Online NewsHour: The German Response -- February 5, 2003



	THE GERMAN RESPONSE
February 5, 2003

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer pushes for tightened inspections and a peaceful solution, saying the "dangers of a military action and its consequences are plain to see."

Online Special:
Intervention in Iraq?

News for Students: The Iraq Conflict

The United Nations

MIN. JOSCHKA FISCHER (foreign minister of Germany): I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the vice chancellor and minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany.
Allow me to express my sincere condolences on the tragic loss of lives in the accident of the Columbia Space Shuttle to the families and the governments and people of the United States and of Israel.
I would like to thank Secretary of State Colin Powell for the information he has just given us. The place and timing of this detailed account underline once more that the U.N. Security Council is and remains the center of decision making on the Iraq crisis.
Germany supports this approach. Given the implications they could have for the future decisions, the findings have to be examined carefully. We can already see that they coincide in part with information that we also have. They are based on close exchange of information.

It is now decisive that the U.N. inspectors are also provided with this extensive material insofar as this has not yet happened.
They have to work with this information to be able to clarify the unresolved questions quickly and fully. And Iraq has to answer the elements which were provided today by our colleague Colin Powell to the Security Council.

The more expert information the inspection teams have at their disposal, the more targeted their work can be. Thus from the outset Germany, too, passed on the information it had to Hans Blix, Mohamed ElBaradei and their teams.

The Security Council has been dealing with Iraq for twelve years.
As a matter of principle, the unity of the council is of central importance in these contexts. Baghdad has time and again violated the obligations laid down in the relevant council resolutions. Nor do we hold any illusions on the inhumane and brutal nature of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

Under his rule, Iraq has attacked its neighbors Kuwait and Iran, fired missiles at Israel, and deployed poison gas against Iran and its own Kurdish population. The regime is terrible for the Iraqi people.
This is why a policy of containment, sanctions and effective military control of the no-fly zones have been implemented since the Gulf War.
Iraq must comply with all relevant Security Council resolutions in their entirety and completely disarm its weapons of mass destruction potential. The presence of the inspectors in Iraq has already effectively reduced the danger of this potential.
Nevertheless, the aim of Resolution 1441 is the full and lasting disarmament of Iraq.

In his last report, Hans Blix listed many open questions. The regime in Baghdad must give clear answers to all these concrete questions without delay.
Despite all the difficulties, U.N. efforts to disarm Iraq in the past were not without success. In the 1990s the inspectors were able to destroy more WMD capacities than the Gulf War.

The threat potential of Iraq for the region was thus clearly reduced. The current basis for the inspection is laid down in Resolution 1284 and 1441. The weapons inspectors from UNMOVIC and IAEA has further-reaching powers than ever before. They have to be given a real chance and the time they need to fully exhaust their possibilities.
Chief Inspector Blix and IAEA head ElBaradei will travel to Iraq again next weekend, and thereafter update us.
The success of this trip will be of paramount importance. It depends crucially on the full cooperation of Baghdad. Quite a few states suspect that Saddam Hussein's regime is withholding relevant information and concealing military capabilities. This strong suspicion has to be dispelled beyond any doubt. This is exactly why Resolution 1441 provides for the instrument of inspections in Iraq by UNMOVIC and the IAEA. The dangers of a military action and its consequences are plain to see.
Precisely because of the effectiveness of the work of the inspectors, we must continue to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Dear colleagues, in the world of the 21st century, the U.N. is key to conflict prevention, crisis management and peace-building. On the basis of Resolution 1441, and in the light of practical experience, we need to enhance the instruments of inspection and control.
We need a tough regime of intensive inspections that can guarantee the full and lasting disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. By tightening inspections, we are creating an opportunity for a peaceful solution.

Such a tough system of inspections could also be effectively applied by the Security Council in other cases. Our French colleague made some very interesting proposals on this matter, which deserve our further considerations.

Moreover, we ought to support all endeavors of states in the region that are currently engaging in considerable diplomatic efforts to bring the Iraqi government to fully implement the resolutions. Iraq must disarm openly, peacefully, and in full cooperation with the inspectors without any delay.

I thank you.