[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 7 (Monday, February 21, 1994)]
[Pages 288-289]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President Nursultan 
Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan

February 14, 1994

Bosnia

    Q. President Nazarbayev, do you support NATO's decision to threaten 
the Bosnian Serbs with air strikes in case they don't remove all their 
artillery from the hills surrounding Sarajevo?
    President Nazarbayev. Despite the fact that Kazakhstan is well 
removed from those events by a great distance, I still believe we all as 
members of the U.N. respect the decision taken by the Security Council.
    Q. Mr. President, is there a gap between the U.N. and the United 
States on what steps need to be taken in order to launch air strikes?
    President Clinton. I don't have any reason to believe that there is. 
Keep in mind the Secretary-General asked NATO to take the action we took 
and made it clear that--we made it clear that we do not want to take 
that action unless we could follow through on it, that is, unless the 
conditions were met that we would take the action we said. And he agreed 
with that. So I have no reason to believe that there is any difference 
of opinion.
    Q. Do you sense that the Serbs are beginning to cooperate?
    President Clinton. I think so. Again, let me say that the larger 
issue is whether we can move toward a reasonable peace agreement quickly 
after establishing a safe zone around Sarajevo. But we're just going to 
have to see. There's still a few more days left before the time runs 
out.

Note: The exchange began at 11:35 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. A tape was not

[[Page 289]]

available for verification of the content of this exchange.