However, this did not happen and in 1991, the UN expressed grave concern over the humanitarian situation in Iraq at that time and proposed some measures that would allow a small amount of oil to be sold from Iraq. Only enough oil was to be sold to meet the population's basic essential needs, any other sale for profit was strictly prohibited. Iraq refused all offers. Within the next five years the living conditions in Iraq plummeted. Iraq did not take advantage of this offer. There was widespread suffering, food shortages, an absence of essential medicines, and a general deterioration of essential social services. In 1996, the UN established the Oil-for-Food program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil for the purchase of goods essential for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. At this point the UN and US national security objectives for Iraq were limitation of proliferation, reduction of weapons of mass destruction, containment, the removal of Saddam Hussein, regional stability, and sustainable international and domestic support. Clearly Saddam and his regime were not in compliance with the sanctions or in meeting the above objectives. Continual refusal to comply with the resolutions would ultimately lead the US into war with Iraq. The UN and US policy toward Iraq was outlined in a number of UN resolutions and the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. Iraq still did not follow all of the proscriptions put forth in the several resolutions from the UN. Economic sanctions in Iraq were not working. Although the sanctions had briefly contained Saddam's military, were economic sanctions successful? No, economic sanctions failed to dislodge Saddam or any of his lieutenants from power within Iraq. Instead, ten years of economic sanctions created a humanitarian disaster in Iraq rivaling that of many third-world African countries. On top of that, almost five years of the oil-for-food program failed to stop any of this suffering.
