Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-01-Speech-4-026"
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"en.20010301.1.4-026"2
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"Mr President, can I first of all say that I am rather surprised that this debate is entitled air attacks against Iraq. It should more properly be entitled “How can Saddam Hussein be controlled more effectively?” What a tragedy for the people of Iraq to have a ruler such as Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator who has exploited the wealth of the country for his own ends and ambitions and oppressed his own people. Saddam is not just a threat to his own people but to a wider area, including our friends and allies in the Middle East, and potentially our own citizens.
Estimates vary about the success of Iraqi efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems but few analysts doubt Saddam’s determination to acquire such a capability and many expect him to achieve some success within the next four years. There is then a real and current threat over which some degree of international control is exercised, really by two means: the economic sanctions and the maintenance by Britain and America on behalf of the international community of the no-fly zone covering about a third of the territory of Iraq.
The sanctions are controversial in that Saddam has been able to persuade some significant elements of international opinion that it is sanctions that are the cause of the distress of the Iraqi people rather than his own actions. Sanctions will be suspended when Saddam complies with certain conditions, primarily in relation to the monitoring of his weapons of mass destruction capacity.
Nevertheless, it is right that the sanctions regime should be reviewed and that they should be focused more precisely. The main purpose of the no-fly zone is twofold: to prevent Saddam using his helicopter gunships and other aircraft against the Kurds in the north and the Shia marsh Arabs in the south, and to carry out reconnaissance, bearing in mind that there are no UN inspection teams operating in Iraq at the moment. Ground targets are only engaged if there is a threat to coalition aircraft. There is no bombing campaign against Iraq.
There is an element in this House which seeks to distort all these facts. We heard this during the hearing on Iraq the other day in the Foreign Affairs Committee, and there is a subtext of anti-Americanism. But I am rather reassured by the overall tone of this morning’s debate. We need to close ranks to ensure that whatever new regime is put in place for sanctions is not breached by those seeking commercial or political advantage. If EU Member States really have aspirations to play a greater role in security policy, then let them contribute to enforcement of the no-fly zone, and ensure that whatever sanctions regime is imposed is rigorously enforced."@en1
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