2/22/2001

In a Press Conference, on February 22, 2001, when questions from John Roberts, CBS News, regarding the Secretary of State’s trip to the Middle East and the future modifications of the sanctions on Iraq came up, President George W. Bush had this to say: “We’re reviewing all policy in all regions of the world, and one of the areas we’ve been spending a lot of time on is the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. The Secretary of State is going to go listen to our allies as to how best to effect a policy, the primary goal of which will be to say to Saddam Hussein, we won’t tolerate you developing weapons of mass destruction and we expect you to leave your neighbors alone. I have said that the sanction regime is like Swiss cheese. That meant that they weren’t very effective. And we’re going to review current sanction policy, and review options as to how to make the sanctions work. But the primary goal is to make it clear to Saddam that we expect him to be a peaceful neighbor in the region and we expect him not to develop weapons of mass destruction. And if we find him doing so, there will be a consequence. We took action last week, and it may be on your mind as to that decision I made. The mission was twofold — one was to send him a clear message that this administration will remain engaged in that part of the world. I think we accomplished that mission. We got his attention.”