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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Washington File

07 April 2003

Powell Says U.S. Wants Iraq Interim Authority in Place Quickly

(New interim authority would work with military authority initially) (4780)
Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States will be sending
a group to Iraq to begin the process of bringing together a new
interim authority "as fast as we can and as rapidly as they are able
to use that authority."
Powell said the hope is that the interim authority will grow into "a
representative government that will reflect the desires and
aspirations and hopes of all of the people of Iraq."
Powell spoke April 7 with reporters en route with President Bush to
Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Bush was scheduled to meet British
Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss Iraq and other issues.
The secretary said an interim authority should be in place early so it
can work with the planned coalition civil administration to be
coordinated by [retired Army Lieutenant] General [Jay] Garner.
The secretary said the coalition also wants to see the interim
authority there during this transition period "because if we send
regional coordinators in under General Garner's group and they start
to see what ministries need, they start to clear away the old Baath
Party leadership and get down to bedrock, then it's at that point you
want the interim authority there to begin exercising authority over
these ministries."
The Garner group will be going to Iraq during the week of April 7.
Powell said there will be a role for the United Nations -- initially
for humanitarian agencies such as the World Food Program and other
U.N. relief organizations already there. He said the discussions
between Bush and Blair in Belfast and other coalition members and
ultimately the U.N. Security Council, will focus on the nature of U.N.
resolutions that would lay out the role of the U.N. in post-war Iraq.
Powell praised military operations in Iraq, saying they are going
"exceptionally well" and have been handled professionally.
Following is a transcript of Powell's remarks:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
April 7, 2003
PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY POWELL AND ARI FLEISCHER
Aboard Air Force One
En route Belfast, Northern Ireland
12:17 P.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Let me give you a very quick rundown, just on the
schedule, while we're there. And then Secretary Powell will be happy
to talk to you, take your questions.
Tonight, the President will have dinner with the Prime Minister of
Great Britain at Hillsborough Castle. And tomorrow there will be a
bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister and the President, followed
by a press conference which will take place at 11:00 a.m. at
Hillsborough Castle.
Following the press conference there will be a trilateral meeting with
Prime Minister Blair and Prime Minister Ahern; and then there will
also be a working luncheon with the Prime Minister -- both Prime
Ministers. That will be followed by an expanded trilateral meeting
with Prime Minister Blair, Prime Minister Ahern and Northern Ireland
leaders. And then we'll return to Washington, D.C.
And with that, Secretary Powell, if you have any questions.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you. The only thing I might mention is that
we've seen some progress in the last 12 hours with respect to
humanitarian supplies and support for our military coming through
Turkey. So all of the backlogs that we had had and some of the
bureaucratic problems have been dealt with.
And some thousand metric tons of World Food Program supplies have
crossed over from Turkey into Northern Iraq. I think you're familiar
with the military situation, so I won't belabor that. And in the
interest of time, I'll go right to whatever questions you might have.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, what are we likely to see come out of this
meeting tonight and tomorrow, with Mr. Blair?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think they will certainly have a good discussion
about the state of the Operation Iraqi Freedom and a great deal of
progress has been made in recent days. I think British troops are
doing very well in the south, around Basra. And American troops are
circling Baghdad, starting to probe into the city. So I think the
campaign is going exceptionally well. It's been handled very
professionally and will continue to be so. Humanitarian re-supply, I'm
sure they will be talking about how to make sure that the population
is taken care of, not only in the north, but in the south.
And I think they'll talk about the way forward. A lot of discussion
about the role of the U.N., and I'm sure that will be a subject for
discussion. There isn't as much debate and disagreement about this as
you might read in the newspapers. Everybody knows from the Azore
statement of a couple of weeks ago that there will be are role for the
U.N. as a partner in this process.
I've spent a good part of the weekend in conversation with Kofi Annan,
and I think the Secretary General may well have an announcement about
that this afternoon, with respect to -- well, I'll let him make his
announcement -- with respect to how he will participate in
deliberations with the coalition.
As we said from the very beginning -- and I don't think there's any
inconsistency here -- when you're in a military campaign such as this,
when it comes to an end, the active hostilities come to an end, the
military commander must be in charge for a period of time to stabilize
the country, ensure security, make sure that the military -- the other
side has been disarmed, find the weapons of mass destruction and make
sure that humanitarian supplies are coming in. That is his obligation
as the military commander going in.
