Iraq, 1993

Allow me to begin by extending to you, Sir, my sincere

congratulations on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I am confident that

your solid diplomatic background and rich experience will

effectively contribute to the success of the work of this

session.

More than ever before, our Organization today needs

cooperation between its Member States if it is to save itself

from attempts to divert its course from the spirit and

principles of its Charter and thereby turn it into a tool for

serving the selfish interests of certain dominant Powers, first

among which is the United States of America.

The world has attached great importance to the end of

the bipolarity that overshadowed the international situation

20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

until recently and restricted the ability of the United Nations

to address and resolve international problems. The new era,

however, has failed to provide the United Nations with the

opportunity to apply the principles, objectives and

mechanisms of the Charter. A single Power - the United

States of America - has sought to control the manner in

which the United Nations addresses international issues and

to steer it in accordance with United States interests.

The selectivity and double standard that characterize the

role currently played by the United Nations make it crystal

clear that the United Nations and the Security Council in

particular have become tools that execute the policies of the

Powers that dominate the Organization. The United Nations

is no longer a world Organization capable of resolving the

problems and addressing the crises which beset many

countries and peoples of the world in a manner that is

consonant with the objectives and principles of its own

Charter.

What did the Security Council ever do to implement its

resolution 487 (1981), on the military aggression perpetrated

by Israel against an Iraqi nuclear reactor devoted to peaceful

purposes? That resolution was adopted 12 years ago and the

Security Council has done absolutely nothing to implement

it. Indeed, we have reached the point today at which the

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister, Mordechai Gur, can

arrogantly declare, as he did on 6 June 1993, that Israel does

possess nuclear weapons and that it has the capacity to bomb

the Arab States with those devices. At the same time, Israel

continues to adamantly refuse to sign the non-proliferation

Treaty and the United Nations and the Security Council have

done absolutely nothing to halt the Israeli programmes of

mass destruction weapons, which include the production and

stockpiling of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons

together with the means of their delivery, regardless of the

fact that those programmes constitute a grave threat to the

security and stability of the region and the whole world.

While the United Nations is being forced to engage in

a military operation in Somalia under the pretext of

providing humanitarian assistance, the United Nations stands

helpless and incapable of taking any appropriate action to

put an end to the carnage or to alleviate the bitter human

suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other parts of

former Yugoslavia. This paralysis takes place against the

backdrop of the shifting tides of the positions of the

dominant Powers in line with their own selfish interests and

schemes and their backing away from any measure that

would help in reaching a solution or put an end to this

tragedy.

Because of the climate prevailing in the international

community - a climate of selectivity and double standards -

the gap between North and South continues to widen at the

expense of the interests of the developing countries and Iraq

finds itself in a situation that has never been witnessed

before by any other founding State Member of the United

Nations. This is due to the complications and unfair

treatment meted to Iraq by the resolutions of the Security

Council under pressure exerted by the United States of

America and its hegemonistic policies towards others.

The most telling example of the hegemony exercised by

the United States of America over the United Nations and of

United States monopoly of the interpretation and

implementation of the provisions of the Charter, and use of

the mechanisms related thereto in the service of purely

American rather than common international interests, is what

has been done and continues to be done to Iraq at a time

when it has declared its commitment to the resolutions of the

Security Council which it fully implements. In return, Iraq

continues to be subjected to acts of aggression which

threaten its security and territorial integrity and infringe upon

its sovereignty.

Iraq also remains deprived of its natural right to obtain

its needs, including those described in international legal

terms as basic human and civilian needs. Those needs are

essential for the people of Iraq if they are to continue to lead

a normal life. Iraq also remains deprived of the right to

export its natural resources while its assets remain frozen.

Iraq continues to be denied the right to use its civil aircraft

and ships and continues to be subjected to flagrant military

intervention in its internal affairs, to daily acts of violation

of its airspace, and to the perpetration of a declared

conspiracy against its political system.

