20 November 1997
NO MORE U.S. PLANES OR TROOPS NEEDED IN GULF, COHEN SAYS
(Defense Secretary praises U.N. for handling of Iraqi crisis) (770) By Judy Aita USIA United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen said November 20 that he saw no need for additional U.S. planes or military in the gulf. Cohen, who was at the U.N. to meet Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that the planes, ships and military personnel sent to the gulf in the last weeks in response to Iraq's expulsion of U.N. weapons inspectors makes "a sufficient complement in the region for the time being." With Iraq's agreement November 20 to allow the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the destruction of weapons (UNSCOM) back into the country without any conditions, Cohen said that "after today I would not see the need for additional aircraft or assets unless the (U.S.) central command should require it." However, the defense secretary said that the additional forces will remain in the region "as long as they are necessary to be there to make sure that our own forces are protected" and as long as it takes for "Saddam Hussein to realize there must be full compliance." Talking with journalists after the meeting, Cohen said that there has been "movement of Iraqi surface-to-air missiles ... in the region and forces put on alert status that could threaten our U-2 aircraft which fly under the U.N. banner." "That cannot be allowed to take place, so the forces will remain as long as it's necessary to protect our forces and to see what actions might be taken in the future," the secretary said. U.N. officials were awaiting the translation of a letter from Iraq to be sure that there were no conditions placed on the return of UNSCOM inspectors. They said the more than 80 inspectors withdrawn from Iraq last week were in Bahrain and ready to return on November 21. A spokesman for the secretary general said that Annan "expects the Iraqi authorities to cooperate fully." Cohen said that during his brief meeting with the secretary general, he conveyed to Annan "the thanks of President Clinton for the way in which he conducted the attempt to resolve the situation." "We are in complete agreement that there must be full compliance on the part of the Iraqi Government to allow the UNSCOM inspectors back into the country without condition. There should be no attempt and no expectation that there would be any change in either the composition of inspectors or the flights that might be flown or any material change in the inspection regime," Cohen said. The secretary was questioned as to whether the U.S. would be willing to approve the sale of additional oil under the Security Council's oil-for-food regime and/or the early lifting of sanctions. "We expect the Iraqis to fully comply before any other considerations could be undertaken. There is no disagreement on that" among all the members of the Security Council, Cohen answered. "President Clinton has made clear that once there is full compliance we can examine...the humanitarian effort," he said. "There should be no additional relief provided until there is compliance. Once there is full compliance we can explore ways we can help alleviate the humanitarian suffering that (Saddam Hussein) has inflicted upon his own people," Cohen said. "We must do everything we can to prevent the Iraqis from producing weapons of mass destruction or in any way reconstituting their capacity to produce them," he said. The United States was in the forefront in proposing the oil-for-food scheme out of concern for the suffering of Iraqi civilians, Cohen pointed out. "We have never had a quarrel with the Iraqi people and we have been concerned by their deprivation," he said. "That was an American initiative that was delayed and stalled by Saddam Hussein for many months because he was concerned because he wanted to control how the money was spent." "The position of the United States is that there must be full compliance before there can be any consideration of lifting the sanctions," the secretary said. "That is the view of the Security Council, I believe, and it's the view of the United States." "The threat posed by the accumulation of the volumes of chemical and biological weapons that was discovered by UNSCOM -- which only emphasizes once again why it is so important for them to re-enter without any restriction -- was a benefit for the entire world," the secretary also said.
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