The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
Below see President's Clinton's statement that "What he [Saddam Hussein] has just done is to ensure that the sanctions will be there until the end of time or as long as he lasts" and the primary source from which it came [Note: The President's statement was a response to question#3]. Also included: * Then-Press Secretary Mike McCurry's press briefing that followed President Clinton's statement [Note: Begin with McCurry's response to question #1]. * A Reuter's report [originally posted on 9 November 1999 to <soc-casi-discuss@lists.cam.ac.uk> by Nathan Geffen <ngeffen@yahoo.com> in an E-mail entitled "News for November 3 to November 8, 1999"] that Vice-President [and presidential candidate] Al Gore also believes that economic sanctions will remain until Iraq has a different government. ***************************************************************** http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1997/11/19/8.text.1 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release November 14, 1997 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN BILATERAL MEETING WITH PRESIDENT ZEDILLO OF MEXICO The Oval Office 10:20 A.M. EST President Clinton's Full Iraq-Related Remarks 14 November 1997, 10:20 pm Q Mr. President, are you willing to extend the no-fly zone across the remainder of Iraq? PRESIDENT CLINTON: Let me first of all say that I believe that the Secretary General and our team, the United Nations team, made the right decision in withdrawing the team of inspectors there and not just leaving them there. But the real issue here is, how can we stop Saddam Hussein from reconstituting his weapons of mass destruction program, and what will achieve that goal. Any specific tactic will be designed to achieve that goal. The world has got to understand that he had a weapons of mass destruction program, that he is one of the few people who has ever used chemical weapons against both his enemies and his own citizens, and that there will be a big market for such weapons out there among terrorists and other groups. This is not just a replay of the Gulf War; this is not throw a man who invaded a country, Kuwait, out of the country and reestablish territorial integrity. This is about the security of the 21st century and the problems everybody is going to have to face dealing with chemical weapons. So, as you know, I don't think it's appropriate for me to speculate about what we might or might not do with specific options, but I think that we have to steel ourselves and be determined that the will of the international community, expressed in the United Nations Security Council resolutions, will have to prevail. This is simply -- it's too dangerous an issue that would set too powerful a precedent about the impotence of the United Nations if we didn't proceed on this in the face of what I have considered to be one of the three or four most significant security threats that all of our people will face for the next whole generation -- this weapons of mass destruction proliferation. We've got to stop it. Q Given that, sir, are you willing to let the situation last where he's able to manufacture weapons of mass destruction with no one on the ground watching? And if I may ask a second question, sir, why are you ordering a second aircraft carrier into the Gulf region? PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, I'm ordering the carrier in there because I think it's appropriate under the circumstances. And let me say on the first question that one of the reasons the United States has supported the U.N. decision to continue the flights is that if we're not on the ground, it's even more important that we observe what we can in the air. And we are working this very hard. We also -- I want to say this is a United Nations endeavor, a United Nations resolution we want to implement. We want very much to work with our allies. We want to make sure that we've done all we can to see that they agree with us about the gravity of the situation, and I expect -- the Secretary of State is meeting with a lot of the foreign ministers over the next several days, and I will be talking to a number of heads of state, and we'll keep working this. I don't want to put a timetable on myself, because it's not just me, but we're working it hard. Q With the inspectors out, Mr. President, does he have some reason to believe that he's gotten his way? PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, if he does, that would be a mistake. And, of course, what he says his objective is, is to relieve the people of Iraq, and presumably the government, of the burden of the sanctions. What he has just done is to ensure that the sanctions will be there until the end of time or as long as he lasts. So I think that if his objective is to try to get back into the business of manufacturing vast stores of weapons of mass destruction and then try to either use them or sell them, then at some point the United States, and more than the United States, would be more than happy to try to stop that. But if his objective is to lift the sanctions and to divide the coalition and get people more sympathetic with him, I think that he has undermined his objective, because we could never, ever agree to any modifications of the larger economic sanctions on Iraq as long as he's out of compliance. And by definition, that's the way the U.N. resolution works. When I say "we" there, I mean the whole world community. So I would think he would not be furthering his objectives, if