DATE=12/17/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-270570

TITLE=IRAQ / POWELL REACT (S/L)

BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Iraq has dismissed remarks by president-elect (George W.) Bush's designated Secretary of State, Colin Powell, that he will try to re-energize international sanctions against Iraq. Correspondent Scott Bobb reports from our Middle East Bureau in Cairo that it is the first official Iraqi reaction to the appointment of the retired general who headed U-S forces during the Gulf War.

TEXT: Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told reporters in Baghdad that whether the U-S government is led by the Republican or Democratic party, there will be no change in U-S policy toward Iraq.

He indicated the U-S government says Iraq remains a military threat in the Gulf region in order for the United States to sell weapons to wealthy countries in the Middle East.

General Powell told reporters Saturday that Iraq has yet to eliminate all its weapons of mass destruction and as a result he believes sanctions should remain in some form. He pledged to try to strengthen them and said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein heads a regime that will not be in place in a few years' time.

General Powell headed the U-S Joint Chiefs during the Gulf War. He made the remarks in a news conference after President-elect George W. Bush named him as his choice to be the next secretary of state.

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If confirmed by the Senate, General Powell will work under a president whose father, while president, was influential in forging the international coalition that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait and built a regime of stringent sanctions that crippled the Iraqi economy.

Vice-President-elect Richard Cheney was defense secretary during the same period. General Powell's remarks brought a defiant reaction from the head of Iraqi air defenses, General Shahin Mohammed Yassin, who said such threats only make Iraqi's more determined.

But exiled Iraqi opposition leaders welcomed Mr. Powell's remarks.

Ten-years after the Gulf war, most of the sanctions against Iraq remain in force, but are increasingly being challenged. In the past four-months, scores of planes carrying humanitarian supplies and personnel have flown to Baghdad's newly re-opened international airport, in symbolic opposition to a ban on commercial air travel to Iraq. And the sale of Iraqi oil in exchange for consumer goods is increasing through the country's neighbors, breaking a ban on oil exports other than to buy food and medicine.

Iraq recently attended an Arab summit meeting for the first time since the Gulf War. Iraq's admission to the summit in Cairo last October was partly due to resurgent Arab unity in reaction to the violence in the Palestinian territories. But it was also due to a widespread feeling in the Arab world that the sanctions have failed to contain the Iraqi regime while seriously hurting Iraqi society. (SIGNED)

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