WASHINGTON -- The administration sold $50 million of seized Iraqi oil and gave it to the United Nations relief effort bringing food, medicine and shelter to oppressed minorities in the Persian Gulf nation, the State Department said Monday.
A department spokesman, Joe Snyder, said the donation was intended to match $50 million given to the United Nations last week by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which also raised the money through the sales of Iraqi oil trapped outside Baghdad's control.
'The United Nations received about $50 million in contributions last Thursday and Friday from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,' Snyder said. 'The U.S. government deposited $50 million in matching funds.'
Snyder said the United States had pledged to provide as much as $200 million in matching funds to the U.N. relief effort in Iraq. Kurds in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south, both targets of Saddam Hussein's aggression, will be the main beneficiaries.
The matching funds formula, designed to prevent any one country from being the sole contributor, was agreed to at the United Nations several months ago when the resolution authorizing the seizure of Iraqi overseas assets to finance the relief program was passed.
Snyder said other nations holding Iraqi assets 'are also considering' contributions, but declined to name them.
