The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

168. Although there were doubts about whether Iraq had revealed the full extent of its

activities, the JIC was more sanguine in September 1994 about the size and value of

Iraq’s chemical and biological agent stockpiles.

169. After 1992, UNSCOM “continued to have concerns that not all proscribed items

had been disclosed”.72

170. In January 1993, there were two incidents involving Iraqi incursions into the

demilitarised zone between Iraq and Kuwait. On 8 and 11 January, two Presidential

Statements were issued, declaring that Iraq’s actions constituted unacceptable and

material breaches of relevant provisions of resolution 687.73 Again, Iraq was warned that

“serious consequences” would flow from such continued defiance. The status and legal

significance of Presidential Statements is addressed in Section 5.

171. On 13, 17 and 18 January, the US, UK and France carried out air and missile

strikes against Iraqi targets. Mr Ralph Zacklin, Assistant Secretary-General for Legal

Affairs at the United Nations from 1998 to 2005, subsequently wrote:

“The legitimacy of this limited resumption of the use of force was borne out by the

fact that there was a marked absence of protest on the part of Member States even

when the air strikes continued for a third wave. By issuing repeated warnings to Iraq

in the form of Presidential Statements which conveyed the sense of the Security

Council as a collective organ, the Council had clearly signified its agreement to the

course of action which had been taken.”74

172. In April, an Iraqi plot to assassinate former US President George HW Bush during

a visit to Kuwait was foiled. On 26 June, his successor, President Bill Clinton, responded

with a cruise missile attack against the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Services

in Baghdad.

72 UN Security Council, 11 October 1996, ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Special

Commission established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9 (b) (i) of resolution 687 (1991)’

(S/1996/848).

73 Statement by the President of the Security Council concerning United Nations flights in Iraqi territory,

Document S/25081 of 8 January 1993; Statement by the President of the Security Council concerning

various actions by Iraq vis a vis UNIKOM [United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission] and

UNSCOM, Document S/25091 of 11 January 1993.

74 Zacklin R. The United Nations Secretariat and the Use of Force in a Unipolar World: Power v. Principle.

Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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