UN General Assembly
1991

The Gulf war defeated the strategy of Saddam Hussein, based on the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction and on aggression. The success of the coalition and the action undertaken by the United Nations justified the difficult choice we all made. Failure to confront the Iraqi dictator would have merely encouraged him to embark on new adventures. The United Nations conferred the seal of legitimacy on the international coalition and provided the instruments of an embargo and an ultimatum. To the Organisation we entrust the implementation of measures to eliminate completely a military Power capable of inflicting further destruction and committing new acts of aggression. We also hope to derive from this experience the incentive for a more generalized control over the transfer and proliferation of sophisticated weaponry and weapons of mass destruction.