Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-20-Speech-4-034"
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"en.20030320.2.4-034"2
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"Mr President, we see how, after months and years of negotiation, diplomacy has failed to disarm the Iraqi regime peacefully. However, given the regime's nature, that laudable objective was, no doubt, impossible to achieve, Saddam Hussein having an inordinate tendency to interpret any desire for peace as evidence of the weakness of those with whom he is dealing.
There are thus many things that we might find regrettable about the approach that has been adopted. First among them would no doubt have to be the way in which the European Union itself approved the intervention in Kosovo in 1999. That created a precedent, for the operation was carried out without reference to the UN, even more so than the current intervention in Iraq, which can at least invoke Resolution 1441.
Today, however, we must draw a line under our regrets. Let us not allow ourselves to be led astray. Primary responsibility for the present situation rests with the loathsome regime of Saddam Hussein, who, as past events have demonstrated many times over, brings the scourge of war in his train much as clouds presage storms. Now, we must do everything possible to safeguard both the Iraqi civilian population and the future of an Iraq liberated from tyranny.
With this in mind, Mr President, the European Council meeting this afternoon would do well to recall these objectives and unite around them."@en1
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