Policy evolves. A snapshot from 2001 means little, without context. Indeed, the context of Powell's remarks was to explain why the sanctions regime, though it had been useful, needed fixing:
Powell explains changes in Iraq sanctions policy (March2001)
Secretary of State Colin Powell says the sanctions regime that was put in place to prevent Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction needs shoring up.
Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 8 that the United Nations sanctions regime has kept Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in check. "Even though we know he is working on weapons of mass destruction, we know he has things squirreled away, at the same time we have not seen that capacity emerge to present a full fledged threat to us," he said.
However, Powell said that when he took office five and a half weeks ago "I discovered that we had an Iraq policy that was in disarray, and the sanctions part of that policy was not just in disarray; it was falling apart."
Powell said the United States was being accused of hurting the Iraqi people. However, "the purpose of these sanctions was to go after weapons of mass destruction. That's what they were put in place for ... at the end of the Gulf War."
It became clear, he said, that the sanctions had to be modified in order to "eliminate those items in the sanctions regime that really were of civilian use and benefited people, and focus [sanctions] exclusively on weapons of mass destruction and items that could be directed toward the development of weapons of destruction."
Powell said he found support for this modification from Arab allies, permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and many NATO colleagues. "And so we are continuing down this line that says let's see if there is a better way to use these sanctions to go after weapons of mass destruction and take away the argument we have given him that we are somehow hurting the Iraqi people. He is hurting the Iraqi people, not us."
To end the sanctions, Powell said, Iraq must permit the U.N. inspection teams to return to their work.
reliefweb.int |
