Page:United Nations Security Council Meeting Record 2933.pdf/11

BHS/ed 16 Mr. Pickering (United States of America): My Government has joined nine other countries in sponsoring the draft resolution before us today. The draft resolution is in response to Iraq's blatant aggression against Kuwait, a sovereign State Member of the United Nations, and Iraq's unacceptable failure to comply with resolution 660 (1990), a mandatory result which is binding on all Member States. By his actions, Saddam Hussein has plunged into crisis the strategically critical area of the Persian Gulf. Thirty per cent of the region's oil production is now under Iraqi control, thus threatening international economic health and stability.

We have just heard a startling statement on the part of the representative of Iraq. He announced that Iraq was going to start withdrawal on 5 August. Even if that were true, it would be a startling statement. Resolution 660 (1990) asked for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. He has just told us that Iraq managed to withdraw 27 vehicles yesterday of all the hundreds and thousands of vehicles that took part in the Iraqi invasion. If 27 vehicles a day is the pace, it would take 40 days just for the first thousand vehicles to be withdrawn. This is not what the Council has asked, it is not what the world demands. And the idea that this Council has somehow become the United States foreign ministry is an insult to the members of the Council and to their determination to resolve this issue. We all speak for our own countries and we all speak, I hope, with one voice on this particular question.

These actions follow Iraq's declarations 11 days ago that it would not invade Kuwait. Events have proven this untrue. Friday, Radio Baghdad announced Iraq would withdraw from Kuwait on Sunday. This, too, was false, as we have seen. Today, Iraqi troop deployments in Kuwait are enhanced, consolidated and dangerously