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U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

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QUESTION: On Iraq, could you talk a little bit about what is happening today? What the back and forth is? And what specifically Iraq must do in order for this crisis to be over, be concluded?

MR. RUBIN: First of all, as far as what is going on today, the Security Council is going to hear later this afternoon from Ambassador Butler, who is the Chairman of the Special Commission. He will lay out exactly what is going on the ground; exactly what risks he believes his personnel face; exactly what plans he has for future inspections; and exactly what his recommendations would be. At that point, the Council would be in a position to react.

It is our view that what Iraq needs to do is make clear that it does not intend to put at risk any American or any other personnel from the UN Special Commission, and make clear that they intend to comply with the requirements of the Special Commission and that they are not going to try and pick and choose who in the Special Commission they intend to deal with or whose safety they intend to protect. Once Iraq has made clear that it will return to a mode of cooperation with UNSCOM, rather than confrontation with the United Nations, then this crisis will be eased.

QUESTION: Sort of a technical question on that point. Does Iraq not have the leeway as a sovereign nation to choose which - for all intents and purposes - diplomats or foreign officials are allowed into its territory?

MR. RUBIN: I'm sure Iraq believes it has certain privileges under international conventions to choose who can and can't come into its country as a diplomat. That's not the issue here. The issue is, if Iraq wants to comply with the United Nations, it has to comply and accept the United Nations' rules as to who is part of the UN delegation.

If they want to say not to the United Nations, then they can continue to say that Americans are not welcome. If they want to say yes to the United Nations, then they are accepting the UN rules about who the UN hires to do the job that the UN is trying to do, which, let's remember, is designed specifically to make it possible for sanctions to be removed.

So Iraq cannot pick and choose what nationality UN inspectors are.

QUESTION: American officials keep saying, reiterating that all options are open, including Secretary of Defense Cohen a few minutes ago - all options are open. However, the Russian Government has already decreed this morning they will not support any military action against Iraq.

MR. RUBIN: I's always very tricky to quote the Russian Government's official statements. We believe that the Security Council authority exists for very firm action by the international community in this case. It's not a surprise to us that the Russian Government, like us, would prefer that we don't get to a point where any stiffer measures are needed. Certainly we hope that Iraq gets the message - the united message of the world, the international community, the Russian Government, the French Government - about the importance of complying with the UN and accepting the UN's rules of the game and not trying to change those rules of the game mid-stream.

If Iraq gets that message, the question of next steps will become moot. But there's no question that in the past we have seen Iraq turn around, and we hope that they are wise enough to do so in this case.

QUESTION: Do you see any cause and effect between the Iraqi discrimination against American inspectors and the four abstentions in the vote last week?

MR. RUBIN: It's long been our view - and it's very hard to get into the mind of Saddam Hussein and to try to assert what exactly his thinking was on any one issue, since he's made so many miscalculations in the past -- It's long been our view that Iraq responds most clearly and most positively to a unanimous Security Council. The more unanimous the Council, the more clear the message, the less likely Saddam Hussein is to misunderstand and miscalculate. But he is the only one who can answer the question of why he would shoot himself in the foot again.

QUESTION: Jamie, to put the question again that I asked of the Secretary this morning. How long does Saddam Hussein have to turn around on this?

MR. RUBIN: Ambassador Butler, who will be in New York, will report about what his inspectors' plans are, when the next inspection is planned, what the next activities of UNSCOM are that he would normally have taken, in the absence of this intervention. Then you can begin to assess what timeframes Iraq has in which to permit UNSCOM to do its job.

Let's just say, hypothetically, that they wanted to do an inspection some number of days down the road, and that they were not going to accept Iraq's rules that those inspections could not be conducted with Americans present. That would be a day in which if they failed to change their policy, that inspection would not take place; and UNSCOM would not be able to do its job. Then we would have to see what the next steps were.

So there are on-the-ground operational issues of what UNSCOM's next steps are. As far as we're concerned, the Council has said that he should change course immediately.

QUESTION: Mr. Rubin, as part of the assurances that China has given on nuclear cooperation -- stopping nuclear cooperation with Iran, do they include written assurances on Pakistan? Because there was an implication yesterday --

MR. RUBIN: We haven't commented on the record, any of us, on the question of the form of any assurances.

QUESTION: But could you answer in general whether there were any new assurances on Pakistan - stopping cooperation with Pakistan?

MR. RUBIN: I'll try to get you an answer for the record on that.

QUESTION: You have only spoken - the government has only spoken of Iran, but said it involves plural countries. So maybe you could answer --

MR. RUBIN: We're going to be having a briefing later today by the expert on this subject.

QUESTION: Good point, good point.

MR. RUBIN: And I hope you all who have questions will attend the briefing and pose your questions at that time.

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