Sistani: UN Must End Saddam-Era Sanctions on Iraq

Key Portions of Multi-Decade Sanctions Remain in Place

A statement from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani was given by a spokesman today in Karbala, demanding that the United Nations finally end the multi-decade sanctions imposed on Iraq and restore it to “full sovereignty.”

Considerable sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990, and while some of them were removed when the US occupied Iraq in 2003, and others removed in the time since then, some key aspects of the sanctions remain on the books with no end in sight.

The last major revocation of sanctions came in December 2010, when the UN agreed to terminate a resolution authorizing the use of military force against Iraq if it attempted to obtain a civilian nuclear energy program, and another ending US and British control of Iraq’s oil and gas “development fund.”

The biggest part of the sanctions still on the books demands Iraq annually pay 5% of its oil and gas revenue as “reparations” to Kuwait for the 1990 invasion. Removal of this is predicated on coming to an agreement with Kuwait, but considerable tension remains.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.