In this instance, though, we hope to quickly establish an interim
authority that can show to the people of the world -- and especially
the people of Iraq -- that it is our intention to put authority into
their hands as fast as we can and as rapidly as they are able to use
that authority. And then, hopefully, the interim authority will grow
-- embryonically, it starts, but it will grow into a representative
government that will reflect the desires and aspirations and hopes of
all of the people of Iraq.
Within that context, then, there is also a role for the United Nations
-- initially, humanitarian -- World Food Program and other U.N.
organizations are already there. And we'll be discussing with the
Brits tonight, and we'll be discussing with other coalition partners
-- and, ultimately, at the Security Council -- the nature of U.N.
resolutions that would lay out what the role of the United Nations
would be. And so I'm sure that the President and the Prime Minister
will have a good discussion about the role of the U.N. But there's no
question the U.N. will play an important role.
Q: What does the administration think about the British proposal that
Straw put forward the other day -- the proposed resolution that Straw
talked about the other day, Blair's blueprint for a U.N. role? Isn't
it more involved, has the U.N. more involved than the President would
like? And will that be ironed out at this meeting, the small
difference?
SECRETARY POWELL: We have had teams working on a resolution. And so
there is no -- there aren't competing resolutions, there are points of
view being brought together in a U.S. and UK group to make sure that
we all have a common view.
But the expression "more involved, less involved," really isn't
appropriate. We've just started to discuss this issue, we've just
started to put down different points of view. And eventually now, it
isn't just what the U.S.-UK think is appropriate; it's what we take
into the Security Council and what the Security Council is prepared to
do.
Keep in mind, the Secretary General has made it clear he does not want
to have ownership of Iraq. He has no intention of the U.N. taking over
full responsibility for the political future of Iraq. And I think that
there's a way to make sure that all international organizations have
an opportunity to play a role in the rebuilding of Iraq after two
decades of Saddam Hussein's deconstruction, or destruction of Iraq.
Everybody will have a role to play.
And as I said the other day in Brussels, the coalition, having spent
the treasure, having taken the political risk and having paid the cost
in lives, must have a leading role as we transition from a phase of
hostilities to post-hostilities to reconstruction, to putting in place
a representative government that belong to the Iraqi people.
The other responsibility that the coalition has, initially, is to
protect the assets of the Iraqi people -- their oil fields. It's one
of the reasons the campaign was structured the way it was -- to get
control and to protect the oil fields as soon as possible. And so all
of these obligations initially with the military commander -- the
military commander being assisted by General Garner and his group, as
we go in and help the ministries get rid of the old Baath Party
leadership, put in place responsible Iraqi leadership with the
regional coordinators that we are now staffing General Garner with;
and then an interim authority, growing it into a full government, and
the U.N. playing a role. And other international organizations playing
a role -- whether it's the World Bank, the IMF -- there is enough work
for everyone to have a role. But the leading role initially, of
course, has to be the coalition necessarily.
Q: What is the peacekeeping force? Will it be a U.N. peacekeeping
force? Will it be a coalition peacekeeping force?
SECRETARY POWELL: We're examining what's going to be needed in the way
of security or a peacekeeping force. It's not clear yet what's going
to be required and when it's going to be required or where it's going
to be required. It is for that reason that we are in discussions, not
only with the U.N. but with NATO.
One of the items for discussion in Brussels last week was, is there a
role for NATO. And I was very pleased that all of my NATO colleagues
at the North Atlantic Council meeting we had, accepted the possibility
that there may be a role for NATO organizations, NATO units to go in
an peacekeeping, security or stability role, perhaps helping in the
search for weapons of mass destruction infrastructure.
Now, they haven't decided that or voted upon it, but nobody rejected
it as a possibility. So the message that we are trying to give people,
and the President has been giving the message in the Azores
presentation statement, and I'm sure you will hear it coming out of
this message, this statement tomorrow and the conversations over the
next 24 hours, is that the hostilities phase is coming to a
conclusion. It's time for all of us to think about the
post-hostilities phase, how we create a representative government
consisting of all elements of Iraqi society -- those inside the
country now who are committed to a different kind of Iraq, an Iraq
that's living in peace with its neighbors; no weapons of mass
destruction; everybody has a chance to participate in the life of the
nation and the government -- as well as those individual outside Iraq,
the external opposition, who for all these years never lost sight of
the possibility of a free Iraq. They obviously have an important role
to play in the new Iraq, as w ell.
