THIS morning, at 7 o'clock local time, Iraq was scheduled to begin pumping crude oil, the first exports for six years and four months, from Kirkuk to terminals at Yumuitulik on the Turkish coast and Mina al Bakr in the Gulf.
The pumping follows yesterday's formal presentation by the UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, to the Security Council of his recommendation that Iraq and the UN had fulfilled all the conditions for implementation of Resolution 986 of April 1995. This permits Baghdad to export $2 billion in oil over six months, on a renewable basis, in order to purchase desperately needed food and medical supplies.
This first step was taken in accordance with an agreement reached on May 20th of this year, which was blocked at first politically by the US and UK, and then physically by fighting in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq which the Turkish pipeline traverses.
An authoritative Western oil analyst told The Irish Times that the oil for food deal went through "because they [the US and UK] could find no more obstacles to place in its way".
On Sunday Washington said that the deal did not depend on Iraqi co operation with Mr Rauf Ekeus, the UN commissioner charged with overseeing the elimination of Iraq's arms of mass destruction, who is currently in Baghdad investigating whether Iraq has destroyed banned medium range missiles.
The pumping of the oil to holding tanks in Turkey and the Mina al Bakr terminal in the Gulf is only the first stage in the export process. It is expected that today several international oil companies will submit bids to Iraq which will be forwarded to the U for approval before letters of credit will be opened in a UN controlled escrow account.
Because the whole process is to be managed and monitored by the UN, virtually placing Iraq's major natural resource under UN mandate, it took Baghdad seven months to accept the terms of Resolution 986.
Furthermore, the 18 million Iraqis living under government rule are due to benefit from only half the proceeds: the rest will pay for war reparations, UN expenses and Kurdish relief.
But Baghdad had to accept the deal because 10,000 Iraqis, including 4,500 children under the age of five, die every month from malnutrition and lack of medicines as a consequence of the punitive UN sanctions regime.
Recently Baghdad sent envoys to several of its near neighbours, including Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, where King Hussein and his prime minister, Mr Abdel Karim Kabariti, met with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Muhammad Sayeed al Sahaf.
Saudi Arabia also held secret discussions with Iraq in an effort to end Baghdad's isolation within the Arab world. Kuwait remains the only Arab country opposed to Iraq's return to the fold.
