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US would 'reconstruct' Iraq
23/09/2002 07:34 - (SA)
Washington - US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was quoted on Sunday as saying that if the United Nations was unwilling to take "strong action" against Iraq, Washington would have to take care of the problem.
Rice said in an interview with the London-based Financial Times that in the event Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was removed by force, the United States and its allies "would have to be completely devoted to the reconstruction of Iraq".
"We would expect it to be an Iraq that is at least on the road to democratic development, that was unified, that maintained its territorial integrity, that had a broad-based governmental structure that allowed the various ethnic groups in Iraq to be fairly represented," she said in the interview published on the newspaper's website.
Rice said the United States wanted to see the United Nations take effective action on ensuring that Iraq did not have nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
"We're open to how the UN Security Council acts to finally deal with the threat of Saddam Hussein. But we have to remember that weapons inspectors are not the end in themselves," she said.
"If the Security Council cannot come to terms with strong action, then the United States, with whomever else would like to join us, will have to take care of the problem."
Rice said that in dealing with "rogue" countries like Iraq and groups like al-Qaeda, blamed for the September 11 attacks on America last year, deterrence might not work.
"September 11, interestingly, clarified a lot about the kinds of threats that you face in the post-Cold War era... It comes into clear relief that you're really talking about extremism, weapons of mass destruction - that is, technologies that give an asymmetric advantage to states that cannot mobilise large military power...
"Do the concepts that come from the deterrence, come from concepts dealing with large military forces, work in these new circumstances? And I think there's an argument that they may well not," Rice said.
Ruse
In Baghdad, vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan made clear on Sunday that Iraq would reject any new Security Council resolution on arms inspections.
"We believe it is not a defiance. It is logical and all the Security Council members, except for the American administration, Britain and their likes, say so," he said.
Iraq told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week that it would allow inspectors back into the country without conditions, but Washington quickly dismissed the move as a ruse.
"(Saddam's) game will be to try to delay and deceive and keep us at bay," Rice said in the Financial Times interview.
UN arms inspectors were ordered into Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent 1991 Gulf War, but they left in 1998 following repeated disputes with Baghdad over access to suspected weapons sites.
- Reuters
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