Maaja
16th September 2002, 05:40
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Cuba warned the international community on
Saturday that a U.S. attack on Iraq would deal a death blow to
multilateralism and the United Nations itself.
"Refraining from telling the truth out of cowardice or political
calculation is not characteristic of Cuban revolutionaries. Therefore
Cuba hereby states that it opposes a new military action against
Iraq," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the U.N.
General Assembly.
If Washington attacked Iraq, after "imposing it on the Security
Council or deciding upon it unilaterally in opposition to
international public opinion, we will bear witness to the emergence
of the century of unilateralism and the forced retirement of the
United Nations organization," Perez said.
Cuba, a member of the 15-nation Security Council when Iraq invaded
Kuwait a dozen years ago, voted against a November 1990 council
resolution authorizing force to expel Iraqi troops from the
neighboring emirate.
The United States and the communist-run Caribbean island have been at
loggerheads since 1959, when Fidel Castro and his rebel army seized
power. Washington broke off ties and imposed a trade embargo that
remains in place today.
President Bush, who wants a "regime change" in Baghdad, this week
called on the United Nations to force Iraq to disarm. Bush on
Saturday called on the world body to "show some backbone" on Iraq but
made clear he was prepared to confront President Saddam Hussein with
or without world support.
U.N. Security Council resolutions oblige Iraq to destroy all its
chemical, biological or nuclear weapons under the eye of U.N. weapons
inspectors, who have not been allowed back into Iraq since they left
the country in 1998 ahead of U.S. and British bombing raids.
Saturday that a U.S. attack on Iraq would deal a death blow to
multilateralism and the United Nations itself.
"Refraining from telling the truth out of cowardice or political
calculation is not characteristic of Cuban revolutionaries. Therefore
Cuba hereby states that it opposes a new military action against
Iraq," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the U.N.
General Assembly.
If Washington attacked Iraq, after "imposing it on the Security
Council or deciding upon it unilaterally in opposition to
international public opinion, we will bear witness to the emergence
of the century of unilateralism and the forced retirement of the
United Nations organization," Perez said.
Cuba, a member of the 15-nation Security Council when Iraq invaded
Kuwait a dozen years ago, voted against a November 1990 council
resolution authorizing force to expel Iraqi troops from the
neighboring emirate.
The United States and the communist-run Caribbean island have been at
loggerheads since 1959, when Fidel Castro and his rebel army seized
power. Washington broke off ties and imposed a trade embargo that
remains in place today.
President Bush, who wants a "regime change" in Baghdad, this week
called on the United Nations to force Iraq to disarm. Bush on
Saturday called on the world body to "show some backbone" on Iraq but
made clear he was prepared to confront President Saddam Hussein with
or without world support.
U.N. Security Council resolutions oblige Iraq to destroy all its
chemical, biological or nuclear weapons under the eye of U.N. weapons
inspectors, who have not been allowed back into Iraq since they left
the country in 1998 ahead of U.S. and British bombing raids.