Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-29-Speech-3-048"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20030129.2.3-048"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, there have been times in recent months when I have felt that we are conducting politics through the looking-glass, where all the norms are reversed and black has become white, so I think it is quite useful for us to get back to basics.
First of all, the United States of America is a democratic country which twice in the last century was prepared to lay down the lives of its citizens to defend peace, freedom and democracy in Europe. Iraq is a country ruled by a dictatorship, where there is neither freedom nor democracy, and whose leaders murdered hundreds of thousands of its own citizens and is known to be a threat to peace and stability in the region. It is not the other way round.
It is also worth remembering exactly what resolution 1441 actually says. Paragraph 1 states that Iraq is in material breach of its obligations under UN resolutions. Paragraph 4 states that false statements or omissions in the declarations submitted by Iraq shall constitute a further material breach of Iraq's obligations. Finally, Paragraph 13 recalls that the Council has repeatedly warned Iraq that it will face serious consequences as a result of its continued violations of its obligations. Given Hans Blix's report, it could be argued that Paragraph 4 has already been breached. Whatever is the case, the UN has to decide what it means by Paragraph 13 and by serious consequences. Colleagues who have spoken are right that the future of the UN is at stake. The UN cannot make threats without being prepared to carry them out.
The inspectors need more time and we need more information from the Americans. But if further serious breaches are reported, resolution 1441 has to be followed through. Failure to do so will only sanction the very illegal activity we have condemned, and it seems to me that some of the contributions today are attacks on UN resolution 1441 which we are all supporting. No member of the Security Council should prejudge that debate; nor should they say now how they are going to vote before they see the evidence. But we must be clear that, if a second resolution is forthcoming from the UN, we must all support it because that is what we have stated very clearly in our resolutions in this Parliament."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples