The 2003 United States–British–Spanish Draft Resolution on Iraq was, according to Ambassador John Negroponte, "a resolution to have the Council decide that Iraq is not complying, is out of compliance, with Resolution 1441". Initially introduced on February 24, 2003, and amended on March 7, 2003, the draft set a March 17 deadline for Iraq to demonstrate "full, unconditional, immediate and active cooperation in accordance with its disarmament obligations." The draft was based on information from the Iraqi defector "Curveball," who claimed Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction, which Curveball later admitted was untrue. The widely discussed UN resolution was not brought up for formal vote after it became clear that it would not have passed due to opposition from France, Russia, and China. The United States invaded Iraq without UN support on March 20, 2003, initiating the Iraq War.
Background Timeline 2001 September 11: 19 militants of the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes in the United States and carried out suicide attacks. Two of the hijacked planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 attacks. November 21: According to Bob Woodward in Plan of Attack, US president George W. Bush said to the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld: "Let’s get started on this."Iraq War
2002
April 6: British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited President Bush where they discussed getting rid of Saddam Hussein. September 12: In a speech to the United Nations (UN), President Bush said world leaders must get tough with Iraq or stand aside as the United States acts. September 16: The Iraqi government announced weapons inspectors were welcome to return unconditionally after nearly four years. September 24: Britain published a report claiming Iraq could produce a nuclear weapon within one or two years if it obtains fissile material and other necessary materials. November 8: The UN Security Council unanimously approved a US-drafted resolution aimed at getting Saddam Hussein to disarm his country. The resolution said Saddam will face "serious consequences" if he did not comply with weapons inspectors. November 13: Iraq accepted the UN resolution, while denying that it had any banned weapons programs. November 18: First UN weapons inspectors arrived in Baghdad. December 7: Iraq handed a 12,000-page declaration of its arms programs to UN inspectors. December 18: The British government said the first assessment of Iraq's weapons declaration showed it was not the "full and complete declaration" requested by the security council. December 19: The chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said gaps remained in Iraq's declaration, but that they continued to cooperate with UN inspectors. Then US ambassador John Negroponte said the omissions meant Iraq was in "material breach" of the resolution and had "spurned its last opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations."
2003 January 9: Blix announced that his team had been unable to locate a “smoking gun” in Iraq but added that Baghdad failed to sufficiently answer questions in regards to their weapons program. President Bush, in a discussion and photo opportunity with Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, remarked: “Time is running out on Saddam Hussein. He must disarm. I'm sick and tired of games and deception.” January 16: 12 empty chemical warheads were found by UN inspectors in Iraq. January 20: Iraq promised to help inspectors search from any remaining banned weapons. January 27: Dr. Blix and weapons inspector Mohamed ElBaradei, report to the UN that "Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament which was demanded of it." January 28: Britain declared Iraq to be in “material breach" of UN disarmament agreement. January 31: President Bush and Prime Minister Blair met at the White House to discuss a new UN resolution to authorize military force against Iraq. February 5: Colin Powell addressed the UN to present evidence of Iraq's ongoing weapons program, saying that “the facts and Iraq's behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction." February 14: In his address to the Security Council, Blix admitted that his team had not found any weapons of mass destruction as of yet. French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin reminded the Council that there is no justification for war yet, and that the weapons inspections were still producing results. February 23: Blair made an address to the House of Commons, denying that the US and Britain were rushing towards a war. “We are now 12 years after Saddam was first told by the UN to disarm; nearly six months after President Bush made his speech to the UN accepting the UN route to disarmament; nearly four months on from Resolution 1441; and even now today we are offering Saddam the prospect of voluntary disarmament through the UN." February 24: Washington, D.C., London, and Madrid introduce a draft resolution that declared that Iraq wasted its final opportunity to disarm A French counter proposal, backed by Germany and Russia, called for more UN weapons inspections. February 27: The Security Council opened discussion of US-British-Spanish draft resolution that laid the groundwork for war in Iraq. March 1: Iraq disposed of four al-Samoud 2 missiles in time for UN deadline, as agreed to the previous day. March 5: Foreign ministers of France, Russia, and German released a joint declaration that they would not allow any resolution that authorizes military action. March 7: Blix reported to the Security Council that the process of disarmament had been steady, but Baghdad was not transparent in questions regarding their chemical and biological weapons programs. The US, Britain, and Spain present a revised version of the February 27 resolution that states Saddam had until March 17 to disarm, or face a movement towards war. March 14: In a phone call, French President Jacques Chirac, confirmed to Prime Minister Blair that France was willing to compromise on a draft resolution to disarm Saddam, but would not accept any resolution that set an ultimatum for war. March 17: The joint resolution between the US, Britain and Spain was abandoned. President Bush gave Saddam and his sons 48 hours to leave the country. “Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing. For their own safety, all foreign nationals -- including journalists and inspectors -- should leave Iraq immediately." March 19: Invasion of Iraq, the first stage of the Iraq War began.
