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(04/21/05 4:07am)
MOSCOW -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian President Vladimir Putin praised their nations' cooperation on common worries, including terrorism and regional conflicts, in a meeting Wednesday.\nRice had mixed an unusually upbeat account of U.S.-Russian cooperation with muted criticism of the nation's democratic development in remarks before their discussion.\nPutin opened the meeting cordially, saying, "With your direct participation, our relations with the United States have reached the high level which they have today. And we hope that this course will continue."\nRice said she looked forward to a fruitful discussion "on various issues that are of interest to us: our common interest in regional stability, our common interest in the global war on terrorism, on economic development in the world."\nEarlier in an interview with the radio station Ekho Moskvy -- one of Russia's few remaining independent media voices -- Rice emphasized the two countries' cooperation.\n"We see Russia as a strategic partner in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons," she said. "We see Russia as a partner in solving regional issues, like the Balkans or the Middle East."\nShe also mentioned Russian efforts with the United States and other countries to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.\n"Russia is not a strategic enemy," Rice said, suggesting the two countries have worked well together since the final years of communist rule.\nIn the interview, Rice made scant reference to U.S. concern about setbacks to Russia's democratic development. She only briefly mentioned the great concentration of power under the president and the need for a free media to help people together decide their fates.\nShe also did not mention other areas of tension. These include what U.S. officials perceive to be Russian inaction in curbing violations of American intellectual property rights, including videos and computer software. Washington also contends that Russia has a poor record on stemming human trafficking.\nRice said Russia should not consider the United States to be a threat, willing to exploit the shifts to democracy in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine. She said there was no reason why the United States and Russia cannot cooperate in their approach to these countries.\nDuring their meeting, Rice discussed with Putin the visit next month by President Bush to Russia for the 60th anniversary ceremonies commemorating the Allied victory in Europe, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.\nShe told Ekho Moskvy listeners that Washington was looking for agreement on improved access to nuclear installations by U.S. inspectors before the presidents' May meeting.\nShe said that she and Ivanov had discussed the issue over dinner Tuesday night, and that she had won assurances of some improved access. But Ivanov said that Moscow was not considering the possibility of visits by American inspectors, the Interfax news agency reported.\nIn her radio interview, Rice rejected the view that American attempts to monitor Russian nuclear sites were an intrusion on the country's sovereignty. Instead, she said she considered it an opportunity for cooperation between the two countries.\nRussia's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Alexander Yakovenko wrote in an article Wednesday in the government newspaper, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, that the U.S. and Russian governments were working to widen the areas of accord.\n"This is important against the background of mistrust of Russia, persisting among a definite part of the American political elite and of attempts to play under rules of former confrontation, when any success by one side was automatically regarded as a defeat of the other and vice versa," Yakovenko wrote.
(11/16/04 5:40am)
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell and three other Cabinet members have resigned, escalating the shake-up of President Bush's second-term team. Senior administration officials said Monday that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was most likely to succeed Powell.\nAlong with Powell's resignation, the departures of three others -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Education Secretary Rod Paige -- were confirmed Monday.\nWith the resignations earlier of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, at least six of 15 Cabinet members are leaving, a musical-chairs act that assures Bush a significant Cabinet face-lift with his second inauguration over two months away.\n"I believe that now that the election is over, the time has come for me to step down," Powell, 67, wrote the president.\nAppearing at daily State Department briefing at midday, Powell told reporters he had always intended to serve just one term and said he'll remain until his successor is confirmed by the Senate. "We have a full end-of-year agenda ahead of us," he said.\nIn his letter to Bush, Powell said, "I am pleased to have been part of a team that launched the global war against terror, liberated the Afghan and Iraqi people."\nHe also said he "brought the attention of the world to the problem of proliferation, reaffirmed our alliances, adjusted to the post-Cold War world and undertook major initiatives to deal with the problem of poverty and disease in the developing world."\nThe president already has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Ashcroft, and speculation on Powell's successor also has focused on U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, a former U.S. senator from Missouri.\nPowell, who long had been rumored planning only a single term with Bush, told the president he intends to "return to private life." Earlier Monday, he had told aides he intended to leave once Bush settled on a successor, administration officials said.\n"Secretary Powell's departure is a loss to the moderate internationalist voices in the Bush administration," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration. "Hopefully, his replacement will be a pragmatist rather than an ideologue."\nWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush accepted the latest four resignations on Friday.\nMcClellan said that Powell's intention to leave the administration after the election had been under discussion between the president and the secretary of state "for some months now." He said Powell would remain until a successor was on the job.\nPowell has had a controversial tenure in the secretary of state's job, reportedly differing on some key issues at various junctures with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Powell, however, has generally had good relations with his counterparts around the world, although his image was strained by the U.S.-led war in Iraq.\nPowell, a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President George Bush, led the current administration offensive at the United Nations for a military attack to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, arguing a weapons-of-mass-destruction threat that the administration could never buttress.