BRIEFING BY RICHARD BOUCHER
SPOKESPERSON

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

January 30, 2003

Excerpts

...

QUESTION: Well, on Iraq, the obvious. Comings and goings, telephone calls, contacts. Anything to add to what -- certainly there's a full slate of people.

MR. BOUCHER: Anything at all?

QUESTION: Well, I mean foreign contacts. He talked to Ivanov. Did he talk to him again? You know. The Saudis are here. The Canadians are here.

MR. BOUCHER: The Secretary has been meeting with various foreign leaders, talking to various foreign leaders. Yesterday, he talked to Foreign Secretary Straw. He talked to Foreign Minister Ivanov yesterday afternoon, as you know, had his meeting and lunch with the Pakistani Foreign Minister. Pakistan is currently on the Security Council.

Today, he has talked to the Panamanian Foreign Minister, a new -- fairly recently, not too long ago new -- Panamanian Foreign Minister; wanted to get in touch and establish ties with him. I expect he will be continuing this diplomacy, which -- you have seen the President's contacts and calls. The President is having various meetings today: Prime Minister Berlusconi tomorrow, with Prime Minister Blair, a meeting with Foreign Minister Saud today. The Secretary will be attending that meeting.

The Secretary has been making phone calls and there will be a series of consultations among members of the Security Council and with other governments. And then the Secretary's presentation next week, and then start looking to come out of that with some ideas on the next steps.

QUESTION: Do you consider it a step back, the fact that, by our count, others maybe too, 11 of the Council members yesterday had reservations about taking action against Iraq or preferred more inspections? It seemed that only -- I forgot who -- the U.S. had two, Bulgaria and I forget who else supported the United States.

MR. BOUCHER: Do you remember what the score was when we started the last resolution?

QUESTION: It wasn't good. And I remember how long it took to swing it around.

MR. BOUCHER: I do not think we are expecting that. We are expecting, shall we say, a diplomatic window of a couple of weeks where, for the next few weeks, you will see diplomatic activity with members of the Council and others. I think everybody has made clear that Iraq is not complying and Iraq must comply, and everybody is clear that the Security Council has to stand by its resolution.

So as we analyze the information from the inspectors, as people look at the situation, we would expect them to analyze very carefully the information that the inspectors have given us. We would look to people to listen carefully to the Secretary's presentation next week and to face up to the reality -- which is that Iraq is not cooperating. Iraq is, in fact, actively hiding its weapons, trying to keep information from the inspectors, keep people from meeting privately with the inspectors, and prevent the inspectors from doing their job.

Under those circumstances, as the Secretary has said, the question to ask is not how much longer should the inspectors go on, but how much longer does one give Iraq to change its pattern of defiance into one of compliance.

QUESTION: Richard, do you have any reaction at all to this letter that was signed by eight -- the leaders of eight new or not so new members of Europe?

MR. BOUCHER: Well, some of them are kind of --

QUESTION: -- old?

MR. BOUCHER: Some of them have been around for a while, so I do not think that has any particular distinction.

But yes, certainly we have welcomed the statement. We think it's a clear, firm and unequivocal message, as they say, that Baghdad must be disarmed of its weapons of mass destruction and that the Security Council's credibility will suffer if resolutions are not complied with. Those are sentiments that we fully agree with.

I think it's also proof that many likeminded nations see Iraq as a clear threat to peace and security. I think finally, the statement keeps the focus and puts the focus very squarely where it belongs -- and that is on Iraq.

QUESTION: And in light of that, what do you make of the Canadians' position that you have to go through the UN if you if you -- that you really should go through the UN or risk these consequences in the Middle East or elsewhere, which seems to be not entirely at odds with the U.S. position, but it seems to be at odds with the bit of the U.S. position that says that we reserve the right to go it alone.

MR. BOUCHER: Am I hearing noises?

QUESTION: Yeah. It's the doors.

QUESTION: No, it's not.

QUESTION: I think it's a computer or something trying to get access to the Internet.

