11 February 1998
[EXCERPTS] TRANSCRIPT: WHITE HOUSE DAILY BRIEFING, FEBRUARY 11, 1998
White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry briefed. Following is the White House transcript: (begin transcript) THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary February 11, 1998 PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY The Briefing Room ................. Q: On Iraq, what's the latest diplomatic efforts? Are you closer to diplomatic solutions, or are you closer to military action in the White House view? MCCURRY: I'm not going to speculate on exactly where we are. We are continuing to see if there is any utility to diplomatic approach, but we have not heard anything encouraging. And CNN had a Deputy Prime Minister on today saying not much that was helpful. Q: Why does France say that what Iraq is now proposing is a step in the right direction? MCCURRY: We don't share that assessment. The assessment of the United States government is that this is another attempt by Iraq to attempt to dictate the terms for U.N. inspections. And it is not helpful when the Deputy Prime Minister refers to the United Nations effort in Iraq as "an adversary," because UNSCOM, the special commission that includes the scientific technical experts that have been looking for evidence of weapons of mass destruction programs has a proven track record. They've got the expertise and the independence needed to get the job done of determining what the past tells us about Saddam Hussein's use of weapons of mass destruction -- biological and chemical weapons in particular -- and what efforts have been made to reconstitute those programs in the aftermath of the war. And Mr. Aziz appeared to be attempting to politicize that process, which has been and should be and will be an independent, scientific, technical effort by the United Nations to assure the world community that there haven't been such programs. So a number of things that he said are very clearly out of line with the mandates Iraq faces from the United Nations. They are attempting to preclude UNSCOM from conducting inspections. They're trying to place limits on the duration of inspections. And they don't commit the government of Iraq to any permanent access to monitoring so that we can assure the world that Saddam Hussein is not attempting to reconstitute programs that he's had underway in the past. So this clearly is an unacceptable proposal. Q: General Zinni speaks of the pieces being in place in about a week's time. Is that a deadline? MCCURRY: No. I suggested to many of you this morning you should not read anything into his own assessment of what the deployment is. He's making a simple observation as a military commander of what force posture is in the region, but one should not read into that any timeline or sequencing that suggests other options. ................. Q: This is about Iraq. How the United States copes with the possibility of rising sentiment in the Arab population about anti-American feelings -- MCCURRY: I would take strong issue with that and I would direct you to the statement that has been made by the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council today in which they very clearly condemned the delays that have been invoked by the government of Iraq. They have now specifically said that the Iraqi regime has continued with this intransigence, not caring about the dangerous consequences which could result from the stance that they have taken. The Gulf Cooperation Council statement on behalf of many Arab nations in that region is unequivocal in condemning the current Iraqi regime and its posture. I think that's a demonstration of the effect that our diplomacy has had, that others have had as we continue to bring pressure on Iraq to meet its international obligations. ................ Q: Mike, is the administration surprised by the number of Republicans who are now saying that there should be some kind of end strategy to oust Saddam? In light of what Madeleine Albright said yesterday that we're not going to commit ground troops, there's no prevailing sentiment to do that, why are so many Republicans now saying that you haven't thought this through? MCCURRY: Well, I don't know. I mean, one might turn the question on them and say, how would you propose to evict him from office short of committing hundreds of thousands of ground troops as we did during the Desert Storm War. I'm not certain that there would be any other way to do it. When we had a very large force on the ground in Iraq in 1991, we did not do it -- and in part did not do it because that was not the express mission as defined by the United Nations through U.N. Security Council resolutions. So those who propose that action I think have an obligation to explain to the American people how they would execute that kind of mission and what would be required of the United States in terms of putting people in harms way in order to accomplish that mission. ............... Q: What gives us the right to bomb another country? MCCURRY: What gives -- well, it depends on what the circumstances are, but under relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions that apply in this situation, the world community has made very clear that the government of Iraq has obligations arising from the cease-fire that ended the Desert Storm War. And if those obligations are not, individual member nations of the United Nations have a right to do something about it. Q: Do you anticipate that another U.N. resolution will be enacted -- not that you need it, but that there will be as a matter of course another U.N. resolution? MCCURRY: I wouldn't speculate on that. I think it's certainly conceivable, but not definite. Q: Would it be helpful if the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution saying Iraq was in "material breach" of its existing obligations? MCCURRY: It could conceivably be helpful, but it wouldn't be necessary if we got to a point where other measures needed to be considered. Q: But do you think that you would have the votes to pass that kind of resolution? MCCURRY: That's entirely beyond my capacity to speculate about. We wouldn't know until the issue was taken up. It's clear the Security Council will remain seized of this matter and continue to address it and no doubt hear a report from the Secretary General and others about the diplomatic efforts that have been underway. But how they will choose to address this situation is unknown at this point. ................ Q: Mike, the Russians have put their air defense and their early warning systems in a state of alert because of the situation in the Gulf. Did they inform the United States prior to doing this? MCCURRY: I'm sorry, say again. Q: That they put their air defense and early warning systems in a state of alert because of the situation. MCCURRY: I'd have to check with others to determine the answer to that question. Q: Mike, Italy said today that Italian bases would be open to the American planes to attack Iraq. Any comment? MCCURRY: Well, we deeply value the partnership we have with the government of Italy and our very strong, very important relations with them through the work we do together on European issues, and, specifically, the work we do together with respect to NATO makes us welcome very much the expressions of support that we have had at the moment that we're dealing with a very troubling situation. Q: Mike, at the signing ceremony earlier today, was the President alluding to specific offers of support by the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland regarding the possible decision on military strike? MCCURRY: Yes. I mean, we have had from all three specific offers of support, and then I will leave it to those governments to indicate what types of support they would be in a position to provide, although some of that I think will develop as military planners assess how inter-operable the resources are than can be provided by those nations. But they certainly are welcome offers. ...................... Q: Any plans for the foreign policy team to come over and meet with the President today on Iraq? MCCURRY: They have spent some time together in and around the NATO event that they did earlier, so they've been together and we do expect more work on it tomorrow. There have been a lot of conversations back and forth, and clearly we've been dealing with the aftermath of Mr. Aziz's award-winning CNN appearance. See you. THE PRESS: Thank you. (end transcript)
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