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1.1  |  UK Iraq strategy 1990 to 2000
requested the Security Council to re-establish the Special Commission,
including:
{{creating a “new executive bureau to lead and direct all the activities and
functions” of the Commission: it should comprise “an equal number of
members who represent the nations that are Permanent Members of the
Security Council”, with the chairmanship of the bureau filled on a rotation
basis. “Iraq should participate as an observer in the bureau’s work”;
{{restructuring the Commission’s offices in New York, Bahrain and Baghdad
on the same basis; and
{{moving the Commission’s main office from New York to either Geneva or
Vienna “to insulate it from the direct influence” of the US;
stated that “The Security Council and all its members, particularly the Permanent
Members, should observe – legally, politically and in practice – the resolutions
of the Council which stipulate that the sovereignty of Iraq should be respected”.
They should also abide by the Charter of the UN and the 23 February MOU;
stated that the Security Council should “call to account” members who violated
those principles, including banning “flights over the northern and southern parts
of Iraq by certain Permanent Members of the Council”; and
stated that, to express “its good intentions” and its desire that “its decisions
should be correctly interpreted and not tendentiously explained as non-
compliance”, Iraq would permit monitoring activities to continue provided that the
individuals responsible strictly respected provisions of the 23 February MOU in
relation to the sovereignty, security and dignity of Iraq.
547.  Providing the context for its decision, Iraq stated that it had fulfilled all the
obligations imposed on it in the hope that this would lead to the lifting of “unjust
sanctions” but the US had:
“… resorted to all ways and means to maintain the unjust sanctions … and to
obstruct and prevent any action by the Security Council that would recognize what
Iraq has achieved in fulfilling the requirements of the Security Council …”
548.  Iraq stated that the Special Commission was “foremost” among the instruments
used by the US, and that the US controlled its “leadership, activities and mode of
operation”. This had turned the Commission into a:
“… disgraced instrument for implementing the criminal American policy against
Iraq either by finding pretexts and fabricating crises with a view to maintaining the
sanctions or by spying on Iraq and threatening its national security and sovereignty.”
549.  Iraq also stated that:
The Commission continued “to fabricate false pretexts and to perpetuate its work
indefinitely”.
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