UNITED NATIONS, March 21: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday asked the Security Council to let him take over running Iraq’s oil-for-food humanitarian aid programme, now a joint venture between Baghdad and the United Nations.
While the primary responsibility for caring for Iraq’s 26 million people would lie “with the authority exercising effective control in the country” — the United States, in the event of a military victory — the United Nations could play its role in meeting crucial needs if the Security Council approved, Annan said in a letter to the council.
Besides the officials said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was preparing to issue next week an urgent appeal for more than $1 billion for emergency aid to Iraq, with most of the money earmarked for food purchases, UN officials said.
Annan asked the council to give him the flexibility to urgently review and renegotiate the existing contracts so the money could be redirected to the most urgent needs.
He said current contracting procedures could remain in place for the time being, with the proceeds of oil and petroleum product sales continuing to pay all costs and no funds coming from the UN budget.
The UN Security Council is expected to meet on Friday to consider the request.
As the UN Chief submitted his proposals for revamping the oil-for-food programme, the United States and Britain began circulating their own draft resolution, and the council set a Friday morning meeting to discuss the plans, diplomats said.
Diplomats here said that some council members including France, Russia and Germany would greet the US-British proposals with some skepticism as they remained angry that Washington and London had gone to war without council approval.
“We would be discussing the proposals from the secretary-general,” Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov said. “It is for him and not for anybody else to give these proposals.”
Under the existing oil-for-food programme, in place since 1996 but suspended this week due to the ongoing war, Iraq’s oil revenues go into a UN account out of which President Saddam Hussein’s government buys food, medicine and other goods for the general population under UN supervision.
Annan called on the Security Council to revise the programme so that the secretary-general could control the oil money.
The programme is crucial as more than 60 percent of Iraqis are completely dependent on it to meet their food needs, according to UN estimates. Baghdad said on Monday that enough food had been distributed to last through to August.
“The food distribution system is currently part of the state apparatus. It will have to continue to be used if we are to assure a functioning distribution system,” a senior UN official said.
Officials said $8.9 billion in goods have previously been approved and funded under the programme but not yet delivered, including $2.4 billion in food contracts — a nine-month supply.
Iraqi oil exports have been suspended since the United Nations withdrew all its foreign staff from the country earlier this week, ahead of the U.S.-led invasion that began overnight on Wednesday.
But once exports resumed, Annan said the Security Council should leave oil sales in the hands of the existing Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization, which could continue to function under the rules set out in previous council resolutions.