Page "History of Iraq" Paragraph 36

The US urged the United Nations to take military action against Iraq.

The American president George Bush stated that Saddām had repeatedly violated 16 UN Security Council resolutions.

The Iraqi government rejected Bush's assertions.

A team of U. N. inspectors, led by Swedish diplomat Hans Blix was admitted, into the country ; their final report stated that Iraqis capability in producing " weapons of mass destruction " was not significantly different from 1992 when the country dismantled the bulk of their remaining arsenals under terms of the ceasefire agreement with U. N. forces, but did not completely rule out the possibility that Saddam still had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The United States and the United Kingdom charged that Iraq was hiding Weapons and opposed the team's requests for more time to further investigate the matter.

Resolution 1441 was passed unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 8, 2002, offering Iraq " a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations " that had been set out in several previous UN resolutions, threatening " serious consequences " if the obligations were not fulfilled.

The UN Security Council did not issue a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.