Iraq has endeavoured, despite all these adverse

circumstances and difficulties, to contain the crises which

certain powers have so skilfully orchestrated in order to

perpetrate further aggression against Iraq and create pretexts

for continuing to impose the iniquitous comprehensive

blockade against it. Within the framework of Iraq’s serious,

continuous attempts to reveal the truth, close the door on the

forces of ill-intent and expose their objectives, and driven by

its desire to find solutions to the outstanding issues through

a serious responsible dialogue based on justice and fairness

and consistent with international law and the United Nations

Charter, Iraq has called, in a letter dated 30 May 1993 from

the Foreign Minister of Iraq to the President of the Security

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 21

Council, for constructive and comprehensive dialogue with

the Security Council within the framework of the legal and

practical interrelationship between Iraq’s implementation of

its obligations and the text of resolution 687 (1991) on the

one hand, and the Security Council’s implementation of its

own obligations towards Iraq according to the provisions of

the said resolution, particularly paragraphs 21 and 22, on the

other.

Iraq calls for the Security Council to adopt fair and just

positions which would reflect the Council’s respect for its

own obligations and commitments as enshrined in the United

Nations Charter, and thereby to respect the sovereignty,

independence, internal security and territorial integrity of

Iraq, lift the unjust blockade that has been imposed upon the

people of Iraq for three years now, and which has inflicted,

and continues to inflict, untold suffering upon them and to

lift all the restrictions that are still imposed without

justification on normal, legitimate Iraqi activities.

Iraq has cooperated objectively with all the inspection

teams and missions dispatched by the United Nations, in

order to fulfil its obligations according to the resolutions of

the Security Council, regardless of how unjust and indeed

how extremely iniquitous those resolutions are. In fact many

of the officials of those teams and missions have confirmed

that Iraq has honoured its obligations in implementation of

the Security Council resolutions.

May I refer here, by way of example, to the statement

made by the United Nations Special Commission

(UNSCOM) Executive Chairman, Mr. Rolf Ekeus, on

13 January 1993, in which he said, "Iraq’s compliance has

been a success so far, and it would be tragic if the last 5 per

cent of implementation could not to be carried out." Earlier,

on 2 September 1992, Mr. Maurizio Zifferero, the head of

the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection

team, said, "Iraq’s nuclear programme stands at zero now."

Convinced that Iraq has met all its obligations under

resolution 687 (1991), we called upon the Security Council,

both as a collective body and as individual Member States,

just as we had long been calling upon the Special

Commission, to conduct a technical, professional and legal

dialogue with Iraq in order to specify the extent to which

resolution 687 (1991) in general, and section C thereof in

particular, have been implemented, so that the Council may

consider implementing paragraphs 21 and 22 of the

resolution, which pertain to the lifting of the economic

sanctions imposed on Iraq. The dialogue proposed by Iraq

was also meant to strip away all the pretexts that have

continued to be used to mask the illegal and aggressive

measures unilaterally taken by certain individual States

against Iraq and its territorial integrity. The most flagrant of

those measures are the so-called "no-fly zones" imposed on

northern and southern Iraq and the military acts of

aggression perpetrated by the United States against Iraq on

17 January 1993 and 27 June 1993.

When the Security Council responded, in July 1993, to

our call for dialogue and sent the Executive Chairman of the

Special Commission to Baghdad to conduct talks with the

Iraqi side, we welcomed the visit and held intensive, frank

and constructive discussions with Mr. Ekeus, through which

we reached an agreement to resolve a number of issues and

to continue our dialogue in earnest on grounds that are just,

fair, logical and consistent with international law and the

United Nations Charter.

We presented to Mr. Ekeus, and through him to the

Security Council, a position paper clearly expressing the way

in which Iraq envisages the relationship between Iraq’s

responsibilities towards the Security Council and its

resolutions, on the one hand, and the responsibilities of the

Security Council, both as a body and as Member States,

towards Iraq’s firm rights and legitimate demands, foremost

among which are the following: to respect the sovereignty,

internal security and dignity of the people and State of Iraq;

to guarantee Iraq’s right to development and to industrial,

scientific and technological progress; to implement

paragraph 22 of Security Council resolution 687 (1991),

pertaining to the lifting of the embargo on Iraq now that Iraq

has accomplished what is required of it under the provisions

of section C of that resolution; to work in earnest towards

the implementation of paragraph 14 of resolution 687 (1991),

pertaining to the establishment in the Middle East of a zone

free of weapons of mass destruction and the means of their

delivery and to bring to an immediate end the so-called

"no-fly zones" imposed on northern and southern Iraq, which

constitute an illegal use of armed force by three permanent

member States of the Security Council, aimed at interfering

in the internal affairs of a Member State of the United

Nations.