But the President is committed, as he has said, to all parts of Iraqi
society being involved -- external and inside.
Q: You said the hostilities phase is coming to an end. Does that mean
that you're relatively confident that we're not going to see this type
of bloody, urban, door-to-door combat inside Baghdad?
SECRETARY POWELL: I've learned not to predict how a battle may or may
not go. But, clearly, the campaign -- which is less than three weeks
old now -- has had remarkable achievements in terms of the speed with
which the forces advanced, the integration of the air battle and the
land battle and the one single battle, dealing with problems as they
came along. We had a problem with rear-area security; they responded
and dealt with it. They had a problem in Basra; the British surround
it, take care of it, cut it off, reduce it. We'll keep focusing on
Baghdad, which is the center of mass, which is the main objective. And
so what I see in this campaign, as a former Chairman, is a bold,
daring campaign with a great deal of agility and flexibility displayed
by the commanders and the troops on the ground.
Has the operation come to a pause? No. It just changed its content
briefly when we shifted to air power, as the trains were being brought
up, the supplies were being brought up and as the commanders shaped
the battlefield with air in order to get the land component going
again. So there was never a pause. This battle has not stopped from
day one. It just -- on any particular day, you may see more of one
element of combat power being applied than another element: air power,
land power, information power, communications power, intelligence
power. These are all part of a single campaign, a single battle plan,
and it's been executed exceptionally well.
Q: Ahmed Challabi said last night on "60 Minutes" he thinks the U.S.
military should be there for possibly two years. Is he being too
pessimistic? And why?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know how long the U.S. military will be
there. I think we'll have to see what circumstances exist when the
hostilities phase comes to an end. Will we have truly broken the back
of the regime and have they all gone? Or could we purge them quickly?
So I think it's premature to make any judgment as to how long the
coalition will be there.
But as the President has said, we don't want to stay one day longer
than we have to. And we don't want to leave one day earlier than we
should.
Q: To follow up on that, what's the concern about intra-ethnic
tensions in the region? You talk about purging the government, but you
also have religious groups. You have the Kurdish minority in the north
that is very interested in its own territory. Is that realistic? Is
his prediction, then, realistic, in order to make certain that
everyone sitting in his or her corner understands this is how we have
to play the game?
SECRETARY POWELL: Obviously, we have given this a lot of thought --
Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, different groups within the Kurdish community,
and a lot of tribal allegiances and alliances, as well. But we are
committed to the territorial integrity of the country. And that's
another reason for us to make sure we stay there long enough so that
is inculcated in the political thinking of the interim authority.
It was one of the President's principal objectives and one of the
issues he spent a lot of time thinking about is how to make sure that
these diverse elements come together and stay together so that Iraq
does not break into different parts. But there will be some challenges
if we go down this road.
Q: And I know that General Garner doesn't report to you directly, but
why did he cancel his press conference today?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know why he cancelled his press conference.
I just don't know.
Q:  Is that a symbol of the lack of confidence that --
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know. I wouldn't read too much into that.
What he is doing is underway. We all understand -- read your papers
today, and it will tell you who's responsible for what particular
coordination jobs. We've got a number of U.S. ambassadors in the group
and more are going over to help the people who have experience who --
Arabists working with the others who are there already. But why the
press conference was canceled, I don't know.
Q: Mr. Secretary, what's your timing on setting up the interim
authority?
SECRETARY POWELL: We have to make sure we do it right. And we'll be
sending people over this week to begin the process of bringing
together a group that would constitute the authority. But I'm
reluctant to tell you or to speculate on how long that might take. We
want to do it quickly because we want to see an interim authority put
in place early, so it can work with the military part of the
coalition, with the civil administration or civil coordination part of
the coalition under General Garner. And then the U.N. working there.
We also want the interim authority to be there during all of this,
because if we send regional coordinators in under General Garner's
group and they start to see what ministries need, they start to clear
away the old Baath Party leadership and get down to bedrock, then it's
at that point you want the interim authority there to begin exercising
authority over these ministries.
So these will be ministries and issues that will be handed off as
quickly as possible, but in a sensible way -- military to civil to
Iraqis, with the U.N. playing a role. Of course, the U.N. has a big
humanitarian role to play, as well as, as you recall from the Azores
statement, an endorsing role to play to the interim authority to give
it legitimacy.