his stated objectives are his objectives. http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1997/11/20/2.text.1 THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release November 14, 1997 PRESS BRIEFING BY MIKE MCCURRY The Briefing Room 1:49 P.M. EST Q: Can you tell us what the President meant when he said that the sanctions would last as long as Saddam lasts? MR. MCCURRY: We have long taken the view that there is nothing about the behavior of Saddam Hussein that indicates that his intent is peaceful and that is intent is to fully comply with relevant resolutions. In our view, there cannot be lifting of sanctions until he complies with relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, and nothing about his behavior -- in fact, everything about his behavior suggests that he is more interested in wilfully violating those resolutions. Q: He seems to -- much farther than he has so far because the conditions for lifting the sanctions are very specific that are being set by the U.N., and you seem to be moving the goalposts slightly. MR. MCCURRY: At this point, the conditions for lifting sanctions are a moot point when it comes to Saddam Hussein. Q: This goes to the heart of the debate, Mike. Saddam has always said that, in fact, the U.S. has no intention of lifting the sanctions. So are you not playing into his hand by saying so clearly that the sanctions will never be lifted? Q: MR. MCCURRY: No, he's got it upside-down. The world community has told him there will be no lifting of sanctions until he indicates his peaceful intentions and complies with the resolutions. He's not doing so. He's failing to do so and he's more importantly wilfully disregarding the resolutions that have been passed and the statements that have been made. The lack of relief for sanctions is his responsibility, not the U.N.'s responsibility. Q: Is it U.S. strategy now to use this current crisis as a way of dealing with the longer-term problem of Saddam's leadership of Iraq somehow? MR. MCCURRY: I don't know what you mean by the question. Our interests and our work in this episode are to gain the compliance we need and to have assurance that he is not pursuing weapons of mass destruction programs. Q: I mean, not just put them in the box as far as compliance with the UNSCOM mission, but to somehow get past the situation where episodically, once a year he's provoking crisis? MR. MCCURRY: Well, we would certainly wish to be in a position where we are not dealing with this matter regularly, but we have very specific goals, and they have been publicly stated by the President and others. ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** Saturday November 6 6:23 PM ET Gore Says Iraq Must Change For Sanctions To End By Todd Nissen DEARBORN, Mich. (Reuters) - Vice President Al Gore told a group of Arab-American leaders Saturday that the United States had ``deep sympathy'' for the suffering of Iraq's civilians but would not end sanctions on the country until there was a change of government. Gore, who is campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, said the United States ultimately wanted peace with Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein. ``We in the U.S. are willing to look at ways to improve the effectiveness of the humanitarian programs in Iraq, and we look forward to friendly relations between our two countries -- as soon as Iraq has a government worthy of its people,'' the vice president said. Gore, campaigning in New Hampshire, made his remarks via satellite hookup to about 150 people at the Arab American Institute's National Leadership Conference in Dearborn, Michigan. Gore pointed to his contributions to Clinton administration efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and expressed confidence Congress would approve funding for the Wye River peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians. He was applauded when he said he opposed racial profiling and after he spoke of Arab-American contributions to U.S. cultural diversity. But after Gore's comments, several members of the audience voiced concern about the toll that the administration's tough policy toward Iraq had had on civilians. Andy Amid, a Lebanese-American from Columbus, Ohio, and a registered Democrat, said he wanted to know the administration's plans for putting a halt to bombing and for lifting sanctions on Iraq. ``I need to see a demonstration from this administration for alleviating the suffering of the Iraqi people,'' he said. Eric Gustafson, the founder of Education for Peace in Iraq, a Washington-based nonprofit group, said at least 600,000 Iraqi civilians had died since the sanctions were imposed. Several presidential hopefuls or members of their organizations were scheduled to address the Arab American Institute group this weekend. Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is seeking the Republican nomination, was to speak by satellite later Saturday. The goal of the nonprofit institute, whose headquarters are also in Washington, is to get Arab-Americans more involved in the American political process. The United States is home to 3.5 million Arab-Americans, concentrated largely in the states of New York, Michigan and California. They include about 1 million eligible voters, or 1 percent of the electorate. Political pollster John Zogby, a founding board member of the group, said Arab-Americans had no special tendency to support one political party or another. ***************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://welcome.to/casi