Iraq reiterated its positive positions and its desire for

dialogue during the meetings held last month here in New

York by the Iraqi high-level technical delegation. We have

also endeavoured to ensure that this positive spirit prevails

in the current round of meetings which started in Baghdad

on 2 October 1993. We look forward to seeing this round

22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

succeed in solving all outstanding issues in a complete and

final manner so that the Security Council may begin in

earnest to implement paragraph 22 of resolution 687 (1991)

which states that the Security Council:

"Decides that upon the approval by the Security

Council of the programme called for in paragraph 19

above and upon Council agreement that Iraq has

completed all actions contemplated in paragraphs 8, 9,

10, 11, 12 and 13 above, 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".

In view of these developments, and in order for the

principles of justice and equity and of the mutuality of rights

and obligations between Iraq and the Security Council to

prevail, we hereby call upon all countries of the world to

support our initiative for dialogue and understanding between

the Council and Iraq so that such dialogue may lead without

delay to the lifting of the unjust and iniquitous blockade

imposed on our country, and thereby to put an end to the

methods of coercion, threats and aggression being used

against our country.

We also call upon the countries of the world to urge the

Security Council, both as a collective body and as individual

Member States, to consider Iraq’s legitimate demands as

expressed in the Iraqi position paper submitted to the

Security Council in July 1993. The paper deals with the

most important issues, especially respect for Iraq’s

sovereignty, internal security and territorial integrity, the

lifting of the iniquitous blockade, the removal of the "no-fly

zones" illegally imposed on parts of Iraq and abstaining from

any further aggression against Iraq.

The people of Iraq are being subjected to inhumane

policies and practices that have further aggravated their

suffering which increases from one day to the next. The

domination by the United States and its allies over the

activities of the Sanctions Committee, which was set up in

accordance with Security Council resolution 661 (1990), has

made that Committee hostage to premeditated political

objectives and ill intentions against Iraq and its people. The

Committee has ignored the basic civilian and human needs

of the Iraqi people to the extent that it has refused to allow

Iraq to obtain much needed medical supplies as well as

equipment and educational supplies for its schools. The

Committee has gone as far as to consider paint for school

desks and blackboards as well as ink as proscribed materials

that the Iraqi people should not be permitted to obtain.

In refusing to grant the permission to obtain any of

those essential civilian requirements, it resorts to flimsy

pretexts and unacceptable justifications. For instance, the

Committee has refused to allow pencils and notebooks to be

supplied to Iraq’s schoolchildren, claiming that the quantity

requested was too large. The Committee has also rejected

a request for the supply of medical equipment, beds and

air-conditioning systems for Iraqi hospitals. The reason

given for that refusal was that the end user was not known.

What irony! The Sanctions Committee has refused to allow

water purification materials to be supplied to Iraq, rejected

a request submitted by a company for the reconstruction of

a factory producing medical syringes in Iraq and refused to

allow the importation of spare parts for a baby-food factory

in Iraq under the pretext that such spare parts would

contribute to the expansion of the country’s industrial

capability.

The practices of a limited number of Member States in

the Sanctions Committee which seems to have inherited the

veto privilege under the cover of general consensus, have

demonstrated beyond all doubt that the embargo is geared

towards destroying Iraqi society with premeditated

persistence and through organized and calculated efforts

driven by political motives that are contrary to all values,

laws and norms acceptable to the international community

now or in the past.

The war of destruction launched against Iraq by the

United States and its allies, the continued imposition of the

comprehensive blockade and the denial of Iraq’s right to

export its oil and use its frozen assets in foreign banks have

all combined to make Iraq unable to provide even the most

elementary of its people’s basic humanitarian needs, such as

food and medication. The result has been a huge increase in

mortality among children and the elderly, due to the grave

shortage of medicines. On top of all its other difficulties in

various fields, Iraq suffers from, for example, an acute

shortage of medicines for the treatment of cancer, kidney

problems, heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure disorders,

eye diseases, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and other serious

diseases. Over the months that have elapsed in 1993,

tuberculosis-related fatalities among children have risen by

81 times over the figure registered for the corresponding

period in 1989; and this is but one example.