The Bush Administration Critics of the war in Iraq argued that the Bush Administration had ulterior motives for the UN resolution. Some argue the Bush administration sought to protect American economic interests and used the investigation and eventual invasion of Iraq to preserve control over massive oil preserves. In 2003 about twenty-five percent of world oil production in 2003 came from Iraq. Saddam Hussein controlled about 60% of the world's known oil reserves. The United States economy relies on oil and is the world's largest net importer of oil. An invasion meant the Bush administration would gain control of Iraqi oil fields and potentially decrease the price of oil in other OPEC countries. The UN resolution gave the US greater control of what was happening in the country. Any invasion for failing to cooperate with the resolution gave the Bush administration direct control over the country's resources and thus increasing their power in the middle east. Inspecting Iranian weapons also gave the United States a greater presence in the middle east and allowed for the monitoring of extremism in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Draft Resolution Summary of Draft Resolution While the draft consisted of no hard deadlines or explicit threats of military intervention, it states that Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, has failed to comply with previous UN resolutions. The draft also warned of “serious consequences” if Iraq continued to pursue weapons of mass destruction. The draft was largely in response to Iraq's refusal to follow Resolution 1441. In the ninth point the draft proposes that the council “recognise[es] the threat of Iraq’s non-compliance with Council resolutions” The amendment to the draft on March 7 gives Iraq a deadline, stating that if Iraq refuses to comply with Resolution 1441 by March 17, that there will be further actions taken against Iraq.
Responses and Public Opinion Opposition within United Nations
France, Germany, and Russia were the leaders in the opposition to the draft resolution, and were very vocal in representing the disapproval of the resolution amongst members of the UN Security Council. On March 5, the foreign ministers of France (Dominique de Villepin), Germany (Joschka Fischer), and Russia (Igor Ivanov) held a mini-summit in Paris where they discussed their opposition to the resolution. There was no representative of China at the meeting, but Ivanov announced that China agreed with the three countries in opposition to the resolution. After the meeting, de Villepen spoke at a press conference, saying, “We will not allow a resolution to pass that authorises resorting to force...Russia and France, as permanent members of the security council, will assume their full responsibilities on this point.” de Villepen noted that Iraq should cooperate better with the inspectors, but all three agreed that they had seen progress from Iraq in disarmament and use of force against Iraq would not be the right decision.
Iraqi Response Protests in Iraq sprung up shortly after the inception of the war and occasionally caused violent exchanges with the United States military. On April 28, 2003, United States soldiers fired on Iraqi protesters in Baghdad. 13 people were killed and 75 wounded. Two days later, U.S. soldiers fired on a group protesting earlier shootings in Falluja.
Media and Public Opinion The impact of 9/11 and the nationalizing sentiment that came with it was a heavy influence on the support of American-initiated invasion and in public support for the president. In a poll published in October 2002, days after President George W. Bush issued a public address on the possibility of invasion, surveyors broke down 10 findings on public opinion. The survey showed that at around this time a majority were still in support of invasion but this support was arguably waning. Support was divided along party lines, with a majority of Republicans in support and a majority of Democrats opposed. President Bush was pushing the message that the United States had attempted all diplomatic methods and was left with no other choice, but only around 46% of the public bought into that narrative, with 49% wanting to see more diplomatic efforts before an invasion took place. Further requisites for stronger public support included an assurance that casualties would be minimized and that the U.N. backed the invasion, which the public later observed was not the case.