“On February 24 [2003], the UK, U.S. and Spain circulated a draft resolution [to the UN Security Council] ‘in blue,’ which is a proposal that is not given a document number and on which no action or voting is yet asked. It asserted that Iraq had failed to comply with November’s Resolution 1441 in that it had failed to cooperate fully and because its declaration of December 8 had contained false statements and omissions. This non-compliance…posed a threat to international peace and security. …It simply ‘decided’ that Iraq had failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it in Resolution 1441 and that the Council should ‘remain seized of the matter.’ It did not signal armed intervention. It was like a jury giving a guilty verdict deferring an immediate decision about punishment.”
– Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq, Page 196