On 14 July former UN secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar referred to the eight-year war imposed on Iran by Iraq’s
former regime and said that Iran is entitled to call for identification of the aggressor.
Speaking to the reporter of the Persian daily Iran in an exclusive
interview printed in its Wednesday edition, Cuellar added that Iran
had earlier called for identification of the aggressor following the
breakout of Iran-Iraq war.
According to the daily, the former UN secretary general said
that in response to Iran’s call, he had appointed a special committee consisting of Belgian lawyers to follow up the issue.
"Their extensive survey showed that Iraq had initiated the war
based on hasty miscalculations, given Iran’s unstable position at the
time. Iraq mainly aimed to get back the privileges earlier yielded
to Iran and get hold of Arvandroud waterway once more.
"Upon hearing the announcement, Iraqis were enraged and I was
even accused of backing Iran. However, I was just attempting to
uncover the truth and work out a peace plan. Besides Iran’s request
was rational and Saddam Hussein’s blunder was quite obvious," added the daily quoting de Cuellar.
In response to a query about the reason that the UN Security
Council did not officially announce Iraq as the aggressor, he
replied, "Given that the UN Security Council includes 15 member
states and even its five permanent members fail to reach consensus on issues on the agenda, this was quite unlikely."
Turning to Resolution 598 issued by the UN Security Council at
the end of the Iraqi-imposed war and the committee proposed for
estimating the amount of compensation to be paid to Iran, the
reporter asked about the reason it was never materialized.
In response to the specified question, de Cuellar said that
given any committee formed by UN consists of representatives of its
member states, if the appointed members refrain from holding a
session, the secretary general could not talk them into it.
In reply to the reporter`s remark that this was not the case
about Kuwait, the former secretary general said, "Kuwait`s case was quite different. When Iraq launched an attack against Iran, its army did not even come close to Tehran, while Kuwait was entirely
occupied by the Iraqi forces. They even plundered the museums and banks."
Concerning the last resolution issued by the UN Security
Council on Iraq upon a US proposal, he said, "None of the resolutions issued by the council are flawless. They are rather drawn up on the basis of the talks held by the UNSC permanent members.
"However, the specified resolution seems to be theoretically
helpful in establishment of order, security and democracy in Iraq
following the transition of power there."
Expressing his outlook on the veto right in relation to the
resolutions issued by UN, he said that with respect to the
the Middle East issue the Security Council should form a group of
peace-keeping forces in line with the request of the member
countries.
"However, the Americans are against the establishment of the
international peace-keeping forces in the region under UN
supervision."
A major part of de Cuellar`s tenure as UN secretary general
coincided with the Iraqi-imposed war.
The former secretary general is currently serving as Peru`s
plenipotentiary envoy to France and its permanent representative to
the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). |
