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| SECRETARY ALBRIGHT | |
 November 12, 1998 
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MARGARET WARNER: Welcome, Madame Secretary. Thanks for being with us.
MARGARET WARNER: Has the president made a decision yet to attack Iraq and when? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, the president has all the options, and we are watching very carefully, and we have basically said that this cannot go on indefinitely, and as the president said yesterday, the Iraqis do not need any further warnings. MARGARET WARNER: Is it possible to turn back at this point? |
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Beyond the point of turning back? |
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SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, if Saddam Hussein complies -- the entire international community is saying to him that he has an obligation to comply with the Security Council and to rescind his decision about not cooperating with UNSCOM. And if he does that, then we can continue down the road of trying to have this comprehensive review, which the Security Council offered, and see where that leads us. But he is the one that has to agree that UNSCOM can come in and do its job. MARGARET WARNER: Now, as you know, Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister of Iraq, had a press conference today, and he essentially blamed the United States for the standoff. He said they've been trying to cooperate for seven and a half years. There's never any light at the end of the tunnel; there's just another tunnel, and that the Clinton administration, as he put it, doesn't want to see sanctions lifted, period.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, he did say today that he put it I think negatively but that no peace solution was possible unless the United States "agreed to the principle of lifting sanctions." SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: You know what this is like? We have - basically, it's been written up as to how the sanctions will end, but what he wants is a guarantee that the sanctions will be lifted before he's gone through a comprehensive review. And it's like somebody going to a doctor and insisting that he get a clean bill of health even while the doctor has been telling him that he's sick and he won't allow the doctor to continue the exam. There is no way to give him a guarantee that sanctions will be lifted if he does not allow UNSCOM - that is, the doctor - to do the job.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: You know what's important here, Margaret, is I think everybody is focusing on is there any effort at this time to do diplomacy. I don't think most people realize that we have been doing diplomacy, so to speak for actively, for seven years, and very actively for the last year. It was in February of this year that Kofi Annan, with our support went to Baghdad and agreed to this memorandum of understanding, which Saddam Hussein violated in six months. After his August decision not to cooperate with UNSCOM, we didn't use force; we continued to use diplomacy. Now, in October, when he said that he wouldn't cooperate -- we have been using diplomacy and using it very long and very hard, and what's happened is that this can't go on indefinitely, but this cry all of a sudden too use diplomacy is also false. We have, in fact, been very engaged diplomatically for a year in the most active way. |
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| Diplomatic efforts | ||||||||||||||
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MARGARET WARNER: So you're essentially saying that the United States has done everything it can diplomatically, and if there's going to be something happen on that track, it really has to come from Iraq? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Absolutely. We've made very clear, but it isn't just us, Margaret, the whole Security Council, which has been unified on this for several months now, have said that he must rescind his decision. You know, the Security Council a year ago October had become divided. But what Saddam Hussein has done as a result of his recalcitrant actions is to reunite the Security Council. It is now firmly on one position, which is that he has to rescind his decision, and then there will be a comprehensive review. MARGARET WARNER: So if air strikes are launched, what will be achieved?
MARGARET WARNER: But if it comes to that, can you confirm reports that essentially say the administration at that point will have and essentially has concluded that the inspection regime for all intents and purposes is over? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, the inspection regime has not been working for eight of the last twelve months. And I think one of our concerns is we can't think that something is working when it is not. That is dangerous. And so we would very much like to have the inspection regime work. We have great faith in UNSCOM and find that the statements that Tariq Aziz made about UNSCOM are ridiculous and unconscionable and untrue, that we would like to see UNSCOM back in. But, in effect, you know, we have to be frank here that the regime as a whole has really not been able to work properly for the last many, many months. |
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| The goal of air strikes | ||||||||||||||
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MARGARET WARNER: So if air strikes achieve what you wanted, to degrade his weapons-making capability and his overall military capacity, what is -nonetheless- what is left on the ground -- Saddam Hussein still in power? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I mean, that is not the objective of this, although I have said and so have others many times that we would look forward to working with a post Saddam regime, and we are going to - have been and will continue actively to work with the opposition groups. But the purpose of force, if we were to use it, would be in order to degrade his ability to develop and deliver weapons of mass destruction and be a threat to the neighborhood. MARGARET WARNER: But, the head of the special commission, Richard Butler, and many other experts in this field, have said really that even after massive air strikes, a country like Iraq, with the know-how to make these biological weapons and chemical weapons, can really reconstitute them pretty quickly. SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, we know that, which is why we think it's important to have an inspection and verification and then monitor a regime in there. That has been what we have been trying to do for the last seven years. But if it doesn't work, then we can't fool ourselves into thinking it's working and relying on it. And that's why we are prepared to have them continue their work, have there be a comprehensive review, so that if Saddam feels that there's no light at the end of the tunnel, you know, if we do a comprehensive review, that's all we could ask.
SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, he might, and in which case we would be prepared to have a structure of inspection and a way of operating that would allow us to do what we have not been able to do before. We still believe, Margaret, that UNSCOM is the best method for dealing with the weapons of mass destruction. And they, in fact, as you know, over the seven years destroyed more weapons of mass destruction than the Gulf War, itself, did. So they are the best mechanism. And what we really want is for Saddam Hussein is to allow UNSCOM to do its job. That is the best solution to this problem, which is why we want him to rescind his decision. We are not just desirous of bombing for the sake of bombing, but the purpose here is to make sure that he does not have that weapons of mass destruction capability, and the thing to remember, Margaret, is at the end of the Gulf War, as part of a cease-fire agreement, he agreed to dismantle all his weapons of mass destruction. That was the deal he made, and like everything else, he violates his deal. MARGARET WARNER: How many Iraqi civilians do you estimate will be killed in this operation? |
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| The issue of civilian casualties | ||||||||||||||
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SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: I have no answer to that. But I can tell you this, is that we are - have been, as we look at this option particularly concerned about civilian deaths and very concerned that Saddam Hussein will, himself, kill people and put them out and then say that we had something to do with it. But the bottom line here is that we are very concerned about civilian, about collateral damage, and we have made that quite clear. MARGARET WARNER: Are not many of the facilities you might want to hit - any of the residential neighborhoods or in so-called dual-use factories and so on, where it would be pretty hard to avoid hitting civilians? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Margaret, I'm not going to go into any information about our targets. All I can tell you is that this is one of the issues that President Clinton has very high in his agenda; he's very concerned about civilian casualties, as are we all. And we obviously take that into consideration. MARGARET WARNER: Do you think that the Arab support you mentioned can be sustained if there are a lot of civilian casualties and there is a large public outcry? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that everybody is concerned about what is going on and the Arab support, I think, there's no love lost for Saddam Hussein. I think they are very concerned about the people of Iraq, and frankly, as we have been, because this somehow Tariq Aziz got wrong also - it is thanks to the United States that this oil for food program exists. And there has been - you know - we were the ones who set up the way for them to have billions of dollars' worth of food and medicines, and by the way, food and medicines were never embargoed. But this allows him to get hard currency in order to buy food and medicines for his people. So we care a lot more about the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein does, and he is the one who is ruining their lives, and this, again, is one of these things where Saddam Hussein and Tariq Aziz just kind of pass the blame off to somebody else. The sole responsibility for the condition of the Iraqi people rests with their dictator, Saddam Hussein. MARGARET WARNER: Madam Secretary, as I'm sure you know, there's a growing chorus of voices - foreign officials, even some current members of Congress saying there really is no way to contain Saddam Hussein and that this sort of cat and mouse game is just going to go on indefinitely unless there's a viable plan for ridding the country of Saddam Hussein. Do you agree with that?
MARGARET WARNER: But are you saying you'll expect any effort to remove him or any successful effort to really come internally? SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that the opposition groups are the ones that are most interested in pursuing that avenue, and we, as I've said, we have been helping them, but we plan to help them more actively. MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, Madam Secretary, thanks very much for being with us. SECRETARY ALBRIGHT: Thank you, Margaret. |
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MADELEINE
ALBRIGHT, Secretary of State: Great to be with you, Margaret. 
SECRETARY
ALBRIGHT: You know, it's quite typical of the way they've been operating.
They will not accept responsibility themselves for what is going on.
They are the ones that have had the opportunity since the end of the
Gulf War to comply. You know, this has been one of the clearest sanctions
regimes with the clearest road maps that have ever existed in terms
of how to get from Point A to Point B, and it's perfectly simple for
them to say that UNSCOM needs to come in and do its job. And it is not
the U.S.' fault; it's not the U.N.'s fault; it's Saddam Hussein's fault.
And what they've been trying Margaret, is specifically, is always blaming
everybody else, and now they have to take responsibility themselves.
You know, what's very interesting, today the gulf states, along with
Syria and Egypt, made very clear that if -- that Saddam Hussein was
solely responsible for what was going on. So even his Arab neighbors
are beginning to see what we are seeing, is that this is his responsibility.
MARGARET
WARNER: So are there any diplomatic efforts underway now to try to overt
this, any active diplomacy? 
SECRETARY
ALBRIGHT: Well, let me just make the following point: There are people
-- UNSCOM is not working now. We are very concerned about what is happening
in terms of his weapons of mass destruction. He is a threat to the neighborhood.
He has actually, as we know, invaded a country. He is also a threat
because he wants to have and has had these weapons of mass destruction.
And if UNSCOM could work, we could assure ourselves that he would not
be able to develop or deliver those weapons of mass destruction. So
the - if in fact, we do take an action of force, it will be designed
in order to degrade his ability to develop and deliver the weapons of
mass destruction and prevent him also or make it less possible for him
to be upset in the neighborhood.