Editing Oil-for-Food Programme (section)

==End of the programme==

{{quote box
|align=right
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|quote=The bad news, therefore, is that the UN proved unequal to the task of preventing a rogue regime from stealing some of its own money. The good news is that this same UN machinery proved equal to the task of preventing that same regime from fielding WMD, developing nuclear weapons and reconstituting a military threat to its neighbours. Most observers would conclude that the UN, however inadequate its financial oversight, certainly got its priorities right.
 
The UN sanctions regime against Iraq, including the Oil for Food program, is worth close scrutiny not because it was a scandal, although scandal there was, but because taken as a whole, it is the most successful use of international sanctions on record. Documenting the why and wherefores of that success is as important as correcting the shortfalls that allowed a rogue regime, in connivance with unscrupulous international businessmen, to siphon funds from UN-administered Iraqi accounts.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dobbins|first1=James|title=A Comparative Evaluation of United Nations Peacekeeping|date=11 June 2007 |url=http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT284.html|publisher=RAND Corp.|access-date=12 February 2015}}</ref>
|source=–Testimony on ''A Comparative Evaluation of United Nations Peacekeeping'' by [[James Dobbins (diplomat)|James Dobbins]] presented before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007
}}

Shortly before US-led [[Multi-National Force – Iraq|Coalition forces]] launched an [[2003 invasion of Iraq|invasion of Iraq]], [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|UN Secretary-General]] [[Kofi Annan]] suspended the programme and evacuated more than 300 workers monitoring the distribution of supplies.

On 28 March 2003, Annan, the United States, and Britain asked the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council]] to ensure that nearly US$10 billion in goods Iraq had ordered and that were already approved—including US$2.4 billion for food—could enter the country once conditions allowed. The resolution under discussion made clear that the chief responsibility for addressing humanitarian consequences of the war would fall to the United States and Britain if they took control of the country. Under the 1949 [[Fourth Geneva Convention]] these are the responsibilities of the occupying power.

On 22 May 2003, [[UN Security Council Resolution 1483]] granted authority to the [[Coalition Provisional Authority]] to use Iraq's oil revenue. The programme's remaining funds, $10 billion, were transferred over a six-month winding-up period to the [[Development Fund for Iraq]] under the Coalition Provisional Authority's control; this represented 14% of the programme's total income over 5 years.

The programme was formally terminated on 21 November 2003 and its major functions were turned over to the [[Coalition Provisional Authority]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/Depts/oip |title=UN Office of the Iraq Program – Oil-for-Food |publisher=United Nations |access-date=7 December 2011}}</ref>