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24 February 2001
Powell-Ivanov Briefing: Foundation Laid for Furthering Common Agenda
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States has an obligation to uphold the U.N. resolutions designed to prevent Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Speaking to reporters in a joint press briefing with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov in Cairo February 24, Powell said he will convey that message to all the leaders he meets with during his Middle East trip. "The message I plan to give all the leaders I speak to and to the Arab public is that the cause of this problem that we have is in Baghdad. It is Saddam Hussein who refuses to abandon his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations has an obligation and, as part of the United Nations, the United States has an obligation to do everything we can to cause him to come into compliance with the agreements he made at the end of the Gulf War," Powell said. He made that statement in response to a question about U.S. and British air strikes against Iraqi targets on February 16. Powell said his first meeting with Ivanov lasted an hour and a half and laid a foundation for the two governments to pursue their common agenda. Ivanov said the U.S. and Russian governments "are ready to build constructive dialogue between our countries in the interest of our states and of the international community and we will support this constructive dialogue in the future." Following is the transcript of the Powell-Ivanov briefing:
U.S. Department of State
Secretary Powell: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Ivanov and I have just had a very very excellent discussion of an hour and a half duration where we exchanged views on a number of issues and had an opportunity to convey to each other the best wishes of our respective Presidents. I think it was a very fine first meeting and I look forward to many such meetings in the future as we pursue our common agenda. Foreign Minister Ivanov: (translated from Russian) I'm also satisfied with our first meeting. We had a very frank, constructive dialogue. We exchanged views on our principal views of our relationship and also a number of urgent international matters. The most important thing is that we are ready to build constructive dialogue between our countries in the interest of our states and of the international community and we will support this constructive dialogue in the future. Thank you. Question: Mr. Minister, you spoke of a constructive dialogue. Are you making any headway in narrowing your differences about missile defenses? And while we are at it, Russia did not approve of the U.S. bombing of Iraq. The Secretary tried to maintain sanctions on Iraq (inaudible) will Russia help the matter? Foreign Minister Ivanov: (Interpreted from Russian) If you think that we managed to resolve all our differences after our first meeting, this certainly would be good but this exceeds our expectations. But we certainly exchanged views on how to pursue our dialogue to look forward together for points of coinciding interests of how to work together in the future in the interests of international security. Question: (summarized) Mr. Powell, what's now the Arab public opinion has been very angered by the recent strike. What kind of assurances are you going to give the Arabs, or is this going to be a constant policy of strike in Iraq with or without (inaudible)? Secretary Powell: The message I plan to give all the leaders I speak to and to the Arab public is that the cause of this problem that we have is in Baghdad. It is Saddam Hussein who refuses to abandon his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations has an obligation and, as part of the United Nations, the United States has an obligation to do everything we can to cause him to come into compliance with the agreements he made at the end of the Gulf War. He threatens not the United States. He threatens this region. He threatens Arab people. He threatens the children of Egypt, the children of Saudi Arabia, the children of Kuwait with these weapons. He has used them before, so I think we all have a solemn obligation to keep him in check. As part of that obligation, the United States and the United Kingdom patrol over the no-fly zone. We do so to protect the people within those no-fly zones and, from time to time, Iraq has challenged our presence; and when they do challenge our presence, we have to respond in order to protect our pilots who are protecting the people who live within those zones. Thank you.
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