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Iraq: Why Did The USA Want "Regime Change"? Iraq had Violated UN Resolutions for 12 Years (1991 to 2003)

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The USA has often used the United Nations to legitimise its actions around the world, ignoring its wishes when the international community disagreed with USA policy.

• Resolution 687 (1992) is the resolution that discusses the disarmament of Iraq. What is seldom reported in the West is that the resolution also declares that Iraq's disarmament should be a step "towards the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction". Other countries in this region have weapons of mass destruction and no attempt to disarm them has ever been advocated.

• Hundreds of bombing raids over Iraq have been made by USA and UK war planes under cover of patrolling no-fly zones. The USA and UK have frequently declared that the no-fly zones are supported by United Nations Security Council Resolution 688. Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali was Secretary General of the United Nations when this resolution was passed in 1992:

  "The issue of no fly zones was not raised and therefore not debated: not a word. They offer no legitimacy to countries sending their aircraft to attack Iraq. They are illegal".

  The bombings occurred from 1992 to 2003. Between July 1998 and January 2000, the USA flew 36,000 missions over Iraq. In 1999 alone, USA and UK aircraft dropped over 1,800 bombs hitting 450 targets. This was the longest Anglo-American bombing campaign since World War II with bombing occuring on a daily basis. Yet it was mostly ignored by the media in the West.

• Between 1945 and 2002, the USA used its United Nations veto 76 times often voting alone or as one of a small number of countries voting against a resolution. During the same period, the UK has used its veto 32 times while France used its veto 18 times.

• Israel has been violating United Nations resolutions and the Geneva Conventions for over 30 years.

  Since 1967, Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. East Jerusalem was annexed.

  In 1973 Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria. The Golan Heights was annexed by Israel in 1981. Apart from United Nations resolutions, this annexation violates the cease fire agreement between Israel and Syria and the Camp David Accords.

  The following are some of the United Nations resolutions being ignored by Israel.

  UN Resolution	Year Passed	Notes / Description
  194	1948	The right of Palestinian refugees to return. This resolution has been reaffirmed 135 times.
  252	1968	Concering the legal status of East Jerusalem and the responsibility of occupying powers.
  267	1969
  271	1969
  298	1971
  592	1986
  262	1968	Payment of compensation to Lebanon for the destruction of airliners in Beirut International Airport.
  446	1979	Prohibit Israel's policy of moving its own civilian population into the occupied Palestinian territories. Calls for a reversal of these policies. Forbids "settlers" using violence against the Palestinian population.
  452	1979
  465	1980
  605	1987
  672	1990
  673	1990
  681	1990
  904	1994
  1073	1996
  1322	2000
  471	1980	Call for prosecution of those responsible for assassination attempts on Palestinian leaders and for damages compensation.
  484	1980
  487	1981	Calls on Israel to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency.
  497	1981	Demands that Israel does not apply its domestic laws onto the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
  573	1985	Israel to pay compensation after its attack on Tunisia and to refrain from making or threatening such attacks.
  607	1986	Call on Israel to abide by the Geneva Convention and to stop deporting Palestinians from the occupied territories. Call for the immediate return of deportees.
  608	1988
  636	1989
  641	1989
  694	1991
  726	1992
  799	1992
  1402	2002	Call for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities and to allow United Nations inspectors to investigate civilian deaths in Jenin. Call on Israel to stop destroying Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure.
  1403	2002
  1405	2002
  1435	2002

  Despite the above ignored resolutions, the USA continues to finance Israel to the tune of $1,800 million per year. The USA also gives political support to Israel. This often involves vetoing proposed United Nations resolutions against Israel.

  In 1981 alone, The USA vetoed 18 United Nations resolutions concerning Israel. These included resolutions that:

  • demanded that Israel cease excavations in areas of East Jerusalem (considered by the United Nations to be part of the occupied territories);
  • condemned Israel for bombing Iraqi nuclear installations;
  • condemned Israeli policy regarding living conditions of the Palestinian people;
  • attempted to establish a nuclear weapon free zone in the Middle East;
  • demanded that Israel renounce possession of nuclear weapons;
  • attempted to establish rights for the Palestinian people;
  • attempted to clarify the status of Jerusalem;
  • discussed Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip;
  • concerned the rights of displaced Palestinians to return to their homes;
  • looked at revenues from Palestinian refugees' properties;
  • concened the establishment of the University of Jerusalem for Palestinian refugees (119 to 2); condemning Israeli human rights violations in occupied territories;
  • condemned Israel for closing of universities in occupied territories;
  • opposed Israel's decision to build a canal linking the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea across the occupied West Bank;
  • discussed sovereignty over national resources in occupied Palestine and other Arab territories;
  • affirmed the non-applicability of Israeli law over the Golan Heights.

