PRESS CONFERENCE BY CHAIRMAN OF SANCTIONS COMMITTEE

12 July 1996

Press Briefing

19960712 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

The Chairman of the Security Council Committee set up to monitor the sanctions against Iraq, Tono Eitel (Germany), said at a press conference this afternoon that the Committee had adjourned without approving the draft of the expedited procedures to implement resolution 986 (1995), as had been expected, because two of the 15 delegations had no instructions from their governments. "There was no date set, as yet, for a further meeting", he said.

"You are aware that today the Committee met for little time, and that was due to the fact that we achieved little business", the Mr. Eitel told correspondents.

At the Committee's meeting last Tuesday, 9 July, a clean copy of the 12-page draft expedited procedures had been examined and the whole Committee had assumed that, with one small option still unresolved, "it could be adopted today", Mr. Eitel added. The text would have been approved by 13 of the delegations, who "were ready to adopt it", but the other two delegations had not yet received instructions regarding the draft.

The delegations had made it plain that this was not due to specific problems which had arisen within the text, but rather simply because so many agencies in their respective capitals had for the first time had a look at the draft, which was "not easy reading". The Committee then, "with much regret", adjourned the meeting and had now to wait for news from those two delegations. Hopefully, it would soon be able to adopt the expedited procedures concerning resolution 986.

How long would it take? a correspondent asked. "I asked whether they could give us an idea [as to when they would receive their instructions]. Had they said, for example, about a week, we would have tentatively arranged a meeting in a week from now", Mr. Eitel answered, adding that some administrative preparations were necessary due to the need for translations. But neither delegation was able to give any indication.

The mechanism was actually agreed to by 13 delegations? a correspondent asked. "Thirteen could have agreed today", Mr. Eitel said.

A correspondent asked whether the minor issues outstanding he had referred to in last Tuesday's press conference had been the problem. Mr. Eitel said that they had been solved, as "it was not a major problem", adding that the Committee was master of its methods.

What was then the next step? a correspondent asked. "Wait for those two delegations", Mr. Eitel said, adding that after some time he would ask them to report to the Chairman as to how matters stood, "and whether I can do anything in order to speed up the process". At present, the delay was in itself "harmful, because there are other things which still have to be done before [resolution] 986 mechanism can become operative". But at least, for the 13 other negotiators, the fact that they had agreed "and done our job" was a very hopeful signal, he added.

How long would the Chairman wait until he got in touch with those two delegations? a correspondent asked. "It depends on the signals I get in between", Mr. Eitel said. If the delegations said to wait for perhaps another week, then "I could try to do something, but, of course, what can I do?".

Was it possible to say that those delays were related to other negotiations, indirectly? a correspondent asked. "I have heard that, but I refuse to believe it", the Chairman replied. The other negotiations were led by the Secretariat and Iraq and had nothing to do with what the Committee was competent to do, "and I would not assume that governments would try to influence, in an inappropriate way, institutions which are outside the body we are presently speaking of".

If all 15 delegations approved the draft, how soon would oil start flowing again or the oil exports start? a correspondent asked. "That is my point", Mr. Eitel noted. The whole process did not depend on the expedited procedures, so it was neither "today nor tomorrow". There was the distribution plan, which was still being negotiated by the Secretariat and Iraq, "and then we have the job, that is our job, to select the overseers and the other monitors".

Did the Chairman have the list of nominees for the seers, so as to start studying it, as you said last Tuesday? a correspondent asked. The Chairman said he did not, adding that he would assume that the list "would come only once" after the draft expedited procedures were adopted, on which the list was based. It would not make much sense to work on the selection of overseers before the adoption of the expedited procedures.

The Committee had now been negotiating for more than seven weeks, and it was possible to assume that the two delegations had had plenty of time to look at the draft, a correspondent said. Mr. Eitel said that some government agencies did not look at a draft that was still being negotiated; in some cases, there were agencies "whose approval was necessary before the government could say yes, and I would assume that it is those agencies who now have difficulties". He added that in 13 other capitals, however, the approval process had been possible.

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