Security Council lifts Iraq sanctions

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.

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 in 1990.

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.

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.”

Iraq has been pressing the Security Council for several years to end sanctions and cancel more than 70 resolutions adopted after Saddam’s war against Kuwait.

Zebari said following the council’s votes Wednesday only about a dozen resolutions remain.