State Department Noon Briefing
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2000 - 12:35 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
Q: Is the US disheveled at all by the growing rapport between Arab
countries, many of whom you consider friends, and Iraq?
BOUCHER: I think - well, it depends on which question you ask. There
is - there have always been some ties between Arab countries and
Iraq. There are varying levels of sympathy. I think some of the people
that Iraq has invaded and attacked and bombed are not as sympathetic
as others.
But I think what is important is that international support for the
sanctions, we believe, remains effective. We do have different
situations that arise with regard to airplanes. We have gone through
that extensively.
Today we have a visit by the Jordanian Prime Minister to Iraq. As many
of you may know, the barter arrangement with cut-price oil between
Jordan and Iraq has been going on for some time. It's been reported
and noted by the UN Security Council, and we have not objected to that
arrangement. The Jordanians did tell us about this visit in advance,
and we gave them our opinion, which is that high-level visits to Iraq
are not advisable, have not been and remain what we think is
inappropriate, given Iraq's past behavior.
(The briefing was concluded at 12:50 P.M.)
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