Secretary of State Colin L. Powell Press Briefing Aboard Aircraft En Route to Cairo, Egypt

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
(Cairo, Egypt)
For Immediate Release
February 24, 2001

February 23, 2001

Q: Iraq sanctions? Domestically but still have some impact because of
the dual use challenges?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think it's important to point out that for the
last 10 years, the policy that the United Nations, the United States
has been following, has succeeded in keeping Iraq from rebuilding to
the level that it was before. It's an army that's only one-third its
original size. And even though they may be pursuing weapons of mass
destruction of all kinds, it is not clear how successful they have
been. So to some extent, I think we ought to declare this a success.
We have kept him contained, kept him in his box.

And, beginning with the oil for food program a few years ago, we became
sensitive to the needs of the Iraqi people and found a way to give them
the wherewithal to provide for the Iraqi people. The oil for food
program gives him a great deal of money, on top of which he smuggles
quite a bit, which gives him an additional amount of money, that
exceeds the amount of money he was getting ten years ago.

The difference now is that the UN regime keeps a lot of that money from
being spent on weapons the way it was ten years ago, and so I think we
need to turn the debate onto his actions as opposed to our actions. He
is the one who is not providing for his people with the money that the
oil for food program and his smuggling is providing. He is the one who
is threatening the region, not the United States. United States
citizens...

Q: With all due respect, that's absolutely the same line we heard from
the last administration, and meanwhile, sanctions become increasingly
unpopular among people in the region, if we're going to go on....

SECRETARY POWELL: Let me finish, let me finish. I'll take all your
questions. The difference is that we can now make the case that all
we're trying to do is not anything with respect to the welfare of the
people of Iraq, it's the weapons of mass destruction we're after, and
if he comes into compliance with the UN resolutions and the agreements
he made at the end of the Gulf War with respect to the UN obligations
and if he does that and lets the inspectors back in, there is a way to
get through this process.

What I'm going to be talking to my friends about in the region is that
we are taking this heat that somehow we are affecting the people of
Iraq, that somehow we are losing the support of Arabs in the street, as
they are often called. And if we are losing that support and it's
affecting the whole sanctions regime, then I want to hear about that
directly from our friends in the region and let's exchange ideas about
how we can make this sanctions regime a more effective and more
directed to its sole purpose which is to constrain the development of
weapons of mass destruction.

I think it's a case that can be made, I think it's a case that has a
powerful message behind it, and it's a case I'll be making, and I'm
going out to consult, not to lay down edicts. I'm going out to listen
to other ideas and bring those ideas back. I'm going to share what I
hear with my friends in Brussels, our NATO allies and our EU colleagues
in Brussels, and then I'm going to come back and report all that to the
President, and see what seems to be appropriate after further
consultations with the United Nations as well.

Q: Did the bombing make your job tougher?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think the bombing shows that we will not, in the
process of looking at whether we should modify the sanctions regime,
not overlook his bad behavior, and we will use military force where we
think it is necessary.

This particular incident that got all of the attention last week, it
was in response to his efforts, his activities in the no fly zone,
around the no fly zone, which puts our pilots at risk. We have always
said we would respond to such activities, normally it's not noticed, in
this case it was noticed and it became a very big story. It was at the
upper end of our scale of response, and if he puts our pilots at risk,
we will respond.

If he does things which we think move in the direction of threatening
his neighbors or in violating the terms of the agreements that came out
of the Gulf War, we have prepared to respond militarily. He should
know that and he should understand that.

To the extent that it has made my trip a little more difficult because
there's been some response in the region that was unfavorable, shall we
say, or there's a bit of criticism - in some places quite a bit of
criticism - over the fact that we did that, to the extent that makes
my job and my work a little more difficult, well, so be it. But it
makes the point that we will not allow the negotiating track or
whatever we're doing with respect to sanctions overcome what we're
prepared to do militarily. And if it means my trip is a little more
difficult, I'm prepared to take on that added burden.

Q: It may be legitimate to say that the no fly zones, especially the
southern one, have outlived their usefulness. Are you considering any
changes in the way that you manage the no fly zones or the level of
concentration that you put on them?

SECRETARY POWELL: We think both no fly zones continue to serve a
purpose of protecting the people who live under those no fly zones as
well as giving us advance warning of actions he might be taking
directed against his neighbors outside of his boundaries. So the no
fly zones are staying in place. But we are always in the process of
reviewing how to manage them, how best to fly them; and I would expect
that Mr. Rumsfeld is undertaking that review as part of our overall
review.

Q: If you modify the sanctions, what are the risks there?

SECRETARY POWELL: If the sanctions are modified, it won't be as a
result of just America saying let's modify the sanctions. It will be
because we have been able to agree with our friends in the region and
with our friends at the UN that the sanctions should be modified so
that we can remove this hammer that is being used against us,
suggesting that we are hurting the Iraqi people, and we can make it
clear that the sanctions directly relate to the provocation. Now,
that's what I'll be listening to arguments about and ideas on.

Q: What if you take ideas out and there are some sort of sanctions,
which, we'd also like you to explain what your ideas are about
modifying sanctions.

