The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
“The
conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the
United Nations,
and a
threat to peace … All the world now faces a test, and the United
Nations a
difficult
and defining moment. Are the Security Council resolutions to be
honoured
and
enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United
Nations serve the
purpose of
its founding or will it be irrelevant?
“The United
States … want the United Nations to be effective and respected
and
successful.
We want the resolutions of the world’s most important multilateral
body
to be
enforced, and right now those resolutions are being unilaterally
subverted by
the Iraqi
regime …”
545.
Challenging
Iraq, President Bush stated: “If the Iraqi regime wishes peace” it
would
act in
accordance with its obligations to the UN. He listed those
obligations but did not
explicitly
mention the obligation to allow weapons inspectors to
return.
546.
President Bush
offered the prospect of a new relationship:
“If all
these steps are taken, it will signal a new openness and
accountability in Iraq.
And it
could open the prospect of the United Nations helping to build a
Government
that
represents all Iraqis – a Government based on respect for human
rights,
economic
liberty and internationally supervised elections.
“The United
States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people …
“My nation
will work with the UN Security Council to meet our common
challenge.
If Iraq’s
regime defies us again, the world must move deliberately and
decisively to
hold Iraq
to account. We will work with the UN Security Council for the
necessary
resolutions.
But the purposes of the United States should not be doubted.
The
Security
Council resolutions will be enforced, and the just demands of peace
and
security
will be met, or action will be unavoidable, and a regime that has
lost its
legitimacy
will lose its power.”
547.
President Bush
warned:
“Events can
turn in one of two ways.
“If we fail
to act in the face of danger the people of Iraq will continue to
live in brutal
submission.
The regime will have new power to bully, dominate and conquer
its
neighbours,
condemning the Middle East to more years of bloodshed and
fear.
The regime
will remain unstable … With every step the Iraqi regime takes
towards
gaining and
deploying the most terrible weapons, our own options to confront
that
regime will
narrow. And if an emboldened regime were to supply these
weapons
to terrorist
allies, then the attacks of September 11 would be a prelude to
far
greater horrors.
“If we meet
our responsibilities, if we overcome this danger, we can arrive at
a
very
different future. The people of Iraq can shake off their captivity.
They can one
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