TEL AVIV Ñ Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has access to as much as $3 billion a year to maintain and develop an arsenal of weapons of mass
destruction, despite UN sanctions imposed in
the early 1990s.
The funds come from the smuggling of oil and surcharges on oil sales under UN auspices.
Amatzia Baram, a leading expert on Iraq and a consultant to
several governments, said Saddam has sufficient funds to ensure his WMD
arsenal, Middle East Newsline reported. Baram, a professor at Haifa University, said Saddam has obtained
funding from the smuggling of Iraqi oil through Jordan, Turkey and Syria.
Saddam has acquired around $1 billion from the sale of smuggled oil,
Baram said. Additional revenues are obtained through Iraq's surcharge on oil
sold through United Nations auspices.
All told, Baram said, this amounts to between $2.5 billion and $3
billion per year for Saddam's coffers. The Israeli expert said the Iraqi
president
does not have to use any of this money for the needs of his nation.
"This is a tremendous amount of money," Baram said. "Saddam doesn't have
to invest one penny in Iraq. All this comes from the cash register in the
UN."
Baram said the UN oil-for-food program essentially manages the import of
all humanitarian aid for Iraq. The UN said 1,135 humanitarian supply
contracts, worth about $2.1 billion, cannot be processed because of a
shortfall in Iraqi revenue. The UN has already approved the contracts.
"Almost all the sectors of the program continue to be affected by this
shortfall in funds to some degree," a UN statement said.
Baram said Saddam has exploited the shortfall in funds for humanitarian
programs to conduct starvation policies in Shi'ite areas in the south. He
said the area of Amara sustains the worst conditions, with hunger and a
collapsing
infrastructure.
Saddam's current revenues are far less than what he earned on the eve of
the 1991 Gulf war. Baram said that at the time Saddam had at least $10
billion in revenues.
"What Saddam doesn't have is enough money needed to bribe
Russians to sell him nuclear weapons or material," Baram said. "He also
doesn't have enough money to buy 700 tanks or 100 aircraft."
Baram said Saddam has struck deals with Iraq's neighbors for the
smuggling of oil, military spare parts and WMD components. He said Syria
obtains 20 percent of its $5 billion in hard currency from the smuggling of
Iraqi oil.
"The Syrians use the Iraqi oil for their domestic needs and sell their
own oil on the foreign market," Baram said. "This way, they can tell the
United States that they aren't violating UN sanctions."