[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
[February 20, 1998]
[Pages 261-262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Videotaped Remarks on Expansion of United Nations Security Council 
Resolution 986 Concerning Iraq
February 20, 1998

    No people have suffered more at the hands of Saddam Hussein than the Iraqi people themselves. I have been very 
moved, as so many others around the world have been, by their plight. 
Because of Saddam Hussein's failure to comply with U.N. resolutions, the 
sanctions imposed by the U.N. at the end of the Gulf war to stop him 
from rebuilding his military might are still in place.
    As a result, the people of Iraq have suffered. They are the victims 
of Saddam's refusal to comply with the 
resolutions he promised to honor. The United States strongly supports 
the U.N. Secretary General's recommendation to 
more than double the amount of oil Iraq can sell in exchange for food, 
medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. We will work hard to make 
sure those funds are used to help the ordinary people of Iraq.
    Since the Gulf war, our policy has been aimed at preventing 
Saddam from threatening his region or the 
world. We have no quarrel with the Iraqi people who are heirs to a proud 
civilization and who have suffered for so many years under Saddam's 
rule.
    From the beginning, the international sanctions that are aimed at 
denying Saddam Hussein the funds to rebuild 
his military machine have permitted food and medicine into Iraq. The 
United States has led the way in trying to make sure Iraq had the 
resources to pay for them. In 1991, with our leadership, the U.N. 
Security Council encouraged Iraq to sell oil to pay for these critical 
humanitarian supplies. Saddam Hussein rejected that offer for 4 years, 
choosing instead to let his people suffer. What resources he had went 
not to caring for his people but to strengthening his army, hiding his 
weapons of mass destruction, and building lavish palaces for his regime.
    In 1995 America led a new effort to aid the Iraqi people. After 
refusing the proposal for a year, Saddam 
finally accepted U.N. Security Council Resolution 986, which permits the 
sale of oil for food. Then he engaged in delay and bureaucratic 
wrangling for yet another year before allowing the resolution to take 
effect.
    Perhaps worst of all, Saddam deliberately 
and repeatedly delayed the pumping of oil, which held up shipments of 
food and medicine to the Iraqi population. Even so, the international 
community has managed to deliver to the Iraqi people more than 3 million 
tons of food.
    Just as Saddam deprives his people of 
relief from abroad, he represses them at home, brutally putting down the 
uprisings of the Iraqi people after the Gulf war, attacking Irbil in 
1996, and draining the marshes of Southern Iraq.
    Saddam's priorities are painfully clear: 
not caring for his citizens but building weapons of mass destruction and 
using them--using them not

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once but repeatedly in the terrible war Iraq fought with Iran, and not 
only against combatants but against civilians, and not only against a 
foreign adversary but against his own people. And he's targeted Scud 
missiles against fellow Arabs and Muslims in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and 
Bahrain.
    Now, he is trying to rid Iraq of the international inspectors who 
have done such a remarkable job in finding and destroying his hidden 
weapons--weapons he himself promised in 1991 to report and help destroy. 
If Saddam is allowed to rebuild his arsenal 
unchecked, none of the region's children will be safe.
    America is working very hard to find a diplomatic solution to this 
crisis Saddam has created. I have sent my 
Secretary of State, my Defense 
Secretary, and my Ambassador to the United 
Nations literally around the world to work 
with our friends and allies. If there is a way to resolve this 
peacefully, we will pursue it to the very end.
    But from Europe to the Persian Gulf, all agree on the bottom line: 
Saddam must allow the U.N. weapons inspectors 
to complete their mission with full and free access to any site they 
suspect may be hiding material or information related to Iraqi weapons 
of mass destruction programs. That is what Saddam agreed to as a 
condition for ending the Gulf war way back in 1991.
    Nobody wants to use force. But if Saddam 
refuses to keep his commitments to the international community, we must 
be prepared to deal directly with the threat these weapons pose to the 
Iraqi people, to Iraq's neighbors, and to the rest of the world. Either 
Saddam acts, or we will have to.
    Saddam himself understands that the 
international community places a higher value on the lives of the Iraqi 
people than he does. That is why he uses innocent women and children as 
human shields, risking what we care about--human lives--to protect what 
he cares about--his weapons. If force proves necessary to resolve this 
crisis, we will do everything we can to prevent innocent people from 
getting hurt. But make no mistake: Saddam Hussein must bear full 
responsibility for every casualty that results.
    To all our Arab and Muslim friends, let me say America wants to see 
a future of security, prosperity, and peace for all the people of the 
Middle East. We want to see the Iraqi people free of the constant 
warfare and repression that have been the hallmark of Saddam's regime. We want to see them living in a nation that 
uses its wealth not to strengthen its arsenal but to care for its 
citizens and give its children a brighter future. That is what we'll 
keep working for and what the people of Iraq deserve.

Note: These remarks were videotaped at approximately 4 p.m. on February 
18 in the Cabinet Room at the White House for later broadcast, and they 
were released by the Office of the Press Secretary on February 20.