YouSaid · the spoken record

Al-Sahaf

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS AL-SAHAF

lines on the record: 108
first: 1992-09-24
most recent: 1995-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The reports by the various missions and agencies of the United Nations have warned against the dangerous results of the deteriorating food and health situation brought upon the Iraqi people as a result of the blockade. Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 23 The most recent of those reports is Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) document 237, issued in July 1993 under the title "Special Warning". This document depicts the deterioration of Iraq’s food situation as a result of the difficulties facing the agricultural sector because of acute shortages of equipment and pesticides and the spread of agricultural epidemics.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The result has been a huge increase in mortality among children and the elderly, due to the grave shortage of medicines. On top of all its other difficulties in various fields, Iraq suffers from, for example, an acute shortage of medicines for the treatment of cancer, kidney problems, heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure disorders, eye diseases, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and other serious diseases. Over the months that have elapsed in 1993, tuberculosis-related fatalities among children have risen by 81 times over the figure registered for the corresponding period in 1989; and this is but one example. I do not wish to elaborate on the difficult humanitarian conditions of the Iraqi people.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The practices of a limited number of Member States in the Sanctions Committee which seems to have inherited the veto privilege under the cover of general consensus, have demonstrated beyond all doubt that the embargo is geared towards destroying Iraqi society with premeditated persistence and through organized and calculated efforts driven by political motives that are contrary to all values, laws and norms acceptable to the international community now or in the past. The war of destruction launched against Iraq by the United States and its allies, the continued imposition of the comprehensive blockade and the denial of Iraq’s right to export its oil and use its frozen assets in foreign banks have all combined to make Iraq unable to provide even the most elementary of its people’s basic humanitarian needs, such as food and medication.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Committee has also rejected a request for the supply of medical equipment, beds and air-conditioning systems for Iraqi hospitals. The reason given for that refusal was that the end user was not known. What irony! The Sanctions Committee has refused to allow water purification materials to be supplied to Iraq, rejected a request submitted by a company for the reconstruction of a factory producing medical syringes in Iraq and refused to allow the importation of spare parts for a baby-food factory in Iraq under the pretext that such spare parts would contribute to the expansion of the country’s industrial capability.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The Committee has ignored the basic civilian and human needs of the Iraqi people to the extent that it has refused to allow Iraq to obtain much needed medical supplies as well as equipment and educational supplies for its schools. The Committee has gone as far as to consider paint for school desks and blackboards as well as ink as proscribed materials that the Iraqi people should not be permitted to obtain. In refusing to grant the permission to obtain any of those essential civilian requirements, it resorts to flimsy pretexts and unacceptable justifications. For instance, the Committee has refused to allow pencils and notebooks to be supplied to Iraq’s schoolchildren, claiming that the quantity requested was too large.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The paper deals with the most important issues, especially respect for Iraq’s sovereignty, internal security and territorial integrity, the lifting of the iniquitous blockade, the removal of the "no-fly zones" illegally imposed on parts of Iraq and abstaining from any further aggression against Iraq. The people of Iraq are being subjected to inhumane policies and practices that have further aggravated their suffering which increases from one day to the next. The domination by the United States and its allies over the activities of the Sanctions Committee, which was set up in accordance with Security Council resolution 661 (1990), has made that Committee hostage to premeditated political objectives and ill intentions against Iraq and its people.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“In view of these developments, and in order for the principles of justice and equity and of the mutuality of rights and obligations between Iraq and the Security Council to prevail, we hereby call upon all countries of the world to support our initiative for dialogue and understanding between the Council and Iraq so that such dialogue may lead without delay to the lifting of the unjust and iniquitous blockade imposed on our country, and thereby to put an end to the methods of coercion, threats and aggression being used against our country. We also call upon the countries of the world to urge the Security Council, both as a collective body and as individual Member States, to consider Iraq’s legitimate demands as expressed in the Iraqi position paper submitted to the Security Council in July 1993.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“We look forward to seeing this round 22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session succeed in solving all outstanding issues in a complete and final manner so that the Security Council may begin in earnest to implement paragraph 22 of resolution 687 (1991) which states that the Security Council: "Decides that upon the approval by the Security Council of the programme called for in paragraph 19 above and upon Council agreement that Iraq has completed all actions contemplated in paragraphs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 above, the prohibitions against the import of commodities and products originating in Iraq and the prohibitions against financial transactions related thereto contained in resolution 661 (1990) shall have no further force or effect".”