[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 46 (Monday, November 17, 1997)]
[Pages 1808-1809]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Situation in Iraq

November 14, 1997

    Two days ago and again last night, the United Nations Security 
Council sent a clear, unanimous message to Iraq: Stop obstructing the 
international weapons inspectors who are the eyes and ears of the world 
on your weapons of mass destruction capability.
    Instead of complying with the unequivocal will of the international 
community, Saddam chose to expel the weapons inspectors from Iraq, and 
in so doing, to defy the United Nations. Saddam has spent the better 
part of the last two decades and much of the wealth of his nation not on 
providing for the needs and advancing the hopes of the Iraqi people but 
on a program to build an arsenal of the most terrible weapons of 
destruction--nuclear, chemical, biological--and on the missiles to carry 
them to faraway places.
    The U.N. inspectors have done a remarkable job of finding and 
destroying the weapons and the weapons potential he was hiding and 
preventing him from building new weapons. These quiet inspectors have 
destroyed more weapons of mass destruction potential over the last 6 
years than was destroyed in the entire Gulf war. Their work is important 
to the safety of Saddam's neighbors and, indeed, to people all around 
the world. It must be allowed to continue.
    Today and in the days ahead, the United States will work intensively 
with our allies and our friends in the region and around the world to 
convince Iraq to comply with the will of the international community as 
expressed in the United Nations resolution.
    Meanwhile, the U-2 missions over Iraq must continue. Without 
inspectors on the ground, it is more important than ever to monitor 
events from the air. And we will maintain a strong military presence in 
the Gulf. To that end, I have ordered today the aircraft carrier George 
Washington to the region as a prudent measure to help assure that we 
have the forces we need for any contingency.

[[Page 1809]]

    This is a crisis of Saddam's making. It can be unmade only when he 
can no longer threaten the international community with weapons of mass 
destruction.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:46 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the White 
House.