Mr. President,
I should like at the outset to congratulate you on your election as President of the 53rd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, and I am fully confident that your experience and competence will ensure the success of the work of this session.
Mr. President,
The world continues to labour under events that attest to the inability of the international community to avert the effects of international transformations that carry within them the seeds of tension and conflicts in view of the imbalance caused on the international level by a unipolar system whereby a sole dominant player in the international arena seeks to impose its hegemony on the international community..
This sole Power has no concern for nothing beyond its narrow, selfish interests and its efforts to impose its hegemony on the international institutions and organizations.
As a result, the United Nations is faced with a grave challenge as to the extent of its ability to restore the balance needed to achieve its objectives as specified in the Charter.
Within this framework, the United Nations is witnessing attempts at the introduction of such reforms to its structures and mechanisms of work as are consistent with the requirements of the current realities in the political and economic fields. Among the most important of these attempts is the current effort to reform the methods of work of the General Assembly and the Security Council with a view to bringing the work of these two Organs into accord with the developments that have taken place in international relations and with an increased membership of the International Organization necessitating equitable representation of the Sates from the various continents in the membership of the Security Council, both permanent and non-permanent. The success of these efforts will depend largely on the seriousness with which the Member Sates of this Organization will exercise their political will.
Reform of the work of the Security Council is an urgent necessity if the control which a few States have over it is to end and if it is to be transformed into an institution that represents the true state of the international reality rather than an institution that looks so very much like a relic of the spoils of the Second World War. Without such reforms, it would be impossible to achieve the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations of maintaining security and peace, promoting economic and social development and strengthening co-operation among peoples.
The state of international security and peace is affected by the illogical and non-objective character of the discriminatory attitude underlying the ways of dealing with disarmament issues, especially the issue of nuclear disarmament. There are States that maintain huge arsenals of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, chemical, biological or long-range missiles, while others are being disarmed or called upon to be disarmed on all sorts of pretexts. The right way of dealing with this issue lies in the application of the relevant international treaties and agreements in a comprehensive manner far removed from any selective and discriminatory course of action, and the goal of general and complete disarmament will thus be put in the service of the cause of security and peace in the world and ensuring the legitimate rights of States to defend their security and independence in a just and equitable manner.
Mr. President,
The Middle East region is witnessing today a grave situation and a very serious impairment in the balance of powers. The Zionist entity possesses a huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction of all kinds, whether nuclear, chemical, biological or long-range missiles, in disregard of the efforts of the General Assembly to render the Middle East area free of weapons of mass destruction, of Security Council resolution 487 (1981) which demanded that the Zionist entity place its installations under the comprehensive safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and paragraph 14 of Security Council resolution 687 (1991) which declared that the actions to be taken by Iraq represented steps towards the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction. This situation, which is a result of the failure of the Zionist entity to comply with these resolutions, has encouraged an arms race which threatens security and peace in the region and-in the whole world.
Mr. President,
Iraq strongly affirms its support for the struggle of the Palestinian people against the Zionist colonization in Palestine; it supports the struggle of the Palestine Liberation Organization for the realization of its legitimate objectives as embodied in United Nations General Assembly resolutions that have endorsed the Palestinian peoples inalienable rights in Palestine, including its capital, Al-Quds al-Sharif.
Mr. President,
The comprehensive, inhumane blockade imposed on Iraq has entered its ninth year. This blockade has caused and continues to cause the death of thousands of Iraqi citizens every month for lack of medicine and food and the grave deterioration in the infrastructures of the industrial, agricultural, health, education and services sectors and other areas of life. This situation calls for the strong denunciation of those who insist, for ulterior political motives, on continuing to inflict on the people of Iraq this destructive blockade whose tragic consequences are tantamount to the internationally proscribed acts of genocide.
Security Council resolution 687 (1991) contains two sets of obligations: the first consists of those which must be fulfilled by Iraq, and the second consists of those that require the Security Council to lift the blockade on Iraq when Iraq has met its obligations.
The obligations imposed on Iraq concern disarmament. Briefly, they require the destruction, removal, or rendering harmless, under the supervision of the Special Commission, of all weapons of mass destruction which were in Iraqs possession which were in the Iraq's possession; they enjoin Iraq to refrain from the production, possession, stockpiling, use or development of such weapons in the areas prohibited by resolution 687 (1991), namely, ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 kilometers, and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; and they provide for the establishment of a system of monitoring and verification of compliance.
In return for the achievement of the above with regard to the elimination of the prohibited weapons, paragraph 22 of resolution 687 (1991) provides [decides that] that the prohibitions against the import of commodities and products originating in Iraq and the prohibitions against financial transactions related thereto contained in resolution 661 (1990) shall have no further force or effect.
