STATEMENT OF H.E. DR. MOHAMMED ALDOURI
PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE REPUBLIC OF IRAQ TO THE UNITED NATIONS

IRAQI MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

February 5, 2003

In the name of God the Merciful the Compassionate

Thank you Mr. President,

My delegation would like to extend its congratulation to you for presiding over the council for this month, we wish you success in your work amid these extraordinarily difficult international circumstances.

We had wished we were granted enough time equating the peril of what was stated by the American Secretary of State in his presentation and not just few minutes to rebuttal a statement that lasted 90 minutes. Iraq will provide detailed and technical explanatory answers to the allegations mentioned in the statement.

Mr. President,

I will be brief and courteous.

What was mentioned in Mr. Powell’s statement on weapons of mass destruction is utterly unrelated to the truth, the presentation was composed of unverifiable voice recordings, untruthful allegation, unnamed and unknown sources, imaginative diagrams and presumptions. H.E. President Saddam Hussein reiterated in his interview yesterday with Mr. Tony Benn, the former British Minister, that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction, a statement that has been repeated by many Iraqi Officials for more than a decade. Mr. Powell could have spared the effort of the Council and himself by presenting his allegations directly to UNMOVIC and the IAEA in accordance with para (10) of SCR 1441(2002) and left the inspectors to work in peace and quite without pressure. At any rate the visit of Mr. Blix and Mr. El-Baradie on the 8th and 9th of this month will be another opportunity to verify the validity of these allegations as current inspection have proven the falsity of previous allegations and reports issued by the United States and Britain.

Mr. President,

Iraq had submitted an accurate, comprehensive and updated declaration composed of 12000 pages that included detailed information on previous Iraqi programs as well as updated information on Iraqi industry in various fields.

The Inspectors have began their activities in Iraq extensively as of Nov 27, 2002 with the participation of more than 250 of UNMOVIC staff among them more than 100 inspectors. Until Feb 4th 2003, the inspection teams had conducted 575 inspections all over Iraq covering 321 sites. The sites accused by President Bush in his report of Sept 12, 2002 and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his report of Sept 2002 and the CIA’s report of October 2002 were atop the sites inspected by the inspection teams where inspectors made sure that all the allegations mentioned in those report were not true. This confirms Iraq’s declaration that it is free from weapons of mass destruction as a truthful, accurate and became documented by the two technical agencies entrusted by the Security Council for this task.

It is well known that inspection teams had taken samples of the water, soil, plants, air, factory remnants and production remnants from vast areas of cities, villages, highways, farms, factories and universities throughout Iraq. The analysis conducted by UNMOVIC and IAEA of these samples concluded the absence of any indication of proscribed chemical, biological or radiological agent or any proscribed activities in any part of Iraq.

Mr. Blix confirmed in his statement to the New York Times on Jan 30, 2003 that the inspectors did not underline any of the scenarios alleged by Mr. Colin Powell that Iraqi Officials move proscribed material inside or outside Iraq aiming concealment. And confirmed that he did not underline enough reasons to believe Iraq was sending its scientist outside of Iraq to prevent them from being interviewed and he has no reason to believe what President Bush had said in his State of the Union Address that Iraqi intelligence agents pose as scientists for the interviews. We would like to reiterate that Iraq encourages its scientists to conduct interviews requested by UNMOVIC and IAEA. Regarding the mobile labs Mr. Blix confirmed yesterday that UNMOVIC did not find until now any evidence on the existence of mobile labs.

As regards the U2 flights and what debate has been raised around it, Iraq does not object these flights to conduct inspection activities, but rather who obstruct that is the American and British warplanes imposing the illegal no-fly zones contrary to Security Council resolutions, it is enough for these warplanes to halt flights during U2 flights to pass this obstacle.

The allegation that trucks leave sites prior to the arrival of inspection teams is a false accusation, inspections occur instantaneously without prior notification to the Iraqi side. Also UNMOVIC and IAEA have their own sources for satellite pictures and they use helicopters for surveillance and inspection activities hence the two agencies are well informed of what happens on the ground in Iraq. It is important to remind here that programs of weapons of mass destruction are not an aspirin pill that can be easily hidden but rather require huge production facilities from research and development facilities to factories to weaponization to deployment and this cannot be concealed. The inspectors have roamed throughout Iraq and did not find any of it.

As regards what was mentioned about sound recordings it suffice it to say that scientific and technical progress has reached an advanced level that allows the fabrication of such allegations and offer them in the way Mr. Powell had presented. These recordings or voices could be of anyone, anywhere and anytime and cannot be ascertained.

And what has been raised about the relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda organization we note what H.E. President Saddam Hussein had said If we had a relationship with al Qaeda and we believed in that relationship we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it… we have no relationship with al Qaeda.

I would like to refer to what was published in the New York Times three days ago and I quote Analyst at the CIA have complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq, particularly about its possible links to terrorism, in order to strengthen their political argument for war.

I also would like to add that Mr. Straw had set aside his government’s intelligence report published today noting there are no relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

I was surprised to the mention of Mr. Powell that Iraq had used chemical weapons against its own people specially when an intelligence official at the CIA had uncovered on January 31, 2003 in the New York Times that they (the U.S. Administration) knew since 1988 that it was not Iraq that used chemical weapons against its own people simply because it did not have the chemical weapon used in Halabja.

Mr. President,

The clear goal of holding this meeting and the presentation of the American Secretary of State of false allegations in front of this council today is to promote the idea of war and aggression against my country Iraq without any legal, moral or political justification in an attempt to convince American and world public opinions to launch a hostile war against it. In return Iraq offers security and peace and reiterates on this occasion in front of the council its commitment to continue proactive cooperation with the inspector teams to finish their task as soon as possible and verify that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction in order to lift the unjust sanctions imposed upon it and respect its national security and ensure regional security by disarming weapons of mass destruction in the middle east including the huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in Israel in accordance with para (14) of SCR 687(1991).

Thank you Mr. President.