This week’s United Nations General Assembly (GA) in New York was one of the most significant of all time as it would determine whether the world was at war or at peace in the next few months, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday.
All eyes would be on United States President George Bush who was expected to make a major policy statement on terrorism in general, but more specifically on a possible attack on Iraq, Pahad told reporters in Cape Town.
The session would be dominated by these two issues, and when President Thabo Mbeki addressed the GA ”he will not be able to avoid the whole issue of terrorism and how we must fight against it”.
”We are concerned that there is a growing tendency towards unilateralism when it comes to the use of military force or the threat thereof and we think this is giving rise to much more conflict and instability,” Pahad said.
”It impacts on our overall understanding of the importance of multi-lateral structures like the UN.”
South Africa believed that without sustainable development, the fertile ground for terrorism would never be removed, he said.
”We strongly believe that the Middle East crisis ? the Israel/Palestine crisis — has historically been and continues to be fertile ground for terrorism”
South Africa believed that Iraq should subscribe to the UN Security Council resolutions and allow weapon inspectors in, Pahad said.
”We believe that is the only way to solve the problem and to determine whether the Iraqis have weapons of mass destruction or not.
”We must go that route since any attack on Iraq will explode that entire volatile region and will impact on events right through the world, including South Africa.”
South Africa hoped there would be a realistic approach to the issue and one which would accept the role of the UN.
Pahad referred to comments by the US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld who accused Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Tuesday of ”aggressively trying to acquire and develop” nuclear weapons.
Iraq was ”a terrible country that has weapons of mass destruction” and is ”getting closer every day” to acquiring nuclear capability.
”Time is not on our side. The US task is to see that we don’t allow an event to happen,” Rumsfeld reportedly said.
However, Pahad said South Africa was of the view that any action against any country should be under the aegis of the UN. – Sapa