Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service Fred Mitchell said yesterday that The Bahamas stands behind the United Nations Resolutions regarding the situation in Iraq.
Minister Mitchell was addressing his colleagues in the House of Assembly on a Resolution for the establishment of a Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He explained that The Bahamas has a general policy which applies to all international disputes, “and in this we stand in concert with our Caricom partners, and that is, we support the United Nations and the Resolutions of the United Nations. By the fact that we are members of the UN, we are bound to follow United Nations Resolutions.
“Any policies that are pursued with regard to the enforcement of United Nations Resolutions ought to also be pursued through the United Nations. That is our position with regard to all international disputes, even those that arise on a bilateral level,” he said.
He noted that the international structures are there and they ought to be imployed.
Minister Mitchell expressed the same sentiment on September 14, during an address in New York to the 57th Annual General Assembly of the United Nations.
However, he did note that American Ambassador J. Richard Blankenship had a right to push his country’s position on the Iraqi issue.
“We have a secure country, and our citizens are secure in who they are. You heard members of the back bench today speak freely about what their position are on various matters. And I said that in a free country, an Ambassador is free to conduct the affairs on behalf of his country, because when he speaks he speaks on behalf of his country and that is the way his country wishes him to conduct their diplomacy,” Minister Mitchell said.
He pointed out that Bahamians also have right in a free country to say what they wish to say.
On Tuesday, Mr. Blankenship made a solemn plea for nations like The Bahamas to join the United States in a coalition to ensure that Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein no longer continues to threaten the region and the world.
This, as he was addressing members of the American Women’s and Men’s Club during a luncheon held at the British Colonial Hilton. He said with or without outside help, the US will get the job done.
“We call on nations of the world to join us in this coalition to ensure that Saddam no longer continues to threaten the region and the world. We call on nations like The Bahamas to do the right thing, to align themselves with the United States against this brutal, aggressive thug, just as they did on September 11,” Mr. Blankenship said.
He added that these are defining times, and it will long be remembered who took which side in these epic conflicts. “The Bahamas has stood by us in the fight against international terrorism and we call upon them again to do so. To stand with the United States against the threats represented by Saddam Hussein and his weapons programmes,” Mr. Blankenship emphasised.
“As the President has said, we want the support of The Bahamas, and all freedom loving nations, in our determination to remove weapons of mass destruction from the face of this earth, however we are prepared to go it alone, if the world does not respond,” he said, adding ” this is nothing new in American policy.”
Mr. Blankenship said the United States have always reserved the right to defend itself with “whatever means necessary” to remove the threat from the country like so many times in the past, sometimes with the help of the United Nations and the international community, and sometimes without.
The Ambassador said the United States would strongly prefer to take action with the support of the entire international community, “for nations to stand up and say we will not stand for threats to world peace and to UN authority, and we will not longer be threatened by the use of mass destruction weapons.”
When established, the Committee on Foreign Affairs would engage in public dialogue to determine the views of Bahamians on foreign affairs issues.
By Keva Lightbourne, The Nassau Guardian
