For Immediate Release
February 18, 2003
Global Message
KEY POINTS
The UN Security Council and all nations in the world have a
responsibility to see that Saddam Hussein's regime is disarmed, and
that the will of the international community is enforced.
We must decide to confront the gravest security challenge of
our time: the nexus between outlaw regimes, the proliferation of
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and spread of global terror.
The United Nations is the most important international and
multilateral institution in the world. We all have a responsibility to
strengthen, and not weaken, it.
Twelve years of sanctions and inspections have not stopped
Saddam quest for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
The outlaw Iraqi regime's chemical and biological weapons
stockpiles, its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and its ties to
global terrorists are a threat to the US, our allies and friends and to
the Iraqi people.
The Iraqi regime has not decided to disarm. What we heard from
the inspectors on Friday was that the Iraqis have taken some
superficial, process-oriented steps - like Saddam Hussein's decree
"banning" WMD. But that does not amount to a strategic decision to
disarm.
More inspections, or more inspectors, will do no good unless
Iraq makes the decision to disarm. Dr. Blix himself has said that lack
of inspectors is not the problem, lack of Iraqi compliance is the
problem.
The UNSC must rise to the challenge posed by Saddam Hussein's
regime. The UNSC must choose to be relevant - it must act to enforce
not just 1441, but all 17 resolutions that the Iraqi regime continues
to defy.
Freedom-loving nations are determined that Iraq will be
disarmed - one way or another, sooner rather than later.
The President will continue to consult members of Congress, our
allies and friends and the UNSC during this final, diplomatic phase.
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