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Iraq reiterated its positive positions and its desire for dialogue during the meetings held last month here in New York by the Iraqi high-level technical delegation. We have also endeavoured to ensure that this positive spirit prevails in the current round of meetings which started in Baghdad on 2 October 1993.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Ekeus, and through him to the Security Council, a position paper clearly expressing the way in which Iraq envisages the relationship between Iraq’s responsibilities towards the Security Council and its resolutions, on the one hand, and the responsibilities of the Security Council, both as a body and as Member States, towards Iraq’s firm rights and legitimate demands, foremost among which are the following: to respect the sovereignty, internal security and dignity of the people and State of Iraq; to guarantee Iraq’s right to development and to industrial, scientific and technological progress; to implement paragraph 22 of Security Council resolution 687 (1991), pertaining to the lifting of the embargo on Iraq now that Iraq has accomplished what is required of it under the provisions of section C of that resolution; to work in earnest towards the implementation of paragraph 14 of resolution 687 (1991), pertaining to the establishment in the Middle East of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction and the means of their delivery and to bring to an immediate end the so-called "no-fly zones" imposed on northern and southern Iraq, which constitute an illegal use of armed force by three permanent member States of the Security Council, aimed at interfering in the internal affairs of a Member State of the United Nations.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Ekeus, through which we reached an agreement to resolve a number of issues and to continue our dialogue in earnest on grounds that are just, fair, logical and consistent with international law and the United Nations Charter. We presented to Mr.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The dialogue proposed by Iraq was also meant to strip away all the pretexts that have continued to be used to mask the illegal and aggressive measures unilaterally taken by certain individual States against Iraq and its territorial integrity. The most flagrant of those measures are the so-called "no-fly zones" imposed on northern and southern Iraq and the military acts of aggression perpetrated by the United States against Iraq on 17 January 1993 and 27 June 1993. When the Security Council responded, in July 1993, to our call for dialogue and sent the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission to Baghdad to conduct talks with the Iraqi side, we welcomed the visit and held intensive, frank and constructive discussions with Mr.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Maurizio Zifferero, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection team, said, "Iraq’s nuclear programme stands at zero now." Convinced that Iraq has met all its obligations under resolution 687 (1991), we called upon the Security Council, both as a collective body and as individual Member States, just as we had long been calling upon the Special Commission, to conduct a technical, professional and legal dialogue with Iraq in order to specify the extent to which resolution 687 (1991) in general, and section C thereof in particular, have been implemented, so that the Council may consider implementing paragraphs 21 and 22 of the resolution, which pertain to the lifting of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Iraq has cooperated objectively with all the inspection teams and missions dispatched by the United Nations, in order to fulfil its obligations according to the resolutions of the Security Council, regardless of how unjust and indeed how extremely iniquitous those resolutions are. In fact many of the officials of those teams and missions have confirmed that Iraq has honoured its obligations in implementation of the Security Council resolutions. May I refer here, by way of example, to the statement made by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) Executive Chairman, Mr. Rolf Ekeus, on 13 January 1993, in which he said, "Iraq’s compliance has been a success so far, and it would be tragic if the last 5 per cent of implementation could not to be carried out." Earlier, on 2 September 1992, Mr.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Iraq calls for the Security Council to adopt fair and just positions which would reflect the Council’s respect for its own obligations and commitments as enshrined in the United Nations Charter, and thereby to respect the sovereignty, independence, internal security and territorial integrity of Iraq, lift the unjust blockade that has been imposed upon the people of Iraq for three years now, and which has inflicted, and continues to inflict, untold suffering upon them and to lift all the restrictions that are still imposed without justification on normal, legitimate Iraqi activities.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Within the framework of Iraq’s serious, continuous attempts to reveal the truth, close the door on the forces of ill-intent and expose their objectives, and driven by its desire to find solutions to the outstanding issues through a serious responsible dialogue based on justice and fairness and consistent with international law and the United Nations Charter, Iraq has called, in a letter dated 30 May 1993 from the Foreign Minister of Iraq to the President of the Security Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 21 Council, for constructive and comprehensive dialogue with the Security Council within the framework of the legal and practical interrelationship between Iraq’s implementation of its obligations and the text of resolution 687 (1991) on the one hand, and the Security Council’s implementation of its own obligations towards Iraq according to the provisions of the said resolution, particularly paragraphs 21 and 22, on the other.