Iraq to resume oil exports, ambassador says
Iraq has accepted the terms of a new UN Security Council resolution and will resume oil exports.
Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations made the announcement after the UN extended the oil-for-food programme for an additional five months.
Iraq halted exports on June 4 to protest a U.S.-British proposal to overhaul sanctions, imposed after Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait in 1990.
"Everything will be normalised," Iraqi ambassador Mohammed al-Douri said just before signing a memorandum of understanding with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Mr Al-Douri indicated that it was only a technical matter before Iraq restores its oil exports to a normal level of about two million barrels a day.
Facing a veto by Russia, Britain and the United States dropped their sanctions proposal on Tuesday and instead supported a simple extension of the oil-for-food programme, something Baghdad had demanded before it would restart its oil exports.
Created in 1996 as an exemption to the sanctions, the oil-for-food programme allows Iraq to export unlimited amounts of oil to purchase food, medicine and other essentials and to pay war reparations.
