The Conflict in the International Society about ‘Iraq Solution’

The foreign news reported that since Iraq announced that they would unconditionally accept the UN Weapons Inspectors, the international society restarted the debate on ‘Iraq Solution.’

America and the UK is pressing that the UN should present a new strong resolution and take actions and not be fooled by the Sadam Hussein’s administration anymore; however, Russia, China, and Germany changed their policies to see the UN inspection.

The observers pointed out that since the views of the 5 Permanent Members were separated so much, the America’s tactic to remove Hussein was facing some difficulties.

Especially the Middle East countries belong to the Arab League and the GCC, who applied tangible and intangible pressures to Iraq, were relieved by the decision of ‘accepting the inspection’ and showed there position to object to attack Iraq, so it becomes a burden to America.

The US President George W. Bush said during his address in Nashville, Tennessee about the threat of Hussein and keeping peace on the 17th, “It is the time for the UN to take action.”

The Secretary of the State Colin Powell said, “I saw this type of game played by Iraq before,” and insisted, “the only way not to repeat the former example is to press Iraq with a new UN Resolution.” The UK also responded negatively that she could not believe the announcement of Iraq in face value.

However, the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov said, “We need to solve this return of the inspectors problem as soon as possible,” and firmly stated, “we do not need new resolution any more.” The Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Tang Jiaxuan also showed his full support saying, “The decision of Iraq is what the international society really wanted to see.” The German Prime Minister Gerhardt Schroder evaluated that the decision of Iraq ‘to accept the inspection’ was a great achievement of the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

konihong@donga.com