"UN lifts key sanctions against Iraq" by Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press / December 16, 2010
UNITED NATIONS—The U.N. Security Council gave a unanimous vote of confidence Wednesday to the significant strides Iraq has taken by lifting 19-year-old sanctions on weapons and civilian nuclear power.
What took them so long?
The council also decided to return control of Iraq's oil and natural gas revenue to the government next summer and to settle all remaining claims over the controversial oil-for-food program, which helped ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's army invaded Kuwait two decades ago.
Although some sanctions will remain in place until Iraq and Kuwait settle outstanding issues from that war, Wednesday's vote was a major step to restore Iraq's international standing a year before the U.S. is to pull its last troops out of the country. It came a day after a power-sharing agreement ended a lengthy deadlock on forming a new Iraqi government.
Vice President Joe Biden, who presided over the meeting, told the council the move marked "an important milestone for the government of Iraq and people of Iraq in their ongoing effort to leave behind their troubled past and embrace a much brighter future."
"The three resolutions we've passed bring an end to the burdensome remnants of the dark era of Saddam Hussein," he said.
Which now look like the good old days to most Iraqis after seven years of destruction and occupation.
And never you mind all those birth defects from the depleted uranium with which AmeriKa littered the place.
Biden's presence was a sign of the importance the Obama administration gave to the vote. The U.S. holds the Security Council presidency this month. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the adoption of the resolutions "marks the beginning of the end of the sanctions regime and restrictions on Iraq's sovereignty, independence and recovery."
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The council expressed confidence in Iraq's commitments to nonproliferation by lifting sanctions against acquiring weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles or pursuing a civilian nuclear power program.
But Iran can't have one.
Iraq's constitution bars the country from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, and Baghdad is a party to most of the main nuclear, chemical, biological and missile treaties.
The council had said in February that it would lift the ban on Iraq's use of civilian nuclear power after it ratified several additional international treaties along with a protocol that allows the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out unannounced inspections....
So much for sovereignty and all that other shit.
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Related: UN removes key Iraq sanctions (By Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times)
That's what you webbers got, and I never read New York Times updates. Sorry.
