Malaysia against Iraq sanctions and US bombing
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (South News) -- Malaysia blamed the UN security council
for failing to move forward in fostering confidence building measures to
prevent the current UNSCOM standoff as the United States edged closer to
military strikes against Iraq.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said such consultations should
also include a full-pledged review of the UN resolutions on Iraq with a view to
an early lifting of the trade embargo and addressing Iraq's legitimate concerns
over the impartiality of UNSCOM and chief weapons inspector Richard Butler.
He said Malaysia did not believe that Iraq wished to deliberately undermine the
UNSCOM mechanism but its actions were more to question the sincerity and
neutrality of UNSCOM and its leadership.
The foreign minister said the eight-year old sanctions against Iraq had
inflicted excessive damage to the country and its people and any unilateral
military action would be totally ill-conceived and would undermine regional
peace abd stability.
Abdullah appealed to all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and
not to abandon diplomatic means to resolve the standoff under any
circumstances.
"Malaysia remains opposed to any unilateral use of military force and believes
that continued dialogue and consultations between the United Nations Secretary-
General and Iraq is essential to maintain the UN regime to monitor Iraq's
weapons programmes," he said. " Malaysia calls on the UN Secretary-General to
intervene and seek an amicable resolution on the basis of building
understanding and trust between Iraq and UNSCOM," he said.
Abdullah said today the international community could not be expected to accept
the position that Iraq had lost its legitimate right to protect its interest
and sovereignty.
" On the contrary, Malaysia considers that Iraq has the legitimate right to
protect its interest, and trusts that Iraq at the same time will also fully
comply with United Nations Security Council resolutions and immediately review
its recent actions", he said in a statement.
Abdullah said Malaysia regretted that since the signing of the agreement
between Iraq and the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan a year ago for
Iraq's continued cooperation with the weapons inspectors, the council had
failed to move forward in fosterign confidence-building meaures to prevent the
present standoff.
In a further appeal, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad made a plea
for peace and dialogue. "I hope there is no attack. I hope people will sit down
and talk to each other," he told reporters after launching the new Proton
Perdana V6 here.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia was against physical assault on anybody, whether it
was an individual or a country. He was responding to a question on the planned
military strikes by the United States and Britain to punish the Gulf nation
for its standoff with the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) responsible for
eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Mahathir's remarks on the Iraq-UNSCOM standoff came amid U.S. warships in the
Gulf region and the Pentagon beginning a major buildup of warplanes and troops.
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