The White House Briefing Room
August 13, 1998
PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY AND COLONEL P.J. CROWLEY
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 13, 1998 PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY AND COLONEL P.J. CROWLEY The Briefing Room 2:12 P.M. EDT ................... COLONEL CROWLEY: Claire, on Iraq, the Security Council has received a report from Chairman Butler and its contemplating next steps. Iraq, clearly, by refusing to cooperate with UNSCOM, is something that we find unacceptable and the sanctions will not be lifted until this cooperation is restored. Q Well, what can the U.S. do to get the inspections going again? COLONEL CROWLEY: The special representative to Secretary General Kofi Annan is in Baghdad right now. He will talk to Iraqi officials about their decision to suspend cooperation both with UNSCOM and the IEA, and he will urge Iraq to resume that cooperation, and he will forcefully communicate that this violates both Security Council resolutions and the memorandum of understanding that Kofi Annan negotiated personally with Iraq. And he'll report back to the Council in the next few days. Q But P.J., on that, is there any concern that the United States, because it hasn't been saber-rattling, is actually encouraging Saddam to take this further? COLONEL CROWLEY: I think that, Larry, we have been encouraging Saddam Hussein for eight years now to do a very simple thing, which is declare fully his weapons of mass destruction capability, and he knows exactly what he is expected to do. As we've said before, this has been a cat-and-mouse game that we've experienced in the past with Iraq. We're not going to play his game. Sanctions will not be lifted until he complies fully and declares fully his remaining WMD capability. And we will respond as the situation goes along as we feel fit, not being dictated to by Iraq. Q Clearly, the monitoring devices are still operating; some of them, anyway. But the inspectors can't check them. And some of them are saying that this is the most serious setback to the inspection program since it was imposed. Do you agree with that? COLONEL CROWLEY: UNSCOM and the IAEA have clearly indicated that they cannot continue their inspection programs under these circumstances. That is the situation the Security Council is evaluating, and we will continue to consult within the Council on the next steps.
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