Stifled for eight months under U.S. machinations, the U.N. Security Council created yet another barrier Dec 17 towards a return to normalcy in Iraq and the removal of sanctions against the Iraqi people. With an 11-0 majority vote, the Council passed a resolution basically reconfirming that the quiet genocide of the Iraqi people should continue unabated.

The new resolution calls on Iraq to welcome another arms inspection regime called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) to replace the previously discredited U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) whose key officials were found spying for the United States. What the resolution offers for Iraq is a renewable 120-day suspension of the sanctions, depending on its cooperation with the new U.N. arms commission. The Iraqi government immediately rejected the resolution, saying it didn't meet Iraq's ''legitimate demand for the lifting of the sanctions,'' especially because it did not offer what the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations called, any light for Iraq at the end of the tunnel.

The resolution remains awfully ambiguous and does not spell out what Iraq should specifically do other than allowing another bunch of U.S. spies under U.N. flag to do whatever they want. The United States has interpreted similar strategically ambiguous resolutions as open season for air assaults on Iraq. In 1991, it was the United States and its docile ally Britain, and not the United Nations, that created the so-called No Fly Zones over Iraq's sovereign air space. In defiance of international condemnation, the United States and Britain have since continued to enforce those no-fly zones in violation of the U.N. Charter, indiscriminately bombing Iraqi military and civilian targets.

Russia, France, China and Malaysia, which abstained from voting on the resolution, argued for a balanced position during its deliberations. Expediency however, outweighed their concerns for morality, as they allowed a resolution that, they know, will further starve, deprive, and kill an already emaciated people to pass. UNICEF's recent reports on Iraq show that infant mortality has doubled while about 100,000 people die every year as a result of the UN sanctions that prevent essential foods, medicines, and supplies from reaching the country.

Ironically, the new resolution is good news for the shameless regime of Saddam Hussein. Had he any respect for his people, he would have resigned after his 1991 defeat and set the ground for the emergence of a new Iraq. Now, he has a stronger stake in the continued suffering of the Iraqi people. So long as the Iraqis are unfed, weak, and dying, so long as they depend on the handouts of his regime, they cannot think of participation in politics and challenging his dictatorship. In the meantime, the predictably angry reactions that his government displays after every well-schemed move by the United States serve to camouflage the devil that he is.

For a few more years, then, the bizarre drama of calculated U.S. moves and predictable Iraqi reactions is likely to play havoc on the lives of the Iraqi people. Perhaps the last hope for the Iraqi people to end their suffering rests with the Arab/Muslim Americans who can potentially persuade the U.S. government to abandon its inhumane policy over Iraq. Given the realities of U.S. politics, this task of persuading the U.S. government is an uphill battle but not insurmountable.