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August 6, 1998

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

                              THE WHITE HOUSE
                       Office of the Press Secretary
____________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                         August 6, 1998
                        STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
                                   Iraq
     Iraq's latest refusal to cooperate with the international weapons
inspectors is unacceptable.  Far from hastening the day the international
community lifts sanctions against Iraq, as Iraq intends, its failure to
live up to its obligations will perpetuate those sanctions and keep the
Iraqi economy under tight international control.
     As a condition of the cease-fire in the Gulf War, the United Nations
demanded and Iraq agreed to account for its nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them within fifteen days,
and to destroy them.  Last February, Iraq reiterated that commitment in an
agreement it signed with U.N. Secretary General Annan.  In short, Iraq has
had it within its power to end the sanctions by meeting this affirmative
obligation, letting the inspectors finish their job, and complying with the
other relevant Security Council resolutions.
     Instead of cooperating, Iraq has spent the better part of this decade
avoiding its commitments to the international community.  Recent
discoveries by the  weapons inspectors -- including new documents on
chemical munitions used in the Iran-Iraq war and nerve gas residue on Iraqi
warheads -- only underscore Iraq's failure to meet its obligations to the
world.
     Iraq's most recent refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors
is another misguided attempt to divide the international community in order
to gain the lifting of the sanctions.  These sanctions have denied Iraq
over $120 billion in resources to rebuild its military and build more
weapons of mass destruction.  Its current tactics once again will backfire.
Unless Iraq reverses course and cooperates fully with the international
weapons inspectors, the United States will stop any and all efforts to
alter the sanctions regime.  This will deny the Iraqi leadership what it
wants most: an end to sanctions.  Because of the expanded oil-for-food
arrangement we created last winter, the Iraqi people will continue to
receive the food, medicine and other essential supplies they need.
     The burden has always been and remains on Iraq to disclose and
dismantle its weapons of mass destruction capability.  We remain determined
to see that Iraq keeps that commitment.
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