Iraq: Sanctions (Hansard, 17 March 1999)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean)
My Lords, sanctions against Iraq have contained a brutal dictator and are a key tool in coercing Iraq into compliance with its obligations under Security Council resolutions. We reject the propaganda which suggests that sanctions are responsible for the suffering of the Iraqi people. It is the government in Baghdad which ensures that over 720 275 million dollars worth of medical supplies lie undistributed in warehouses and that food produced locally is sold to neighbouring countries rather than feeding the Iraqi people. We are putting forward ideas to the UN assessment panel currently addressing the humanitarian situation in Iraq.

§ Lord Judd
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that it is precisely because the Saddam regime is one of the most cold-blooded, ruthless and oppressive in history that we should do everything possible to protect the innocent and to deny that regime any propaganda advantage? Can my noble friend assure us that the thinking which the Government have been doing on the application of sanctions can be rapidly applied to the Iraqi situation so that sanctions are targeted on those upon whom they should be targeted so that suffering can be relieved? Does my noble friend further agree that the ultimate test of all we are doing on sanctions is our clear long-term objective for security in the region as a whole?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, if my noble friend is suggesting that we should relax sanctions against Iraq, I cannot agree with him. Relaxing those sanctions without Iraq having met its obligations would be a serious mistake. It would reward the obstinacy of a brutal dictator, it would leave him free to build up a military threat against others in the region and it would signal that the international community had lost the will to enforce its demands as put forward in the United Nations Security Council resolutions. I remind my noble friend that the latest reports of the UN special rapporteur, Max van der Stoel, hold Iraq primarily responsible for the precarious food and health situation in that country. My noble friend made reference to the review of the sanctions policy which my right honourable friend announced earlier this week. It is true that the Government have been looking at ways of targeting sanctions more against regimes than against some of the innocent people in those countries. But in putting forward those plans my right honourable friend also made clear that he did not believe that it would be possible to have that kind of specific targeting in the case of Iraq.

§ Lord Blaker
My Lords, what is the Government's assessment of the state of President Saddam Hussein's programme for developing weapons of mass destruction?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, the noble Lord asks an extremely important question. It was in order to try to assess what is happening over the programme of weapons of mass destruction that, on 30th January, the Security Council set up three panels. One is looking into what has happened to Kuwaiti prisoners; another is examining the humanitarian aspects; the third is looking at weapons of mass destruction and the way in which the Security Council resolutions can still be carried forward. We hope that 721 the results of the work being undertaken by the United Nations will be put forward shortly, possibly in a couple of months' time.

§ Lord Steel of Aikwood
My Lords, is it not the case that allied policy has perforce had to change to more military containment of Iraq, which hurts the regime there directly? In that context, is it not reasonable to ask that the discussions that are starting should see some lifting of the sanctions, which hurt the people of Iraq directly?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, there has been some military activity. I assume the activity to which the noble Lord refers is that which we have seen in the no fly zones, notably on 28th February and 1st March. I assure the noble Lord and the House that the action of the allies has been defensive action, strictly limited to proportional responses against Iraq's weapons and facilities which pose a threat to the coalition forces. The Security Council is presently discussing ways in which to make the oil-for-food programme more effective in meeting the needs of the Iraqi people. One of our proposals is to lift the ceiling on the oil-for-food programme. That would mean that there would be no limit to the amount of oil that Iraq could export to fund oil-for-food. That said, the key to all of this must be the willingness of the Iraqi regime to ensure that food reaches hungry people and that medical supplies get to where they are needed.

§ Lord Gisborough
My Lords, in view of the enormous amount of censorship, how much information is beamed into Iraq so that people there know that the food is being stored?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, as I mentioned in answer to my noble friend Lord Judd. we have the report of the special rapporteur. We know that the latest Iraqi plans on the distribution of food involve a reduction in the calorific value of the daily food ration. We know that Iraq has allocated 25 million dollars to the purchase of banknote counting machines and 100 million dollars to the purchase of telecommunications equipment—all of this while Iraq is holding 275 million dollars' worth of medical supplies and distributing only 15 per cent. of medical equipment. Iraq is also attempting to sell food to its neighbours—for example, to Syria and it has attempted to do so to Jordan.

§ Lord Kennet
My Lords, in view of the adoption of five new principles which should govern sanctions and which were announced on Monday by my noble friend in a Written Answer to my noble friend Lady David, and in view of the fact that the current sanctions on Iraq breach at least three of those five principles, can my noble friend give any idea as to when she hopes to lift them?

§ Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
My Lords, as I indicated, the Government have been doing a 722 great deal of work on sanctions policy. We are examining whether policies can be improved so that they punish the regimes of the countries concerned rather than innocent people in those countries. When my right honourable friend published the outcome of the review, he made clear that there would be rare occasions when comprehensive sanctions should be imposed where the behaviour of the target regime justifies the toughest measures. My right honourable friend said that Iraq is one such place.