DENIS HALLIDAY
Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. Currently in his native Ireland, he said today: “Now the challenge is for the member states of the Security Council to do the right thing. By this I mean keep American military aggression at bay until the UN inspectors have a genuine opportunity to work and for Iraq to demonstrate fullest cooperation. Whereas the military might of the U.S. has forced movement, let us not allow that same might to corrupt the UN into decisions or actions in breech of human rights and other aspects of international law — as in the recent past.”
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SUSAN WRIGHT
Co-author of Preventing a Biological Arms Race and of the forthcoming Biological Warfare and Disarmament, Wright said today: “Iraq’s decision to allow the UN to resume inspections should be welcomed and should proceed as soon as possible under UN Resolution 1284, which established the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission in December 1999. Since the machinery for monitoring and verification is already in place, there is no need for further UN resolutions on these matters….”
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RAHUL MAHAJAN
Mahajan is author of The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism. He said today: “Colin Powell is certainly right that ‘we have seen this game before’ and that we need ‘a different road than what we have seen in the past.’ Hopefully, this time around, the U.S. will not use inspectors to spy on Iraq. Hopefully, this time around, the U.S. will not have them issue a dubious report to facilitate a bombing campaign as it did in December of 1998. And hopefully, this time around the U.S. will not undermine inspections by insisting that the economic sanctions continue even after Iraq has complied with the inspectors. UN Security Council Resolution 687 says that when Iraq complies with weapons inspectors the economic sanctions ‘shall have no further force or effect.’ Resolution 687 also speaks of ‘establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction’ — which also means Israel’s 200-plus nuclear weapons.”
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STEPHEN ZUNES
Zunes is associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus Project and author of the article “Seven Reasons to Oppose a U.S. Invasion of Iraq.” He said today: “While healthy skepticism may be necessary when dealing with a regime like that of Saddam Hussein, the categorical dismissal of this apparent breakthrough is dangerous…. It appears that the administration is more interested in finding an excuse to invade Iraq and install a compliant regime than it is in promoting peace and security…. The list of UN Security Council resolutions violated by Iraq cited by Bush pales in comparison to the list of resolutions currently being violated by U.S. allies. The most extensive violator of UN Security Council resolutions is Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. military and economic aid.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167