
on oil and energy, Adnan Janabi, told AFP.
He was protesting the UN-imposed retroactive pricing mechanism on
Iraqi crude, which Oil Minister Amr Rashid warned Saturday could drive
Iraq's crude exports below one million barrels per day in
June. The situation has become very serious,
Rashid said,
accusing the United States of looking to sabotage
the
oil-for-food
programme that allows Iraq to export oil and import
essential goods for the population.
The pricing system will cause a four billion dollar drop in Iraqi
revenue at the end of the current phase of the oil-for-food
programme,
which started in June and runs for six months, the
minister warned.
Last year, Britain and the United States forced a tougher pricing policy onto the Security Council's sanctions committee in response to what they said were attempts by Iraq to charge an illegal premium on its crude.
The price, which was previously determined at the start of each month by the oil overseers in consultation with the Iraqi oil ministry, is now set retroactively by the committee.
Rashid blames the retroactive system for scaring away buyers who do
not know what they will pay for oil until after the fact. It puts
our oil in a non-competitive situation,
he said.
The mechanism lays bare the hostile intentions of the US
administration which pretended that resolution 1409 would ease the
suffering of the Iraqi people while it was trying to turn off the tap
that gives life to these people,
Janabi said.
The oil expert was referring to Resolution 1409, adopted by the Security Council in mid-May and accepted by Baghdad, which seeks to free up the delivery of humanitarian supplies while maintaining the arms embargo and trade sanctions.-AFP
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