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The Enforcement of Security Council Resolution 687: The Threat of Force Against Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Ruth Wedgwood
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Editorial Comments
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American Journal of International Law , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , October 1998 , pp. 724 - 728
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1998

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References

1 Human Rights Watch, Iraq's Crime of Genocide: The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds (1995); Middle East Watch, The Anfal Campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan: The Destruction of Koreme 31–44 (1993).

2 Dilip Hiro, The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict (1991).

3 Report of the Secretary-General on the status of the implementation of the Special Commission's plan for the ongoing monitoring and verification of Iraq's compliance with relevant parts of section C of Security Council resolution 687 (1991), UN Doc. S/1995/864, at 29, para. 75(w).

4 SC Res. 687 (Apr. 3, 1991), 30 ILM 847 (1991).

5 Id., para. 8.

6 Id., para. 9.

7 Id., para. 10.

8 Id., para. 12.

9 Id., para. 13.

10 A useful chronology of events in 1997–1998 is provided in Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the Report by the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9(b) (i) of resolution 687 (1991), UN Doc. S/1998/332, Annex to the Report.

11 Report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Special Commission established by the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 9(b)(i) of resolution 687 (1991), UN Doc. S/1997/774 [hereinafter UNSCOM Report]. A later report by the International Atomic Energy Agency raised new concern about Iraq's nuclear capability. See Barbara Crossette & Judith Miller, Nuclear Suspicions Cling to Iraq in Latest Report, N.Y. Times, July 28, 1998, at A3.

12 British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The Iraqi Threat and the Work of UNSCOM ‹http://www.britain-info.org/bis/fordom/middlee/4Feb98-2.stm› (summary of British white paper); see also UNSCOM Report, supra note 11, paras. 62–64, 69–83.

13 Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations and Iraq (Feb. 23, 1998), attachment to Letter of the Secretary-General, UN Doc. S/1998/166, reprinted in 37 ILM 501 (1998); The Deal on Iraq: How Accord Will Work: Special Group Is Set Up, N.Y. Times, Feb. 24, 1998, at A10; Baghdad Agreement on Weapons Inspections, Wash. Post, Feb. 25, 1998, at A22.

14 SC Res. 687, supra note 4, paras. 8, 12, 33.

15 Id., para. 33 (emphasis added); Letter from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council (Apr. 6, 1991), UN Doc. S/22456 (“[Iraq] has no choice but to accept this resolution.”); Iraq's National Assembly Accepts UN Security Council Resolution 687 (Republic of Iraq Radio, Baghdad 0300 GMT, Apr. 7, 1991, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Apr. 8, 1991), available in LEXIS, Nexis Library, News File; Letter from the President of the Security Council to the Permanent Representative of Iraq (Apr. 11, 1991), UN Doc. S/22485; Text of Security Council Letter to Iraq Declaring Cease-Fire, Reuters, Apr. 11, 1991, available in LEXIS, Nexis Library, News File.

16 SC Res. 678, para. 2 (Nov. 29, 1990), 29 ILM 1565 (1990) (Security Council “[a]uthorizes Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait … to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (1990) [demanding withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait] and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area.”). The resolution left significant discretion as to method in the hands of member states—authorizing “all necessary means” but not prejudging whether force would prove necessary.

17 Security Council Resolution 686 (Mar. 2, 1991), 30 ILM 567 (1991), imposing initial demands on Iraq, “[n]ote[d] … the suspension of offensive combat operations by the forces of Kuwait and the Member States cooperating with Kuwait pursuant to resolution 678 (1990).”

18 See SC Res. 687, supra note 4, preamble; Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, June 17, 1925, 26 UST 571, 94 LNTS 65.

19 SC Res. 1134 (Oct. 23, 1997); accord SC Res. 1137 (Nov. 12, 1997).

20 Statement by the President of the Security Council, UN Doc. S/PRST/1997/49.

The Security Council condemns the decision of the Government of Iraq to try to dictate the terms of its compliance with its obligation to cooperate with the Special Commission… .

The Security Council warns of the serious consequences of Iraq's failure to comply immediately and fully with its obligations under the relevant resolutions.

21 Statement by the President of the Security Council, UN Doc. S/PRST/1997/56; accord Statement by the President of the Security Council, UN Doc. S/PRST/1998/1.

22 Iraqi TV (Feb. 23, 1998, 7:57 a.m., GMT, rebroadcast on BBC, Feb. 24, 1998), available in LEXIS, Nexis Library, News File; see Barbara Crossette, Annan's Candor Makes His Iraqi Hosts Wince, Int'l Herald Trib., Feb. 24, 1998, at 1.

23 Craig Whitney, Chirac Wary of Quick Attack If Iraq Breaks Inspection Deal, N.Y. Times, Feb. 27, 1998, at A8.

24 Statement by the President of the Security Council concerning United Nations flights into Iraqi territory, UN Doc. S/25081 (1993). A useful narrative of the 1993 confrontation is available in UN Dep't of Public Information, The United Nations and the Iraq-Kuwait Conflict, 1990–1996, UN Sales No. E.96.1.3 (1996) (Introduction by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at 86–87).

25 Note by the President of the Security Council, UN Doc. S/25091 (1993).

26 In the 1997–1998 crisis, the Russian Federation's Permanent Representative to the United Nations suggested that Iraq's refusal to let inspectors onto challenged sites was not a material breach: “A material breach of the cease-fire resolution would mean that Iraq invaded Kuwait again.” See Christopher Wren, U.N. Resolutions Allow Attack on the Likes of Iraq, N.Y. Times, Feb. 5, 1998, at A5. But the 1993 incident established the opposite; in the words of the Council President, interfering with UNSCOM inspections is indeed a “material breach of the relevant provisions of resolution 687 (1991), which established the cease-fire.” See Statement by the President of the Security Council, note 24 supra. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, opened for signature May 23, 1969, 1155 UNTS 331, the definition of material breach is objective—per Article 60(3) (b), “the violation of a provision essential to the accomplishment of the object or purpose of the treaty.”

27 SC Res. 1154, para. 3 (Mar. 2, 1998), 37 ILM 503 (1998).

28 UN Doc. S/PV.3858, at 14 (1998).

29 This Week: Remarks of Secretary-General Kofi Annan (ABC television broadcast, Mar. 8, 1998), in Fed. Doc. Clearing House, Transcript #98030802-j12, available in LEXIS, Nexis Library, News File.