UN General Assembly
1998

the sanctions imposed by the Security Council. As the ultimate objective of such sanctions is to influence certain political regimes to bring them into compliance with the rules of international legality, it is therefore necessary that all means under Chapter VI of the Charter be exhausted before resorting to Chapter VII and its applications. The clarity of the objective of imposing sanctions and a thorough consideration of their consequences in the short and long terms, including human suffering, are of paramount importance. An excessive imposition of sanctions, or their perpetuation without acceptable reason or a clear time- frame, will erode their credibility and the commitments made to applying them. Therefore, there is a need for patience, prudence and a determination of the time-frame of sanctions. I now turn to the Middle East, which is suffering from numerous problems, some chronic and others fairly recent, which we hope will not also become chronic ones. I am referring here to the situation of Iraq, which must reach its natural conclusion: the lifting of the sanctions through implementation of the Security Council?s