Throughout the past seven and a half years Iraq has Cooperated with the Security Council, the Special Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency and met all the conditions and obligations imposed on it as an expression of its good faith and in order to ensure the lifting of the blockade imposed on its people.
All prohibited weapons have been destroyed, together with hundreds of plants, installations and equipment related to those weapons, with all the operations having been carried out with so much vengefulness that they included even cooling and lighting equipment, as well furnishings and other items that had nothing to do with the prohibited weapons or with their production. Since 1994, the Special Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency have had a comprehensive system of strict monitoring in place.
But, although Iraq has implemented all the requirements of Security Council resolution 687 (1991) concerning disarmament, the Security Council has taken no action whatsoever to implement its own obligations towards Iraq as prescribed in article 22 of that same resolution.
A question that must legitimately be addressed to the Security Council is: why should Iraq bear all these burdens and losses when the blockade is continuing and no one knows when it is going to be lifted? Why has the Security Council been unable so far to discharge its obligations towards Iraq? Iraq has Cooperated throughout the past seven and a half years with the Security Council and the international Atomic Energy Agency and met all the requirements of the Security Council decisions in the hope that its co-operation will lead to freeing the people of Iraq from the blockade, but the blockade has not so far been lifted, thus rendering the continuation of co-operation both meaningless and useless.
The Special Commission responsible for pursuing the implementation of Iraq's obligations under the provisions of Security Council resolution 687 (1991) concerning disarmament and directing the monitoring system established since 1994 refrains from reporting the facts about Iraq's fulfillment of its obligations to the Security Council, and the reason for its failure to do so is political: both the Special Commission and its Chairman operate under the influence of an arrogant, powerful State that is pursuing political aims against Iraq, driven by ulterior motives having nothing to do with the relevant decisions of the Security Council.
For political reasons, the Special Commission and its Chairman refrain from reporting to the Security Council that Iraq is totally free of all prohibited weapons under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in all the three areas (comprising missiles, and chemical and biological weapons) although the Special Commission has no concrete evidence to prove the reverse of this fact. Both also refrain from reporting to the Security Council that all the plants, equipment and installations which the Special Commission itself determined had anything to do with those weapons have been destroyed and that the remaining plants, equipment and installations capable of so-called dual use are totally under a comprehensive and strict monitoring system and that, accordingly, Iraq is incapable of resuming the production of such weapons. Finally, the Special Commission and its Chairman refrain, for political reasons, from reporting to the Security Council that, since the establishment of the monitoring system in 1994, the Special Commission has not noted any violation on the part of Iraq in the direction of resuming the production of the prohibited weapons. This prejudiced attitude on the part of the Special Commission and its Chairman which has brought the course of action to a dead end and keeps turning it in a vicious circle cannot be accepted. Iraq was therefore obliged to suspend co-operation with the Special Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency because keeping to a course with nothing but dead ends and vicious circles in sight can have no other outcome than the continuation of the blockade on the people of Iraq, which is unacceptable and even contrary to security Council resolution 687 (1991).
In order to seek a way out of this dead-end course and break out of the vicious circle created by the Special Commission and its Chairman, Iraq has welcomed the proposal for a comprehensive review submitted Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Security Council on the 6th of last August. Iraq has emphasized that such a comprehensive review is a legal and moral obligation which the Security Council is duty-bound to discharge. By the terms of resolution 687 (1991), the Council is required to implement paragraph 22 relating to lifting the prohibitions against the import of commodities and products originating in Iraq based upon the completion by Iraq of all actions contemplated in Part C of the resolution. The Council is also required to undertake every 60 days a review aimed at reducing or lifting the prohibitions in the light of the implementation by Iraq of all its obligations under the relevant resolutions of the Security Council. The reviews carried out so far, 40 in number, have, however, been undertaken as a mere formality; and they have been arbitrary and far from comprehensive in character.
Iraq has expressed its willingness to participate effectively in such a comprehensive review, and it is its inalienable right to be able to do so. Iraq has also expressed its hope that a comprehensive review of what it has accomplished in terms of the disarmament requirements under Part C of resolution 687 (1991) will be made as early as possible with no further delay. It is our hope that such a review win be comprehensive, honest and fair and that Iraq will be given full opportunity to offer its point of view on all the relevant questions that might be posed by the Special Commission, the International Atomic Energy Agency or Members of the Security Council. Iraq also hopes that the review will be conducted under the personal supervision of the Secretary General, and that Mr. Kofi Annan will see to it that the said comprehensive review is bound by a clearly-defined time-table and not allow it to be an aimless process without end.
While we support carrying out such a comprehensive review in an objective, fair and impartial manner, we affirm Iraq's right to expect the Security Council to proceed to take action to lift the inhumane sanctions imposed on the people of Iraq for eight years now. The people and leadership of Iraq will accept no less.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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NEWSLETTER
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