Mideast situation – National Assembly of Iraq statement – Letter from Iraq

Letter dated 23 July 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the

United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith the text of the statement on United States threats against Iraq that was adopted by the National Assembly of Iraq at its extraordinary session held on 15 July 2002 (see annex).

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly under item 22 (h) of the provisional agenda.

( Signed) Mohammed A. Aldouri
Permanent Representative

Annex to the letter dated 23 July 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Iraq

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

Statement adopted by the National Assembly of Iraq

at its extraordinary session of 15 July 2002

  The United States Administration and the Congress of the United States are engaged in a campaign that is inimical to Iraq, that seeks to change its national regime and establish a government sympathetic to their policy and that uses sundry political, publicistic, economic and military means to achieve this purpose.

  All of this takes place outside the framework of international law and the United Nations. The United States is violating Iraq’s airspace, killing citizens, destroying property, allocating funds for hostile action, unleashing threats and preventing the Security Council from lifting the embargo that was imposed on Iraq without legal justification. These unlawful actions have pushed the United Nations aside by ignoring its Charter, and they have violated the principles of international law and flouted international custom. This has created an international situation where power politics has replaced the politics of law. The Arab countries and the region in which they are located have thus come to be menaced with a loss of security and stability, which jeopardizes peace and creates a situation that is incompatible with the interests of their peoples and the interests of the world. This is happening when, at the same time, the Zionist entity, with the support and encouragement of the United States administration and the Congress of the United States and on the pretext of combating terrorism, is repressing the Palestinian people, pursuing a policy of mass extermination against it and preventing it from achieving its independence and regaining its homeland. Policies such as this, based as they are on armed force, extralegal action and the exploitation of the information media to mislead public opinion, have created a tragic situation in Iraq, where more than 1.6 million innocent citizens have died because of the deliberate prolongation of the embargo, and the Palestinian people has been put at risk of extermination and prevented from securing its national rights.

  It is to be noted that the Congress of the United States, which is supposed to represent the people of the United States, has constantly adopted a hostile attitude on peoples’ issues that is no less unjust than that of the present administration.

  The National Assembly, representing the people of Iraq, condemns the United States policy of aggression as it relates to its attitude towards Iraq and its attitude towards Palestine. It condemns the speech delivered by United States President George W. Bush on 25 June 2002 and the statements that have been made and the actions taken with respect to Iraq.

  On behalf of the people of Iraq, the National Assembly declares that it stands strong and united behind the leadership of the President and Leader Saddam Hussein (may God keep him), that it supports all of the measures he has taken and will take in future to defend the security and independence of Iraq and protect the national regime, and that it will do everything in its power to that end in the belief that all attempts at aggression are destined to fail.

  It addresses itself to all the representative assemblies of the Arab countries, the Islamic countries and all countries that cherish peace and calls upon them to meet their responsibility to defend rightfulness, to resist the politics of force, to safeguard the Charter of the United Nations and to condemn the actions and statements of the United States administration and Congress. It urges them to do everything they can to rectify an international situation that has been created by the policy of hegemony being pursued by the United States administration with the support of the Congress of the United States.

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*A/57/150.

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