SPEECH TO THE U.S. SENATE BY M. DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

FRANCE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

October 9, 2002

Excerpts

. . .

France has special responsibilities in the management of this crisis. In the first place, she occupies a special place in the world: our status of permanent member of the Security Council, our leading role in the European Union, our long-standing and deep friendship with the United States, of whom we are the oldest ally and whose emotion we shared following the shock of 11 September, and, finally, our strong relations with the Arab and Mediterranean worlds give us special responsibilities in the management of this crisis.

The first of them is to address the potential threat presented by Iraq with the risk of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In the past, the Baghdad regime has used such weapons not only against Iran but also its own people. Today there's every indication that, for nearly four years, in the absence of the international inspectors, that country has pursued weapons programmes, now has chemical and biological capabilities and is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a threat to the whole world. Our security depends on our ability to deal collectively with this great danger.

So we have to be uncompromising when it comes to this priority objective of our diplomatic action. This is why Iraq must disarm and submit to the strictest inspections. This is also why we shall continue to demonstrate the utmost firmness towards the regime which, over the years, has lied to the international community, often playing on its divisions and lack of determination.

Our second responsibility is to ensure stability in the Middle East. With the Iraq crisis, the whole region is threatened. The Middle East is at the heart of the arc of crisis which extends from the Eastern Mediterranean to South-West Asia: an area rife with political divisions and where rich and poor countries and the haves and have-nots in society exist side by side. We all remember the 1967 and 1973 Israeli-Arab wars, as well as the two Gulf wars: the first between Iran and Iraq and the second to liberate Kuwait, invaded by Iraq. Still fresh in our minds too are some considerable domestic upheavals: the civil war in Lebanon and revolution in Iran. Finally, on the fringes of this region, the case of Afghanistan, invaded by the Soviet Union, then racked by civil war, before being subjected to the yoke of the Taliban, and today on the way to stabilization.

So it's an essential strategic area, at the heart of the major communication routes between the continents, containing oil reserves vital for the development of the rest of the world.

At a time when the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is fuelling the feelings of frustration and injustice among the region's peoples we must be vigilant. Indeed, these countries, rendered vulnerable by one conflict after another, are prey to centrifugal forces. The ethnic and religious diversity, which enriches the country, is also the cause of serious clashes.

Iraq is a focus for these tensions: Arabs and Kurds, Sunni and Shi'ites, Muslims and Christians live alongside each other in a recently-created secular State. A fragile country in a now vulnerable region, its collapse would have incalculable repercussions on its environment. Many of the region's countries are anxious, when the time comes, to be on the victors' side, but also fear being destabilized by a war which would inflame the general public in their countries.

Europe and France, a Mediterranean power, are closely linked to that region by history and geography. Their internal cohesion would be affected if an illegitimate and for our general public unacceptable management of the Iraq crisis were to provoke a major destabilization of the Middle East. In the era of interdependence, new links are being woven between foreign and domestic policy.

Our third responsibility is to the entire international community. The decisions taken in New York, at the Security Council, and in the major capitals have major repercussions on the world order. Through the Iraq crisis, the operation and credibility of the United Nations are being tested. We were pleased that the United States President opted for a multilateral treatment of the crisis, on 12 September, at the United Nations General Assembly. We wish to pursue this path. We shall be fully supporting, through our action, the UN's primordial role.

Everyone must realize that the stakes involved in this crisis go far beyond Iraq. On the manner of its resolution depend the world order for the next few years, relations between the peoples and the creation, still possible, of a fault line between North and South.

France is convinced that a security policy won't be enough to ensure world stability. She rejects all unilateral preventive action, convinced that a new international order must be based on dialogue and cooperation. While today the world needs a strong America, it also needs a strong Europe, capable of making its voice heard and defending its values.

France intends to shoulder all her responsibilities without compromising on any of them. This is why she is determined to ensure respect for the law and unity of the international community.

This vision of the world guides our strategy. Our prime concern is for efficacy and our demands are clear: the United Nations inspectors must go back into Iraq to ascertain the facts and secure disarmament and then carry out the continuous monitoring of her military activities as the Security Council resolutions require.

We are effective when we are united. The past few weeks have shown that the international community obtains results when it's demonstrably united. The debates at the United Nations General Assembly have achieved the goal assigned to them: to give Baghdad no room to go on defying international law. Saddam Hussein has backed down. On 16 September, under pressure from a united international community, he made known in a letter from his Foreign Minister that he accepted the international inspectors' unconditional return.

