WRITTEN QUESTION E-2905/02 by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council. US/UK pre-emptive strike against Iraq.
Date: 2002-10-16
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Iraq, United Kingdom, United States, common foreign and security policy, international affairs, international law, law of war

C 155 E/64

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.7.2003

(2003/C 155 E/070)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2905/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(16 October 2002)

Subject: US/UK pre-emptive strike against Iraq

In contravention of the standards of international law as embodied by the UN and the founding principles
of international relations, and in circumstances in which the dictatorial nature of the existing regime in
Iraq cannot serve as an excuse, George Bush has now announced that there will be a pre-emptive strike
against Iraq by the US and the UK. This action is particularly disturbing considering that it is based on a
quite explicitly imperialist view of the world which claims that the US has the self-conferred right to fight
pre-emptive wars against anyone who disputes that country’s global supremacy.

What is the EU’s position on these imperialist war plans? What action will it take to stop them being
carried out and ensure respect for international law? What action has it taken on the attitude of the Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom, a country which is a Member State of the European Union?

Reply

(3 March 2003)

The Council considers that Iraq must comply with the United Nations resolutions relating to it, particularly
those regarding weapons of mass destruction. It has always come out in favour of action in the framework
of the United Nations and in compliance with international law. In this context, it greatly welcomed the
United States’ decision to work with its partners in this framework. It was therefore with great satisfaction
that the Council noted the unanimous adoption of resolution 1441 on Iraq by the United Nations Security
Council on 8 November 2002.

Iraq must now cooperate fully with the United Nations and discharge its obligations arising from the
resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

(2003/C 155 E/071)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2907/02

by Camilo Nogueira Román (Verts/ALE) to the Council

(16 October 2002)

Subject: Siege of President Arafat’s Palestinian headquarters by Ariel Sharon’s Israeli army

The siege of President Arafat’s Palestinian headquarters by the Israeli army is a cruel and violent act of
extreme political and moral gravity, given the climate of violence now prevailing in Palestine and Israel in
the wake of the colonial occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli state and its probable
genocidal implications under Ariel Sharon.

All European citizens who believe in justice and peace and wish to see the end of all suffering caused by
the domination of one people by another will agree that this attack by the Israeli army on an unarmed
President is a shameful and craven act, which must be firmly and combatively condemned by the EU
institutions. We must not refrain from such a response or allow ourselves perpetually to toe the blindly
pro-Israeli line of the US.

What action has the Council taken, and what action does it intend to take, in the face of these acts of
aggression by Ariel Sharon’s army which are an affront to the whole of humanity?