I do not wish to elaborate on the difficult humanitarian

conditions of the Iraqi people. The reports by the various

missions and agencies of the United Nations have warned

against the dangerous results of the deteriorating food and

health situation brought upon the Iraqi people as a result of

the blockade.

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 23

The most recent of those reports is Food and

Agriculture Organization (FAO) document 237, issued in

July 1993 under the title "Special Warning". This document

depicts the deterioration of Iraq’s food situation as a result

of the difficulties facing the agricultural sector because of

acute shortages of equipment and pesticides and the spread

of agricultural epidemics. The FAO report also points out

that the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq have led to

the spread of deprivation on a massive scale, thus exposing

the vast majority of the Iraqi population to acute food

shortages and malnutrition, particularly children under five

years of age. The report also states that the economic

blockade has practically paralysed the country’s economy

and led to continued deprivation and the spread of massive

human suffering.

Not content with its military aggression against Iraq on

17 January 1991 or with all the inhuman practices it has

pursued against the Iraqi people, the United States of

America has continued to perpetuate direct and unilateral

acts of military aggression against Iraq under various false

pretexts and flimsy justifications. In addition to the first

colossal aggression of 1991, the United States perpetrated

two further acts of aggression against Iraq’s civilian

population and civilian installations on 17 January 1993 and

27 June 1993. These two additional acts of aggression

resulted in the loss of many innocent civilian lives among

children, women and elderly people.

As a permanent member of the Security Council, the

United States of America has a double responsibility to

abide by international law and the United Nations Charter.

The United States should be the last country to resort to the

use of force in resolving disputes, yet it perpetrated

aggression against Iraq on the basis of unfounded and absurd

allegations that there was a conspiracy against the life of the

former United States President. In so doing, the United

States Government justified its action by a twisted

interpretation of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter

that was totally alien to that article’s letter and spirit.

This behaviour constitutes a grave escalation of a policy

that has been and will certainly continue to be a threat to

international peace and security, a policy that violates the

right of States to self-defence, as enshrined in the Charter of

the United Nations. The behaviour of the United States, in

particular its aggression of 27 June 1993, has met with

rejection and condemnation from many countries round the

world, including some allies of the United States itself.

As regards the issue of human rights, Iraq proceeds

from a complete belief in those rights and in the fact that

respect for, and protection of, human rights remains an

unquestionable element upon which the internal structure of

society is established and an element that contributes

positively to the establishment of peace and justice at the

international level. It is on the basis of such conviction and

such understanding that Iraq has acceded to many

international covenants on human rights. Iraq has also

honoured its obligations by submitting regular reports

regarding the situation of human rights. While we realize

that many positive developments have taken place in the

field of human rights, reflecting the widespread recognition

of their importance, a recognition further cemented by legal

provisions in the various international covenants, these

developments have not been accompanied, in terms of real

application, by an earnest endeavour to help create the right

climate for the declared legal provisions to be implemented

in accordance with the greatly varying circumstances

prevailing in various States, according to each one’s cultural

background, religious beliefs and level of progress and

development. On the contrary: it can be seen that the

concept of human rights has become a weapon used by

certain States possessing the means of influence with which

to exert discriminatory pressure on other States for selfish

political objectives and interests rather than for the

realization of common objectives and interests of the

international community. What is particularly worrying to

us is the neglect shown towards basic rights upheld by the

international community and declared as governing principles

such as the right to self-determination, the right to

development, the right of States to respect for their

sovereignty, stability and territorial integrity as well as

non-interference in their internal affairs.

The great challenges facing the United Nations put the

Organization at a decisive crossroads, beyond which we shall

see the will of the international community either totally

paralysed under the influence of dominant Powers, or

searching for an outlet through an endeavour to restore

balance to the mechanisms governing the process of

decision-making and decision-implementation in the various

United Nations agencies, with a view to ensuring the

effectiveness of the Organization and guaranteeing its ability

to resolve international problems in accordance with rules of

fairness, justice and international law, as well as ensuring the

revitalization of the role of the United Nations on the basis

of compatible and unified concepts and criteria and away

from double standards.

