What are sanctions against Iraq, why were they imposed, and why do they remain in place?
The Security Council imposed comprehensive sanctions against Iraq on August 6, 1990, four days after Iraq invaded Kuwait. The official rationale was to pressure the regime to withdraw from Kuwait, but on the same day then-President George H. W. Bush, along with British and NATO leaders, announced plans for Operation Desert Shield, and ordered U.S. government agencies to prepare plans for “destabilizing and eventually toppling” Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The ensuing Gulf War ended Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, but left Saddam Hussein in power. Sanctions remained in place, contingent, according to the UN, on the disarmament of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. U.S. officials have made it plain, however, that sanctions will not end while Saddam Hussein remains in power. Military sanctions were crafted to prevent other countries from selling weapons to Iraq. Throughout the 1970s and 80s the U.S. and its allies, especially Germany, France and Russia, sold Iraq massive armaments, as we
