15 September 2002
Officials Say Security Council Must Act on Iraq to Have Credibility
(Powell, Rice argue for effective UN response to Iraqi violations) (880) By David A. Denny Washington File Staff Writer Secretary of State Colin Powell says President Bush's U.N. speech "changed the entire political environment" for how the international community should consider the issue of Iraq and its defiance of U.N. resolutions. During a September 15 interview with NBC's Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," Powell said: "We have to remember that what the president did is exactly what so many people were asking for the president to do: consult with our friends and allies, bring [the case against Iraq] to the international community. These are U.N. resolutions that have been violated, not an issue with the United States alone. It's with the entire international community. And that's exactly what the president did. And frankly, I think in that speech the president has changed the entire political environment in which this matter is being considered," Powell said. Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice "made the rounds" of the national Sunday talk shows September 15, making the case for an effective U.N. response to Iraqi violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions stemming from its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In addition to "Meet the Press," Powell also appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation," and CNN's "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer. Rice talked with Tony Snow on "Fox News Sunday," and then appeared on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." On "Meet the Press," Powell laid out three elements which he said the United States will want to see in a new Security Council resolution on Iraq. First, he said, there must be a clear recognition that Saddam Hussein "is in material breach of all the obligations that he entered into as a result of these many U.N. resolutions." Second, said Powell, a resolution must spell out "action that he must take in order to try to deal with this breach. "And then I believe a third element of any resolution, or combination of resolutions, has to be what the U.N. will do, what the international community will do, if he does not act in the way that has been demanded by the United Nations," Powell said. Later in the same interview, the secretary of state laid out the U.S. aim behind any new U.N. resolution, saying: "What we are really looking for more than anything else: Are the Iraqis going to make a strategic choice right now to do something other than what they have been doing? The issue isn't so much inspectors/no inspectors, ultimatums/no ultimatums. The question is: Are the Iraqis finally going to obey international law? And if they are, that's one issue. If they are not, then the U.N. has to be prepared to act, in our judgment." As for a timeframe within which to get a resolution passed, Powell told Russert "I think it's a matter of weeks and not months." Rice told ABC's Stephanopoulos that the Security Council "has got to decide how it's going to meet the challenge to its authority. It's got to set clear conditions for the Iraqi regime. And it has to be prepared to act. ... The United Nations has had its authority really undermined for now more than a decade. If the United Nations does not want to become the League of Nations, it is really going to have to act and we'll see what consequences people are willing to put on the table...." Continuing in that vein, Rice told Fox News' Snow that "There was a reason that the United Nations Security Council was created with teeth, with the ability to deal with tyrants. And if the United Nations is going to be incapable of dealing with the threats of the 21st century, there is going to be no choice but for countries like the United States or others to deal with those threats without the United Nations. And so this is a chance for the United Nations to show that this can be done in a multilateral fashion." Both Powell and Rice were definite that no negotiation with Iraq is either appropriate or necessary. Powell noted that the 16 Security Council resolutions pertaining to Iraq are not new. For Powell, the resolution should say "`Here is what is required of you. Let us know within X period of days, weeks, that you are prepared to comply.' Period." If inspections were to be reinstated, Powell said to Russert, the inspection regime must be "any time, any place, with anyone who might have knowledge of these weapons of mass destruction activities." Powell also noted that the 16 U.N. resolutions at issue deal with more than just Iraq's requirement to make full disclosure of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD), its WMD development programs, the destruction of those weapons and the closure of those programs. Those resolutions "also talked about not abusing your minorities. [They] also talked about returning Kuwaiti prisoners and accounting for prisoners, " he said on CBS. Rice and Powell both said that after Powell's talks September 13 and over the weekend with members of the Security Council, the United States expects these interlocutors to return to their respective capitals and discuss the U.S. proposals. Both said they expect the Security Council to take up the U.S. ideas near the end of the week of September 15-21. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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