Iraqis Celebrate Oil-For-Food Deal

Jubilant Iraqis watched food prices drop and the value of their currency rise on Tuesday, a wave of optimism washing across the country over an oil-for-food deal with the United Nations.

“I feel good,” farmer Mohammed Ali exulted. “People will be able to eat and prices will go down.”

The government hailed Monday’s deal as the first crack in U.S.-led international sanctions imposed six years ago to punish Iraq for invading Kuwait: Baghdad will be allowed to pump $2 billion worth of oil over six months to buy desperately needed food and medicine.

The accord was also warmly received across the Middle East, where sympathy for the Iraqi people’s suffering has overshadowed hostility toward Saddam Hussein, who for years had rejected a U.N.-supervised oil-for-food deal as an infringement on Iraq’s sovereignty.

News of the accord had an immediate impact on the life of ordinary Iraqis.

Food prices plunged. A pound of sugar cost 125 dinars, down from 210 on Monday and 450 10 days ago. The price of flour also went down, from 180 dinars a pound 10 days ago to between 90 and 100 on Tuesday.

The dinar, meanwhile, grew stronger, trading at 500 to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday. A day earlier it was trading at almost 800 to the dollar. In January, it took almost 3,000 dinars to buy one dollar - an all-time low.