Iraq describes lifting oil-for-food sanction as success to Iraqi diplomacy

BAGHDAD, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iraq hailed Saturday the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution that lifted the sanctions of Oil-For-Food Program as a success to the diplomacy of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. A statement by the spokesman of the foreign ministry said that "a series of diplomatic successes achieved by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry has culminated in the issuance of a resolution of the UNSC" which lifted the sanction of the Oil-For-Food program that allowed using force against Iraq if not fully complying with the UN severe sanctions. After its meeting on Friday morning, the UNSC issued a statement, saying that the council members had adopted resolution 2390 (2017) unanimously after "all the measures imposed in its resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations in relation to the Iraq Oil-For-Food Program had been fully implemented." Iraq has been under UN sanctions after the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990, but the severe sanction created sufferings for the Iraqi civilians, pushing the UNSC to adopt the Oil-for-Food Program in 1995 which allowed Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to boost its military capabilities.