MR. BOUCHER: Sounds like it. Anyway. Okay. Somebody is going back to the closet. Sorry.

QUESTION: The Canadians do not seem too keen on your reserving the right to go it alone.

MR. BOUCHER: Well, Matt, you have characterized the Canadian position about four times in slightly different ways -- that we have to go, that we should go, it is desirable, not too keen if we do not. I will stick with what the Canadian Foreign Minister said outside the door, that if there is UN authorization, they would be there with us.

They look to the UN process to unfold. The Secretary discussed this with Foreign Minister Graham this morning. And we will be working with the Canadians and others in the Council and outside the Council as this emerges.

Foreign Minister Graham made clear he is looking forward to analyzing the reports from Dr. Blix, the ones that he has presented so far, and there is another one, I think, scheduled on February 14th. He looks forward to listening carefully to the information that the Secretary presents next week.

That, as I said, is what we look -- what we are asking of people is to look carefully at this information, face the reality of Iraq's failure to cooperate and decide what to do under the resolutions.

QUESTION: And in light of your answer, then, is it fair to say that you're not going to push for anything immediately after the Secretary's presentation? That you would wait until the second Blix report on the 14th before --

MR. BOUCHER: No, I do not think I said that either. I said we are looking forward to that information --

QUESTION: No, I didn't say you said that. I asked if that's what it means.

MR. BOUCHER: In light of what I said before, I would not draw that conclusion. I would say that we have said that this is an unfolding process -- one of careful consultation, of looking at how we decide to move forward. We are having a lot of consultations this week, and we will continue to work with others as we decide. There is no fixed timetable. We just know that this process will be unfolding in a matter of weeks, not months.

QUESTION: So you do or don't believe that you need to wait until the second Blix report on the 14th before --

MR. BOUCHER: I did not set any timetable tied to any particular event. I am not going to do that now.

QUESTION: Well, but the -- so this is a difference of opinion, then, with the Canadians who think that you should wait until at least the 14th before --

MR. BOUCHER: I did not hear Minister Graham say that.

QUESTION: Ah, well he reaffirmed everything that was said last night in the Canadian Parliament discussion in which Prime Minister Chretien said exactly that. And he always made twice the point, made reference twice downstairs, to the date of the 14th.

MR. BOUCHER: I think the Secretary referred to it as well. It is obviously an interesting and important report to hear from Dr. Blix. How that coincides with the diplomacy and the decisions the Security has to make -- Security Council has to make -- we will see.

QUESTION: He -- I think the Canadian Minister referred to his conversation with the Secretary as frank. I suppose that used be a way of saying that they were not exactly embracing each other's views. Is that a fair construction?

MR. BOUCHER: No, I would not interpret that too much. It was a very friendly discussion. It was a discussion of close coordination. The views of the United States and Canada are both, I think, as I say, being worked on, as we go through this process, as we go through the process of consultations. So we are in close touch with each other and we will stay in close touch.

Sir?

QUESTION: Related to Iraq, Mr. Boucher, there is a statement made or attributed to the UN spokesperson of this country, saying that nobody cares what Mexico says in the United Nations. And our Ambassador of Mexico is very upset on that. Do you have any comments on that?

MR. BOUCHER: Just to say that our -- the spokesman for our mission up in New York has said he did not say it. Other people who were in the vicinity at the time said that he did not say anything like that. No one had heard anybody in that vicinity make such a remark.

Ambassador Negroponte has talked to the Mexican Ambassador in New York, assured him that the United States considered Mexico a valuable partner, actively seeks its views on Iraq and other issues -- as the Secretary did just a week ago with the new Mexican Foreign Minister. I am sure they will stay in close touch in New York as well as between the Secretary of State and the Foreign Secretary of Mexico as we move forward.

...

QUESTION: Today, the President said that it's okay for if the Saddam go, you know, voluntarily leave the country from Iraq. Do you think in the Turkish Government is playing as an intermediator role on the subject?