SECRETARY POWELL: I do have some ideas but I think it best I present
those ideas to my interlocutors before I share them with the whole
world.

Q: What can you say to our Arab allies in the Gulf who want to see the
sanctions lifted, but who want to contain Iraq?

SECRETARY POWELL: Every conversation I've had on this subject in
recent weeks, and I've had quite a few, with those leaders in the Gulf,
the representative leaders in the Gulf and with my friends in the
United Nations, recognize the danger that Saddam Hussein and his
weapons development activities present to the region.

I haven't heard anybody say to me, no, he's a nice guy, he's not doing
this, forget about it, remove the whole thing, because we want to
welcome him back. Everybody I've spoken to understands that this guy
and his regime and his activities present a danger to the region - not
a danger to the United States, a danger to the region, to the people of
the region, to the children of the region.

What they are concerned about and what I have had presented to me and
the frustrations I've heard are that we've got to take another look at
how it is being done, because there is a belief, at least within a
number of the Arab communities, that we are hurting the people of Iraq
and we are not hurting the regime and the regime's activities with
respect to improving its military capacity or developing weapons of
mass destruction.

Because this is a consultative process, and because President Bush has
made it clear to everybody that we're going to act after consulting
with our friends, I'm going out to hear these arguments firsthand, in
addition to just listening to representatives who have come and visited
me which I've appreciated, but I want to hear it firsthand.

Q: Is there no danger that if you streamline sanctions that Saddam
will be able to play it that he won, that he beat them down and forced
the United States...

SECRETARY POWELL: No matter what we do, he will claim some level of
success. But you can claim one thing, and the reality is something
else. And the reality in his situation is it's a sad, tragic case of a
tribal leader trapped in a jail of his own making, protected by his
security, with young people who are not benefiting from a world that is
changing. He pursues these weapons that will, at the end of the day,
not bring him what he thinks they will bring him, and it's a tragedy
that his nation's wealth is being squandered in this way.

So he will claim what he wishes to claim. He will claim that Kuwait
still belongs to Iraq. He will claim that he is winning the mother of
all battles. Meanwhile, our economy continues to do well, nations
around the world are enjoying the benefits of freedom, others are
trying to figure out how to join this new world, and he sits there in
his palaces, squandering the wealth of his people.

....

Q: How do you hope to persuade the Syrians that it's not a good idea
for them to make billions of dollars by taking this Iraqi oil?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, one of the reasons for me to go to Damascus
and meet with the President, I've never been there, and in the course
of my experience, I haven't met with Syrian leaders, so I'm looking
forward to the opportunity of meeting with President Assad, and I will
make the same case to him.

We have to remember that Syria was part of the Desert Storm coalition,
and I think Syria has reason to be concerned about Saddam Hussein
developing weapons of mass destruction. Damascus is a lot closer than
New York.

....

Q: I just want to ask about the tightening of sanctions on materials
to do with WMD. That means - how do you do this? You have to have
inspectors on every plane going into Iraq? You have bodies all along
the border between Jordan and Iraq? What are you going to suggest to
the allies in the region on how this can be accomplished? How do you
do it?

SECRETARY POWELL: The regime that's in place now and the way in which
UN members and others have been following that regime have done a
pretty good job of keeping out the major arms systems going in.

Part of what I'm also going to be looking at - I'm glad you asked it,
Jane, because it gives me the chance to make another point. I'll be
speaking to the Syrians and the Jordanians and to others in the region
how we do a better job of tightening access into Iraq. If we are able,
through this consultative process, at some point in the future to all
come into agreement that we should modify the regime, then I think part
of that modification effort should also include how do we make sure we
know what we're doing, how do we tighten what actually goes in.

Now, the other issue that will almost certainly come up is how do you
ultimately get out of this? Under 1284 I believe he has an obligation
- Saddam Hussein - to let inspectors back in and let the inspectors do
their job. I think that part of this regime should be put the burden
on him, that he'll have to stay under this regime, whatever regime it
is - the current one or anything that's modified - until the
inspectors are allowed in to do their job.

Q: One point that's been made by a number of people is that you're
considering easing up on $3 billion worth of so-called dual-use goods
that are on hold in the UN committee. Many of these things are things
like refrigerated trucks, which you can use for milk or you can use for
biological weapons. Is this one of the areas you are going to be
exploring, how to make this more flexible and less onerous?

SECRETARY POWELL: We're looking at what's being held back. We're
looking at the 1051 lists. We're looking at all of that. We're
talking to the Sanctions Committee. All of that is part of our
consultation process. But I'm not far enough along to tell you what we
will do with a particular number of holes or a particular amount. It
may stay the way it is. That will really be derivative of what we
ultimately decide to do with all of our friends.

Q: Mr. Secretary, what about getting rid of Saddam? Is that a
necessity? There are many in Congress that think a regime change is
the salvation.

SECRETARY POWELL: That is a sense in the Congress that came down to us
in a law, and we are providing support to the Iraqi opposition, and
we'll continue to provide that support and constantly look at our
efforts.

But at the same time, recall that is separate and distinct from the UN.
It doesn't relate to UN activities.