The White House Briefing Room
August 5, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING BY COLONEL CROWLEY AND BARRY TOIV
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 5, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING
BY COLONEL CROWLEY AND BARRY TOIV
The Briefing Room
1:54 P.M. EDT
Q Why so late?
MR. TOIV: I'm sorry, it is not easy getting up here and
saying nothing. It takes a lot of courage. (Laughter.)
Q This will be a pointless exercise?
MR. TOIV: No, I doubt that very much. Any questions?
Q Barry, could you tell us what the reaction is to
the Iraqi decision to suspend cooperation with U.N. weapons
inspectors?
MR. TOIV: I had a feeling you might ask that question.
COLONEL CROWLEY: Obviously, we are looking forward to
hearing from Richard Butler tomorrow at the Security Council. What
we've heard today from Iraq is a great deal of rhetoric. We've heard
this bluster before. We've seen this petulance before. But at the
end of the day we'll judge the situation by Iraqi actions, not by
Iraqi words.
Q Well, what if this is what it seems to be, an end
of cooperation?
COLONEL CROWLEY: Bill, you're asking me to speculate,
but I think we have to get a report from Richard Butler tomorrow and
then we'll judge where to go from there.
Q You said at the end of the day -- yesterday, you
said at the end of the day Iraq will have to comply with U.N.
resolutions. The question is, who is going to make them comply?
COLONEL CROWLEY: The sanctions that are currently in
place that Saddam says he wants lifted are costing Iraq $15 billion a
year. In the eight years since the end of the Gulf War, it's cost
Iraq $120 billion. That's money that he should have invested in his
people.
So these sanctions are costing Iraq dearly, but if Iraq
thinks that this is the way to get sanctions relief, once again they
are sadly mistaken.
Q But are you saying that it's only the sanctions
that will be the penalty for non-compliance, that's it?
COLONEL CROWLEY: Since the end of the Gulf War, we have
put Saddam Hussein in a very tight box. It's where he remains.
Today he is not a threat to his neighbors. He has sanctions in place
that are costing his country and his people billions of dollars. So
Iraq is suffering penalties for their current situation,
non-compliance. This is a clear violation of the Memorandum of
Understanding that Iraq negotiated with the United Nations and Kofi
Annan earlier this year.
Richard Butler negotiated a work program that would have
brought closer to the day where sanctions would be lifted. They
have, to date, indicated they are not willing to follow that work
plan, that blueprint. So these are the types of issues we'll bring
up tomorrow within the Council and evaluate where we go from here.
Q You seem to be saying that the United States would
not do again what it did in February and move substantial forces into
the area to make the point that he has to comply.
COLONEL CROWLEY: Bill, I think the important issue here
is what we've heard today is political rhetoric. I mean, this is a
city that is used to some posturing politically -- here in this town
as well. So let's wait and see. Once we hear the full report from
Richard Butler, we have a chance to evaluate what this rhetoric is.
But we will in the meantime watch Iraqi actions, not listen to their
words.
Q Is there some rethinking about the cost of the huge
military buildup to bring this about? Is that now being reconsidered
in terms of effectiveness?
COLONEL CROWLEY: We continue to keep the pressure on
Saddam Hussein by a number of means. But to the extent that this is
a continuation of a game of cat and mouse that Saddam has played for
a number of years, we're not willing to play this game. We will
continue to keep the pressure on Saddam. At the end of the day, he
knows what he needs to do in order to get sanctions relief, and that
is to fully comply with the Memorandum of Understanding with the
United Nations, to fully comply with all relevant U.N. Security
Council resolutions. The way forward is clear for him. And it
remains a mystery to us, as it has since the Gulf War, why Iraq will
not fulfill its obligations.
Q As far as you know, there have been no troop
deployments or no moving of forces to the region or anything -- that
would be premature to even talk about?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I think you're raising the temperature
higher than is appropriate at this point.
Q Does the fact that Secretary General Annan was the
initial guarantor, so to speak, of this agreement affect the U.S.
calculations in how to respond?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I'm sure Richard Butler will have a
chance to brief the Secretary General; he'll have a chance to brief
the U.N. Security Council. Clearly we believe this is a violation of
the Memorandum of Understanding and those will be the kinds of things
we discuss in the Council tomorrow.
Q Do you see that -- does the U.S. see that the
Secretary General's reputation is at stake in this confrontation?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I think I'll let the Secretary General
speak for himself on that.
Q Do you have any concern that Saddam Hussein may be
taking advantage of the President's political difficulties at home?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I think that kind of suggestion is
absurd?
Q Why?
COLONEL CROWLEY: Well, first of all, it's always hard
to figure what is actually, at the end of the day, in Saddam's mind.
That has not been something -- that has not been a growth industry,
as Jamie Rubin said yesterday. The United States has been resolute
since the end of the Gulf War in insisting that Iraq comply fully
with U.N. Security Council resolutions and now with the Memorandum of
Understanding, and that resolve will continue.
Q But he might sense, theoretically, that -- he sees
the President weakened by all of these investigations, that this
would be a good time to make his move.
COLONEL CROWLEY: We've been down this road many, many
times with Saddam, so I wouldn't say there is any special
significance. As he has approached sanctions review in the past,
we've heard this kind of rhetoric from him, and we'll just have to
wait and see and judge as we go along, what this means.
Q After Butler's report will the U.S. put any
timetable on Saddam?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I think let's wait and see what we
hear from Richard Butler tomorrow and then we'll have a better
picture of how to proceed.
Q But let's turn the question around -- is the
President going to have a problem being able to respond firmly
because of his political difficulties in this country, in either
support on Capitol Hill or elsewhere?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I think, as you've seen throughout
this year, the President has been extremely active on the foreign
policy front, and he will do whatever is required in this particular
instance.
Q When is Bill Richardson being sworn in as Secretary
of Energy? And who is holding the fort at the U.N. right now?
COLONEL CROWLEY: That's a good question. I don't know
the answer. I know he's been confirmed, but I don't know where he is
today.
Q You mentioned that Saddam Hussein has been in a
box, a very tight box for quite a long time, but every six months or
so he seems to act up. Is there any U.S. plan to try to keep him
more firmly in this box?
COLONEL CROWLEY: Again, these are expressly the kind of
issues we'll consult with the Security Council in the coming days.
But I think that we have maintained a tight rein on Saddam. He is
not currently a threat to his neighbors. And we'll have to wait and
see. But we've seen this kind of petulance before.
Q Is international support for the sanctions still as
strong as ever? Is there still a unified front on this?
COLONEL CROWLEY: I think it's ironic that every time --
you sometimes see a sense that Saddam may be gaining some political
measure through what people call sanctions fatigue, he turns around
and pulls a stunt like this that I think can only help strengthen our
resolve that there's no way for Saddam to achieve sanctions relief
through this lack of cooperation with UNSCOM.
Q Is the U.S. assessment that the Republican Guard
remains loyal to Saddam?
COLONEL CROWLEY: Clearly, he and his cronies, backed by
some military muscle, have been the key to his longevity.
............................
END 2:27 P.M.
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