US embassy cable - 03ABUJA353

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000353 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR IO, AF AND AF/W 
NSC FOR JFRAZER 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:02/16/2013 
TAGS: PREL, IZ, NI, UNSC 
SUBJECT:  IRAQ: NIGERIAN RESPONSE TO SECRETARY POWELL'S 
FEBRURARY 14 ADDRESS TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL 
 
REF:  STATE 44467 
      ABUJA 344 
      ABUJA 300 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY AMBASSADOR HOWARD F. JETER.  REASON: 1.5 (B). 
 
 
1.  (C) The Ambassador February 16 conveyed Ref A message to 
Ad'Obe Obe, International Affairs Special Advisor to Nigerian 
President Olusegun Obasanjo.  In view of Obasanjo's stance 
(Ref B) that Iraq must disarm but that disarmament had to be 
accomplished through the Security Council, the Ambassador did 
not request Nigeria to speak at the Open Meeting scheduled for 
February 18. 
 
 
2.  (C) Obe did not offer a substantive responses to Ref A 
points that went beyond Obasanjo's earlier public (para 3) and 
private (Ref B) statements.  Generally, Obe echoed the points 
contained in para 2 of Ref C. 
 
 
3.  (U) There follows the text of Obasanjo's public remarks. 
Begin text: 
 
 
Question: 
 
 
We have watched the drama unfolding for some weeks now.  Ex- 
President Nelson Mandela has criticized the biggest democracy 
in the world with what can be described as militant foreign 
policy.  What is the position of Nigeria with regard to the 
present behavior of the US government and Britain?  You said 
your government will dwell on policies that will bring global 
peace, justice and equity. 
 
 
Answer: 
 
 
First, let me say this; when I was in the United Nation's 
General Assembly in September last year, I had a meeting with 
the American Secretary of State, Colin Powell and one of the 
issues we discussed was the US and Iraq.  By then, the US had 
not gone to the United Nation's Security Council.  And I don't 
know whether it was inclined to go there.  But I made it clear 
and it's not me alone.  Others probably did; that we will want 
the US to go to the UN Security Council and that any action 
that will be taken against any country for that matter, but 
particularly against Iraq, must be a collective decision of 
the UN Security Council.  It was after that the US went to the 
UN Security Council. 
 
 
Whatever may be the concern of the US and one may say with 
some element of understanding that a country that regarded 
itself as impregnable that was taken up one morning on 
9/11/2001 and from the blues a country that thought that it 
was defended by land, by air, by sea, was made so cheaply 
attacked but if that worries the US which is understandable, 
the US also should realize that it is the only superpower in 
the world now and whereas it may want to do things and damn 
the consequences, then it must think of the repercussions of 
damning the consequences. 
 
 
Well, on the other hand, the concern for non-proliferation of 
weapons of mass destruction is the concern of all of us, not 
just the concern of the US, so if, as it has now been the 
case, the 15 members of the Security Council on behalf of all 
of us who are members of the United Nations ask Iraq to 
disarm, I believe that Iraq will be better advised to disarm 
peacefully and totally, peacefully and totally. 
 
 
Then the inspectors who have been given the opportunity to 
look at every nook and corner must also be given time to do 
their job.  I even say that, well, we still have probably what 
I can call "quarter to".  Now, within that short space of 
quarter to, the world can still bring sanity on both sides. 
Sanity on the side of Iraq to do what it should do. 
 
 
Again, I have had the opportunity to say that the Americans 
now have at least 200,000 troops in the Gulf area.  If the 
President of the most powerful nation in the world has done 
that, now, you have to give him reason to withdraw those 
troops without a loss of face, and the only reason you can 
give is to be able to say, yes, what we should have achieved 
by attacking or by bombing, we have achieved by the threat of 
that force, therefore there is no need to launch that force 
into battle or into war. 
End Text. 
JETER