of such acts to operate within its territory and to condemn unequivocally and renounce
all acts, methods and practices of terrorism;
I- Declaresthat, upon official notification by Iraq to the Secretary-General and
to the Security Council of its acceptance of the above provisions, a formal cease-fire
is effective between Iraq and Kuwait and the Member States cooperating with Kuwait
in accordance with resolution 678 (1990); - Decidesto remain seized of the matter and to take such further steps as may
be required for the implementation of the present resolution and to secure peace and
security in the region.
SOURCE: United Nations, http://www.un.org/Docs/scres/1991/scres91.htm.UN Weapons Inspections
DOCUMENT IN CONTEXT
At the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the UN Security Council adopted Res-
olution 687, imposing tough punishment on Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait the pre-
vious August. The most important and lasting of these penalties was the continuation
of most of the economic sanctions that the council had mandated because of the inva-
sion and a requirement that Iraq eliminate all of its weapons of mass destruction,
including biological and chemical weapons, along with any work it had done to acquire
nuclear weapons and any ballistic missiles with a range of ninety miles or more. The
Security Council suggested at the time that the sanctions would be lifted progressively
as Iraq demonstrated its compliance with the weapons mandates and other require-
ments (Persian Gulf War, p. 455; Persian Gulf War’s Aftermath, p. 465).
Iraq officially accepted these UN mandates and, as later discovered, disposed of
its weapons in 1991. It cooperated only grudging, however, and often not at all, with
UN inspectors assigned the task of ensuring the elimination of Iraqi weapons pro-
grams. Baghdad’s resistance to the UN mandates led many to believe for the next
dozen years that it still had banned weapons and was working rapidly to build more.
The drama over Iraq’s weapons lasted from April 1991, when the Security Coun-
cil first acted on the issue, until the fall of 2003, months after the United States
invaded Iraq and ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power. As with any drama,
there were high points and low points, but much of the action took place behind the
scenes when the world’s attention was focused elsewhere.
IRAQ AND THE GULF WARS 473