The enhancement of the United Nations ability to

maintain peace requires, above all, strict adherence to the

objectives and principles of the Charter, particularly the

principles of the sovereign equality of States, the right of

24 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

peoples to self-determination, to non-interference in the

internal affairs of States and to observance of the rules of

international law.

Iraq, as a founding Member of the United Nations, is

extremely anxious that the Organization’s name and emblem

remain worthy of respect and continue to be regarded as a

beacon of hope by all peoples of the world. We believe that

membership in the Security Council should go hand in hand

with the new realities brought about by the increased

membership of the United Nations, and that this should be

done in a manner that would bring about a more equitable

and balanced representation of all United Nations Member

States. The Council should abide by the principles of clarity

and openness in its decision-making process; it should also

operate with due regard to respect for the sovereign rights of

all States.

My country supports the thesis put forth by the

Secretary-General in his report "An Agenda for Peace"

regarding the importance of the role assigned to the General

Assembly by the United Nations Charter, especially in the

field of the maintenance of international peace and security.

The achievement of the United Nations objectives

requires that the mechanisms of the General Assembly

should be strengthened within the framework of its spheres

of competence stipulated by the Charter and that this should

be done through discussion and the adoption of resolutions

on subjects of international importance.

The strength and vitality of the United Nations are

closely linked to the extent of participation by its Member

States in the process of decision-making and to their

equitable representation in the various specialized organs and

agencies.

The United Nations Secretary-General, in his report

"An Agenda for Peace", highlights the fundamental fact that

social peace is just as important as strategic and political

peace. He stresses that peace cannot be guaranteed within

the framework of narrow military concept, as there are

several economic and environmental factors that play their

part in the maintenance of peace and that those factors can

themselves become the fuel for the eruption of conflicts and

wars between peoples.

The need to maintain international peace and security

puts the United Nations face to face with the responsibility

of removing the causes of conflict in which economic factors

play the vital role.

If it is said today that the world has put the dangers of

the cold war behind it, we must remind ourselves that our

world faces very real dangers that arise from the grave

deterioration in the world economic situation, particularly the

bitter suffering of the developing countries, their increasing

poverty and the frustration of their development

programmes.

The gap has been growing wider and wider between the

rich industrial North and the poor South which is seeking an

opportunity for survival as it witnesses the prices of its basic

commodities tumble, its foreign trade deteriorate, and its

resources become prey to plunder and extortion.

Peace is a concept that cannot be divided. It is a

fundamental right for mankind, recognized by all religions

as well as by international covenants. That indivisible

concept of peace must combine all dimensions, especially

the economic which, if missing, exposes the international

community to grave problems and dangerous conflicts.

To really guarantee international peace and security, we

must realize that this depends on the extent to which the

inherent causes of conflict are removed and that economic

and social development constitute the most important

foundation upon which to establish international peace and

security.

Once we realize this, we shall find that many of the

causes of instability arise from economic and social factors.

The United Nations should address such factors in all

seriousness and should give them priority in the activities of

its various organs, particularly the General Assembly and its

specialized agencies, in a manner that would heighten the

efficacy of the United Nations and the role it plays in

facilitating cooperation between States in the fields of

economic and social development and in other areas of

international cooperation.

This responsibility should be shouldered by the United

Nations on the basis of the principles enshrined in its

Charter for the enhancement of the factors of economic

development and progress and the establishment of

multilateral non-discriminatory international economic order

which would be based on respect for the choices made by

countries and peoples and which would encourage respect

for mutual interests and put an end to exploitation and

hegemony.

The United Nations should focus its efforts on the

search for the practical formulae that would lead to

consolidating the national infrastructures and enhancing the

Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 25

capabilities of the poorer and developing countries and help

them overcome their difficulties, implement their

development programmes and narrow the huge gap existing

at present between the rich industrial countries and the

developing countries. Such an effort will no doubt serve the

cause of stability, security and peace in the world.