- United Nations (IANS) -- In a blunt speech that virtually
amounted to an ultimatum against Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush Thursday
threatened military action against the Saddam Hussein regime unless it
complies with the resolutions of the United Nations.
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- Kicking off the 57th session of the U.N. General Assembly,
Bush described the continuance of Saddam Hussein in power as a "grave
threat and gathering danger" to the world.
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- "It is the conduct of the Iraqi regime that is a
threat to the authority of the U.N. Decades of demands by the U.N. have
been met with decades of defiance. Saddam Hussein has made a case against
himself," he held.
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- The U.S. President said if Iraq wished peace, it should
eliminate weapons of mass destruction that it presently has, or is amassing.
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- "It will stop aiding terrorists. It will stop persecution
of its religious minorities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans
and others. It will account for all Gulf war personnel whose fate is still
unknown. It will end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food programme.
The resolutions of the U.N. Security Council will be enforced. Otherwise,
action would be unavoidable," he told the world body.
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- Bush's speech was blunted by a forceful warning by U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan that no U.N. member "large or small should
act alone on major global issues as a simple matter of political convenience".
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- Annan also warned Iraq that it must comply with the U.N.
Security Council resolutions, failing which it should face action. But
he also made it clear that any state that is attacked has the right to
self-defence, as per U.N. resolutions.
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- That Annan was disapproving of the belligerent threats
being made by the U.S. against Iraq was made clear Wednesday itself, when,
soon after the White House released a document outlining Bush's scheduled
speech at the world body, the U.N., in an unusual move, made public Annan's
opening speech at the General Assembly, which more or less countered Bush's
rhetoric and advocated caution.
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- In his speech, Bush said: "We know that Saddam Hussein
pursued weapons of mass murder even when inspectors were in his country.
Are we to assume that he stopped when they left? The history, the logic,
and the facts lead to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave
and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence.
To assume this regime's good faith is to bet the lives of millions and
the peace of the world in a reckless gamble. And this is a risk we must
not take."
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- The Bush speech puts the Indian delegation here in a
piquant position, say analysts.
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- India's Permanent Representative to the U.N., Vijay Nambiar,
had indicated that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his address
to the U.N. Friday, could refer to the Iraq question, in the event Bush
delivered an ultimatum.
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- Bush, who is meeting with Vajpayee Thursday, is expected
to reiterate his Iraq position and seek India's support for action against
the Saddam Hussein regime.
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- External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has already
said, in talks with officials in Washington, D.C., that New Delhi, which
considers Iraq a long-standing ally in the Arab world, would prefer any
action to be conducted through multilateral fora such as the U.N.
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