MR. BOUCHER: I do not know. You would have to ask the Turkish Government. I have seen statements that they were trying to encourage that. Certainly, we think it would be an option that Saddam Hussein should take, but I have to say I have not really seen any particularly -- any information that would indicate he is particularly inclined in that direction.

QUESTION: Because of the Prime Minister of Turkey is planning to visit Baghdad. Did you ask them to play in any mediation or offer the subject in any, any help or something?

MR. BOUCHER: I think the Turkish Government is aware of our views that this is something which Saddam Hussein should take advantage of. If they want to put forward a proposal like that to Saddam Hussein, then they can do it.

Remember, they also have the backing of the countries of the region that they got at the conference that they held where they encouraged Baghdad to comply and to comply fully. That is a view that we think Saddam Hussein should be aware of and should take to heart.

Sir?

QUESTION: On the same subject, a lot people in the region seem to think exile might be the only way to avoid a war. I'm just curious why you're putting so much energy and time into what President Bush calls his very last option, war, but take this really passive attitude toward this exile.

MR. BOUCHER: I do not think we have taken a passive attitude for it. We have encouraged it. Frankly, the first place I remember hearing the idea was out of the mouth of the Secretary of Defense. And every time we have been asked we have said, "Yes, it is a good idea and he ought to take advantage of it." The Secretary said we would encourage it.

But I have to say that, one, there are many talking about this, but they all seem to be outside of Iraq and there's been no indication at this point that the Iraqi leader is smart enough to take advantage of this opportunity.

One cannot plan on this. To leave Baghdad? Sure.

QUESTION: Yeah, but --

MR. BOUCHER: Frankly, there is an opportunity to cooperate.

QUESTION: Yeah, but you're not suggesting that there is an actual plan out there that would represent an opportunity for him to take --

MR. BOUCHER: No. An opportunity is different than a plan.

Okay. All right. Let us stick to that.

...

QUESTION: Richard, the Secretary tomorrow is giving a speech which is supposed to be on a broad range of --

MR. BOUCHER: Well, a World Affairs Council speech and then he also talks to the students who are here for Groundhog Job Shadow Day, which is equally important.

QUESTION: Oh, right. Okay. Well, the students, I'm sure he'll be talking a lot about Iraq with them, right?

MR. BOUCHER: More likely at the World Affairs Council.

QUESTION: So will this be -- will he be previewing for the students who are here for Groundhog Day his presentation to the UN?

MR. BOUCHER: I do not think the Secretary intends to give a preview of his presentation for the UN to either group that he is talking to. You are right -- he will talk more to the World Affairs Council people about Iraq, I would expect.

But he will, I think, try to explain to people, as he has been in various fora, where we stand at this juncture and the importance to the international community of really facing up to this reality, dealing with the fact that Iraq is not cooperating, and living up to the responsibilities of the Security Council.

QUESTION: You don't know if he's got another free presentation -- maybe next -- like, earlier next week, is he going to be speaking?

MR. BOUCHER: I cannot think of any major events, but we have not really looked at the schedule of visitors and walkouts. I am sure you'll see him early next week, as well.

...

QUESTION: Does the United States, I mean, you've been working very much, very closely with your allies to make your case, to make the case on Iraq in different continents and basically with your allies in the Security Council. Is that the position of the United States? You don't really care about what, what an ally like Mexico think about --

MR. BOUCHER: Again, if you were here 15 minutes ago, you would have heard me say how important --

QUESTION: Yes, but I was at the --

MR. BOUCHER: That is fine. But I have already done a briefing today and I have explained how important it is to work with other members of the Council -- how we are, in fact, working very closely with Mexico, and we will continue to work very closely with Mexico. So there is no question.

Because there is one false press report does not change U.S. relations with Mexico.

QUESTION: Can I follow up? So what Mr. Grenell said is not really the position of the United States Government?

MR. BOUCHER: What Mr. Grenell did not say is not the position of the U.S. Government.