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Those needs are essential for the people of Iraq if they are to continue to lead a normal life. Iraq also remains deprived of the right to export its natural resources while its assets remain frozen. Iraq continues to be denied the right to use its civil aircraft and ships and continues to be subjected to flagrant military intervention in its internal affairs, to daily acts of violation of its airspace, and to the perpetration of a declared conspiracy against its political system. Iraq has endeavoured, despite all these adverse circumstances and difficulties, to contain the crises which certain powers have so skilfully orchestrated in order to perpetrate further aggression against Iraq and create pretexts for continuing to impose the iniquitous comprehensive blockade against it.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The most telling example of the hegemony exercised by the United States of America over the United Nations and of United States monopoly of the interpretation and implementation of the provisions of the Charter, and use of the mechanisms related thereto in the service of purely American rather than common international interests, is what has been done and continues to be done to Iraq at a time when it has declared its commitment to the resolutions of the Security Council which it fully implements. In return, Iraq continues to be subjected to acts of aggression which threaten its security and territorial integrity and infringe upon its sovereignty. Iraq also remains deprived of its natural right to obtain its needs, including those described in international legal terms as basic human and civilian needs.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Because of the climate prevailing in the international community - a climate of selectivity and double standards - the gap between North and South continues to widen at the expense of the interests of the developing countries and Iraq finds itself in a situation that has never been witnessed before by any other founding State Member of the United Nations. This is due to the complications and unfair treatment meted to Iraq by the resolutions of the Security Council under pressure exerted by the United States of America and its hegemonistic policies towards others.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“While the United Nations is being forced to engage in a military operation in Somalia under the pretext of providing humanitarian assistance, the United Nations stands helpless and incapable of taking any appropriate action to put an end to the carnage or to alleviate the bitter human suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other parts of former Yugoslavia. This paralysis takes place against the backdrop of the shifting tides of the positions of the dominant Powers in line with their own selfish interests and schemes and their backing away from any measure that would help in reaching a solution or put an end to this tragedy.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Indeed, we have reached the point today at which the Israeli Deputy Defence Minister, Mordechai Gur, can arrogantly declare, as he did on 6 June 1993, that Israel does possess nuclear weapons and that it has the capacity to bomb the Arab States with those devices. At the same time, Israel continues to adamantly refuse to sign the non-proliferation Treaty and the United Nations and the Security Council have done absolutely nothing to halt the Israeli programmes of mass destruction weapons, which include the production and stockpiling of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons together with the means of their delivery, regardless of the fact that those programmes constitute a grave threat to the security and stability of the region and the whole world.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The selectivity and double standard that characterize the role currently played by the United Nations make it crystal clear that the United Nations and the Security Council in particular have become tools that execute the policies of the Powers that dominate the Organization. The United Nations is no longer a world Organization capable of resolving the problems and addressing the crises which beset many countries and peoples of the world in a manner that is consonant with the objectives and principles of its own Charter. What did the Security Council ever do to implement its resolution 487 (1981), on the military aggression perpetrated by Israel against an Iraqi nuclear reactor devoted to peaceful purposes? That resolution was adopted 12 years ago and the Security Council has done absolutely nothing to implement it.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“The world has attached great importance to the end of the bipolarity that overshadowed the international situation 20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session until recently and restricted the ability of the United Nations to address and resolve international problems. The new era, however, has failed to provide the United Nations with the opportunity to apply the principles, objectives and mechanisms of the Charter. A single Power - the United States of America - has sought to control the manner in which the United Nations addresses international issues and to steer it in accordance with United States interests.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Allow me to begin by extending to you, Sir, my sincere congratulations on your election as President of the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I am confident that your solid diplomatic background and rich experience will effectively contribute to the success of the work of this session. More than ever before, our Organization today needs cooperation between its Member States if it is to save itself from attempts to divert its course from the spirit and principles of its Charter and thereby turn it into a tool for serving the selfish interests of certain dominant Powers, first among which is the United States of America.”