  Time and again the overwhelming will of the international community has been thwarted by the USA's protection of Israel. In 2002, Israel blocked a United Nations enquiry into the events in Jenin where the United Nations Commission for Refugees reported that Israeli soldiers smashed medical equipment even though there was no fighting. In Jenin the Israelis stopped medical help getting through. Stopping rescue services from treating the injured is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

  On 28th March 2001 the USA vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for the deployment of unarmed monitors to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In November 2002, the USA vetoed a resolution condemning the killing of a British United Nations aid worker, Iain Hook who was 54. In October 2004, the USA vetoed a United Nations resolution condemning the killing of over 150 people, nearly half of them children, by Israeli forces in Gaza.

• Apart from Israel and Iraq, several other countries are violating United Nations resolutions. Three examples are described below.

  These are some of the United Nations resolutions being violated by Turkey. This country is a member of NATO and houses USA bases.

  UN Resolutions	Years Passed	Notes / Description
  353 354 360 364 367 370 391 401 414 422 440	1974 to 1978	Withdrawal of invading troops from Cyprus.
  573 550 716	1985 to 1991	Demand that the declaration of an independent Turkish Cypriot state be withdrawn.
  1092 117 1178 1217 1251 1283 1303 1331 1384 1416	1996 to 2002	Call for a reduction and eventual withdrawal of occupying troops from Cyprus.

  These are some of the United Nations resolutions being violated by Morocco.

  UN Resolutions	Years Passed	Notes / Description
  377 379 380 658 690 809 973 995 1002 1017 1033 1056	1979 to 1996	To respect the rights of self determination of the Western Sahara.
  1185 1215 1359	1998 to 2001	Call on Morocco to lift restrictions on United Nations peace keeping forces and to release all detainees held since the beginning of the conflict.

  These are some of the United Nations resolutions being violated by Croatia.

  UN Resolutions	Years Passed	Notes / Description
  807 815	1993	Demand return of heavy weapons seized from United Nations storage areas.
  1009 1079 1120 1145	1995 to 1997	Call on Croatia to respect the rights of its Serb population to remain, leave or return in safety.

  United Nations resolutions are also being ignored by Armenia, Sudan, India, Pakistan, Russia and Indonesia.

• In the early 1980s, Daniel Ortega won a free and internationally observed election with 63% of the vote in Nicaragua. In spite of this, the USA president Ronald Reagan began a trade embargo on Nicaragua, secretly mined its ports, destroyed agricultural collectives and health clinics, and used its influence in the World Bank to block previously agreed loans to the country.

  The USA was condemned by the World Court but continued this destabilisation until 1990 when a USA backed party, the National Opposition Union was elected by a small margin after being given huge amounts of money to fight the election.

  The USA ignored and undermined the World Court. On previous occasions, the USA had used the Court against various states but on this occasion, the Court was denounced and its ruling ignored. The USA newspaper, New York Times, supported of the USA refusal to accept the Court's ruling, calling the Court a "hostile forum."

  The USA State Department Legal Adviser, Abraham Sofaer, stated that "The United States does not accept compulsory jurisdiction over any dispute involving matters essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the United States, as determined by the United States." This "domestic jurisdiction" was the destabilisation of another country's democratically elected government.

  In 1987 the USA vetoed two United Nations resolutions calling for compliance in the International Court of Justice concerning military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua and a call to end the trade embargo against Nicaragua.

  The UK government of Margaret Thatcher supported and endorsed USA actions in Central America. The Rupert Murdoch owned UK newspaper, The Times stated: "[The USA actions] maintain and strengthen the forces of democracy in an area threatened with a communist takeover."

  However, Oxfam, an international development organisation that works in nearly 80 developing countries, stated that Nicaragua was "exceptional in the strength of [its] government's commitment... to improving the condition of the people and encouraging their active participation in the development process".

  Horatio Arce, one of the Contra rebels destabilising Nicaragua, admitted in 1988 that he was trained in a USA base in the southern USA and was funded by the Agency for International Development from the USA embassy in Tegucigalpa in Honduras. He admitted: "We attack lots of schools, health centres and those sort of things. We have tried to make it so that the Nicaraguan government cannot provide social services for the peasants, cannot develop its project... that's the idea".

• Between 1945 and 2002, there have been 116 cases of economic sanctions against countries. 80% of these have been initiated by the USA alone, often against the wishes of the international community and the trade agreements that the USA has signed. The United Nations estimates that more than 50% of the world's population is subject to unilateral coercive sanctions by the USA. These sanctions "were not authorised by the relevant organs of the UN".

• In 2004, the World Court ruled that the wall that Israel was building on occupied Palestinian land was illegal, that construction should cease and that compensation should be paid. Israel ignored the ruling and the USA called it "irrelevent".

• If Iraq (or any other country) is violating United Nations resolutions, the United Nations itself should determine what action needs to be taken. The USA and UK should then abide by the will of the international community.

• In 2004 Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, declared that the invasion of Iraq was not legal.