The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
UN to
persuade the US that the UN has the wherewithal to be effective and
relevant
in the
future’.”
535.
In his
speech to the General Assembly, President Bush set out his view
of
the “grave
and gathering danger” posed by Saddam Hussein and challenged
the
UN to act
to address Iraq’s failure to meet the obligations imposed by the
Security
Council
since 1990.
536.
President
Bush made clear that, if Iraq defied the UN the world must
hold
Iraq to
account and the US would “work with the UN Security Council for
the
necessary
resolutions”.
537.
But the US
would not stand by and do nothing in the face of the
threat.
538.
President
Bush’s speech to the UN General Assembly on 12 September
focused
539.
President Bush
began his speech by referring to the origin of the United
Nations,
stating
that the Security Council had been created “so that, unlike the
League of Nations,
our
deliberations would be more than talk, our resolutions would be
more than wishes”.
He stated
that security was being challenged by regional conflicts, ethnic
and religious
strife, and
“outlaw groups and regimes that accept no law of morality and no
limit to their
violent
ambitions”. The “greatest fear” was that terrorists would “find a
shortcut to their
mad
ambitions when an outlaw regime supplies them with the technologies
to kill on a
massive
scale”.
540.
President Bush
stated:
“In one
place and one regime, we find all these dangers in their most
lethal and
aggressive
forms – exactly the kind of aggressive threat the United Nations
was
born to
confront.”
541.
President Bush
stated that, to suspend hostilities after its invasion of Kuwait
in
August
1990, Saddam Hussein had “accepted a series of commitments” and
“agreed to
prove” that
he was “complying with every one of those obligations”. By
“breaking every
pledge”,
Saddam had “made the case against himself”.
542.
President Bush
set out the obligations imposed by the UN on Iraq, including that
it
should:
•
“cease at
once repression of its own people”;
•
“return all
prisoners from Kuwait and other lands”;
163
The White
House, 12 September 2002, President’s
Remarks to the United Nations General Assembly.
184