30 October 2002
U.N. Weapons Inspectors Meet with Bush at White House
(Meeting shows Bush's commitment to inspections, spokesman says) (810) By Wendy S. Ross Washington File White House Correspondent Washington -- President Bush met with the two chief United Nations weapons inspectors October 30 and told them the United States wants to work with them to ensure that they are able to implement whatever decision the U.N. Security Council reaches on disarming the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. Hans Blix, executive chairman of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which handles the inspections for nuclear weapons, spent two hours in discussions at the White House. National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said the inspectors first met with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and then the entire group went to the Oval Office to meet with President Bush. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush thanked Blix, as head of the inspectors, for his service and told him he believes in the importance of an effective inspection regime for Iraq, as he said in his September 12 speech to the U. N. General Assembly. "The President was pleased to see him here to stress how the United States wants to work with the inspectors to make sure they are able to carry out whatever the ultimate decision of the U.N. is, which is the disarmament of Saddam Hussein," Fleischer said. "There's no point in sending the inspectors back into Iraq if the inspectors themselves don't think they can get their job done," Fleischer said. Talks remain under way at the U.N. on Iraq, he noted. "These are serious talks and people are approaching them seriously. There still are some differences that remain and efforts are being made to bridge those differences, and we will see." The United States, he added, "is continuing to press the case. Secretary Powell has made many phone calls today to foreign ministers of the Security Council nations, pressing the case to resolve some of the remaining differences among the members of the P-5 and others. So we'll see ultimately where that outcome is, but it's being worked at the ministerial level." "There is no question the United States is willing to work the other members of the Security Council to get an agreement. We have certain issues that we feel extraordinarily strongly about that we will not change, such as the resolution must state that there are consequences, such as it must state that Iraq is in material breach. But we want to work out an agreement. ... The purpose of diplomacy is to reach an agreement," Fleischer said. The United States resolution, cosponsored by the United Kingdom, remains under discussion, he said. It calls for a seven-day period in which the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq would have to indicate whether or not it was going to comply with the expressed will of the world, as expressed through the Security Council. "Then, over the next 23 days, up to a 30-day total time, Iraq would have to produce documentation about what weapons of mass destruction it possesses, and that way the inspectors would be able to go in and verify and, therefore, also be able to disarm," Fleischer said. The resolution walks through a whole series of steps that would empower the inspectors to be able to carry out their duties in terms of people to talk to, rights to visit presidential palaces, rights of free movement without being hindered by Iraqis, Fleischer explained. "All in all, it's a series of provisions that give the inspectors the tools they need to do the job," he said. "This is the United Nations' chance to get it right and to make certain that Saddam Hussein does, indeed, disarm, so that peace can be protected. That's why he (President Bush) went to the U.N., and he meant it, and he still means it," Fleischer said. "Whether or not the U.N. means it, we will soon find out. But the timetable was known; the timetable was clear; and we support moving forward. We will see ultimately if the United Nations can do it," he said. The inspectors, Fleischer said, "don't want to get run around. They want to be able to go in and do their jobs and disarm Saddam Hussein. Probably nobody is more committed to peace than the inspectors, and they know that in order to secure the peace, they have to have the ability to do their job." But, whatever tools they are given, he said, fundamentally it "still comes down to Saddam Hussein and Iraq's willingness to allow the inspectors to do their jobs, because no matter how strong the United Nations resolutions are, it still involves Iraqi agreement to let the inspectors do their jobs for the purpose of disarmament. And that still remains the ultimate test of Iraq and whether they are willing to listen to the world, or whether they will again defy the world." (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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