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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

11 November 2002

Rice, Card Say It's up to Saddam Hussein to Comply With U.N.

(White House report, November 10) (500)
President Bush's national security advisor and his chief of staff say
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441 is nothing for Iraq to accept or
reject, but merely to acknowledge.
The Iraqis "don't have the right to accept or reject this resolution,"
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said on ABC-TV's This Week
With George Stephanopolous November 10. "They are to acknowledge that
they intend to comply fully," she said.
"Saddam Hussein cannot say no. He will have to say yes," White House
Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on NBC-TV's Meet the Press November
10. Rice added that the resolution "is a Chapter 7 action by the
United Nations" in her appearance on Fox News Sunday With Tony Snow
November 10. Chapter 7 is the section of the U.N. Charter that
provides for the use of force to implement Security Council
resolutions.
Both officials stressed that if Saddam Hussein refuses to cooperate
with the United Nations, either before or during the proposed weapons
inspection process, the facts would be immediately reported to the
Security Council for it to consider "serious consequences." Both Rice
and Card agreed that meant the use of military force to disarm Iraq.
"The president has made no secret of the fact that he intends to use
force if the Iraqis cannot be brought into compliance in other ways,"
Rice told Snow.
"[W]e are hoping that Saddam Hussein will do what is right and just
say yes, disarm, completely comply with the U.N. Security Council
resolutions," Card told NBC's Tim Russert. "And if he does that we
won't have to go to war. But if we have to go to war, we will. And as
the president said, we will go to war, we will win, and there will be
no question about it," Card said.
In fact, Rice noted that the threat of force is what makes the newest
resolution different. "[I]f we are to do this peacefully, if Iraq is
to finally change its attitude and disarm, it is only going to be
because Saddam Hussein believes that he might be taken down," she told
ABC's Stephanopolous.
Resolution 1441 provides a process to achieve Iraq's disarmament, Rice
said on ABC, "[b]ut that process depends heavily on whether Iraq
intends to cooperate." U.N. weapons inspectors "are not going to go
'hunting and pecking' all through a country the size of France, trying
to prove that Saddam Hussein does or does not have weapons of mass
destruction," she said.
"[L]et's be clear," Rice added. "This is a totalitarian regime. They
know where everything is."
"I think that Saddam Hussein better pass this test," Card said. "And
he knows what 'serious consequences' are, and we know what 'serious
consequences' are."
(The Washington Files 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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