UN Security Council resolution 1409 hampers oil-for-food programme's implementation

Resolution No. 1409 on Iraq, which was recently adopted by the UN Security Council, is worse than the oil-for-food programme, stated a high-ranking representative of Iraq late on Sunday evening. Resolution No. 1409 has created new difficulties in the mechanism of fulfilling this programme, said Vice President of Iraq Takha Yasin Ramadan in an interview with the Space Channel of Iraqi television. As a RIA Novosti correspondent reports, the Iraqi Vice President did not specify the character of these difficulties. In the near future, Baghdad intends to explain to other countries the essence of Resolution No. 1409 and the difficulties it creates, underscored the Iraqi representative. At the beginning of last week, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution No. 1409 on the prolongation since May 30, 2002 of the UN humanitarian programme for Iraq - Oil-for-Food - for another six-month period, already the twelfth one. By issuing this resolution, the Security Council has also approved the so-called Overview List which includes the double-use commodities prohibited in Iraq. Baghdad has agreed to the fulfilment of this resolution but pointed out that it still believes that the Oil-for-Food Programme is a temporary measure, and called upon the United Nations Security Council to meet its commitments before Iraq and to lift in full the economic blockade from it.