SPEECH BY IGOR IVANOV
RUSSIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

March 26, 2003

Esteemed Mr. Sergei Mikhailovich,

Esteemed Federation Council Members,

I thank you for the invitation and opportunity to exchange views on such an acute international problem as the situation in Iraq.

For six days now large-scale military actions are continuing there, unleashed in circumvention of the decisions of the UN Security Council and contrary to the rules of international law. As President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has stressed, the Iraq crisis has gone beyond the framework of a local conflict and it is now a potential source of instability for other regions of the world.

It is already becoming ever more obvious how far removed from reality are the attempts to present the military action against Iraq as a triumphal crusade to "liberate" the Iraq people with minimum casualties and destruction. Missile-bomb strikes of enormous destructive power are being dealt at Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. As a result of the massive bombings the number of casualties is growing, including among the civilian population. Historical and cultural monuments are being irrevocably lost. The infrastructure of the country is being destroyed, and the population is being deprived of electricity and water. The flow of refugees is increasing.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to inform you that Russia has launched active preparations for rendering humanitarian aid to refugees who are arriving into the territory of Iran. At the first stage it is borne in mind to set up there a hospital for 5,000 persons with full support, and then two more hospitals and one camp for 5,000. In addition, it is planned to set up refugee camps on the territory of Turkey.

At the same time, it has to be realized that if such, as now, powerful missile-bomb strikes continue, then a humanitarian, economic and environmental catastrophe can already be expected soon, with which it will be very difficult to cope. Other countries of the region may seriously suffer from the consequences of these catastrophes as well.

All this once again bears out the well-groundedness of the assessment given in President Putin's statement of March 20, 2003, of the war in Iraq as a serious political mistake. That assessment had been dictated by the entire course of events around Iraq in the last few months and by the principled line which our country has been persistently and consistently pursuing in this matter.

Russia together with other UN Security Council members did everything to prevent a force-based solution of the Iraq problem. We have held and continue to hold that there were no weighty reasons for the unleashing of war. No one was ever able to provide any convincing evidences that Iraq had been backing international terrorism. No one was ever able to prove that Iraq really presented a military threat to any state.

At the same time the central problem of Iraqi settlement concerning weapons of mass destruction could well have been solved by peaceful means, through the international UNMOVIC and IAEA inspections. All the necessary conditions were created for that. Moreover, there was the real chance to make a political resolution of the situation around Iraq an important precedent for the solution of other similar problems in the interests of reinforcing stability in the world and advancing towards a just, secure and democratic world pattern.

Unfortunately, this chance was not used because the United States and Britain had brought to the fore not the disarmament of Iraq, but a change of the political regime in the country. That approach runs counter not only to the UN Security Council resolutions on Iraq, but also to the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, in accordance with which the use of force by one state against another is possible only in self-defense. The international association of lawyers in Geneva specifically drew attention to this in its assessment of the military action against Iraq.

Attempts are now being made retrospectively to find a legal justification for the use of force against Iraq, including by way of references to UN Security Council resolution 1441. I want in this connection to once again stress that paragraph 14 of this resolution excludes automatism in the use of force. The Security Council alone had the right to evaluate the degree of cooperation by Iraq with the international inspectors and to adopt a decision on further steps to resolve the crisis.

The striving by force to impose this or that political system on a sovereign state is not only illegitimate, but obviously doomed to failure as well. Therefore it is only natural that the Arab states' leaders at the summit in Sharm El Sheikh stated bluntly on March 1, this year, that "the questions of Arab countries and the problems of development of their regimes are to be decided by the peoples of the region in accordance with their national and state interests, excluding external interference." The same thought was borne out at the LAS Council meeting on March 24, this year.

The danger inherent in a force-based solution of the Iraq problem also consists of the fact that some wrongful acts inevitably entail others. How else can one assess, for example, the US demands that other states sever diplomatic relations with Iraq and expel Iraqi diplomats, as well as freeze the bank accounts of Iraqi missions? For, whatever one's attitude to the regime in Baghdad, it concerns a sovereign state which is a member of the UN. By the way, we have officially asked the US for information on what, in its opinion, is a legal ground for this kind of demands.

