The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
of the
scope of the counter‑terrorism campaign, but proven terrorists …
must be
resolutely
stamped out.”171
564.
Mr Tang
added that, in relation to Iraq, China stood “for a political
settlement”
in which
the United Nations “should play an important role”. He called on
Iraq to
“implement
the relevant Security Council resolutions in a faithful and strict
manner”.
565.
Mr Straw’s
speech to the General Assembly focused on the unique
challenge
to the UN
posed by Iraq’s continued defiance, and the consequences for the
UN’s
wider
authority if action was not taken.
566.
Mr Straw’s
speech to the UN General Assembly on 14 September focused on
the
critical
role the UN had to play in world affairs, and the “three rising
challenges” of failing
states,
terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.172
He cited
the experience with the
International
Security Assistance Force working with the UN in Afghanistan as
showing
what could
be done.
567.
Addressing the
threat from proliferation, Mr Straw stated: “Nowhere is the
case
for
universal support for the enforcement of the UN’s law stronger than
in the field of
weapons of
mass destruction.” He added:
“… with one
infamous exception – no States have resorted to these, the
world’s
worst
weapons.
“That
exception is Iraq. For two decades, Saddam has defied and
frustrated
every
attempt to enforce the international rule of law. Iraq is the only
country to
be
condemned by the United Nations for breaching the Convention on
Chemical
Weapons.
Iraq has fought two wars of aggression … No country has deceived
every
other
country in the world as systematically and cynically as Iraq. And
no country
presents as
fundamental a challenge to the United Nations …
“Every
society has to have rules … So those of us who believe in an
active
international
community cannot stand by and do nothing while Iraq continues
to
defy the
will of the United Nations. All of us who believe in the United
Nations have
to make up
our minds now about how to deal with Iraq. The authority of the
United
Nations
itself is at stake.
“We cannot
let Iraq do grave damage to this Organisation and the
international
order it
represents. We cannot let Iraq go on defying a decade of Security
Council
resolutions.
If we do, we will find all our resolutions are dismissed by
aggressors
everywhere
as mere words …
171
UN General
Assembly, ‘Fifty-seventh session Friday 13 September 2002’
(A/57/PV.5).
172
FCO
News, 14
September 2002, ‘Security
is not an option, it is a necessity – Straw
(14/09/02)’.
190