No hate. No violence
Races? Only one Human race
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
Radio Islam
Know Your enemy!
No time to waste. Act now!
Tomorrow it will be too late

English

Franç.

Deutsch

عربي

Sven.

Español

Portug.

Italiano

Русск.

бълг.

Hrvat.

Češt.

Dansk

Suomi

Magyar

Neder.

Norsk

Polski

Rom.

Srpski

Slov.

Indon.

فارسی

Türkçe

日本語

汉语

UN chief sidelined in new stand-off with Iraq

By David Usborne in New York
THE INDEPENDENT, 11/13/1998
 

Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, cut short his trip to northern Africa yesterday and boarded a plane. It was crisis time again, with the United States and Britain once more on the brink of blitzing Iraq with missiles and bombs. But Mr Annan was not bound for Baghdad. He went home.

He literally went home, to his apartment in the upmarket Sutton Place neighbourhood of Manhattan, not to UN headquarters. Because this time, the Secretary-General is firmly on the sidelines. How different to February, when he dashed to Baghdad for the chat with President Saddam Hussein that bought the world a reprieve.

There is a tedium to this cycle of stand-offs with Saddam. But since February, the picture has changed. The way it looked last night, any notion of the world's diplomat-in-chief returning to the banks of the Tigris looked unlikely. The diplomatic door for the US strike is wide open - if it wants to. It is not clear whether the weapons inspections conducted by the UN inspectors, Unscom, will ever resume, or if Washington even wants them to.

The pivotal moment came on 31 October, the day that Saddam announced he was suspending all further co-operation with Unscom, whose work had been at a virtual standstill for weeks anyway. This had a crucial effect: it annoyed even the friends of Baghdad. For the first time probably in years, a degree of unity was established in the UN Security Council. Even Russia conceded that Saddam had gone too far.

The depth of that unity should not be overstated. If the bombs fly, watch for Russia, China and even France to pronounce their dismay. But right now, nobody in the council is standing up for Saddam. That removes a huge obstacle for the US and Britain as they ponder strikes.

How, since last February, have we arrived at this point? A case can be made - and is made by some US officials - that the fluctuations in policy towards Iraq in Washington were carefully calculated to arrive at this point. This is the argument that Clinton has been working a "rope-a-dope" approach to Saddam. In other words, Washington allowed Unscom's work to deteriorate. It bided its time, aware that there was no unity in the Security Council for firm action, until Saddam did what they knew he would do - overstep the mark.

In hindsight, there is sense in this interpretation. It is known - largely due to embarrassing revelations from the former weapons inspector Scott Ritter - that after the February deal, Washington discouraged Unscom from conducting surprise raids on Iraqi facilities. The US, in other words, covertly diluted Unscom's clout to avoid a new confrontation.

The moment that Saddam began to hang himself came on 5 August, when he first curtailed cooperation with Unscom without completely rupturing it. This prompted Mr Annan, who by then was perceived in Washington as being overtly pro-Iraq, to propose a so-called "Comprehensive Review" of the sanctions and inspections regime. The idea was to give Baghdad fresh hope that sanctions could end, perhaps within six months, if it resumed its co-operation. Washington agreed and Mr Annan submitted his proposal in October.

The Security Council - or rather London and Washington - revised the Annan paper slightly. In a letter sent back to Mr Annan on 30 October, the council agreed to the review, but on condition that the burden of proof fell on Iraq, not on Unscom, to demonstrate it was indeed free of all weapons of mass destruction. The council also referred only very obliquely to Article 22 of the 1991 Resolution 687 that says that the oil embargo on Iraq will be lifted as soon as the weapons were indeed gone.

The letter, drafted by Britain, is what triggered Saddam's decree on 31 October that stymied Unscom entirely. Saddam had some reason for anger - the integrity of Article 22 is crucial for him. None the less, everyone was surprised. The Comprehensive Review, even as re-worded by the council, was meant, after all, as an encouragement to Iraq, a ray of hope after seven years of sanctions.

That has been the sequence of events. The "rope-a-dope" argument probably gives Washington too much credit. More likely it finds itself with this newly strengthened hand by accident. But one thing is for sure - February was then and November is now, and this time the bombs may very well get to Baghdad before Mr Annan.

Just before Mr Annan's return to New York yesterday, the US stated baldly that there was no basis for him to go to Baghdad to try to resolve the crisis. Asked about the possibility of a rerun of the February trip, Peter Burleigh, the US representative at the UN, said: "On what basis at this point? I have heard of nothing of substance coming from Baghdad . What is needed now is a positive Iraqi response. That is how to defuse the situation."






