Gulf War II: Iraq 2003
Iraqi compliance
On 8 December 2002 the Iraqi Government handed over a
12
000-page document which Iraq claimed was a complete account of its
chemical, biological, missile and nuclear programs. Despite the President
of the UN Security Council, Colombian UN Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso,
announcing
that the five permanent members of the Security Council would receive
unedited copies of the document at the same time, the United States was
the first to receive it. Iraq accused
the United States of 'unprecedented blackmail' for obtaining an unedited
copy of Iraq's dossier. The Iraqi
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the 'US behaviour aims at manipulating
UN documents to find cover for aggression against Iraq'. The President
of the Security Council admitted
that he made the decision after coming under intense pressure from
Washington.
The declaration came amid scepticism in Washington and
London that Saddam Hussein had finally 'come clean' on Iraq's banned weapons
programs. President Bush expressed his concern
about 'Iraq's failure to list all pertinent information in the arms
declaration it submitted recently to the United Nations Security Council,
but, according to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, the President
would not act hastily against Iraq'.
Colin Powell said that he did not think that Iraq would cooperate with demands to disarm. He told journalists on 18 December 2002 that the Iraqi declaration had gaps and omissions. Despite this he still said the US would 'stay within the UN process' to disarm Iraq.
The UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also criticised the Iraqi declaration, saying it was not 'the full and complete' version demanded by the UN Security Council.
The US and the UK vantage point was Iraq was not disarming
quickly enough and was once more up to its 'old tricks' of deception.
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