The statement below was released May 22 by James Harris and Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidates for president and vice president of the United States.

The imperialist-crafted deal at the United Nations permitting Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil to buy desperately needed food and medicines leaves the criminal, U.S.-engineered sanctions against the Iraqi people intact. The conditions imposed on Baghdad by it are a further violation of Iraq's sovereignty. Working people around the world should demand the immediate lifting of all trade and economic sanctions on Iraq and the withdrawal of U.S. ships, jets, and soldiers in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the region.

As many as 576,000 Iraqi children have died as a result of the sanctions since 1990, when they were imposed by Washington using the fig leaf of the United Nations for cover. Over the past half- decade the mortality rate for children under the age of five has increased five-fold.

The conditions rammed down the throat of the Iraqi regime on May 20 mandate that the $2 billion in oil revenues over six months go into an account under strict UN control. Only two-thirds can be spent on food and medicine. Imperialist troops with the blue UN helmets will be in charge of delivering purchased supplies to the Kurdish area in northern Iraq.

The remaining funds will be expropriated by the United Nations to pay for "reparations" to the Kuwaiti regime and the expenses of UN monitors inside Iraq. The UN Security Council can renew or scuttle the deal in six months.

Except for this limited export of oil - a small fraction of the $18 billion per year Iraq used to sell before the embargo - the harsh sanctions against Iraq remain in full effect.

Five years after dropping 88,000 tons of bombs on Iraq and slaughtering hundreds of thousands in cold blood, including literally thousands buried alive, Washington still hopes it can remove Saddam Hussein and replace his regime with one amenable to U.S. dictates.

That's why President William Clinton refuses to lift the embargo, regardless of the immense suffering it causes for the Iraqi people.

Using Baghdad's reactionary invasion of Kuwait in 1990 as a pretext, the U.S. rulers tried to use military might to install a reliable regime subservient to their interests in Iraq and shift the relationship of forces against the toilers in the region -

especially in Iran where the hated client regime of Shah Reza Pahlevi was overthrown in 1979. They aimed to secure more control over oil reserves in the Gulf in order to deal economic and political blows to their imperialist allies and competitors in Japan and Europe, who are heavily dependent on Mideast oil.

Washington has failed to accomplish these goals. So in order to assert its domination in the region it has recently amassed 20,000 troops in the Middle East, mostly on U.S. navy ships, and has maintained a tight squeeze on Baghdad. The Iraqi people have paid dearly with their lives.

Workers, farmers, youth, and all democratic minded people need to oppose Washington's imperial aggression and demand: U.S. out of the Middle East! Lift the embargo on Iraq now!  
 
 
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