14 January 2003
"Time is Running Out" on Saddam Hussein, Bush Says
(Burden is on Iraqi leader to comply with U.N. resolutions) (800) By Wendy S. Ross Washington File White House Correspondent Washington -- President Bush said January 14 that he is "sick and tired of games and deception" being carried out by Iraq's Saddam Hussein and stressed once again that the Iraqi leader must disarm his nation of weapons of mass destruction as called for by the United Nations. "Time is running out....He must disarm," Bush told reporters at the start of his meeting with Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski. "So far, I haven't seen any evidence that he is disarming," said Bush. "This is a question of not allowing Saddam Hussein to string the world along forever," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters at his daily briefing January 14. He said the fact that United Nations weapons inspectors say they need more time to do their work is not incompatible with saying that time is running out for Saddam Hussein. "I don't think the two are at all hard to understand or incompatible," Fleischer said. Bush "has not put a specific date" on Iraqi disarming, the press secretary said, and "will, of course, continue to consult and talk with our allies and friends about the situation in Iraq, as he regularly does. But it's fair to say that, just like I said, time is running out." Asked how time can be running out if there is no timetable, Fleischer said, "that's something Saddam Hussein will have to figure out." "I think it's perfectly consistent to say that while there's not a specific timetable, the president has made clear that time is running out. You're asking for a date, a month, a number of months, how much time, and that's an undefined matter. The president has simply said that time is running out," Fleischer said. "The burden remains with Saddam Hussein. The issue is not how long the inspections will last; the issue is whether Saddam Hussein this time is finally willing to disarm," Fleischer said. "He's been given a final chance to disarm. And, regrettably, we've seen no evidence that he has made the strategic choice to disarm and to come into compliance with the United Nations. We first saw this in the Iraqi declaration, which the world agreed was inadequate, and Saddam has not complied and, therefore, time is running out," the press secretary said. "The declaration that he made is proof positive that he has withheld information about his weapons of mass destruction program, programs that these previous inspectors said were there when they were forced out of the country in 1998. And now Saddam Hussein still has failed to account" for these weapons, Fleischer said. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher quoted President Bush's remarks on Iraq at the January 14 State Department briefing for reporters, saying "we stand with the president." January 27th, Boucher said, "is the first formal report we're getting from the inspectors. We had a discussion on January 9th. We've had plenty of conversations with them as [U.N.] Security Council members. But the first time they formally report is January 27th. It's not the end of the inspection process. ... But, at the same time, it's a very important date. "We have made clear all along -- I think the secretary's phrase early on was this can't go on forever -- that the issue is cooperation, the issue is disarmament, the issue is whether Iraq is disarming peacefully. The international community was looking for signs of Iraq's cooperation. The inspectors, when they talked to the council on January 9th, said they were seeing superficial cooperation but inadequate disclosures. In other words, Iraq is not coming clean." "The fact is the president said today, as the secretary has before, that this is not going to go on forever; that at some point we will have to decide and make our determination as to whether we have that kind of cooperation or not that was required in the Security Council resolution," Boucher said. "I think it's obvious from the military deployments, and obvious from the president's own statements, that he's prepared to go the alternate course, if we determine that Iraq is not complying. The message to Iraq should be sooner the better to demonstrate real compliance, and if you don't do it soon, we're going to have to make other decisions," Boucher said. "(W)e have always said right from the start that the job of the inspectors is to inspect, to verify, to audit, to report, to destroy equipment. It's not to decide the policy issues. So they will report to the council, and we and other members of the council will consider what we believe to be the next steps," he 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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