1993-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 48 (1993)
“Unless such a state of affairs pertains clearly and decisively, as the States of the world that are jealous of their independence and freedom hope, the world will suffer disastrous consequences and the very foundations of the United Nations will be weakened as non-compliance with the United Nations Charter would put into question the very credibility of the Organization, and that might result in bringing upon it the same fate that overtook the old League of Nations, or some such undesirable fate.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“However, that day will come only when the Organization applies the letter and spirit of its Charter and the principles of international law in dealing with the major issues of mankind. That day will come only when the United Nations refuses to bow to any pressure or blackmail and, thereby, avoids becoming hostage to the will of the big Powers and refuses to be sidetracked from the noble human objectives that it was established to achieve.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“On the other hand, the importance of the Security Council vis-a-vis the armed conflicts that are currently raging in a number of regions, and its inability to address the attendant human tragedies as in the case of Somalia, whose plight is one of the most horrendous human calamities, are further proof of the double standards and politically motivated considerations that govern the conduct of the Security Council and the measures that it adopts in accordance with the wishes and dictates of the United States of America - the Power that dominates the Council. I wish, in conclusion, to point out that the peoples of the world as a whole do look forward to the day when the United Nations will play a real and effective role in bringing about a world of security, stability and prosperity.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“In return for all these policies of aggression and expansionism, the annexation of lands, the displacement of populations, and the killing and repression of civilians under military occupation, the Zionist entity receives nothing less than ever increasing political, military and economic aid which enables it to persist with impunity in its policies of aggression against the Palestinian people and its denial of their most basic and inalienable right the right to return to their homeland and to establish an independent State in Palestine under the leadership of their sole legitimate representative, the PLO.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The violations that the Zionist entity has committed over the years, and continues to commit with impunity, against the people of Palestine and the other occupied Arab territories - in breach of the principles enshrined in the Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as in resolutions of the United Nations would take an entire volume to list if those Israeli practices were to be classified according to the breach of every article and paragraph dealing with human rights and the rights of nations.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The Security Council's silence with regard to the criminal acts and operations of military aggression perpetrated in Palestine, Lebanon and other occupied Arab territories by the pampered and American-veto-protected Zionist entity are the most damning proof that the practices of the Security Council are devoid of justice and international legality because of the total domination by the United States over the Council and its procedures.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It is indeed, in the interest of the human rights of the people of Iraq, that neighboring countries should abide by the terms of international agreements and undertakings and desist from sending infiltrators into our country to perpetrate acts of murder, robbery and plunder against persons and property of the civilian population, as well as against the State assets, just as they perpetrated their criminal acts against us in March and April 1991, as I believe everyone now knows.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The circumstances which were used as a pretext for imposing the blockade against Iraq no longer exist. Therefore, lifting the blockade is an urgent necessity on the legal and humanitarian levels. As a matter of fact, this step ought to have been taken immediately after the disappearance of the circumstances to which I have just referred. Persistence in imposing the blockade constitutes a naked violation of the letter and spirit of the Security Council resolutions, contravenes all humanitarian principles and values, and must make it clear to the representatives here, as it has made clear to us, that the reasons behind it are and have been the inhuman intentions harbored against Iraq by well-known parties, now and in the past.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The only way to put an end to this injustice and ensure some justice is to lift the embargo imposed upon Iraq and allow its people to rebuild what has been destroyed and resume their normal life. With its known potential, Iraq is a country that can do without donations given by this or that country as a cover for well-known intentions. Indeed, Iraq can participate effectively in providing humanitarian assistance to countries in other regions of the world where such assistance is needed, once it regains its economic health. It had been providing such assistance before the blockade. Instances of this are numerous indeed, in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and many of the representatives listening to this statement know quite well that this is a fact.