The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
there had
been significant tensions about the Secretary-General’s mission and
the text
of the
draft resolution co-sponsored by the UK and Japan.194
Tensions
centred on the
Security
Council determining whether the use of force was appropriate and
authorising
such
action, not individual Member States.
466.
In his
statement to the Council, Mr Annan stated that, in travelling
to Baghdad
to seek
a peaceful solution to the crisis, he had acted to fulfil
his:
“…
constitutional obligation under the United Nations Charter and …
commitment
to the
General Assembly … a sacred, moral obligation and commitment to
act, any
time,
anywhere, without seeking or accepting instructions from any
Government,
whenever
that action may be helpful in reducing a grave threat to
international peace
and
security.”
467.
Mr Annan
added that Iraq’s refusal to honour its commitments had
constituted
such a
threat which had been averted by the agreement of 23 February.
But the
agreement
would be “empty words unless both parties now implement it fully,
fairly
and without
delay”.
468.
Iraq’s
“complete fulfilment” of those obligations was “the one and only
aim” of the
agreement,
and “nothing more and nothing less” would make the completion of
the
disarmament
process possible and “thus speed the lifting of
sanctions”.
469.
The agreement
was also a call for the UN to look to the future and its
“inherent
obligation
to remember that even the bitterest of enmities among nations do
not last
for ever”.
470.
Mr Annan
said that the agreement was also a reminder of why the UN had
been
established:
“… to
prevent the outbreak of unnecessary conflict when the will of the
international
community
can be achieved through diplomacy; to seek and find
international
solutions
to international problems; to obtain respect for international law
and
agreements
from a recalcitrant party without destroying for ever that party’s
dignity
and
willingness to co-operate; to secure, in this case, through on-site
inspections
and
negotiations, the assured destruction of weapons of mass
destruction that aerial
bombardment
can never achieve.”
471.
In conclusion,
Mr Annan pledged “to strive, to seek to find and not to yield”
in the
fulfilment
of his duty.
472.
Sir John
Weston described the crisis which had led to Mr Annan’s “last
ditch effort
to find a
diplomatic solution” as “just the latest and the most serious in a
series of Iraqi
provocations”.
His success was “not a success for diplomacy alone but a success
for
194
UN Security
Council, ‘3858th Meeting Monday 2 March 1998’
(S/PV.3858).
108