21 October 2002
Bush: It's Up to U.N., Saddam Hussein Whether Iraq Disarms Peacefully
(U.S. Trying diplomacy one more time, he says) (950) By Wendy S. Ross Washington File White House Correspondent Washington -- It's up to the United Nations and to Saddam Hussein to decide whether Iraq disarms peacefully, President Bush told reporters October 21, as he concluded a meeting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General George Robertson. "We've tried diplomacy. We're trying it one more time," Bush said. "I believe the free world, if we make up our mind to, can disarm this man peacefully. But if not, if not, we have the will and the desire, as do other nations, to disarm Saddam. It's up to him to make that decision; it's up to the United Nations. And we'll determine here soon whether the United Nations has got the will, and then it's up to Saddam to make the decision." The stated policy of the United States (towards Iraq) is regime change, Bush said, "because for 11 years Saddam Hussein has ignored the United Nations and the free world." "However, if he were to meet all the conditions of the United Nations ... that in itself will signal the regime has changed," Bush said. Bush said Saddam Hussein is "unique" in that over the last 11 years he has continued to thumb his nose at the world and refused to disarm. While calling the news of North Korea's admission that it has an active nuclear weapons development program "a troubling discovery," Bush said he views it as an opportunity to work with friends in the Asian region to convince North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il that he must disarm. North Korea's nuclear weapons program violates the country's 1994 "Agreed Framework" with the United States, under which North Korean nuclear development programs were to be halted. Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said the United States is consulting now with Japan, South Korea and China about North Korea's nuclear weapons program. "And I think it's fair to say that international pressure will come to bear on North Korea to make them realize the dangers that they are pursuing in terms of the future for them will be increasingly isolated if they go down the road that they have indicated they're going down. So that's the course of action." "Our path is going to remain a path of consultation with our allies, and we feel confident we will have a common approach to this problem," Fleischer said, noting that State Department Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly is in the region, and that President Bush will discuss North Korea with China's President Jiang Zemin at their October 25 meeting in Texas, prior to both men going to this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Mexico. At the APEC meeting Bush will meet with leaders of Japan, South Korea and Russia among others. Regarding Iraq, Fleischer said the Permanent 5 members of the United Nations Security Council (the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China) began discussions in New York November 21 on a new draft resolution offered by the United States and Britain. "Progress is being made on getting an agreement around the language that has been under discussion for several weeks now. We'll see exactly what course the United Nations Security Council takes. I can't predict the exact dates that they will take concrete action, but I think it's moving forward nicely." Fleischer, however, said it would be "very risky for anybody to predict what the United Nations will do in final form." The proposed resolution, he said, contains "very strong" language. "It makes clear that the inspection regime of the '90s will be replaced with a new and much tougher, more effective inspection regime ... and it also makes clear that there will be serious consequences if Saddam Hussein fails to honor his obligations." Based on this new language, Fleischer said, the United States, along with its allies, will have all the authority they need to use military force if Saddam does not comply with the inspection regime. Fleischer said "it's a very important action for the United Nations Security Council to adopt this resolution. We hope that they will." Fleischer also responded to news reports that the United States may be backing away from pressing for regime change in Iraq, saying the reports are "much ado about nothing." The reports, he indicated, misinterpreted comments made on weekend television news shows by Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Regime change remains Congress's policy, signed by the President, remains law of the land. It remains the American position and the position that the president and everybody in his Cabinet strongly supports," Fleischer said. "What we're interested in is disarmament," Fleischer said. "What we're interested in is an end to Saddam Hussein and Iraq using hostility as a way to treat its neighbors, repression of minorities within Iraq. We have an objective in mind, and the objective is to secure the peace through disarmament, through the honoring of the U.N. resolutions." Asked whether the United States government sees any merit in the fact that Saddam Hussein has decreed general amnesty for most prisoners in that country, Fleischer responded: "Well, as Secretary Powell said yesterday, that can also be read as a political ploy. Nobody knows how many prisoners there are in Iraq. Nobody knows if Saddam Hussein has released a tenth of them, a quarter of them, half of them. So it's very hard to make sense of what Saddam Hussein has done. "The other issue that would be important there too is the president, when he went to the United Nations in September, talked about the need for Saddam Hussein to account for the 600 people that remain unaccounted for since the Persian Gulf War. We have no indication that his actions yesterday have touched on the fate of any of those 600." (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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