Tracking Number: 240530
Title: "Southern Iraq Off Limits to Iraqi Military Aircraft." President Bush said August 26 that the Persian Gulf coalition has declared the portion of southern Iraq south of the
32nd parallel off limits to Iraqi military aircraft. (920826)
Translated Title: Sur de Irak, vedado para aviones militares Iraquies.; Establissement d`une zone d`exclusion aerienne en Irak. (920826)
Author: SULLIVAN, ALEXANDER M (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19920826
Text:
SOUTHERN IRAQ OFF LIMITS TO IRAQI MILITARY AIRCRAFT
(Coalition surveillance to begin, Bush says) (1030) By Alexander M. Sullivan USIA White House Correspondent Washington -- The Persian Gulf coalition has declared the lower third of Iraq off limits to Iraqi military aircraft, President Bush said August 26, to block bombing and strafing of civilian targets.
Accusing Saddam Hussein of flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 -- which forbids the Baghdad regime to repress its people -- Bush said the coalition is "prepared to consider additional steps" if the "no-fly" zone is violated.
Bush said the coalition will begin surveillance flights over the Iraqi area south of the 32nd Parallel on August 27 "to monitor the situation" in areas where "the most significant recent violations of Resolution 688 have taken place." The president said the no-fly zone covering "all Iraqi fixed wing and rotary-wing (helicopters) aircraft" would remain in effect indefinitely, "until the coalition determines that it is no longer required."
The surveillance missions will be flown by aircraft of the United States, Great Britain and France. A senior administration official said the coalition has the "strong cooperation" of other member states in the region, especially in the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The coalition has now placed off limits to Iraqi military aircraft the marshy area closest to the Iraqi border with Kuwait, home to Shia Muslims, as well as a portion of the north inhabited by Kurds and other ethnic minorities.
Declaring the action consistent with previous U.S. policy, Bush asserted, "We seek Iraq's compliance, not its partition. The United States continues to support Iraq's territorial unity."
Nonetheless, a senior U.S. official told reporters, "Saddam's grip on sovereignty is being chiseled away. He no longer controls important areas of Iraqi territory. He obviously has problems from within the center -- he felt the necessity to execute merchants -- and we've had indications that some of the tribes that were once supportive are now disaffected, as are, obviously, the Shias (in the south), the Kurds and the Assyrians and the Turkamens in the North. This man is not in full control."
Bush, addressing the American Legion veterans convention August 25, said the coalition has "locked up a tyrant (Saddam Hussein) in the prison of his own country."
Questioned about Saddam Hussein's personal status inside Iraq, the official said he would "assess his position as brittle -- the exterior surface is hard, but not too difficult to crack. He has preoccupied himself more than ever with his own personal security....His regime is not as stable as one might think."
The official, elaborating on Bush's support for the Iraqi people as opposed to the Saddam Hussein regime, said Washington wants to see "a successor government representative of the pluralistic nature of Iraq's population," which will "respect human rights and will be at peace with its own people and with its neighbors."
Neither the president nor the official spelled out precisely what steps the coalition would take if Iraqi aircraft violated the no-fly zone. Neither commented on news reports which said Iraqi planes caught in the forbidden area would be shot down.
"It is inherent in the statement," the official said, "that there will be consequences if Iraq does not comply." He said coalition members would "give serious consideration to all options" if violations occurred. Asked if Saudi Arabia had given a green light to use of force by coalition aircraft based on its airfields, the official said, "We're getting full support for this operation."
Bush told questioners that if Iraq kept its aircraft out of the forbidden zone but continued suppression of the Shia through use of artillery barrages and ground troops "we would be extraordinarily concerned" since that, too, would be a violation of Resolution 688. If that happens, he added, "we just have to wait and see what further action might be taken" in response.
While declining to give specific details, the official told questioners that continued Iraqi use of ground troops against civilian populations would give rise to "serious consideration (of) all necessary options" by coalition partners.
He said no Middle Eastern nation had officially protested the no-fly zone, although he acknowledged that news reports from the region suggested a degree of reluctance by some parties. "I think there are serious concerns in the Middle East over the possible partition of Iraq," he said. "We have made our position abundantly clear, that the United States strongly supports the territorial integrity of Iraq. The no-fly zone is in no way intended to partition or to lead to the partition of Iraq." He added that the existing northern no-fly zone has not led to partition.
The timing of the no-fly announcement, he said, was occasioned by "the qualitative difference in the level and the form of repression," Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of Security Council resolutions, extensive consultations among coalition partners, and the report of U.N. human rights envoy Max van der Stoel.
The official acknowledged that assurances from the Iraqi opposition of "commitment to a post-Saddam government which follows democratic and human rights principles in a unified state" had contributed to the coalition decision. He said the Vienna conference of anti-Saddam Hussein groups, which declared its opposition to partition, had helped to clear the air.
Questioned about Baghdad's threat to expel United Nations relief workers and security guards, the official pointed out that process is already underway. He said the U.N. security force has shrunk from 500 to 120 members, adding there are fewer than 100 U.N. relief workers left in the country. Saddam Hussein, he noted, has refused to renew the memorandum of understanding governing the presence of relief workers, has forced UNICEF to abandon an office, and has ordered a World Food Program office in the southern part of Iraq to close.
"There is already a very deteriorating situation in terms of the U.N. presence," the official said. He added "we will have to see exactly what our reaction will be. Let us see what Saddam's response will be. It's premature for us to respond at this point."
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File Identification: 08/26/92, POL303; 08/26/92, AEF304; 08/26/92, LSD311; 08/26/92, LDP312; 08/26/92, EPF303; 08/26/92, EUR308; 08/26/92, NEA303; 08/26/92, NAA304; 08/27/92, AFF405
Product Name: Wireless
File
Product Code: WF
Languages: Arabic; Spanish; French
Keywords: IRAQ-US RELATIONS/Policy; MILITARY INTERVENTION; IRAQ/Defense & Military; MILITARY AIRCRAFT; BUSH, GEORGE/Foreign
Relations: Near East & South Asia; HUSSEIN, SADDAM; MOSLEMS; ATROCITIES
Thematic Codes: 1NE
Target Areas: AF; AR; EA; EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 240530; 240629; 240824
USIA
Notes: *92082603.POL
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