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“No one can deny that the main cause of suffering among the people of Iraq was the military aggression that destroyed Iraq's economic infrastructure and brought to a halt its services. The suffering has also been caused, and further intensified, by the continued imposition of this iniquitous blockade, which has visited yet more economic hardship and human suffering on the people of Iraq, in addition to continued foreign interference in the internal affairs of the country, the creation of problems and fueling of internal conflicts and obstruction of the efforts of the central Government to carry out their duties and discharge their responsibilities towards the maintenance of law and order and preserve security and stability.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The so-called no-fly zone over southern Iraq has been imposed by a decision of the United States, Britain and France, this time nakedly, without any Security Council cover, thus underscoring the flagrant aggressive policy currently pursued in order to partition Iraq rather than defend its "civilians"/ as the Western imperialist countries claim while they maintain their embargo against Iraq after having killed thousands of its civilian population through an aerial onslaught with bombs whose explosive force equaled that of a number of atomic bombs of the type that removed Hiroshima from the face of the earth. It is these very countries that continue to impose an embargo even on toys for the children of Iraq.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The real motive behind this orchestrated vociferous campaign is to serve the very same political objectives that were behind the military aggression perpetrated against Iraq and that are still operative in the continued economic blockade against Iraq, the starving of its people, the trumped up pretexts of interference in its internal affairs and the undermining of its national unity.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“I ask here, before this international gathering: what words can describe an action in which one hundred twenty-five thousand tons of explosives were dropped on the people of Iraq, bringing death to thousands of its children, men and women of all ages, and raining destruction upon all its vital economic installations, its civilian, residential centers and its schools, hospitals, formula milk plants, kindergartens and houses of worship? Is this not a most flagrant violation of human rights and negation of all moral and human values and standards, in addition to being a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the covenants related to it? The false accusations being leveled at Iraq are the stuff of lies, rumors and distortions. They go nowhere near the very minimum of any objective, impartial or reasoned approach.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Iraq reiterates the necessity for the United Nations humanitarian program to remain within the framework of purely humanitarian objectives, away from political considerations and from the tendency to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq. We are prepared to cooperate in the achievement of any purely humanitarian goal sought by the United Nations. Calls and allegations are increasingly made about alleged violations of human rights in Iraq. The parties that waged a destructive war on Iraq in the name of international legality would like to forget that the suffering of the people of Iraq resulted from their own actions which constitute the most flagrant violation of human rights witnessed by humanity in all its history.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Interference from parties hostile to Iraq began to surface in order to influence the course of the program by using it as a pretext and a gateway through which to interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq. It became clear that the program dealt with the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people according to the political desires, intentions and schemes of the countries presenting the aid, a fact attested to by some officials in the program. Therefore, the humanitarian program has not assumed, in actual application, the effectiveness that would have made it possible to achieve its desired humanitarian objectives.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Iraq is prepared to grant 5 per cent of the net return of this operation to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as a contribution towards international relief work in Somalia/ for the benefit of the Palestinian people through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East, in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in other areas. This will be donated in keeping with Iraq's humanitarian principles and outlook. In April 1991 the United Nations began its humanitarian relief program to alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people with simple and limited means.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Secondly, that the net returns of the exports be deposited in an escrow account set up by the United Nations, then to be used for the purchase of foodstuffs, medicines and other essential civilian needs, the importation of which will be subject to the special measures of the Committee established under Security Council resolution 661 (1990). Thirdly, that the Security Council name certain countries from which goods may be purchased according to normal commercial practices.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The reason an agreement is yet to be reached has been the refusal of certain countries in the Security Council to remove from any prospective agreement their humiliating political preconditions, which are not in any way related to the substance of the agreement desired. Iraq is prepared to address this question according to the following formula first, that Iraq be allowed to export crude oil and oil products to produce a net return of no less than $4 billion for a period of six months, which may be extended for a further period if by then the embargo of Iraqi oil exports has not been completely lifted.