The Hindu : Bush wants U.N. to confront Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 13, 2002

International

International

Bush wants U.N. to confront Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

United Nations Sept. 12. The U.S. President, George W. Bush, today challenged the United Nations to confront the threat from Iraq "deliberately and decisively'' and at the same time left no doubt that the United States was willing to go it alone. "The just demands of peace and security will be met...a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power'', Mr. Bush, told the U.N. General Assembly.

In a speech which was being paid close attention to, here and overseas, the President called on the world body to live up to its responsibility and offered to work on a resolution to meet the "common challenge''. If Iraq once again defied a new U.N. resolution on the return of inspectors, "the world must move deliberately and decisively'', Mr. Bush said.

"Iraq had answered a decade of U.N. demands with a decade of defiance'', he said. ``All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations, a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honoured and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?'', he asked.

Mr. Bush dwelt at length on Baghdad's alleged efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons and its refusal to account for as many as 600 missing nationals, including Indians, in Kuwait from 1991.

"The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations and a threat to peace'', Mr. Bush said. "By breaking every pledge, by his deceptions and by his cruelties, Saddam Hussein, has made the case against himself '', he said. The President's reaching out to the United Nations to put its foot down firmly against Iraq has to be seen in the backdrop of increasing criticism and concern over Washington going it alone by way of a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq.

The U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, today reminded the world of the consequences of ignoring multilateralism in international politics. Mr. Bush, in willing to give the United Nations a chance, also pointed out to the consequence of the failure to act, as this entailed betting on the lives of millions. "And this is a risk we must not take'', the President delcared. ``By heritage and by choice, the United States will make that stand. Delegates to the United Nations, you have the power to make that stand as well'', he said. Administration officials are not willing to specify what the U.S. will demand in the new Security Council resolution. But the impression is that Washington will demand the immediate return of inspectors and unfettered inspections with a time-frame of weeks and not months. Mr. Bush's hard-hitting speech with an almost exclusive focus on Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein was welcomed on Capitol Hill by Democrats and Republicans. Law-makers who had been quite wary of what the President had in mind said the administration was now willing to work with the international community.

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