Within 30 days Iraq should provide the UN institutions with a complete declaration of all aspects of its programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, including that ones it claims are for purposes not related to weapons production or material. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would have “immediate, unimpeded, unconditional and unrestricted access” to any place in Iraq. They would also have the right to remove or destroy any weapons or related items they find.
It explicitly warned Iraq that it would face serious consequences as a result of an inspections violation. It’s generally known, that these “serious consequences” would after Security Council decision mean a military strike. Discussing the seven options in 2002 above, the Resolution seemed to make a compromise between the options 1 (Continued Containment) and 2 (Coercive Weapon Inspections). This might seem a quite lenient solution, but we have to take into account the occasional UK and US air strikes (that would resemble option 3 – Limited Air Campaign) as well as the continuous threat of the air campaign and large-scale ground intervention (option 7).
On 12 November, Iraqi parliament rejected the resolution. However, on 13 November 2002, the Iraqi government accepted it unconditionally by a letter sent to the UN Secretary-General. Talks between Iraq and the two UN bodies responsible for disarmament continued during November and an advance party of inspectors arrived in Iraq on 18 November. The following months of inspections brought up much optimism, nevertheless, the discussions over Iraq’s continuing noncompliance and the consecutive Security Council’s response divided the international community again.

As we could have seen, the adoption of the Security Council resolution 1441 was long and complicated process influenced by both experience with the past and hope for the future. Former, represented by the US and UK, contributed with its’ realist view, skepticism and severe solutions. Latter (Russia, China, France and Germany) was satisfied with smaller achievements and tried to avoid possible injustice of war at any costs. Both views got together and put their hope into the Resolution No. 1441 to secure the peace in the Persian Gulf.