Baghdad - Iraq laid down its terms yesterday for a renewal of UN-supervised oil exports, signalling all exports would halt on June 4th for at least one month apart from tanker-truck deliveries to Jordan and Turkey.
The Oil Minister, Mr Amer al-Rashid, said Iraq would only resume exports under a regular six-month renewal of the UN oil-for-food programme, after rejecting a one-month extension decided by the UN Security Council.
He shrugged off a Saudi offer to make up for the shortfall on world oil markets, with the removal of 2.2 million barrels per day of Iraqi supplies ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna starting tomorrow. The renewal of oil-for-food should not be "linked to the US-British project" to impose a system of "smart" sanctions to modify the embargo in force since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, said Mr Rashid.