Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-10-09-Speech-3-036"
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"en.20021009.5.3-036"2
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"Mr President, I should like to thank you for the opportunity once again to discuss this very topical and difficult subject with the European Parliament. As I said during the last questions on Iraq on 3 and 4 September, this debate comes at a time when there is a lot of international attention and debate on policy in relation to Iraq.
So much has been said. I should like here finally to say that it would of course have been better if this debate had taken place at a time when Mr Solana could have been present. Since Parliament insisted, however, on debating the matter in any case, I accepted the President’s earnest invitation to take part in the debate.
When I was last here, I reported in broad outline on developments in the situation since the Gulf War. I emphasised that the EU’s position is clear. It was expressed in a declaration by the Presidency on 20 May of this year, stating that the EU is calling upon Iraq to comply with the resolutions without delay including, specifically, the resolution whereby the weapons inspectors would be able to return, as anticipated in Security Council Resolution 1284. In this connection, the EU is well disposed towards the meetings between representatives of the UN and Iraq. We unreservedly support all the efforts on the part of the Security Council and the UN Secretary-General. This attitude was confirmed at the informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers on 30 and 31 August in Elsinore and also at the meeting of Foreign Ministers on 30 September and 1 October in Brussels. The EU also welcomes the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1409 of 14 May, that is to say the resolution on the revision of the oil for food programme.
With what I have just said in mind, I want today to talk mainly about current developments in connection with Iraq and to concentrate on the Security Council negotiations concerning a new resolution, as well as on the negotiations with Iraq concerning the return of the weapons inspectors.
The permanent members of the Security Council are currently engaged in negotiations concerning a new resolution on Iraq, based on an American draft. The United States wants to see a resolution that tightens up the demands made of Iraq in earlier resolutions, making them more specific; that sets earlier deadlines for Iraq’s compliance with the demands; and that provides a mandate for a possible military intervention in the event of Iraq’s not meeting the demands. The United States has stated that it wants the weapons inspectors to have unconditional access to all areas, including the so-called presidential palaces.
Two subjects are absolutely crucial, namely the issue of a renewed mandate from the Security Council on the use of force, and unconditional, free and unfettered access by the weapons inspectors to all installations and areas in Iraq, including the presidential areas, which is to say the palaces.
We in the EU are satisfied with the Iraq issue’s remaining on the agenda of the UN Security Council. The hope is that the Security Council will reach an agreed position on the matter.
On 30 September and 1 October in Vienna, the chief UN weapons inspector, in the form of the Swede Hans Blix, together with the Director-General of the IAEA, Dr El Baradei, who is responsible for the investigations into Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme, met representatives of the Iraqi Government to discuss the practical arrangements in connection with the unconditional return of the weapons inspectors. Agreement has apparently been reached on a range of issues, based upon the demands made of Iraq in the Security Council resolutions already adopted. The issue of access to the presidential areas is still unresolved, however.
In addition, there are outstanding issues concerning the ways and means of the weapons inspectors’ return, such as the way in which the Iraqis are to be questioned by UNMOVIC, that is to say the UN weapons inspectorate, and the way in which UNMOVIC is to report back. The weapons inspectors will presumably not be sent to Iraq until a new resolution has been adopted and accepted by Iraq.
It is still too early to establish the content of a new resolution. It is crucial, however, for an inspection regime that is effective and credible to be established. The EU attaches importance to going down the UN route, both in order to secure broad international support for the disarmament of Iraq and with a view to the credibility and effectiveness of the Security Council and of multilateral cooperation. Against that background, it is encouraging that, in his speech yesterday, the American President, George Bush, again emphasised the United States’s readiness to go down the UN route."@en1
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