06 February 2003
Security Council United on Need to Disarm Iraq
(Council members respond to Powell's presentation) (1020) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- After hearing a 90-minute presentation by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell February 5 on Saddam Hussein's long-standing efforts to keep his weapons of mass destruction and to consort with terrorists, other members of the 15-nation Security Council differed on how much more time to give Iraq, but appeared united in the determination to disarm Iraq. Emerging from a private luncheon meeting where the council members continued their discussions on Iraq in private, Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "I think the message today has been clear; everyone wants Iraq to be proactive in cooperating with the inspectors and fulfill the demands of the international community." "The inspectors are going back over the weekend, carrying the message of the international community to the Iraqi authorities and I urge them to listen and follow through on the demands ... for the sake of their own people, for the region, and for the sake of world order." Powell made "a strong presentation to the council. He was thorough and took his time to do it," Annan added. Twelve other foreign ministers traveled to U.N. headquarters for the high-level public council meeting. Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin of France said that Powell's presentation "contained information, indications, questions that deserve to be explored. It will be up to the inspectors to assess the facts in accordance with resolution 1441. Already his report brings a new justification to the path chosen by the United Nations; it must strengthen our common determination." Iraq must comply immediately with the demands of the weapons inspectors and "must also provide the inspectors with answers to the new elements presented by Colin Powell," he said. "The upcoming visit to Baghdad by the leaders of the inspectors will have to be the occasion for clear results to this end," Villepin said. The inspections regime, de Villepin said, "must be strengthened since it has not been explored to the end. ... [W]hy go to war if there still exists an unused space in resolution 1441?" The French foreign minister suggested that the inspection regime be strengthened and increased, possibly doubling or tripling the number of inspectors and opening more regional offices. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, president of the Security Council for the month of February, said that the information Powell presented coincides in part with German intelligence. "In his last report, (UNMOVIC director) Hans Blix listed many open questions. The regime in Baghdad must give clear answers to all these concrete questions without delay," he said, also calling for enhanced inspections and control through UNMOVIC and the IAEA. "Quite a few states suspect that Saddam Hussein's regime is withholding relevant information and concealing military capabilities. This strong suspicion has to be dispelled beyond any doubt," Fischer said. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri of Pakistan said that Powell's presentation was "a significant step forward in responding to the challenge the council is facing in securing the full implementation of its resolutions regarding the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction." While the international community is justified in ridding Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, the Security Council must not ignore the suffering of the Iraqi people, preserving the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq, and preserving the political and economic stability of the region, Kasuri said. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said that Powell's presentation "clearly contains valuable information to help determine and guide the council's decisions. It will also give us additional elements of judgement in determining the extent to which Iraq has complied with the resolutions adopted" by the council. Mexico, Derbez said, is in favor of intensifying and strengthening the inspections. He called on Iraq to "concretely translate their declared intentions into active cooperation and genuine collaboration with the inspections process." Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that the main point of the meeting "is that this information has to be immediately handed over for processing (by UNMOVIC and IAEA) including direct on-site verification." "The information requires very serious and careful study by experts in our countries to analyze the information" as well, Ivanov said. Saying that the Security Council must do everything it can to support the inspection process, the Russian minister said that Iraq must give the inspectors answers to the questions raised by Powell's information. Calling Powell's presentation "a most powerful and authoritative case against the Iraqi regime," Foreign Minister Jack Straw of the United Kingdom said that "council members will share my deep sense of frustration that Iraq is choosing to spurn this final opportunity to achieve a peaceful outcome." "Given what has to follow, and the difficult choice now facing us, it would be easy to turn a blind eye to the wording of the resolution and hope for a change of heart by Iraq. Easy but wrong," he said. Hoping for the best, Straw said, "would be repeating the mistakes of the past 12 years and empowering a dictator who believes his diseases and poison gases are essential weapons to suppress his own people and to threaten his neighbors, and that by defiance of the U.N. he can indefinitely hoodwink the world." "Saddam must be left in no doubt as to the serious situation he now faces. The United Kingdom does not want war. We want the U.N. system to be upheld. But the logic of UNSCR 1441 is inescapable: time is now very short," he said. Spanish Foreign Minister Anna Palacio said that "Saddam Hussein's regime must understand that if it does not comply with its obligations, it must confront the grave consequences that are announced in resolution 1441. But the full responsibility resides in him." Hans Blix, head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be meeting with Iraqi officials in Baghdad February 8 and 9. Their next report to the council is due February 14. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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