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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Washington File

17 April 2003

No Need to Continue Economic Sanctions Against Iraq, Boucher Says

(Says future role of U.N. weapons inspectors remains to be defined)
(670)
By Jane Morse
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- United Nations economic sanctions against Iraq are no
longer necessary, says State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher.
"One has to accept the fact that with the fall of the Saddam Hussein
regime, the need for economic sanctions goes away," Boucher told
reporters at the April 17 daily briefing at the State Department. "It
should be fairly obvious to everybody that we're not in the same
situation that we were a month or two ago, or several years ago when
other resolutions were passed."
Currently, U.N. Security Council resolutions are "comprehensive and
restrict most imports and exports, or at least require a certain
amount of control," the spokesman said. "In the end, in the future of
Iraq -- a future that's starting already -- some restriction on trade
in weapons would probably be necessary.
"But the need for broad economic sanctions goes away," he said. "The
Iraqi people will be increasingly capable of taking care of their own
affairs in that regard."
According to Boucher, "sanctions that prohibit countries from buying
or selling goods to Iraq other than through the oil-for-food program
will not be needed." The oil-for-food program, he said, "is important
because it's part of, first, safeguarding their own natural resource
base, but also it's part of the food distribution system." Some 60
percent of Iraqis are estimated to be dependent on the oil-for-food
program.
The United States, Boucher said, will be working with the Security
Council "to ensure that the economic sanctions that were imposed
because of the behavior of the Saddam Hussein regime are lifted so
that Iraq can resume a normal trading relationship with the global
economy ... so that the aspirations and needs of the Iraqi people can
be met."
When pressed on whether a declaration that Iraq is free of weapons of
mass destruction is necessary for sanctions to be lifted, Boucher
said: "I'm saying we'll be discussing this with other members of the
Security Council, and the Security Council will decide in a new
resolution what it wants to do in this regard."
He emphasized that any new U.N. resolution "will be the new resolution
for a new circumstance, and not necessarily just a repeat of old
resolutions."
As for U.N. inspectors, the spokesman said: "We have not, at this
point, defined what the future role of U.N. inspectors might be.
Clearly, the circumstances have changed, but there is still dangerous
activity in Iraq. The coalition forces continue their mission, which
is to identify and secure weapons of mass destruction. That remains a
job for the coalition forces. But once they've accomplished that job,
and we move to further stages along the way, I suppose we'll see what
role other inspectors might have."
Regarding the establishment of civil order in Iraq, Boucher said
efforts by coalition forces as well as Iraqis are starting to show
"visible effects."
"There are Iraqis who are trying to calm down the situation in various
cities," he said, "and coalition forces are taking more active effort
on the ground to calm things down and stop the looting; they've been
successful in many areas already."
Baghdad has a new police chief in place and there are joint patrols
with coalition forces in Baghdad as well as other cities, Boucher
noted.
Getting all of Iraq's police officers back on the job is the immediate
goal, he said, followed by the creation and training of a "peace force
that can be responsible for the security of Iraqi citizens."
To this end, police instructors are being gathered under the authority
of Jay Garner, the director of the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction
and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA).
"We're now in the limited competition to identify, deploy and support
an additional 1,000 police advisers," Boucher 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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