PRIME MINISTER'S QUESTIONS: IRAQ (11/11/98)
MS MELANIE JOHNSON:
With the grave news today of the UN Arms Inspectors' withdrawal from Iraq and a further indication of what was actually ever needed of Saddam's willingness to flout international law, would my rhF tell this House what steps the Government will be making to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq?PRIME MINISTER:
Saddam Hussein is in breach not just of the UN Resolutions, but also the agreement that he made with Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General. His disagreement, therefore, is with the whole of the world community. It isn't a technical breach; it is a substantial breach of the agreement because it is clear from evidence that he will, if unchecked, try to develop weapons of mass destruction and the evidence uncovered recently by French and Swiss officials of the attempts to decontaminate warheads are further evidence of that. He may think that the international community lacks the will to act; if he does, he is seriously and profoundly wrong. We will act if he does not immediately come back into compliance with the UN Resolutions and abide by the agreement that he has made.MR TAM DALYELL:
Is it not a matter of record that the French and Swiss tests to which he referred proved negative? It is true that the first American test proved positive, but the second American test proved negative and that result was suppressed? Can he give the name of any Arab country, just one will do, which now in the next month supports military action against Iraq?PRIME MINISTER:
I know that my hF has just come back from Tehran and I understand his strong feelings about it. But in fact what the French and the Swiss found was that there was clear evidence that warheads had been decontaminated from weapons of mass destruction. It is clear, on the evidence that we have complied in respect of Saddam Hussein going back over a period of years, that he has attempted to develop those weapons of mass destruction. That after all, is the reason he wants the inspectors out. He wants them out so that we don't know the weapons of mass destruction that he is developing. He is the only leader anywhere in the world that I know of who has used weapons of mass destruction. 5,000 people, mainly women and children, died as a result of his use of weapons of mass destruction.He has given an agreement. He made the agreement at the conclusion of the Gulf War. He then made a further agreement with the UN Secretary General. All we are saying is that he should abide by that agreement. It is not an unreasonable position and the quarrel that Saddam Hussein has is with the whole of the international community. If we allow him, with this substantial breach of the agreement, to get away with it, and we allow him to develop these weapons of mass destruction, we will pay a very heavy price in the future.
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