Q: What is this group doing this week? Specifically, what are they
doing?
SECRETARY POWELL:  Garner, or the other group?
Q: The group that's going over to begin the process of bringing the
interim authority --
SECRETARY POWELL: They're getting themselves organized today. I don't
have their travel plans, so I can't talk to -- we'll make an
announcement in due course.
Q: But is it that they are starting the interim authority this week,
or --
SECRETARY POWELL: No. I don't think I said that. No, what I said is --
what I said, they're going over to begin the process, but I cannot
tell you how long it will take.
Q: Is it reasonable to predict when hostilities might be ending, or is
this simply a prudent step?
SECRETARY POWELL: I would not speculate on such a matter. I would
leave that to my military colleagues, and I bet they won't speculate
either.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the road map and Northern
Ireland, as well, sir?
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sure the Middle East peace process will be
discussed. And as the President and the Prime Minister have said
previously, the road map is an important element of our Middle East
policy, and we are still planning to release the road map at the time
that Mr. Abu Mazen gets his vote of confidence on his cabinet and is
confirmed. At that time the road map will be released.
Q:  And Northern Ireland?
SECRETARY POWELL: On Northern Ireland, I think it is very significant
that the President will be meeting on a trilateral setting with Mr.
Ahern and Mr. Blair, and then meeting with the principal leaders of
both sides, and put our support behind the Hillsborough Plan, as it is
now called, looking for a breakthrough.
This is a very significant step in the life of Northern Ireland, and
as you know, Mr. Blair and Mr. Ahern will be presenting it on
Thursday. And this was just a fortuitous chance for the President to
engage with all of the parties and give his support to the Good Friday
Agreement and this latest effort to move that agreement forward, the
Hillsborough Plan. We hope that as a result of the President's
commitment to it and the support he will show tomorrow, we can get on
with the process of decommissioning and all of the other things that
are called for in this Hillsborough Plan.
Q: And tomorrow, can we expect to hear some resolution of the
differences in what the U.N. role should be? Will Prime Minister Blair
and the President come out and say, we've agreed on what role the U.N.
should play, and these are the resolutions we'd like the U.N. to pass?
Is that we should expect to hear tomorrow?
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm quite sure that in tomorrow's statement you will
hear something with respect to the role of the U.N. that both the
Prime Minister and the President agree to. How did you like that?
(Laughter.)
Q:  That sounded like a dodge.  (Laughter.)
MR. FLEISCHER:  No, it sounded like an answer.
SECRETARY POWELL:  That's why they're called, joint statements.
Q: Will it be any more specific than the agreement they reached at
Camp David?
SECRETARY POWELL: The reason -- you're asking for a level of
specificity which doesn't exist yet. We're still working on
resolutions. We're still examining what resolutions are required. It
is a very intricate situation with respect to, what do we need in the
way of an endorsement from the U.N. in order to satisfy international
financial institutions that this authority is somebody they should
deal with. What do we need from the U.N. in the way of an additional
mandate, a broadened mandate for the Secretary General to do things.
All of these things are being discussed between the United States and
the United Kingdom and with other coalition partners. And ultimately,
the discussion has to expand to include the Secretary General's Office
-- the Secretary General, and then ultimately, the Security Council.
So we're at the beginning of a very intricate and involved process of
discussion and negotiation on a resolution, or resolutions, that will
deal with an emerging post-hostility situation. I don't need a U.N.
resolution today. We're still in a hostilities phase. And so we're
preparing ourselves for the post-hostility phase, when a U.N.
resolution would be useful and appropriate. And we're discussing now
what authority should be in there, what's the role of the U.N. And I
view this all as the normal negotiation that one goes through on this
kind of a matter.
Q:  But we'll get a sense of what that resolution will be tomorrow?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think you'll get a sense of the thinking of the
two leaders, but I don't think you're going to get in to see the
specifics of a resolution -- a specific document.
Q: Would you say this is a turning point, after the tension of the
past several months between the coalition and the U.N., especially as
it came up to deciding whether to have the vote on the second
resolution?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think what I would say is that the tension of the
last few months, which had to do with the second resolution, that's
all behind us now. Operation Iraqi Freedom is going to be successful.