We intend to come out further against attempts directly or indirectly to legitimatize the actions of force against Iraq or to shift off the responsibility for them on to the world community in the person of the UN. It is from this standpoint that we shall approach the consideration of draft resolutions which will be submitted to the UN Security Council in connection with Iraqi settlement.

We also consider ourselves entitled to seek respect for the lawful economic interests of Russia in Iraq. Russia did nothing in the country that would run counter to international law. Our country was accomplishing economic cooperation with Iraq in strict conformity with the norms which were laid down by the UN Security Council in the sanctions regime. That was why we did not place our stand on the Iraqi issue in dependence on these interests and did not turn them into a subject of any bargaining. In addition, we will firmly demand that the statements of the US leadership that the natural riches of Iraq belong to the Iraq people should not be at variance with real actions.

It is abundantly clear that the longer the military actions against Iraq, the more real the danger of adverse consequences of this crisis, including for the United States itself. Already the price of the unilateral action looks inordinately high. The unity of the UN Security Council and of the world community has been disrupted. A split has arisen in relations between the US and some of its closest European allies. There increases the danger of the situation getting destabilized in the Near and Middle East, as well as of a further radicalization of sentiments in the Islamic world. All this only plays into the hands of extremist forces, which are ready to take advantage of the Iraq crisis to reinforce their ranks and justify new acts of international terrorism. And such acts have already begun at different points of the planet.

That is why we think there is currently no more important task than to try to stop the war as soon as possible and get the situation back on the track of political settlement within the framework of the UN Security Council. It is for this that we intend to strive most actively in cooperation with our partners and like-minded persons in the international arena.

At present we are conducting intensive contacts with a wide array of states, including UN Security Council members, in order to find a political way out of the crisis. The objective conditions are still there for that. I shall recall that by decision of the UN Security Council international inspections in Iraq have not been terminated but temporarily suspended. The heads of UNMOVIC and IAEA have submitted a concrete program of action, the implementation of which will make it possible to solve the key question of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This would offer the possibility to return the Iraq problem to the Security Council and to carry on the mission which the member states of the Council have imposed on UNMOVIC and IAEA.

The question of urgent steps in the humanitarian direction is acute. On the instructions of President Putin we have raised the question before the Iraqi leadership of humane treatment of war prisoners. Naturally we presume that the Geneva Conventions must be observed by all the parties.

In our deep conviction, the UN potentialities in this crisis are far from exhausted. It is significant that even the supporters of the force-based solution declare an intention to return to the Security Council for solving the questions of the postwar reconstruction of Iraq.

In order to resolve the Iraq crisis we remain open for dialogue and constructive cooperation with the United States. We altogether consider - I want to once again stress - that our differences with the US on the Iraq problem should not call into question the positive prospect of developing Russian-American relations. These relations have a separate significance as a factor of global security and stability. That is why, while not agreeing with some or other actions of Washington, we at the same time consider it inadmissible to slide to mutual confrontation.

Seriously disquieting in this connection are the attempts by certain circles in the US to draw Russia into an "information war" around Iraq. This concerns, in particular, the groundless charges against our country that Russian companies had allegedly made deliveries of military goods to Iraq. As is known, President Putin in the course of a telephone conversation with President Bush recalled that the Russian side had repeatedly provided information about the absence of such supplies. I shall add that we most seriously checked the allegations of the American side, but no facts were established.

We hope that our American partners will show a sense of responsibility and will not take steps which could do harm to our relations in the long term. For no matter how the situation may develop around Iraq, our countries cannot get away from the necessity to jointly look for ways of solving many global problems and to cooperate in the struggle against new threats and challenges.

It is in the interest of the international community by concerted efforts to try to minimize damage from the Iraq crisis. On this directly depends in what kind of world we will all live in the coming years and decades - in a world based on the supremacy of international law or in the conditions of chaos and the reign of military force.

In searches of an answer to this fundamental question a great role belongs to world public opinion, which in the vast majority has already spoken out against a force-based solution of the Iraq problem. Massive antiwar protests of the public are continuing all over the world. It is of fundamental importance to bring home to the world public the full gravity of the choice, before which the international community has found itself. I am convinced that dialogue and cooperation by parliamentarians can make an invaluable contribution to the assertion of such values as the priority of international law and multilateral cooperation. We hope for close collaboration with the Federal Assembly in these questions and for our part are ready to lend it all the necessary assistance and support.

Thank you for your attention.