MS. TANNURI: We have with us from Washington, Mr. Colin Powell. Mr. Powell, good evening, sir. After eight weeks of deliberations in the Security Council about the resolution and the amendment the Security Council agreed on the resolution. Do you understand that this resolution will tie the hands of US from taking any unilateral movement towards Iraq except through the Security Council?
SECRETARY POWELL: I think this is an excellent resolution and I am very pleased that all 15 members of the Security Council agreed. This wasn't a resolution to go to war. This was a resolution of purpose: to find a peaceful solution to a very serious problem. That problem was Saddam Hussein's development of weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction that threaten his neighbors, threatens his own people, and wastes the treasure of the Iraqi people.
So the United States was not looking for a way to keep from going to war. We were looking for a solution that would be peaceful. If Saddam Hussein violates this resolution, then the Security Council will meet again to consider what should be done, and that might include the use of military force. The United States would participate in that conversation in the Security Council, but at the same time, the United States would always retain its option to use its forces in concert with other nations if the Security Council should choose not to act.
But we are not talking about war now. We are talking about a peaceful solution. And all it would take to get to that peaceful solution is for Saddam Hussein to cooperate with the inspectors, with the United Nations, and give up weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein is the problem, not the United Nations, not the United States.
MS. TANNURI: Mr. Powell, do you understand that the US will keep its options and it will not only move through the Security Council?
SECRETARY POWELL: We have moved with the Security Council for the last seven and a half weeks to come up with this resolution, but we will always have an option of acting to defend ourselves or to defend our friends in the region with other nations who feel the same way working with us. It is always preferable to work through the Security Council, and that is why we have worked through the Security Council for this resolution. And if Saddam Hussein violates this resolution, we would also work with the Security Council while it deliberates what to do.
The focus shouldn't be what the United States might or might not do in the future. The focus should be what is Saddam Hussein going to do now to get out of the violations that he has been committing for the last 11 years that has put peace at risk in that part of the world. It is not the United States who has attacked the neighbors of Iraq. It is Iraq who has attacked its own neighbors. It is not the United States or any other nation that has gassed the people of Iraq. It is Saddam Hussein who has gassed his own people.
He has wasted the treasure of the Iraqi people -- money that could have gone to education, healthcare, infrastructure repair, so many things -- have gone to developing weapons of mass destruction. And what the international community is now saying is it is time for this to stop.
MS. TANNURI: Mr. Powell, we want to know who will decide that Iraq has violated the resolution of the Security Council. Is it the United Nations or the United States?
SECRETARY POWELL: The inspectors will go in and do their job and we will know soon enough whether or not Iraq is cooperating or not cooperating, and then we will see what the inspectors find. Under the resolution passed today, Dr. Blix of the UNMOVIC group and Mr.
El Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency will report their findings to the Security Council for the Security Council to consider.
But any member state can see what is going on and make a judgment as to whether or not Iraq is cooperating. But let's not look for a way to get to war. Let's look for a way to get to peace. What President Bush and the American Government is interested in now is how to get to peace, not how to get to war, how to disarm Saddam Hussein so that the region becomes more peaceful and more stable.
MS. TANNURI: Mr. Secretary, through this resolution it seems that you looked at the idea of toppling the Iraqi regime. Is the Iraqi regime less dangerous than before?
SECRETARY POWELL: I believe the Iraqi regime is a dangerous regime. It does not respect its own people. It threatens its neighbors. It violates international agreements. But it is especially dangerous in the possession of weapons of mass destruction. The UN has spoken clearly about this since 1991. Saddam Hussein and this regime have ignored the United Nations. And the United Nations has spoken clearly today. Its will cannot be and must not be ignored.
MS. TANNURI: Mr. Powell, eyes are looking now to Iraq. What about the Palestinian issue?
SECRETARY POWELL: We remain deeply involved in trying to find a solution to the crisis in the Middle East. We are working with Palestinian leaders and we are working with Israeli leaders to find a way forward, working with our colleagues in the European Union and the Russian Federation and in the United Nations.
America is committed to the plan that was put forward by President George Bush on the 24th of June to get both sides to work toward the creation of a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people. That remains our objective and we are working hard towards that objective.
It is a difficult objective to achieve, but let there be no doubt that President Bush and the American people are committed to doing everything we can to create a Palestinian state, Palestine, that will be living in peace and security next to the state of Israel.
MS. TANNURI: Mr. Powell, thank you very much.
SECRETARY POWELL: Ramadan Karim.