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 | | Sunday, 5 May, 2002, 19:42 GMT 20:42 UK Iraq to resume oil exports  Saddam Hussein urged Arab nations to join oil protest Iraq has said it will resume oil exports this week, ending its one-month protest against Israel's recent offensive in Palestinian areas. The country's cabinet announced it would begin exporting oil again at midnight on 7 May - 30 days after it had urged other oil-rich Arab states to join its protest. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had called on Arab oil-producers to cut output by 50% and cease all exports to the United States and Israel. Baghdad had stopped its oil exports - about 2 million barrels per day - on April 8, but no other countries followed suit. Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil producer, said it had ruled out using its oil exports as a weapon in the Middle East conflict.
Iran and Libya had expressed support for the idea, but neither country agreed to cut its exports. In a statement shown Sunday on state-run Iraqi TV, the country's cabinet acknowledged that "brotherly Arab oil producers did not respond to the Iraqi initiative by taking similar steps such that everyone would succeed." Baghdad still faces international economic sanctions for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, but is allowed to export oil under a UN humanitarian food-for-oil program. When Iraq announced its export ban in April, it said it would last until Israel pulled out of the Palestinian territories. Although the Israeli army has since withdrawn from some areas, it remains in Bethlehem and incursions continue in other areas of the West Bank. | |
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