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U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

MR. FOLEY: Good afternoon. Could you tell me whether this is yesterday's water or --

MR. MCCLENNY: It's today's water.

MR. FOLEY: Today's water, okay.

I don't have any announcements; except to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

........................

QUESTION: Can I ask a non-Colombia question?

(Laughter.)

MR. FOLEY: Yes, that's the category. I'm surprised you're asking a question on this subject.

QUESTION: Yeah, well, normally I would stick to Colombia, but today I thought I'd ask you whether there's any distinction the US makes in any of the "presidential" sites in Iraq. In other words, is it the US position that the UN inspectors should be able to go to any place they want in Iraq? Or are there some sites that the US recognizes as truly presidential, and therefore, off limits?

MR. FOLEY: We believe that UNSCOM is a professional organization that is devoted solely to its mission of uncovering Iraqi programs of weapons of mass destruction. It is not a politicized mission. We believe it is on the basis of their mandate, strictly defined, in the information that they are able to develop that they determine the nature and the number of sites that they wish to visit.

Our position is very simple: if UNSCOM believes it has reason or need to visit a site, then Iraq does not have the right - under UN Security Council resolutions - to deny them that access. So I'd rather not answer your question broadly, and simply state the obvious, which is that we support Chairman Butler and UNSCOM's desire to visit any site they deem necessary for them to inspect.

QUESTION: Well, it sounds like a broad answer; that there are no exceptions.

MR. FOLEY: No exceptions to requests made by Chairman Butler and UNSCOM to visit sites and inspect sites in Iraq.

QUESTION: Have they made any requests that you're aware of yet to visit any sites that the Iraqis consider presidential?

MR. FOLEY: I'm not aware of that. Of course, that is a growing category of sites. As President Clinton mentioned the other day, the land mass of so-called presidential sites is rather astonishing. So you have to keep an eye on that figure, which increases day to day.

But our information is that there has been no change or little change from UNSCOM's activities over the last 24 hours -- that UNSCOM and the IAEA continue to inspect known weapons-related facilities throughout Iraq in order to assess what happened during the suspension of monitoring operations, the three-week suspension.

I'd have to refer you to UNSCOM headquarters in New York for greater detail. But I'm not aware that UNSCOM has yet requested access to any site that Iraq describes as sensitive. It's obviously up to UNSCOM to decide when and where to exercise its right to inspect facilities of any nature in Iraq.

QUESTION: Well, one of the senior Iraqi officials was quoted this morning as saying that in the event UNSCOM inspectors turned up at any of the "presidential" sites, they would be prevented from entering, or kicked out if they tried to. Do you have any reaction to that?

MR. FOLEY: Well, that's an unacceptable threat; one that I assume UNSCOM itself will reject. Certainly the United States rejects it. But we haven't seen the test yet. We've seen verbal declarations, as has been noted from this podium in the last days. When Iraq agreed to allow the inspectors to return, Iraq did not place conditions on their return. And it is our expectation - and we think it's shared by the international community - that UNSCOM will be able to do its work unhindered and unimpeded. But we'll know it when we see it, though, David. As UNSCOM goes about its work on the ground, we will see whether Iraq is truly willing to meet its commitments to cooperate fully with UNSCOM.

It's simply speculative at this point, because we're going to have to see how UNSCOM fares on the ground.

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(The briefing concluded at 1:30 P.M.)

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