Posted on 09/04/2002 9:52:07 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Commenting on reports that the Iraqi leadership has declared its willingness to discuss a return of U.N. weapons inspectors, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the regime of Saddam Hussein had demonstrated "a wonderful talent and skill" over the years at manipulating the international community.
"When it's the right moment to lean forward, they lean forward. When it's the right moment to lean back, they lean back. It's a dance they engage in," Rumsfeld said at a press conference Tuesday, in response to questions.
Rumsfeld commented on remarks by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz, who said at the economic World Summit in South Africa that the Bush administration is using the issue of weapons inspectors as a pretext to attack Iraq.
Iraq was ready to discuss a return of U.N. weapons inspectors, but only in a context of ending sanctions and restoring Iraqi sovereignty over all its territory, Aziz told reporters.
Saddam Hussein's top officials also have been visiting a number of Arab countries, as well as Russia, China, and the World Summit, trying to rally support against a U.S. strike.
Naji Sabri, the Iraqi foreign minister, met with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, on Monday. Russia is Iraq's biggest trade partner and has come out strongly against any U.S. military action to overthrow Hussein.
Rumsfeld said the United States wants Iraq to grant weapons inspectors access without conditions.
Iraq has shown no inclination to live up to agreements it signed after the Gulf War, he charged.
Instead, Iraq was trying to play "the international community and the U.N. process like a guitar, plucking the right string at the right moment to delay something," said Rumsfeld, who noted that he met a number of times with Aziz in Baghdad, Washington and elsewhere.
"And then you'll find at the last moment, they'll withdraw that carrot or that opportunity and go back into their other mode of thumbing their nose at the international community," he said.
"Where they'll be at any given moment is of course something that's entirely up to them," Rumsfeld added.
He reiterated that U.S. government policy, both by Congress and the executive branch of the past two administrations, has been to bring about a regime change in Iraq.
The policy "was rooted in the conviction that the world would be a better place if there were a government in that part of the world that was not developing weapons of mass destruction, was not on the terrorist list, did not pose threats to its neighbors, did not repress its people and subject its minorities to abuses," Rumsfeld said.
The Bush administration could provide further evidence of the threat posed by Iraq, possibly during congressional hearings on Iraq planned for later this month, he said.
"What the president wants to do, and will do in his own time, is to provide information that he feels is important with respect to any judgment he decides to make," Rumsfeld said.
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