Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20030129.2.3-021"2
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"Mr President, in our opinion, the essential question now in relation to the Iraqi crisis is how the international community should act in the face of the threat from a dictatorial regime that might or might not have – this is what is being investigated – the capacity to develop or acquire, when they only have access to scarce technical and financial resources, weapons of mass destruction, be they biological or chemical, likely to endanger regional safety and world peace, and potentially to use or supply these to others, particularly terrorists. The question is how to deal with an undemocratic regime that has breached and continues systematically to breach its international commitments and obligations within the United Nations. This is also a regime that has imposed all kinds of constraints on its people, demonstrating total contempt for their most basic political, economic and social rights.
Having said that, the issue is not, as some have said, America’s control of Iraq’s oil resources, even if Iraq does have the world’s second largest oil reserves and on top of that, its crude oil is of the very highest quality. This is not the issue, because if it were, we would clearly have to acknowledge that there are also European interests in this area. In fact, the European Union is already seeing many Iraqi oil transactions taking place in euros and, due to their volume, these transactions contribute considerably to the strength and stability of the European currency as a means of international payment. To take just one example, we could mention the contracts that Russian oil and gas companies have signed with Iraqi companies, which, according to the press, total 40 billion euros (not dollars).
Mr President, when we criticise a policy, we must come up with alternative proposals and solutions. We cannot simply oppose options that some consider to be warmongering; we must provide a response that is proportionate to the threats made by the other side, in the shape of someone who, in the past, has shown complete contempt for international law and who is still failing to provide guarantees that he will respect such law now and in future. We are the first to say that the solution to the conflict must be sought up to the last minute through peaceful and diplomatic means, but we also maintain that the international community, under the auspices of the United Nations, must maintain a firm attitude that leaves no room for doubt as to the need for the Iraqi authorities to cooperate fully and extremely soon with the UN inspectors. If they do not cooperate, they will have to face other means being used to make them do so.
As a matter of fact, it is worth asking whether dictators who generally rule without any constraint and particularly without the democratic scrutiny of their public, only understand and respect the language of diplomacy, the language that has always been used, as Javier Solana said, when it is backed up and given credibility by the means of coercion available to it, the last resort, as he also said? We support the work of the UN inspectors and hope that they are given all the means and all the information necessary to conclude their task, and I mean all information, even information already available to other countries. At the same time, however, we must issue a warning about the need to prevent the Iraqis from indulging in time-wasting manoeuvres in order to put off complying with the UN resolutions without good reason and to ensure that the current status quo remains in place.
Mr President, we make a clear distinction between Iraq’s totalitarian regime and its people. As I said, the Iraqi people have been the main victims of the oligarchy governing them and which uses them to achieve its own ends. This is precisely why we are calling on the international community to unite on the fundamental issue, for the transatlantic relationship to be strengthened, for the conditions to be established to ensure that we do not see the inspections blocked, constraints put on the evidence given by scientists and officials linked to Iraq’s nuclear programmes and that this game of hide and seek with arsenals of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein’s supporters is brought to an end. If we achieve this, if we unite on the fundamental issue, the conditions might then be created for beginning the process of democratisation in Iraq and for enabling its people to enjoy the advantages of peace."@en1
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