Secretary of State Powell Briefing, Feb. 9

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

February 9, 2001

ON-THE-RECORD BRIEFING BY SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN L. POWELL

February 9, 2001 Washington, D.C.

Q: You said in your testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that you were looking at reenergizing sanctions against
Iraq. Members of the opposition are in town right now. They just
received a license to operate within Iraq with U.S. funds, looking for
more logistical support.

When you take your trip to the region to meet with US allies there,
will you be reviewing a much harder policy towards Saddam Hussein? And
are you realistic that there could be a democratic regime change
during your tenure?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I'm always optimistic. I think democracy is
such a powerful set of principles and a powerful system that one can
always hope that people who are not living under democratic systems
will eventually come to the realization that they could do a lot
better in the 21st century if they did live under a democratic system.
That's a part of our principle and belief going into the 21st century.

As I travel throughout the region, I will be concentrating on the UN
part of the policy, as opposed to the United States bilateral
relationship with respect to Iraq and our other activities in the Gulf
and with the Iraqi opposition. And the UN piece of it is rather
straightforward and clear: it is an arms control regime. It is an arms
control regime that Iraq agreed to at the end of the Gulf War, and it
exists for one purpose, and that was to keep Iraq from threatening its
neighbors with weapons of mass destruction that would be delivered by
missiles. It was a regime that was for the purpose of protecting the
children in the region, protecting the people of the region, and
bringing Iraq into a world where one does not threaten and attack its
neighbors with these kinds of horrible weapons.

And part of that regime was to deny Iraq the opportunity to purchase
weapons or material that would allow them to do this, to keep their
missile programs under control, and the Oil-for-Food program was put
in place as a way of making sure that this regime did not hurt the
people of Iraq. Saddam Hussein has more money available to him now
than he had at the beginning of the last decade. At the beginning of
the last decade, he wasted the money available to him by investing in
the military. He can't do that as well now because of the regime that
we have placed upon him. And there is more than enough money to take
care of books for the children of Iraq, food for the children of Iraq,
medicine for the children of Iraq. All that the children of Iraq
require there is money for.

But what we will not allow him to have money for and not remove these
sanctions from preventing him from doing is to go forward with weapons
of mass destruction. And the sooner he comes to that realization that
we can rally around that simple proposition that I just laid out for
you, and the sooner he allows inspectors to come in and see whether or
not he is or is not doing this. We think he is; he says he is not.
There is a simple answer: Let the inspectors in, and we can get beyond
this.

But until he does that, then I think we have to be firm; we have to be
vigilant. And I will be carrying this message to my friends in the
region. It is a problem of his making, and any suffering that is
taking place in Iraq is caused by his actions and his policies.