Baghdad - President Saddam Hussein has stepped up Iraq's rejection of "smart" sanctions, as the UN Security Council started to debate a US-British draft to ease a decadeold embargo and target the Iraqi leadership. The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Tareq Aziz, warned that Baghdad would hit back by suspending the oil-for-food programme through which Iraq exports crude under UN supervision to finance imports of humanitarian supplies.
Iraq says almost 1.5 million of its citizens have died because of the embargo and that the oil-for-food programme does not meet even the most basic needs of its 22 million population. Smart sanctions aim to prevent Iraqi rearmament after its defeat in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, while depriving Baghdad of the opportunity to blame sanctions for the suffering of its people.