RESOLUTION B3-0045, 0055 and 0103/93

Resolution on the situation in Iraq

The European Parliament,

A.having regard to the Security Council declaration of 11 January 1993, which stresses that recent raids by Iraqis into Kuwaiti territory to seize arms are a flagrant defiance of the UN, and recalling that it was Iraqi aggression against Kuwait which provoked the Gulf War,

B.having regard to the current dispute concerning the duties of the UN inspectors responsible for monitoring the dismantling by Iraq of all its weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqi regime wishing to force them to travel to and within Iraq only on board aircraft of the Iraqi national carrier and refusing to guarantee the safety of UN aircraft in Iraqi airspace, which, following the strike of 13 January 1993, are no longer safe from a missile launched 'by mistake' over Iraq,

C.having regard to Iraqi provocations, in particular the movements of anti-aircraft missile batteries and the incursions into Kuwaiti territory to recover military equipment in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and Resolution 687 in particular,

D.having regard to the military response to these provocations,

E.deploring the fact that these military operations have caused civilian casualties,

F.further condemning the attacks by the Iraqi military dictatorship on the Shiite population and alarmed by the plans to drain the southern marshes so as to deprive the Shiites of shelter,

G.condemning also the renewal of terrorist attacks on Iraqi Kurds and on aid workers in Northern Iraq by agents of the Baghdad regime,

H.recalling its previous resolutions and reaffirming that it very much supports any peaceful and diplomatic solution to regional conflicts,

1.Condemns in the strongest possible terms the Iraqi refusal to implement the United Nations Security Council resolutions;

2.Deplores the fact that this sustained refusal and the recent Iraqi violations have led to military responses;

3.Takes the view that responsibility for these military operations, which have already caused a number of casualties among the Iraqi population, is borne by Saddam Hussein, whose essential aim is to keep himself in power, even if, in order to do that, his people's well-being and safety have to suffer;

4.Urges that no new move be made to take reprisals against the Iraqi regime outside the framework of the United Nations, and draws attention to the danger of dealing a blow to that organization's credibility if moves were made by individual states to enforce the decisions of the United Nations Security Council;

5.Calls for a UN commission of inquiry to be set up as a matter of urgency and to go to Iraq with a view to the immediate release of the 800 Kuwaiti prisoners of war who have been held in Iraq for two years;

6.Underlines its commitment to upholding the authority of the UN, democracy, human rights and the rule of law and therefore pledges its support for Iraqi democratic forces;

7.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, European Political Cooperation, the members of the Security Council and the Iraqi Government.