The people of Iraq are going to be liberated. So let's not fight that
fight again. Let's get back to the basic proposition that is before
us, and that is to rebuild a country that has been devastated not by
this war, but by its failed leadership of the last two decades. And
let's not refight old battles, so let's step forward.
That's the message I gave to 20-odd countries' foreign ministers in
Brussels last Thursday, and I think it's understood. And I hope that
when you see the joint statements that come out of this summit meeting
you will sense that the President and the Prime Minister are also
looking to the future. Looking to the future with respect to Iraq, the
Middle East, and Northern Ireland. I mean, I think it's going to be
fairly upbeat.
Q: When the military commander is in control -- is that when you would
envision a full-scale search for WMD?
SECRETARY POWELL: Once the hostilities are over and we're not fighting
battles every day, the search for weapons of mass destruction
capability and infrastructure will, of course, be intensified, as you
can allocate resources to it. We're not chasing it now. If you run
into something that looks suspicious, as you know, reports come up
every couple of days, we look at it. We found a lot of defensive
equipment, and there are always reports surfacing about something
that's out there. But that's not the mission of the troops right now.
Their mission right now is to defeat the Iraqi army.
And so I think that the international community that I deal with
recognizes it's time to look forward; 1441 was a success. We had the
authority that we needed from 1441 -- that gave us the authority. We
have now conducted this campaign; it's going to be a successful
campaign.
The debate over the second resolution -- a resolution we didn't need
in the first place, but we did it for our friends, and we didn't get
the vote in that resolution. Guess what. We attempt to get the
resolution, gave our friends enough support that we were serious about
it so that each one of them were able to go to their parliaments and
get a successful vote. Mr. Blair, in London, even without the second
resolution; Mr. Aznar and Mr. Berlusconi, Prime Minister Howard.
And so that diplomatic effort achieved the purposes we intended --
1441 gave legitimacy, and it is that legitimacy, undercoated by the
earlier resolutions 678 and 687, that we have used to provide
legitimacy to this operation.
Q:  Is that why Condi went to Moscow, on a fence-mending mission?
SECRETARY POWELL:  On a what?
Q:  On a kind of fence-mending mission.
SECRETARY POWELL:  Condi -- wherever Condi may be -- (laughter) --
Q:  Who knows where she is?
SECRETARY POWELL: We've been reaching out. I met with every foreign
minister, except the Icelandic foreign minister, in Brussels and
Turkey last week. I also met with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov -- he
came to Brussels. So we have been reaching out and saying to
everybody, let's get beyond the debate of the past several months;
let's all come together on making sure we have the transatlantic
relationship intact. Any gaps that existed let's start healing, let's
start closing those gaps.
And of course, Russia is an important partner for the United States in
a variety of ways. So I met with Igor on Thursday evening and we
thought it very, very useful for Dr. Rice to go to Moscow to meet with
Sergei Ivanov, her counterpart, and also Minister of Defense --
partially her counterpart -- still close to President Putin, and also
to have a conversation with President Putin that she could report back
to President Bush on. Had enough?
Q:  Thank you.
* * * * *
SECRETARY POWELL: -- (in progress) that does not mean that you are in
an environment of total peace, without anything happening. It's still
a very dicey situation. But I think that we can see that the campaign
is proceeding very, very well, and is reaching a point where we should
start thinking about post-hostilities. But don't take that to mean
there can never be another incident, or if an incident occurs. It
means that we're not entirely (inaudible).
Just as in Afghanistan, even though we put in a new government, it's
still generating difficulties. But I think the nature of what you're
seeing is going to reach a culminating point, and then it will be
something else as humanitarian aid comes in, as we start to put in
place an interim authority. So that tells you --
Q: I think that was clear earlier. You're not implying that we're at
the post-hostility stage now?
SECRETARY POWELL:  No, absolutely not.
Q:  See that light at the --
SECRETARY POWELL:  At some point in the future, yes, right.
MR. FLEISCHER:  I just wanted to make sure it didn't --
Q: And then once we get to that spot, there might be a transition
where -- there's a flare-up every once in a while but you can --
SECRETARY POWELL: The fact that General Garner is sort of moving and
getting ready to do his work, the very fact that we're talking about
U.N. resolutions -- you know, that suggests we're getting ready for
what happens after this campaign, as you have seen it for the last
almost three weeks, comes to some culminating point of some end.
Q:  Thank you.
END  12:46 P.M. EDT
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)



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