"When a Jew, in America or in South Africa, talks to his Jewish companions about 'our' government, he means the government of Israel."

- David Ben-Gurion, Israeli Prime Minister


Palestine banner
Viva Palestina!

Latest Additions - in English

What is this Jewish carnage really about? - The background to atrocities

Videos on Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam and Blacks and Jews  

How Jewish Films and Television Promotes bias Against Muslims

Judaism is Nobody's Friend
Judaism is the Jews' strategy to dominate non-Jews.

Jewish War Against Lebanon!

Islam and Revolution
By Ahmed Rami

Hasbara - The Jewish manual for media deceptions

Celebrities bowing to their Jewish masters

Elie Wiesel - A Prominent False Witness
By Robert Faurisson

The Gaza atrocity 2008-2009


Iraq under Jewish occupation
Iraq - war and occupation


Jewish War On Syria!

CNN's Jewish version of "diversity" - Lists the main Jewish agents

Hezbollah the Beautiful
Americans, where is your own Hezbollah?

Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan's Epic Speech in Madison Square Garden, New York  - A must see!

"War on Terror" - on Israel's behalf!

World Jewish Congress: Billionaires, Oligarchs, Global Influencers for Israel

Interview with anti-Zionist veteran Ahmed Rami of Radio Islam - On ISIS, "Neo-Nazis", Syria, Judaism, Islam, Russia...

Britain under Jewish occupation!


Jewish World Power
West Europe    East Europe
Americas          Asia
Middle East       Africa
      U.N.              E.U.

 

The Internet and Israeli-Jewish infiltration/manipulations

Books - Important collection of titles

The Judaization of China

Israel: Jewish Supremacy in Action - By David Duke

The Power of Jews in France

Jew Goldstone appointed by UN to investigate War Crimes in Gaza

When Jews rule...
The best book on Jewish Power


The Israel Lobby - From the book

Jews and Crime - The archive

Sayanim - Israel's and Mossad's Jewish helpers abroad

Listen to Louis Farrakhan's Speech - A must hear!

The Israeli Nuclear Threat

The "Six Million" Myth

"Jewish History" - a bookreview

Putin and the Jews of Russia

Israel's attack on US warship USS Liberty - Massacre in the Mediterranean

Jewish "Religion" - What is it?

Medias in the hands of racists

Strauss-Kahn - IMF chief and member of Israel lobby group

Down with Zio-Apartheid
Stop Jewish Apartheid!

The Jews behind Islamophobia

Israel controls U.S. Presidents
Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton...

The Victories of Revisionism
By Professor Robert Faurisson

The Jewish hand behind Internet The Jews behind Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, MySpace, eBay...

"Jews, who want to be decent human beings, have to renounce being Jewish"

Jewish War Against Iran

Jewish Manipulation of World Leaders

Al Jazeera English under Jewish infiltration

The Founding Myths of Modern Israel
Garaudy's "The Founding Myths
of Israeli Politics"


Jewish hate against Christians
By Prof. Israel Shahak

Introduction to Revisionist
Thought
- By Ernst Zündel

Karl Marx: The Jewish Question

Reel Bad Arabs - Revealing the racist Jewish Hollywood propaganda

"Anti-Semitism" - What is it?

Videos - Important collection 

The Jews Banished 47 Times in 1000 Years - Why?

Zionist strategies - Plotting invasions, formenting civil wars, interreligious strife, stoking racial hatreds and race war

The International Jew
By Henry Ford

Pravda interviews Ahmed Rami

The Founding Myths of Modern Israel
Shahak's "Jewish History,
Jewish Religion"


The Jewish plan to destroy the Arab countries - From the World Zionist Organization

Judaism and Zionism inseparable

Revealing photos of the Jews 

Horrors of ISIS Created by Zionist Supremacy - By David Duke

Racist Jewish Fundamentalism

The Freedom Fighters:
   Hezbollah - Lebanon
   Nation of Islam - U.S.A.

Jewish Influence in America
- Government, Media, Finance...

"Jews" from Khazaria stealing the land of Palestine

The U.S. cost of supporting Israel

Turkey, Ataturk and the Jews

Talmud unmasked
The truth about the Talmud


Israel and the Ongoing Holocaust in Congo

Jews DO control the media - a Jew brags! - Revealing Jewish article

Abbas - The Traitor

Protocols of Zion - The whole book!

Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem
Encyclopedia of the
Palestine Problem


The "Holocaust" - 120 Questions and Answers

Quotes - On Jewish Power / Zionism

Caricatures / Cartoons 

Activism! - Join the Fight!