Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, I am pleased that the House has decided to have a debate on the issue of Iraq. It is an honour for me to launch this debate. I will share my time with my colleague, the Minister of National Defence, with whom I am proud to work on such an important issue for Canadians.
Let me put things clearly from the outset: the tension that currently prevails throughout the world is a direct consequence of the persistent refusal of the Iraqi government to comply with its obligations toward the international community, under the terms of the resolution of the UN security council.
For the past eleven years, President Saddam Hussein has continually showed indefensible contempt for the demands of the international community and for his own people. His past actions and his current stubbornness have imposed tremendous suffering on the people of Iraq. His defiance of international sanctions has resulted in a dismal standard of living in Iraq.
Under the terms of resolution 687 of the UN security council, which was passed in April 1991 and which put an end to military operations after the invasion of Kuweit by Iraq, the latter unconditionally agreed to the elimination, under international monitoring, of all its weapons of mass destruction and all its ballistic missiles, and it also allowed inspections by the United Nations to ensure compliance.
In spite of this official acceptance, Iraq refused to comply. Iraqi officials have systematically tried to hide their arms programs and to fool UN inspectors. While significant components of Iraqi programs relating to weapons of mass destruction and to the development of missiles were found and destroyed, the work of UN inspectors was never completed.
At this point in time, we must all do our utmost to ensure that Iraq understands that its compliance with these resolutions is not optional. It is not a matter for negotiation or mediation. There is no need, as some have suggested, for other UN member states to mediate on behalf of Iraq. As a member state, Iraq has full access to the United Nations, including the good offices of the secretary general himself, who has tried throughout to bring this crisis to a peaceful solution.
The government of Iraq is aware as to what is required. It understands the link between compliance and the lifting of sanctions, as laid out in Security Council resolutions 687 and 1284. We recognize that the sanctions issue is a difficult one, and our committee studied this some years ago. It raises painful questions about the effect of sanctions on ordinary Iraqi citizens.
However let us also remember that Iraq has always had the option of ending sanctions by complying with the Security Council resolutions rather than by continuing to subvert them. It has smuggled oil out of Iraq in order to generate revenues but not to meet the real and urgent needs of the Iraqi people. These revenues have instead been allocated to weapons programs and to reinforcing the structures of authoritarian rule. At various times the government of Iraq has placed its own restrictions on oil sales and embargoed imports from other countries, including Canada, without regard for the dire needs of the population.
The world has been frustrated with the lack of progress on this issue, to the point where over the summer months we were all concerned with the possibility of unilateral action being engaged by the United States, under the leadership of President Bush.
At that time we stated publicly and repeated that the appropriate forum for discussion and authorization of such action was the United Nations Security Council. The Prime Minister himself conveyed this message to President Bush when he met him in Detroit and indicated clearly the preference of the Canadian people.
As Secretary General Kofi Annan stated in his address to the General Assembly:
--when states decide to use force to deal with broader threats to international peace and security, there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations.
For this reason Canada, and much of the world, welcomed President Bush's commitment to the UN General Assembly that the United States would work with the Security Council in resolving this serious threat. We took to heart the challenge set out by President Bush. Now we must show that the UN can in fact assume its proper role and demonstrate its effectiveness by resolving this crisis. We must give it the opportunity to do so.
I met with Iraq's minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Naji Sabri, in New York on September 17. I welcomed Iraq's decision to accept the return of UN's weapons inspectors. I told him that his government must accept the return of the inspectors as early as possible and that it must work with UNMOVIC openly and unconditionally. I added that world opinion was skeptical of the government of Iraq's assurances because of the long history of its obstruction and its failures to comply with Security Council resolutions.
Mr. Sabri assured me that Iraq wanted the sanctions lifted so that it could return to the family of nations. However given Iraq's track record, we cannot accept these assurances just by themselves.
It is for this reason that we have supported the United States and the United Kingdom in their efforts to obtain a strong and clear Security Council resolution that would achieve two vital purposes: first, to provide Iraq with a fair and final opportunity to comply with the UN's inspections and therefore guarantee its sovereignty and its existence; and second, it must set out the consequences if it fails to do so.
I understand that provisional agreements have been reached in Vienna earlier today between Iraq and the United Nations' inspection team. We have, on behalf of Canada, offered our assistance to Dr. Blix and his team in carrying out their duties.
This is certainly a welcome step, but we all understand that this process has a long way to go. We must not lose sight of the absolute need to make Saddam Hussein understand the choice he faces. He can comply and have Iraq's sovereignty and security assured by the community of nations or he can continue to flout his international legal obligations and face the determination of the world community.
I hope that my words concerning Iraq have made it clear to the House that we on the government side do not make these assertions lightly. Nor is our insistence on working through the multilateral process undertaken without a careful analysis of what must be done. We are aware of the gravity of the situation but we are also aware of the dangers that conflict would bring to the greater region and that would likely be the terrible human cost.
In these circumstances unilateral action may have the benefit of clarity but it would lack international legal legitimacy. As well it risks destabilizing world order and possibly destroying the credibility of the United Nations itself. It risks destabilizing the Middle East. It risks destabilizing countries well beyond the region, to Pakistan, and with it the efforts that we are making in Afghanistan to recreate peace in that community, to Indonesia, to India and Malaysia where large Muslim populations watch with concern these developments. The use of force threatens the security of Israel. Prime Minister Sharon has made it clear to retaliate if his country is attacked, raising the spectre of a conflict escalating out of control.
As President Roosevelt once observed, “War is a contagion”. Nowhere in my view is this proposition more applicable than in this volatile area of the world.
We are also concerned with what would be an enormous task of reconstruction in the event that we resort to force. Those who advocate war as a means of reconstructing Iraq might be mindful of the wise words of Lester Pearson who said, “The grim fact is that we prepare for war like precocious giants, and for peace like retarded pygmies”.
The point of our efforts then is not to bring the parties to conflict but to prevent it if possible. We cannot allow this to diminish our resolve; the objective is to rid the Iraqi regime of weapons of mass destruction.
However as the Prime Minister emphasized in the House this morning, Canadians are proud of our longstanding tradition in foreign policy which has been to pursue and promote dialogue and understanding among the peoples of the world and to seek political and diplomatic solutions even in the face of imminent conflict. By continuing to act consistently with these values, world peace and security will be enhanced and international institutions strengthened.
To those who call upon us to follow blindly whenever and wherever the United States would lead, even if such actions would threaten the multilateral system we have built together with our American partners so painstakingly over the past 50 years, we say, true friends talk straight to each other and that is why their opinions are respected and valued.
Let us conclude with one last critical point. Our objective is to rid the Iraqi regime of weapons of mass destruction. There are those who claim that regime change is the only means to this end. If Iraq refuses to cooperate, they may turn out to be right. However our responsibility to Canadians, to the world community and to the future of the international rule of law is to be certain that we have exhausted all other options and that we so conduct ourselves in this crisis that the international order on which Canada so much depends emerges strengthened and reinvigorated.
I give the House my assurances that the government will act in this way.
