Position Paper
June 2001

U.S. Policy Toward Iraq:
Policy Alternatives

Prepared by Phyllis Bennis, Stephen Zunes, and Martha Honey

ARMS CONTROL

1. The U.S. should continue to support the UN ban on arms transfers to Iraq.
2. The UN and the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) should conduct regular inspections inside Iraq, along Iraq's borders, and-with the voluntary consent of the relevant governments-inside its immediate neighbors to identify and halt any efforts by Iraq or its neighbors to build new WMDs or to import material to do so.
3. The U.S. should encourage the establishment of a regional security regime for Persian Gulf states that could include arms control and other confidence building measures.
4. The U.S. should, as prescribed by Article 14 of UNSC Resolution 687, initiate negotiations among the major arms supplying nations to stop all advanced arms transfers to Iraq's neighbors and should set an example by immediately announcing a moratorium on such arms transfers.
5. The U.S. should initiate, or support others initiating, Article 14 negotiations involving all Middle East countries regarding the creation of a Middle East WMD-free zone, including Israel's uninspected nuclear arsenal. Arms control, including elimination of WMD programs, should also become a priority in the U.S.-led peace process between Israel and its neighbors.

ECONOMIC SANCTIONS

1. Military sanctions should be delinked from economic sanctions.
2. The diversion of the 25% of oil-for-food funds that currently goes to the Compensation Commission should be ended until such time as UNICEF and other international agencies can certify that Iraq's humanitarian crisis is over.
3. The UN's control of contracts on imports should end and a mechanism created to notify UN monitors in Iraq to impose a higher level of tracking on items where dual-use is suspected in order to insure appropriate end-use.
4. Economic sanctions should be lifted, including abolishing the UNSC 661 Sanctions Committee. The UN escrow account should be closed as soon as Baghdad accepts the regional disarmament and inspection regime.

HUMAN RIGHTS

1. 1. The U.S. should support the dispatch of UN human rights monitors to Iraq, as mandated by UNSC Resolution 688, to investigate human rights conditions, including violations by any party of political, civil, economic, social, or cultural rights.
2. The U.S. should support international initiatives (tribunals or other forums) designed to hold individuals and governments (Iraq, U.S., and others) accountable for violations of all categories of human rights in Iraq or occupied Kuwait from the mid-1980s to the present.
3. The U.S. should initiate internal investigations to determine the accountability of U.S. officials responsible for crafting or implementing policies in Iraq that have violated the human rights of the Iraqi population and should take steps to prevent such policies from being imposed in the future.
4. All of the above should be part of a shift in U.S. policy toward making the promotion of human rights a higher priority in America's relationship with all countries of the Middle East region.

NO-FLY ZONES

1. The U.S. must stop the bombings and end military enforcement of the no-fly zones.
2. The U.S. should call on Turkey to keep its armed forces out of Iraqi territory.
3. The U.S. should encourage other third parties to work through the UN to initiate discussions with the Iraqi government regarding protection of the Iraqi Kurdish population and other threatened communities within the no-fly zones in Iraq.

THE IRAQI OPPOSITION

1. There should be no U.S. support for armed Iraqi opposition groups.
2. The U.S. should reassert its commitments to abide by the UN Charter and other international legal prohibitions against efforts to overthrow other countries' governments.
3. U.S. funds should support multilateral efforts to provide economic and humanitarian aid to civil society organizations and humanitarian institutions inside Iraq; Washington should provide no funds to unilaterally selected recipients.
4. The U.S. should help protect Kurdish interests through a reconciliation process aimed at establishing a regional autonomy agreement with the Iraqi Kurds and guaranteeing that, with the lifting of sanctions, the region's economic well-being is protected.

DEPLETED URANIUM AND OTHER HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

1. The U.S should support efforts by the UN and other appropriate international agencies to investigate long-term effects of weapons of mass destruction and other toxic weapons including depleted uranium, deployed in the Iraq theatre of conflict since 1980.
2. The Pentagon should immediately provide completely open acess to its research and development findings regarding DU for scientists, veterans' organizations, journalists, and other interested parties in the United States, Europe, the Middle East or elsewhere.
3. The U.S. should support international efforts to remove sources of ongoing contamination that may be continuing to harm civilian populations throughout Iraq and in neighboring countries.
4. The Pentagon should undertake a large-scale epidemiological survey of all the U.S. GIs who served in the gulf region.
5. The U.S. should support a moratorium on the production and use of chemical, biological, and radiological weapons, and should support additional studies on the long-term effects of these weapons, including DU.

This is a summary of recommendations from the document developed by several dozen individuals representing organizations committed to a more humane and effect U.S. policy towards Iraq. This working group was initiated in early 2001 by Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) to examine the failure of current U.S. policy toward Iraq and to draw up a statement outlining the components of a new policy. While there was not total agreement on all recommendations, there is consensus that this represents a useful framework for discussions of policy alternatives. The full document, including background explanations, analysis, and recommendations can be found at http://www.fpif.org/papers/iraq/index.html.