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06 March 2001 Transcript Excerpts: Powell on Mideast, Iraq, Taliban (Denounces Taliban's destruction of Buddhas) Secretary of State Colin Powell said the modified Iraq sanctions policy will prevent Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from acquiring weapons of mass destruction but allow Iraqi civilians to obtain needed consumer goods. "We will keep them from developing their military capability again, just the way we have for the last ten years, but we will not be the ones to blame because the Iraqi people, it is claimed, are not getting what they need to take care of their children or to take care of their needs," Powell said at a press conference with Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in Washington March 6. Powell said he has received expressions of support from Arab leaders about the modified Iraq sanctions policy. Powell said he deplored the destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime. "It's horrible, it's a tragedy, it's a crime against humankind, and I deplore it," Powell said. Following are excerpts related to the Middle East and the Taliban
from the transcript of Powell's March 6 press conference with Lindh. Q: Mr. Powell, after your trip to the Middle East, you said that you had received positive indication from the Arab leaders that they supported your idea of tightening some of the sanctions on Iraq and easing some of them on consumer goods. But the reports in the press, that are given by the Arab leaders, have been, on the whole, negative to your trip and still saying that the main problem is Israel and the Palestinians. Can you assure us that you still feel that the Arab leaders support your moves to tighten the sanctions on oil exports, and have there been any indications that you've gotten any cooperation, either with Syria or Turkey or Jordan or any of the Gulf states, on tightening the smuggled oil? SECRETARY POWELL: The expressions of support that I received there remain intact. I still feel that there is support for this kind of a change. But as you noted from the article you are citing, or the articles you are citing, there is linkage to the situation between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And as I think you heard me report on previous occasions, this is now a regional situation; you have to look at it regionally; the issues are linked. But I am still optimistic about the support that I received, and I think that support will become public in the days and weeks ahead as they consider how to support the initiatives we will be taking with the United Nations to bring such a change in policy into effect. And we will have to see whether I was overly optimistic or I was -- we'll see. I'm fairly confident that this is the right policy. Frankly, the alternative was just to keep on a downward path crashing into a hillside. The sanctions policy was collapsing before our eyes, and this is an effort -- and I think it will be a successful effort -- to stabilize it and get it to a new altitude that will serve our purpose, an altitude where we know at that altitude we will keep them from moving toward weapons of mass destruction, and we will keep them from developing their military capability again, just the way we have for the last ten years, but we will not be the ones to blame because the Iraqi people, it is claimed, are not getting what they need to take care of their children or to take care of their needs. And I think it is a sensible policy to move to, and I'm still moving in that direction, and I'm reasonably assured of support as I move in that direction. Q: Secretary Powell, could you tell us what you know about the statues in Afghanistan that are being destroyed, whether the destruction is complete, what this means and your thoughts about this? SECRETARY POWELL: The second part is easy. It's horrible, it's a tragedy, it's a crime against humankind, and I deplore it. I don't know the extent of damage at this time. I simply haven't been briefed in the course of the morning because I've been in other meetings, and so I don't know whether the two major Buddhas have now been taken down totally. I don't know, and I'll have to ask Richard Boucher to follow up with you later. He has been in meetings with me all morning as well, so we'll get the information out to you as soon as we can. (end transcript excerpts)
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