UNITED NATIONS (Islamweb & Agencies) - Iraq will resume oil exports after a month-long halt and has accepted the terms of a new Security Council resolution extending the U.N. oil-for-food program, Iraq's U.N. ambassador said Thursday. (Read photo caption below).
But hours after Mohammed al-Douri said that ``everything will be normalized,'' Iraq had still not signed off on a memorandum of understanding extending the humanitarian food program for an additional five months.
Al-Douri said the delay was due to some problems with the wording being worked out between Iraqi diplomats and the U.N. legal affairs department. Late Thursday, a U.N. spokesman said ``discussions are ongoing to resolve some technical issues.''
U.N. officials said the issues would not be resolved Thursday and discussions would continue on Friday.
Created in 1996 as an exemption to sanctions against Iraq, the program allows Iraq to export unlimited amounts of oil to purchase food, medicine and other essentials and pay war reparations.
It was unclear Tuesday whether Iraq would accept the new extension because that resolution had contained a mild reference to the U.S.-British proposal.
In Baghdad, the Iraqi leadership has remained silent on the oil-for-food program extension and has not given an indication of when exports might resume.
Immediately following the vote, al-Douri said Iraq needed time to study the resolution before taking a decision.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Workers maintain oil facilities Wednesday, July 4, 2001, at the al-Dora oil refinery in Baghdad, Iraq. Accepting the terms of a new Security Council resolution extending the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, Baghdad will resume oil exports shortly, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday, July 5, 2001. (AP Photo/Jassim Mohammed)