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POWELL: No More Iraqi 'Swamp'; U.N. Needs To Issue New, Tougher Inspection Rules to Disarm Saddam
Wednesday, October 2, 2002
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

The United States will work with the Security Council to put in place a new resolution "... that also has to have associated with it consequences for failure on the part of the Iraqis to act and to respond to the requirements of the international community," Powell said.

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell dismissed Iraq's offer to allow U.N. weapons inspector back in saying the United States "will not be satisfied with Iraqi half-truths or Iraqi compromises or Iraqi efforts to get us back into the same swamp that they took the United Nations into back in 1998."

Any new inspections, Powell said, must be backed with U.N. resolve that all sites are subject to search, with clearly stated consequences if Iraq doesn't comply.

The United States would continue to pursue a new U.N. resolution with the Security Council, Powell said during a State Department briefing, Oct. 1. "We believe strongly that we have to keep moving in this direction, because, as we have seen in the last several weeks, pressure works, and we have to keep the pressure up."

U.N. envoy Hans Blix announced Tuesday that Iraq had agreed to allow in U.N. arms inspectors back into the country for the first time since 1998. Blix said inspectors could be back in Baghdad within two weeks.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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