The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
could have
been assured and obtained in time”. Members of the Security Council
had
been
separated by “honest differences”. Once military action began, the
duties:
“… of the
Security Council to restore peace and security, to contain
conflict, to
prevent the
suffering of the Iraqi people and others in the region, to ensure
the
territorial
integrity of Iraq and its neighbours and to ensure the stability of
this
sensitive
region … will not end; they will become more acute.”
1005.
Mr Zinser
deplored “the path of war”, referring to the UN Charter and
the
“principles”
which Mexico had learned from history for the “peaceful settlement
of
disputes
and disarmament”. He described the inspections regime for Iraq as
“the
most
robust, dynamic and effective effort at peaceful disarmament that
has ever been
attempted”
and stated that Mexico was “convinced that … the United Nations
could
have brought
about the peaceful disarmament of Iraq”.
1006.
Ambassador
Negroponte stated that the consideration of the draft
programmes
was
“incompatible with Iraq’s non-compliance with resolution 1441
(2002) and the
current
reality on the ground”; the work programme was “predicated on the
assumption
that Iraq
will provide immediate, unconditional and active co-operation”.
That had:
“… been
manifestly lacking. No realistic programme of work or outline of
key
unresolved
issues can be developed … while Iraq fails to co-operate fully,
actively
and
unconditionally, nor can it be developed absent sound information
on Iraqi
programmes
since 1998 and all other information that is lacking.”
1007.
Ambassador
Negroponte added that the draft work programmes and:
“… the
paper on key remaining disarmament tasks make clear the
multitude
of
important issues that Iraq has avoided addressing. These are the
kinds
of
documents that we would have been able to discuss if Iraq had met
the
requirements
of resolution 1441 (2002), but they cannot now lead us to the
results
that this
Council demanded: the immediate peaceful disarmament of
Iraq.
“Under
current circumstances we have no choice but to set this work aside
for the
time being
… we do not exclude the possibility that it may prove useful to
return to
these
documents at some point in the future.”
1008.
Ambassador
Negroponte stated that the US had committed “significant
resources
… across
all relevant United States Government agencies and in support of
United
Nations
efforts to anticipate likely requirements and to be prepared to
administer
necessary
relief as quickly as possible”.
1009.
Mr Belinga
Eboutou stated that “the peaceful disarmament of Iraq by means
of
inspections”
had ended. The UNMOVIC draft work programme “would have been a
good
basis for
work” but “much remained to be done” and his delegation did “not
see how
the
inspectors would have achieved their heavy task in the absence of
full, active and
unconditional
co-operation”.
580