US President George W. Bush warned in Washington Thursday that his country is ready to act "militarily" against Iraq without the United Nations if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is not made to honor previous commitments to disarmament and UN weapons inspections.
Addressing world leaders gathering for the annual high-level UN debate, Bush forcefully urged the world body to compel Iraq to comply with Security Council resolutions.
Bush said that if Iraq defies a new council resolution demanding the return of inspectors, "the world must move deliberately and decisively".
"We can not stand by and do nothing," he said. "We created a United Nations Security Council so that, unlike the League of Nations, our deliberations would be more than talk, our resolutions would be more than wishes."
Bush said that UN weapons inspectors' failure to act would mean betting the lives of millions in a "reckless gamble."
He said the Iraq regime is a grave gathering danger, "dangers in their most lethal and aggressive forms, exactly the kind of aggressive threat the United Nations was born to confront."
He denounced the Iraqi regime for a decade of defiance of UN resolutions, breaking every promise it made, posting threats to the whole world and without anybody to stop it.
Just before his speech, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the United States not to act alone against Iraq.
Speaking at the annual General Assembly debate, the UN chief said that any state that is attacked retains the right to self-defense under the UN Charter.
"When states decide to use force to deal with broader threats to international peace and security, there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations," Annan said.
He opposed any pre-emptive action without the approval of the Security Council.
(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2002)
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