| | MOHAMMED ALDOURI: (Iraqi
permanent representative to the U.N.): (Through interpreter) In the name of God
the Merciful, the Compassionate, thank you, Mr. President. My delegation should
like to extend its congratulations to you on your assumption of the presidency
of the council for this month, and we wish you success in your work amid these
very difficult international circumstances. We had wished we were granted
sufficient time, commensurate with the gravity of the statements made by the U.S.
secretary of State in his presentation, and not just a few minutes to rebut a
statement that lasted over an hour. Nevertheless, Iraq will provide detailed
and technical responses to the allegations made in that statement. Mr.
President, I shall be polite and brief.
The pronouncements in Mr. Powell's
statements on weapons of mass destruction are utterly unrelated to the truth.
No new information was provided -- mere sound recordings that cannot be ascertained
as genuine. Perhaps you saw me smile when I heard some of these
recordings.
They contained some words that I will not attempt to translate here. However,
there are incorrect allegations, unnamed sources, unknown sources. There are assumptions
and presumptions which all fall in line with the American policy towards one known
objective.
His Excellency President Saddam Hussein reiterated, in his
interview granted yesterday to former British [cabinet] minister Tony Benn, that
Iraq is totally free of weapons of mass destruction -- a statement repeated by
numerous Iraqi officials for over a decade.
Mr. Powell could have spared
himself, his team and the Security Council the effort by presenting these allegations
directly to UNMOVIC and the IAEA, in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph
10 of Security Council Resolution 1441. He could have left the inspectors to work
in peace and quiet, to ascertain without media pressure.
At any rate,
the forthcoming visit of Messrs. Blix and ElBaradei on the 8th and 9th of this
month will be a further opportunity to verify and ascertain the validity of these
allegations. Ongoing inspections have showed that previous allegations and reports
from the United States and Britain were false.
Mr. President, Iraq
submitted an accurate, comprehensive and updated declaration of 12,000 pages,
including detailed information on previous Iraqi programs as well as updated information
on Iraqi industries in various fields.
The inspectors began their activities
intensively in Iraq on
November 27 of 2002, with more than 250 of UNMOVIC
and IAEA staff, including more than 100 inspectors. As of February 4th
of this year, the inspection teams have conducted 575 inspections, all over Iraq,
covering 321 sites. The sites indicted by President Bush in his report
of September 12, 2002, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his report of
September 2002, and the U.S. CIA report of October 2002, topped the list of sites
inspected by the inspection teams.
Inspectors ascertained that all the
allegations made in those
reports were not true. This confirms Iraq's declaration
that it is free from weapons of mass destruction and that its declaration is truthful
and accurate, as documented by the two technical agencies entrusted by the council
to undertake that task.
Mr. President, it is well known that inspection
teams took
samples of water, soil, plants, air, factory remnants, as well
as production remnants from vast areas in cities, villages, on highways, farms,
factories and universities throughout Iraq -- north, south, east and west. Analyses
conducted by UNMOVIC and IAEA of these
samples concluded the absence of any
indication of proscribed chemical, biological or radiological agent or indeed
of any other proscribed activities in any part of Iraq.
Mr. Blix confirmed
in his statement to the New York Times on January 30th of this year that the inspectors
did not ascertain any of the scenarios alleged by Mr. Colin Powell that Iraqi
officials were moving proscribed material inside or outside Iraq aiming at concealment.
He confirmed that he did not find enough reasons to believe that Iraq was
sending its scientists outside Iraq to prevent them from being interviewed, and
that he had no reason to believe that President Bush was correct in his State
of the Union address in saying that Iraqi intelligence agents were posing as scientists
for the interviews. We would like to reiterate that Iraq encourages its
scientists to submit to interviews requested by UNMOVIC and IAEA.
As
for the mobile laboratories alleged by Secretary Powell this morning, Dr. Blix
just yesterday stated that UNMOVIC to date had found no proof of the presence
of such mobile units.
As regards the U-2 overflights and the controversy
that has been raised around them, Iraq does not object to these overflights to
conduct inspection activities. Rather, the obstruction is that U.S. and
British warplanes impose an illegal no-fly zones contrary to Security Council
resolutions. It is enough for these warplanes to suspend their flights during
U-2 overflights to overcome this obstacle, and Iraq cannot be responsible for
these warplanes.
The allegations that trucks leave sites prior to the
arrival of
inspection teams is a false accusation. Inspections occur suddenly
and instantaneously without prior notification to the Iraqi side.
Furthermore,
UNMOVIC and IAEA have their own sources for satellite imagery. And they use helicopters
as well for surveillance and inspection activities. Therefore, we believe those
two agencies are very well informed of what takes place on the ground in Iraq.
It is important for me to remind that programs for weapons of mass destructions
are not like an aspirin pill: easily hidden. They require huge production facilities,
starting from the search and development facilities to factories to weaponization,
then deployment. Such things cannot be concealed. Inspectors have crisscrossed
all of Iraq and have found none of that.
As regards sound recordings,
suffice it to say that scientific
and technical progress has reached such
a level that would allow the fabrication of such allegations and would allow for
them to be offered in the way Mr. Powell has presented. It would allow any person
at any time and anywhere to be recorded.
As for the supposed relationship
between Iraq and the al-Qaida organization, I would note what His Excellency President
Saddam Hussein said; I quote: "If we had a relationship with al-Qaida and
we believed in that relationship, we would not be ashamed to admit it. We have
no relationship with al-Qaida." End of quote.
Mr. President, I would
like to refer to a statement by a U.S.
official in The New York Times lately,
three days ago, specifically.
And I quote: "Analysts at the CIA
have complained that administration officials have exaggerated reports on WMD
in Iraq, and particularly its presumed relation with al-Qaida, in order to bolster
their case for war."
I would add that Mr. Jack Straw has set aside
intelligence
reports from his own government asserting that there is no
relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida.
Mr. Powell's assertion that
Iraq used chemical weapons against its own people in particular surprised me,
when a CIA official unmasked the truth on the 31st of last month, just a few days
ago, in The New York Times, stating that the U.S. administration has known since
1988 that Iraq did not use chemical weapons against its own people for a simple
reason, it does not have the very typical weapon
used in the Halabja incident.
Mr. President, in conclusion, I should like to say that the clear goal behind
holding this meeting, behind the presentation of the secretary of State of the
United States of false allegations before this council today, is to sell the idea
of war and aggression against my country, Iraq, without any legal, moral or political
justification.
It is an attempt to convince American world opinion
first -- American public opinion first, and world public opinion in general, to
launch a hostile war against Iraq.
In return, Iraq offers security and
peace, and reiterates on this occasion, before the members of the Security Council,
its commitment to continue proactive cooperation with the inspector teams so as
to allow them to finish their tasks as soon as possible and verify that Iraq is
free of weapons of mass destruction; in order to lift the unjust sanctions imposed
upon it, and ensure respect of its national security; and ensure regional security
by disarming weapons of mass
destruction in the Middle East, including the
huge arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in Israel, in accordance with the
provisions of Paragraph 14 of Security Council Resolution 1687 of 1991.
Thank you, Mr. President. | |
