Tracking Number: 240321
Title: "US Committed to UN Resolutions and 'Unified Iraq'." Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian said the US is committed to maintaining the "territorial integrity" of a
"unified Iraq." (920820)
Translated Title: EU comprometido con resoluciones ONU y un "Irak unificado."; Les E-U ne veulent pas diviser l'Irak. (920820)
Author: HOLMES, NORMA (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920820
Text:
U.S. COMMITTED TO U.N. RESOLUTIONS AND "UNIFIED IRAQ"
(Djerejian says partition not in U.S. policy) (610) By Norma Holmes USIA Staff Writer Washington -- The United States is committed to maintaining the territorial integrity of a "unified Iraq," a senior State Department official stressed August 20.
Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian said, with its United Nations allies, the United States also will seek "arrangements" to uphold United Nations Security Council resolutions ending the Gulf war.
"It is not the policy of the United States government to partition Iraq," Djerejian said in a discussion of the international response to Iraqi violations of U.N. resolutions during a Worldnet symposium with journalists in Islamabad, Cairo, Riyadh and Istanbul.
"What is being done is establishing security zones or arrangements to monitor the applications of United Nations Security Council resolutions to help protect the Iraqi populations...from repressive measures by Saddam Hussein and his regime," Djerejian explained.
The United States, "from the beginning," upheld the territorial integrity of Iraq, he said. "We think this is a very important principle to uphold."
"President Bush has made (it) clear that the United States looks forward to working with a government -- a successor government to Saddam Hussein -- that can live at peace with its own people and with its neighbors," he said.
"What we want to see," Djerejian added, is "a successor government based on democratic principles that will represent the pluralistic nature of Iraqi society."
"We are interested -- first and foremost -- in establishing peace and stability in the Middle East and South Asia as a whole, and the policies that have been put into play in the region by President Bush, Secretary Baker and the administration demonstrate that," Djerejian said.
He said that U.S. policy "is based on the fundamental principles of upholding international legitimacy, the rule of law and the pursuit of human rights and principles and policies...not on any vendettas" against nations or individuals.
"We are not talking about unilateral actions here on the part of any state vis-a-vis a third country," he stressed.
"What we're seeing is Saddam Hussein deliberately defying all the United Nations Security Council resolutions that have been established and supported by the international community," Djerejian said.
Citing the Iraqi regime's "deliberate policy of repression" throughout the country, Djerejian said, "We are very disturbed by what is happening inside Iraq...to Kurds, Turkomans and Syrians in the north, to the Shia in the south...and with the Sunni in widescale executions of merchants who he singled out as scapegoats" in central Iraq.
Djerejian said the United States has also been working closely with other governments through the United Nations to get an accounting of Persian Gulf war hostages from the Iraqi government.
"To date, that...specific accounting for each individual has not come despite the best efforts of the international community, the Kuwaitis and ourselves. That has yet to be achieved," he said.
Strongly rejecting a questioner's suggestion that the United States is pursuing a "double standard" in its policy toward Iraq in the face of other emerging global crises, Djerejian pointed out that the United States "took the lead in international councils with European allies, the United Nations, and in private bilateral exchanges" in seeking a United Nations resolution to the tragedy in Bosnia.
"When we look at these emerging crises throughout the world in this period of change that we are facing, the responses are mainly...in the context of international law and the United Nations," Djerejian said. "I think this is a very healthy -- a very positive development."
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File Identification: 08/20/92, PO-405; 08/20/92, EP-419; 08/20/92, EU-406; 08/21/92, AE-506; 08/21/92, AR-504; 08/21/92, AS-507; 08/21/92, AF-503
Product Name: Wireless File
Product
Code: WF
Languages: Spanish; French
Keywords: IRAQ/Politics & Government; IRAQ/Defense & Military; HUSSEIN, SADDAM; UNITED NATIONS; PERSIAN GULF WAR; ARMISTICE; OPPOSITION GROUPS; MOSLEMS;
IRAQ-US RELATIONS; MILITARY INTERVENTION
Thematic Codes: 1NE; 1ME; 2FP
Target Areas: AF; AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 240321; 240377; 240110
USIA Notes:
*92082005.POL
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