February 18, 2003

"In the Name of God the Merciful the compassionate"

Mr. President

We extend our thanks to you and the members of the august council for agreeing to the request of the Coordinating Bureau’s office of the Non-Aligned Movement to have this open session. It is also my pleasure to extend thanks to the delegation of South Africa for its request to convene this session to hear the views of the member states of the United Nations as a whole and the members of the movement in particular within the framework of increased transparency and attaining more views and ideas that may assist in managing the current crisis and resolving it peacefully at a time when the United States of America and the United Kingdom effort fervently to launch an aggressive war on a country that has been subject to an unjust comprehensive embargo for over 12 years in order to change its national government and impose the American hegemony on the region and its resources as a step to dominate the whole world by the use of force in a dangerous precedence in international relations threatening the credibility of the United Nations and exposes international and regional peace and security to grave dangers.

Mr. President,

Iraq’s record in adhering to Security Council Resolutions is unprecedented in this international organization or in the history of international relations. In 1991 the Security Council adopted resolution 687 which imposed on Iraq a great number of unprecedented obligations. During 1991 and 1992 Iraq along with the former Special Commission (UNSCOM) and the IAEA destroyed all the sites and facilities related to it previous programs on weapons of mass destruction. During the period of 1992 and 1998 Iraq cooperated with UNSCOM and the IAEA to ascertain that Iraq is free of any proscribed programs. Amb. Rolf Ekeus, former chairman of UNSCOM stated on 13 January 1993 that Iraq had implemented 95% of its disarmament obligations and had reiterated this statement during a recent interview with a Swedish Radio on 7 September 2002.

At a time when the Security Council decided to conduct a comprehensive review of Iraq’s compliance with Security Council resolutions in order to lift the embargo imposed on it after the Secretary General’s visit to Iraq in 1998, the United States ordered Richard Butler the former executive chairman of UNSCOM to withdraw the inspectors in preparation of its aggression on December 1998 dubbed Operation Desert Fox when Iraq was bombed with hundreds of missiles killing thousands of Iraqis and destroying the infrastructure of Iraq which was rebuilt since 1991. The whole world condemned that aggression and the Secretary General of the United Nations considered it a dark day in the United Nations’ history. I would like to point out here that the United States Government confirmed then (in 1998) that operation desert fox had destroyed Iraq’s arsenal of Weapons of mass destruction.

After that aggression the Security Council formed a panel headed by Amb. Amorim recommended that the remaining questions in disarmament could be dealt with in the reinforced Ongoing Monitoring and Verification. Amb. Amorim based his recommendations on the former UNSCOM’s report of 1997 which explained that they did not have much more unknown about Iraq’s remaining military capabilities. Res. 1284 adopted Amorim's recommendations; Working paragraph 2 of the resolution entrusted UNMOVIC to establish and start a reinforced monitoring system that will resolve the remaining disarmament issues.

UNMOVIC has taken into account in its plan and organizational structure (paragraph 13 of document S/2000/292) the concept of integrating disarmament issues with ongoing monitoring.

Mr. President,

In October of last year Iraq agreed to the return of inspectors, the Secretary General conveyed Iraq’s agreement in a letter to the Security Council that included two important issues; the first considered the return of inspectors a step towards a comprehensive review of issue of Iraq in order to lift the embargo imposed on it; The second was the necessity of respecting Iraq’s sovereignty and independence. From what we see today, these two issues are still awaiting the Security Council for implementation.

Iraq had requested through three rounds of talks with the Secretary General last year ensuring no threats to its sovereignty, security and entering into technical talks with Dr. Blix to agree on a mechanism to identify the importance of remaining issues and ways of solving them. Dr. Blix thought at the time that identifying remaining issues will be decided by the Security Council after the submission of a work program to the council two months after the start of work in Iraq. After Iraq agreed to the return of inspectors and the followed agreement of resolution 1441 Iraq suggested this issue to Dr. Blix yet he repeated his saying the work program having to start of inspections for two months then he will prepare the work program and will consult with Iraq regarding remaining issues.

Prior to the return of inspectors Iraq requested from the council ensuring no threats of its sovereignty, independence and security and the discussion of remaining disarmament issues. The United States is using this ambiguity and fogginess to transfer the issue from its technical and scientific nature into a political issue when it requested from Iraq to prove it is free of the alleged weapons of mass destruction when what was requested was active cooperation with the inspectors. Nevertheless Iraq has provided all sorts of active and full cooperation and as follows:

We would like to reiterate that the controversy surrounding the issue of VX and anthrax, which were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq, that Iraq submitted practical suggestions during the technical talks with Drs. Blix and El-Baradei in Baghdad on 8 and 9 February 2003 and that is to clear what the former Special Commission saw as remaining issues and any vague points, that is through measuring the dissolved quantities of VX and anthrax in the unilateral destruction sites using chemical and physiological analysis. Iraq submitted documents proving the validity of this process as well as the results its conducting regarding other issues.

Mr. President,

This active cooperation resulted in refuting all the allegations emanating from the United States and Britain that started with the statement delivered by the American President to the General Assembly and what was followed in reports issued by the American and British administrations, the last of which being the presentation of Mr. Powell in front of the Security Council on 5 February 2003.

Rationale and wisdom calls us to question if there is a justification for the United States to launch a war against Iraq under the pretext of its worry about Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction even at a time when Iraq is under an ongoing monitoring and verification system?. Is Iraq to be rewarded with yet another attack by the United States who had threatened to use weapons of mass destruction particularly nuclear weapons?.

Through its journey of compliance with the International organizations resolutions during 12 years, Iraq has paid a dear price including losing close to two million of its people and it is now facing another threat of destruction and killing. Therefore we call from this forum to all the member states to shoulder their responsibility in accordance with the United Nations Charter that emphasizes a peaceful solution and halting the unjust embargo imposed on it and eliminating the no-fly zones unilaterally imposed by the United States and Britain.

We call upon the states of the world to answer the call of millions of people from around the world during the last few days to refuse any aggression or threat against Iraq and condemn the troops amassed and military threats to Iraq and the region. We alert the world community to the dangers of military aggression against Iraq, its people and its territorial integrity and warn of the serious consequences of a war on the area which has suffered the agony of many wars and still is suffering from the continuation of occupation and destruction policy of Israel against the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights.

We also request respect for Iraq’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and political choice expressed by the Iraqi people during the general popular referendum to reaffirm Iraq political leadership.

The United States attack on Iraq will be the evidence of the failure of the international rule in its entirety which must relay on the United Nations charter as a reference indispensable in maintaining international peace and security. This attack will undermine the credibility of the security council and the noble goals entrusted to it in keeping international peace and security.

At the end would like to reaffirm Iraq’s commitment on continuing full and active cooperation with UNMOVIC and the IAEA which have displayed good responses in this direction to implement Security Council resolutions in a professional and honest manner in accordance with the United Nations’ Charter, away from American and British political influences and pressures. At the same time we would like to reiterate to the world community that if aggression takes place against Iraq, Iraq’s sons famous for their struggle against British occupation will defend their country and will not allow a detraction of its sovereignty and independence.