United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1441 is a United Nations
Security Council resolution adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security
Council on November 8, 2002, offering Iraq
under
Saddam Hussein "a final opportunity
to comply with its disarmament obligations" that had been set out
in several previous resolutions (Resolution
660, Resolution
661, Resolution
678, Resolution
686, Resolution
687, Resolution
688, Resolution
707, Resolution
715, Resolution
986, and Resolution
1284). [22323]
Resolution 1441 stated that Iraq was in material breach of the
ceasefire terms presented under the terms of Resolution 687.
Iraq's
breaches related not only to weapons of mass destruction
(WMDs), but also the known construction of prohibited types of
missiles, the purchase and import of prohibited armaments, and the
continuing refusal of Iraq to compensate Kuwait
for the
widespread looting conducted by its troops during the 1991 invasion and occupation. It
also stated that "...false statements or omissions in the
declarations submitted by Iraq pursuant to this resolution and
failure by Iraq at any time to comply with, and cooperate fully in
the implementation of, this resolution shall constitute a further
material breach of Iraq's obligations."
Passage of resolution
George W.
Bush addressed the General Assembly on September 12, 2002 to
outline the complaints of the United States against the Iraqi
government.
On September 12, 2002,
U.S. President George W. Bush
addressed the
General
Assembly and outlined a catalogue of complaints against the
Iraqi government. These included:
Following the speech, intensive negotiations began with other
members of the Security Council.
In particular, three permanent members
(with veto power) of the Council were known to have misgivings
about an invasion of Iraq: Russia
, People's
Republic of China
, and France
.
In the meantime, Iraq, while denying all charges, announced that it
would permit the re-entry of United Nations arms inspectors into
Iraq. The United States characterized this as a ploy by Iraq and
continued to call for a Security Council resolution which would
authorize the use of military force.
The
resolution text was drafted jointly by the United States
and the United Kingdom
, the result of eight weeks of tumultuous
negotiations, particularly with Russia and France.
France questioned the phrase "serious consequences" and stated
repeatedly that any "material breach" found by the inspectors
should not automatically lead to war; instead the UN should pass
another resolution deciding on the course of action. In favour of
this view is the fact that previous resolutions legitimizing war
under Chapter VII used much stronger terms, like "...all necessary
means…" in Resolution 678 in 1990 and that Resolution 1441 stated
that the Security Council shall "remain seized of the
matter."
Security Council vote
On
November 8, 2002, the Security Council passed Resolution 1441 by a
unanimous 15-0 vote; Russia, China, France, and Arab countries such as Syria
voted in
favor, giving Resolution 1441 wider support than even the 1990 Gulf
War resolution. Although the
Iraqi parliament voted against honoring the
UN resolution, Iraqi President
Saddam
Hussein over-ruled them.
While some politicians have argued that the resolution could
authorize war under certain circumstances, the representatives in
the meeting were clear that this was not the case. The ambassador
for the United States,
John
Negroponte, said:
The ambassador for the United Kingdom, the co-sponsor of the
resolution, said:
The message was further confirmed by the ambassador for
Syria:
Implementation of resolution
Iraq agreed to the Resolution on
13
November.
Weapons inspectors returned on November 27,
led by Hans Blix of UNMOVIC and Mohamed
ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy
Agency
. The inspectors had been absent from Iraq
since December 1998 when they were withdrawn immediately prior to
Operation Desert Fox
Inspectors began visiting sites where WMD production was suspected,
but found no evidence of such activities, except for 18 undeclared
122mm chemical rockets that were destroyed under UNMOVIC
supervision.
P. 30 As was discovered after the invasion of
Iraq, no production of WMDs was taking place, and no stockpiles
existed. U.N. inspectors also found that the Al-Samoud-2 and
Al-fatah missiles violated U.N. range restrictions, the former also
being partially destroyed under UNMOVIC supervision. Debate about
Resolution 1441 therefore turns on whether, despite the absence of
WMDs and the acceptance of inspections, Iraq failed to comply with
the terms of the Resolution, and whether an invasion was justified
in the absence of any further UN Security resolutions on the
subject.
On December 7, 2002, Iraq filed its 12,000-page weapons declaration
with the UN in order to meet requirements for this resolution. The
five permanent members of the Security Council received unedited
versions of the report, while an edited version was made available
for other UN Member States. On December 19, Hans Blix reported
before the United Nations and stated in regards to Iraq's December
7 report (unedited version): "During the period 1991-1998, Iraq
submitted many declarations called full, final and complete.
