For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 16, 2002
Statement by the Deputy Press Secretary
As the President said, the UN Security Council needs to decide how to enforce its own resolutions, which the Iraqi
regime has defied for more than a decade.
This will require a new, effective UN Security Council resolution that will actually deal with the threat Saddam Hussein
poses to the Iraqi people, to the region, and to the world. That is the course the Security Council is on, and the
United States is engaged in consultations with Council members and other partners in New York at this time.
This is not a matter of inspections. It is about disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqi
regime's compliance with all other Security Council resolutions.
This is a tactical step by Iraq in hopes of avoiding strong UN Security Council action. As such, it is a tactic that
will fail.
It is time for the Security Council to act.
ENDS