Measures in Japan to Facilitate Smooth Implementation of the U.N. Assistance Program for Iraq

December 22, 2000

1. The Government of Japan took measures on December 22 to facilitate smooth implementation of the United Nations humanitarian program for Iraq.
   
   
2. The "oil for food program" for Iraq, as an exception of the U.N. sanctions against Iraq, is currently being implemented from a humanitarian viewpoint. The program, although initially implemented as temporally measures under the sanctions, has been established as a U.N. humanitarian assistance scheme on continuous bases while the sanctions being prolonged.
   
   
3. Measures taken by Japan so far to implement sanctions against Iraq are based on the principle that there should be no economic transactions between Japan and Iraq, thus causing an obstacle for Japanese companies to participate in the oil for food program.
   
   
4. The measures to be taken this time have this situation as a background. These are mainly intended to smoothly implement the oil for food program in Japan, while maintaining the sanctions against Iraq. These measures by no means will ease the sanctions by Japan against Iraq per se.
   
   

Related Information (Japan-Iraq Relations)