Regrettably, much in these declarations proved inaccurate or
incomplete or was unsupported or contradicted by evidence. In such
cases, no confidence can arise that proscribed programmes or items
have been eliminated." By March, Blix declared that the December 7
report had not brought any new documentary evidence to light.
Iraq continued to fail to account for substantial chemical and
biological stockpiles which
UNMOVIC
inspectors had confirmed as existing as late as 1998. Iraq claimed
that it had disposed of its anthrax stockpiles at a specific site,
but UNMOVIC found this impossible to confirm since Iraq had not
allowed the destruction to be witnessed by inspectors as required
by the pertinent Resolutions. Chemical testing done at the site was
unable to show that any anthrax had been destroyed there.
Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei presented several reports to the UN
detailing Iraq's level of compliance with Resolution 1441.
[22324] [22325] [22326]. On
January 27, 2003
Chief UN Weapons Inspector Blix addressed the UN Security Council
and stated "Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance
-- not even today -- of the disarmament, which was demanded of it
and which it needs to carry out to win the confidence of the world
and to live in peace."
[22327] Blix went on to state that the Iraqi
regime had allegedly misplaced "1,000 tonnes" of VX nerve agent—one
of the most toxic ever developed.
[22328]
By mid-February the issues of
anthrax, the nerve agent
VX and long-range
missiles remained unresolved. Blix's
March 7 report stated "Iraq, with a highly developed
administrative system, should be able to provide more documentary
evidence about its proscribed weapons programmes. Only a few new
such documents have come to light so far and been handed over since
we began inspections."
At this point, the US Administration asserted that Iraq remained in
material breach of the UN Resolutions, and that, under 1441, this
meant the Security Council had to convene immediately "in order to
consider the situation and the need for full compliance with all of
the relevant Council resolutions in order to secure international
peace and security".
Before the meeting took place, French president
Jacques Chirac declared on March 10 that
France would veto any resolution which would automatically lead to
war. This caused open displays of dismay by the U.S. and British
governments. The drive by Britain for unanimity and a "second
resolution" was effectively abandoned at that point.
In the leadup to the meeting, it became apparent that a majority of
UNSC members would oppose any resolution leading to war. As a
result, no such resolution was put to the Council.
At the
Azores conference of
March 16, Tony Blair,
George W. Bush,
and Spanish prime minister
José María Aznar announced the
imminent deadline of
March 17 for complete
Iraqi compliance, with statements such as "Tomorrow is a moment of
truth for the world". On the 17th, speeches by Bush and
UK
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
explicitly declared the period of diplomacy to be over, as declared
by Resolution 1441's prohibition on giving Iraq new opportunities
for compliance, and that no further authorization from the UN would
be sought before an invasion of Iraq (see
2003 invasion of Iraq).
The USA and Britain, while admitting that such a resolution was
diplomatically desirable, insisted that Iraq had now been given
enough time (noting also the time since the first disarmament
resolutions of 1991) to disarm or provide evidence thereof, and
that war was legitimized by 1441 and previous UN
resolutions. Non-permanent Security Council member
Spain
declared itself with the USA and Britain.
Nevertheless, this position taken by the
Bush administration and its
supporters, has been and still is being disputed by numerous legal
experts. According to most members of the
Security Council, it is up to the council
itself, and not individual members, to determine how the body's
resolutions are to be enforced.
[22329][22330][22331]
More information is found in
United Nations actions
regarding Iraq.
Aftermath
In June 2006, the
National Ground Intelligence
Center (NGIC), a US Department of Defense entity, released a
report detailing the weapons of mass destruction that had been
found in Iraq, including pre-1991 sarin gas and mustard agent. The
report stated that, "While agents degrade over time, chemical
warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal."
[22332]
The Bush administration commissioned the Iraq Survey Group to
determine whether in fact any WMD existed in Iraq. After a year and
half of meticulously combing through the country, the
administration’s own inspectors reported
[22333]:
The review was conducted by Charles Duelfer and the Iraq Survey
Group. In October 2004, Bush said of Duelfer’s analysis
[22334]: "The chief weapons inspector, Charles
Duelfer, has now issued a comprehensive report that confirms the
earlier conclusion of David Kay that Iraq did not have the weapons
that our intelligence believed were there."
Factual questions about the Iraqi declaration still remain. To date
the contents have still not been made public for independent
scrutiny.
[22335] When the UK government was asked to
state where in the Iraqi government's declaration there were false
or inaccurate statements, the reply was that it was a confidential
matter and that "huge quantities of documents remain to be
translated."
[22336]
See also
References
External links
, and Western
governments....And al-Qaida terrorists
escaped from Afghanistan
are known to be in Iraq."
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