03 October 2002
U.N. Must Support New Policy on Inspections in Iraq, or Become Irrelevant
(New resolution must state consequences to Iraq if it fails to comply) (580) By Wendy Ross Washington File White House Correspondent Washington -- The United Nations must support a tough new inspection policy that ensures the disarmament of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, or itself risk becoming irrelevant, President Bush said October 3. "We'll see whether or not the United Nations will be the United Nations or the League of Nations when it comes to dealing with this man who for 11 years has thumbed his nose at resolution after resolution after resolution after resolution," Bush said in remarks at a White House event for Hispanic leaders. The United States and Britain are proposing that the UN Security Council approve a new resolution that would call on Iraq to comply with inspections and disarm or face military consequences. France, Russia and China, which have veto power on the Security Council, have balked at approving a new resolution authorizing military action against Iraq. "My intent, of course, is for the United Nations to do its job. I think it'll make it easier for us to keep the peace. My intent is for the world to understand that the obligation is up to Saddam Hussein to disarm like he said he would do. My intent is to put together a vast coalition of countries who understand the threat of Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "The military option is my last choice, not my first. It's my last choice," the president said. "But Saddam has got to understand, the United Nations must know, that the will of this country is strong. "The choice is up to the United Nations to show its resolve. The choice is up to Saddam Hussein to fulfill his word. And if neither of them acts, the United States, in deliberate fashion, will lead a coalition to take away the world's worst weapons from one of the world's worst leaders," Bush said. Bush has said the new resolution must include three things -- state that Iraq is not in compliance with its existing obligations to the world, state what Iraq must do to come into compliance and state what the consequences will be to Iraq for failure to comply, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters at his midday briefing. If you remove the third provision, as advocated in the May 3 Washington Post by former Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, "Iraq will have no incentive, none, none whatsoever, to change its behavior and disarm. They will continue in the same cat and mouse games they played throughout the '90s," Fleischer said. If the UN weapons inspectors "go in under the current regime, it is a fool's errand to call them inspectors," Fleischer added. "They will be nothing more than tourists who get a run-around," he said. Both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell are "optimistic, that at the end of the day, the world will see the issue" as they do, Fleischer said, and as President Bush laid out in his September 12 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, "because the President cannot imagine that the United Nations wants to make itself irrelevant." Bush "has made it clear that it is important for the United Nations to act through the Security Council. If they don't, the President has made perfectly plain that the United States and Britain and others will be part of a wide-ranging coalition that will help protect the world and will do so in many ways. I can't go into a delineation of all of them. And we'll see what the events develop," Fleischer said. (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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