As a result of the talks between the Iraqi authorities, Chairman of UNMOVIC and Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, some practical terms and conditions have been specified for the resumption of the inspections and the necessary adjustments to the existing system defined, on the strength of Messrs Blix and ElBaradei's recommendations.

What are the next few steps? It is imperative for the inspectors to begin their work very soon. On this depend the credibility of the United Nations and efficacy of its action. Once the inspectors are on the ground, the UN will be able to appraise the real extent of Iraq's cooperation.

For this, we want the Security Council very quickly to adopt the necessary resolution. While it is not legally indispensable, it may be politically important to signal the international community's consensus and send a firm message to Iraq. It must specify the practical terms and conditions of the inspections in order to guarantee their total effectiveness. Our objective is to help Mr Blix carry out his mission and not to complicate his task.

Our approach remains the two-stage one set out by President Chirac. It maintains the unity of the Security Council. Because it strictly complies with international law, it has secured a wide consensus, embracing not just our European partners, but also Russia, China and Iraq's neighbours. The Arab world's backing of our ideas shows the large degree of support for our demands for legality and fairness from the region's peoples.

Moreover, this approach ensures the legitimacy, at every stage, of the decisions taken. France won't give her agreement to wording which would, in advance, be equivalent to giving carte blanche to any action in the event of Iraq failing to comply with her obligations. We reject any automatic triggering of the use of force.

The Security Council must retain total political control of the situation. It must be able, at every stage, to assess it on the basis of the information provided, inter alia by UNMOVIC, and decide as it alone is empowered to do on the measures to take.

We won't accept its authority being delegated to anyone. This approach prevents short cuts being taken and confusion of the objectives, and allows us to discharge all our responsibilities throughout the crisis.

France defends the primacy of international law. Our goal isn't war: the use of force must remain a last resort. The founding principles of the order developed since the Second World War are at stake in the settlement of the Iraq crisis. In 1991, the Gulf War, the first post cold-war conflict, complied with the principle of legitimate defence, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Today, any military action should, similarly, satisfy international law.

This vision of the world also requires us to address the needs and aspirations of the region's peoples. France hasn't forgotten the humanitarian dimension of the suffering which jars our consciences. Living conditions have horribly deteriorated. Infant mortality has doubled in ten years. The social fabric has disintegrated. A whole generation has been sacrificed. If the Iraqi people are deprived of all grounds for hope, that will only strengthen a regime prone to stubbornness.

France is endeavouring, within the Security Council, to ensure that fundamental dimension of the problem isn't neglected and to define ways of attenuating the impact of the sanctions on the Iraqi people. She was behind the so-called "oil for food" programme, which authorizes Iraq to export oil in order to finance, under United Nations control, the purchase of humanitarian goods. She has constantly endeavoured to speed up the monitoring conditions, while retaining their effectiveness. With UNSCR 1409 of May 2002, we moved to a more liberal regime which facilitates the import of consumer goods.

MIDDLE EAST

The Iraq crisis must not make us neglect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is fuelling the instability of the Middle East. We are actively working, with our European partners, Russia, America and the United Nations, to end the vicious circle of violence. The temptation to up the ante has to give way to regional responsibility.

With the "Quartet", the international community must leave no stone unturned to achieve a lasting and just peace for both parties, i.e. a peace based on equal respect for the right of Israel to exist within secure and recognized borders and of the Palestinians to a viable and secure State, allowing them to realize their national aspirations.

By adopting UNSCR 1435 ordering the lifting of the siege of the Palestinian Authority's headquarters and demanding that the Israeli troops pull back to their positions of September 2000, the Security Council addressed a strong signal to the region. Today, the whole international community agrees both on the objectives of the peace process in the Middle East and on the terms of reference for a possible peace. Here too, action must be taken!

. . .

CRISES/INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

We have been through crises and have succeeded in tackling them, united and standing shoulder to shoulder, as after 11 September in the fight against terrorism. We must go on presenting a united front today in the face of the risks of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We shall have other crises, since that's the way of the world. But when confronting these difficulties, we shall always have to act in such a way that the international community grows stronger, fairer and more effective. True to our common values and respectful of the rule of law, we shall thus be able to give the necessary impetus to the emergence of a new world order.

. . .