15th, March

The ultimatum of the Azores

On March 16, 2003, George W. Bush, U.S. president, Tony Blair, prime minister of Britain and José María Aznar, President of Spain, held a meeting in the Azores Islands (Portugal).

The deadline that the three countries had agreed (in the draft resolution on February 24) in order to the regime of Saddam Hussein demonstrated that it had weapons of mass destruction was on 17 March.

Photo: Tony Blair, George W. Bush and José María Aznar in the Azores meeting, on 16 March 2003. 

The decision taken by the presidents at the meeting was to launch a 24-hour ultimatum to Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein to get rid of the alleged weapons. Finally, it was shown that at no time were such weapons in Iraq.

In addition to the ultimatum, the presidents adopted a declaration on transatlantic solidarity, where they declared their commitment to common values ​​of democracy, freedom and rule of law, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Finally, the ultimatum was not met by the Iraqi government and led to the invasion of Iraq. The international coalition of countries that carried out the invasion, did not have the explicit backing of the United Nations Organization, but was justified by the Security Council Resolution UN number 1441, 1483 and 1511.

The invasion and war in Iraq prompted many demonstrations against the war in different parts of the world, especially in countries that were involved in the conflict (U.S., UK and Spain). Many citizens believed that the invasion of these countries to Iraq was just an excuse to get cheap oil interests in the area and a real testing ground for U.S. military industry.

  

If you want to know more about the summit in the Azores you can see the CNN news on the link: http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/14/sprj.irq.azores/

Nerea Sanz