The world needs to check Iraq

Iraq turned off its oil supplies last week, and then turned the pumps back on again. It was the latest in a series of actions which show that Baghdad remains unwilling to co-operate with the rest of the world. The UN must approach talks with Iraq with this in mind.

In its latest attempt to chip away at the United Nations sanctions, Iraq showed that it was willing to hurt every country if that would advance its cause. The ill-considered decision to halt oil exports for several days followed other recent attempts to play "the oil card".

Iraq may own the world's second largest oil reserves, but there is no way the country can survive for long without oil exports. The rest of the world, thankfully, realized this. Late last week, after a brief price panic, the world price of oil actually fell as Iraq turned off its pumps. Saudi Arabia announced that OPEC would make up any supply shortfall caused by the Iraqi action. Within a few days, the taps were turned back on.

All of this unsettling behavior by Iraq would be bad enough by itself. When a major oil producer encourages unstable supplies and high prices, it constitutes a major shock to many countries. In Thailand, where we import virtually all our oil, the rising prices of the past year have already harmed our economy. The shock has raised prices and caused consumers to reduce their oil use. Our expected growth has fallen by billions of baht.

Iraq did not cause all this harm by itself. But the Baghdad regime supported all the actions that hurt us. It opposed all actions that have helped us - particularly those calls by more helpful oil producers to try to bring down prices to a reasonable level, and to stabilize prices at that level. As in 1990 and on many subsequent occasions, Iraq has shown it is willing to hurt anyone, anywhere, to make its somewhat dubious points.

The United Nations will open new negotiations with Iraq early next year, after Ramadan. The UN wants to position arms monitors in this dangerous nation again. Baghdad opposes the move. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already said that, as a first step in any negotiations, Iraq should accept weapons inspectors.

There should be no objection to a general review of the decade-old sanctions on Iraq. But there can be no question of giving Iraq an open hand in abusing its neighbors or other small countries of the world.

-- The Bangkok Post