Tracking Number: 220206
Title: "US Says Iraq Must Comply with All UN Resolutions." White House, State Department and Pentagon officials all say Iraq must comply with UN resolutions demanding the
elimination of Iraqi weapons facilities as a team of UN special commission inspectors prepare for another attempt at implementing those resolutions. (920319)
Translated Title: EU insiste en que Irak debe acatar todas las
resoluciones de la ONU. (920319)
Date: 19920319
Text:
U.S. SAYS IRAQ MUST COMPLY WITH ALL U.N. RESOLUTIONS
(Spokesmen refuse to discuss options) (920) Washington -- Iraq must comply with United Nations resolutions demanding elimination of weapons facilities, officials at the White House, State Department and Pentagon insisted March 19.
As a team of U.N. special commission inspectors prepared for another attempt at implementing those resolutions March 21, Deputy White House Press Secretary Gary Foster told questioners the U.N. Security Council "has made it clear that Iraq must comply with all relevant resolutions."
The resolutions, he pointed out, include -- as part of the terms ending the Persian Gulf war -- destruction of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the facilities to build them.
Foster pointed out that the special commission team will make a new attempt March 21 to implement the resolution regarding facilities Iraq has sought to safeguard. They include facilities to build ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, and nuclear weapons research establishments.
Asked if President Bush is prepared to take unilateral military action should Iraq continue to block compliance with the U.N. resolutions, Foster pointed out the administration does not discuss options.
He said he did not know if Bush would assist the special commission team by providing a list of arms-related material furnished to Iraq by U.S. firms.
At the State Department, spokesman Margaret Tutwiler refused to discuss news reports that the president has been given a list of options prepared by the Pentagon should military action be necessary to force Iraq to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
"We never discuss options. I have nothing more to say about it," Tutwiler told reporters. "Our focus is on intensifying the United Nations Security Council inspection regimes," the spokesman said, adding the U.S. is working very hard on that issue and will continue to do so.
At the same time, she flatly denied the Security Council has set a deadline for Iraqi compliance with it's resolutions. "There is no official United Nations Security Council deadline. I have seen it printed as March 26th and I have seen it printed as March 29th, neither of which are real," Tutwiler said.
Asked if Iraqi obstructionism would be allowed to drag on indefinitely, the spokesman replied: "The Security Council deals with this. We are dealing with it. I've told you where our focus is right now -- on intensification of these inspection regimes. And that's where we are right now."
At the Defense Department, spokesman Pete Williams said that while significant U.S. military capability remains in the region, "we hope that Iraq will recognize that it's only choice is to comply with the U.N. resolutions" which it has already committed itself to observing unconditionally.
Asked about a March 19 New York Times report that the United States has designed a graduated bombing campaign which it is prepared to implement if necessary to force Iraq to destroy its remaining weapons of mass destruction, the spokesman noted that the U.S. military has had various options since the end of the Gulf war. Williams refused, however, to discuss future military planning.
"Right now," he added, "we think the appropriate way to resolve the problem of the destruction of ballistic missiles and their production facilities is to work through the U.N. Special Commission."
Asked what the Bush administration sought to gain by apparent "saber-rattling," Williams said he is aware of no orchestrated propaganda campaign which is underway with respect to Iraq.
Asked about the reports of a March 26 deadline for Iraq to come into compliance with U.N. resolutions, Williams said the U.N. Special Commission "has not conveyed to the Iraqi authorities a specific deadline, concerning the destruction of equipment associated with the ballistic missile programs, since Iraq refused the destruction of items" during the earlier U.N. inspection.
He noted that Special Commission officials defined the term "destruction" for an Iraqi delegation visiting U.N. headquarters last week and told them "to present in the near future plans to result in this level of destruction."
The spokesman said a U.N. ballistic missile inspection team will travel to Iraq March 21 and visit "a number of different locations."
Their task will be to seek the destruction of ballistic missile production equipment that the earlier inspection team was unable to achieve.
Asked if Iraq had been able to reconstitute its air defense radars since the war, Williams said it is not clear how effective they are, but the systems have been turned on from time to time.
Williams said little has changed in the region in the past few weeks. The United States still has 23,000 military, mostly naval, personnel in the region. He said there are 12 ships in the Mediterranean Sea: 1 cruiser, two destroyers, five amphibious and six auxiliary ships.
In the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Northern Arabian Sea, Williams said, there are 18 ships: an aircraft carrier, a command ship, one cruiser, three destroyers, five amphibious ships, five auxiliary ships and two frigates. He also said that platforms to deliver conventional cruise missiles have been in the region since August 1990.
He said there are four U.S. ships in the Red Sea: one destroyer, two frigates, and one auxiliary ship. And he told questioners that U.S. aircraft remaining in the region include F-15Es, F-14s, F-16s, F/A-18s, A-10s, F-4Gs, EF-111, F-117, U2s, EA-6Bs, AV-6Bs, P-3s and E-3s.
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File Identification: 03/19/92, PO-404; 03/19/92, AE-407; 03/19/92, AR-425; 03/19/92, EP-410; 03/19/92, EU-409; 03/19/92, NE-405; 03/20/92, AS-504; 03/20/92, NA-503
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: Spanish; Arabic
Keywords: UNITED NATIONS; INSPECTIONS; ARMS CONTROL VERIFICATION; IRAQ/Defense & Military; MILITARY CAPABILITIES; DISARMAMENT; PERSIAN GULF WAR; ARMISTICE;
IRAQ-US RELATIONS; CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL WARFARE; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; MISSILES TC>1UN; 1NE; 1AC
Target Areas: AF; AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 220206; 220276
USIA Notes: *92031904.POL
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