• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

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

QUESTION: Can you shed a new light on the discussions in the Security Council today about extending the deadline on the humanitarian program to -- (inaudible) -- some allies are wanting to extend it six months.

MR. RUBIN: Right. Our view is that we hope and expect that a growing number of countries will see the wisdom in moving to a vote on the comprehensive resolution on Iraq that deals with the humanitarian question of the Oil for Food program and allows an expansion of that program that deals with the need to get inspectors back to Iraq and that holds open the possibility of adjustment or a possible suspension of sanctions if Iraq allows the inspectors to come back, fulfills key disarmament tasks and cooperates for a certain period of time.

We think that that resolution has been discussed, debated, negotiated, mulled over, pored over, looked at, from every possible direction by the experts from all the countries for weeks and months now, and we think the time has come for the Council to act very, very, very soon. So we think if the Council can act on that resolution which includes the allowances for oil sales, there won't be a need to have a lengthy extension of the Oil for Food program.

I don't know what the ultimate decision of Council members about the Oil for Food program. We would certainly support those who have suggested that a short extension would be sufficient because we remain hopeful and believe strongly that a comprehensive resolution that deals both with the Oil for Food program and the inspectors could be acted on very quickly.

QUESTION: If this happens and the UN weapons inspectors are allowed back in, do you have reason to believe that this time the officials there will cooperate and that they will be able to do their job?

MR. RUBIN: We do believe it would be important for inspectors to return. We do have formidable capabilities to determine and analyze what goes on in Iraq of our own, but those capabilities would be greatly enhanced if there were inspectors on the ground. The best way to determine what goes on inside Iraq in the area of weapons of mass destruction is to have inspectors on the ground.

We have no illusions about the regime and their intentions. At various times they have cooperated, and at various times they have thwarted the will of the international community and refused to cooperate. We think the right next step is for the Council to rally around an approach that creates a new organization for inspections, that sets up a clear plan for what that organization will do, and then leave the question of whether Iraq will actually comply with the resolution to be tested by the actual return of the inspectors. We certainly would be reasonably placed in the camp of those who remain skeptical that they would fully cooperate with inspectors and that they would fulfill key disarmament tasks, but we'd love to be proved wrong on that.

QUESTION: You just mentioned the other capacities the US has right now. At this point, does Iraq have an ongoing weapons of mass destruction program?

MR. RUBIN: We believe - and are concerned - that Iraq has taken steps to reconstitute facilities that were destroyed in the Desert Fox military operation. We are concerned about that. We monitor it quite closely. We do not believe that they have crossed the red line that the President set out at the time of that military enterprise, and that is that they have reconstituted their weapons of mass destruction programs. We're concerned that they are repairing and rebuilding some facilities that could perhaps be used for that.

The best way to answer the question of what their programs have and don't have and what they're doing and not doing, as I indicated earlier, is to get the inspectors back.

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

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

[end of document]