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Iraq has been allowed, in theory, to import food and medicine. But, for two years now, Iraqi assets have been frozen while Iraq has not been able to sell any oil or export any other commodity in order to pay for its basic humanitarian needs. On top of all this, we see attempts now being made to seize completely Iraqi frozen assets abroad through a draft resolution currently tabled before the Security Council. This draft resolution has no justification or legality whatsoever, not even in the light of the pretexts contained in the draft itself. Iraq has cooperated, in good faith and in earnest, with the United Nations Secretariat in order to reach an agreement on the export of quantities of Iraqi oil and the use of the revenues thereof to provide for basic civilian needs and cover United Nations costs.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“A flagrant example of the injustices to which Iraq is being subjected within the framework of this relationship can be seen in the practices of the sanctions Committee set up under Security Council resolution 661 (1991). This Committee too is subject to the rule of veto despite its camouflage as a committee conducting its work on the basis of consensus. As I have informed the Secretary-General in official letters citing factual instances, a review of that Committee's work would show how the objection of one or two members of the Committee is sufficient to prevent any response to Iraq's basic needs and even to make it ignore the special exemptions stated in the resolutions concerning civilian needs in such spheres as food, electricity, agriculture, water and sewage, medical and educational requirements, and clothing.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“If those States, which are led by dubious policies in the United States, were to be given a free hand, then the grave danger would spill over beyond Iraq and engulf other nations; it would spill over beyond the present and engulf the future. The campaigns of threats and intimidation under the cover of the Charter continue unabated in order to create the appropriate climate for continuing the economic blockade against Iraq and justifying new military strikes against it with the aim of destabilizing its political system and finishing off its vital economic installations and infrastructures which are still suffering from the impact of the first military strike.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Here, we feel entitled to pose a question to the whole world from this rostrum, asking whether the Security Council, in dealing thus with a State Member of the United Nations, has acted on the basis of the provisions of the Charter, international law and the principles of justice and fairness, or whether the Council has succumbed to the will and diktat of the Powers that exercise hegemony over it with a view to serving those Powers' interests before all else. The present relationship between the Security Council and Iraq does not fall within the framework of implementing the resolutions of the Council but rather within the framework of implementing the foreign policy objectives of a very limited number of States.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“It has become evident from the firm determination of the Security Council not to ease the comprehensive economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq that the Council does not follow the rule of balancing obligations and rights, but is rather acting in line with declarations of the officials of the countries that exercise hegemony over the Council that the economic blockade against Iraq will never be lifted until Iraq's political system is overthrown.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Iraq has demonstrated full cooperation with the United Nations in order to ensure the sound and balanced implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council. While Iraq is earnestly striving to implement its commitments vis-a-vis Security Council resolutions, we have yet to see the Council take any step towards lifting the blockade or even loosening its economic shackles which it has imposed upon the people of Iraq and which have had very grave effects indeed on the daily lives of the Iraqi people at every level.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“Many acts of provocation have been committed by persons who have been planted in the mechanisms entrusted with the implementation of Security Council resolutions with the aim of obstructing Iraq's discharge of its commitments and thereby making Iraq appear to be rejecting the resolutions of the Security Council. The obvious aim has been the creation of a climate that would justify new military strikes against Iraq and block any consideration of lifting the unjust and iniquitous blockade imposed upon it. However, we have been able to foil the efforts aimed at achieving that evil objective and all the attempts made with the aim of creating crises between the United Nations and Iraq have been contained.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)
“The studies and reports of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations have highlighted the magnitude of the destruction inflicted upon Iraq as a result of that aggression and the subsequent huge losses sustained as a result of the blockade and the embargo. I do not need to go into the details of those reports, which contain the findings of people commissioned by the United Nations and which have been distributed as official United Nations documents. Notwithstanding all the excesses and the untold iniquities perpetrated against Iraq, we have striven in all sincerity and earnestness to honor our commitments vis-a-vis the resolutions of the Security Council and to cooperate with United Nations organs in doing all that is required of Iraq in every field.”
1992-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 47 (1992)