\n"It's been a joy to work with Colin Powell," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. He praised Powell as "a unique figure" who had made the transition "from being a great soldier to being a great statesman and diplomat."\nFor many months, Powell had been viewed as a one-term secretary of state, but he has always been vague about his intentions. He had said repeatedly in recent weeks that he serves at "the pleasure of the president."\nPowell's role in shaping foreign policy was one of promoting moderation and traditional diplomatic alliances with friendly nations. His influence was measured, though, since most of Bush's other senior advisers generally took a harder line and they often prevailed.\nEarlier, after the Sept. 11 attacks, Powell helped fashion a fragile coalition of countries for the war against terrorism, careful to request all the help a country could give without pushing any country beyond its limits. Similarly, when leaders decided to end or shorten their troops' duty in postwar Iraq the State Department avoided any harsh reaction, saying simply that it was up to each country to make up its mind.\nIraq has dominated Powell's attention during his nearly four years in office.\nAbraham, a former senator from Michigan, joined the administration after he lost a bid for re-election, becoming the nation's 10th energy secretary. If he stays at the post until the end of this term, as is planned, he would become the longest-serving secretary at the department.\nSources said that Abraham intends to stay in Washington, where he plans to work in private law practice. Abraham struggled in attempts to get Congress to endorse the Bush administration's broad energy agenda and was unable to convince Congress to enact energy legislation.\nAbraham worked aggressively to expand the government's efforts safeguarding nuclear materials and convinced the White House to put more money into nuclear nonproliferation efforts. He also pushed aggressively to expand research into hydrogen-fuel vehicles.\nThe leading candidate to replace Paige is Margaret Spellings, Bush's domestic policy adviser who helped shape his school agenda when he was the Texas governor.\nPaige, 71, the nation's seventh education secretary, is the first black person to serve in the job. He grew up in segregated Mississippi and built a career on a belief that education equalizes opportunity, moving from college dean and school superintendent to education chief.\nThe daughter of a California peach grower, Veneman, 55, was the nation's first woman agriculture secretary. Speculation on a potential replacement has centered on Chuck Conner, White House farm adviser, Democratic Rep. Charles Stenholm of Texas, who lost his seat in the Nov. 2 elections, Allen Johnson, the chief U.S. negotiator on agricultural issues, Bill Hawks, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs and Charles Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation.
(10/25/04 4:17am)
TOKYO -- Calling it a matter of urgency, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday North Korea should resume participation in nuclear disarmament talks and set aside its concerns about new "hostile acts" by the United States against the communist government.\nSpeaking at a news conference, Powell also gave assurances that President Bush seeks a peaceful solution to the long-running impasse over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.\n"We still have time," Powell said, alluding to the stalled six-party negotiating effort. Powell was flanked by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura at a news conference. He also had a half-hour meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a valued U.S. ally for his support for administration policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.\nPowell was to travel to China later Sunday and then visit South Korea.\nFriday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the United States is engaging in "evermore hostile acts" against the country. He cited U.S. participation in eight-nation naval exercises in Japanese waters beginning Monday, and new human rights legislation on North Korea that Bush signed last week. The North Korean spokesman said the U.S. activities were designed to "block and stifle" the country.\nBesides the United States and Japan, seven other countries will take part in the naval exercise, with 14 more serving as observers. The interdiction drill is part of an anti-proliferation security initiative, known as PSI, in which allied forces can intercept ships or aircraft believed carrying missiles or equipment for unconventional weapons.\nThe PSI was initiated last year primarily to deter North Korea proliferation activities.\nThe new U.S. human rights law calls on North Korea to allow freedom of speech and religion and seeks disclosure of information about Japanese and South Korean citizens abducted by the communist government. In the absence of progress in these areas, the law forbids U.S. assistance to North Korea except for humanitarian purposes.\nPowell said the naval exercises and the human rights law should not derail the talks.\nSaturday, Powell rejected demands by North Korea for a U.S. "reward" before the communist country would agree to resume the six-party discussions.\nPowell said any proposals from North Korea should be discussed as part of that process. Also participating are North and South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, in addition to the United States.\n"This is a six-party discussion, not a U.S.-North Korea discussion or an exchange of U.S. and North Korean talking points," Powell told reporters during his flight here.\nThe North Korean spokesman, who was quoted by the official KCNA news agency but was not identified, said North Korea is insisting on discussing recent disclosures by South Korea that its scientists had carried out nuclear experiments involving plutonium and uranium years ago. The Bush administration has dismissed the South's experiments as insignificant and said they were of an academic nature.\nA new round of six-party talks was scheduled for September in Beijing, but North Korea declined to attend.\nNorth Korea says it has several plutonium-based nuclear weapons and denies U.S. allegations it has a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons program. The United States has said it would provide economic benefits to North Korea once the North provides a credible commitment to permanent and verifiable disarmament.\nPowell's decision to travel to Asia shortly before the Nov. 2 presidential election in the United States could be intended as an attempt to show resolve on one of the administration's most difficult foreign policy issues.\nDemocratic nominee John Kerry contends the administration has mishandled the North Korea problem and should have embraced the Clinton-era policy of direct talks with the country.\nBush administration officials believe North Korea is biding its time on nuclear negotiations, sensing that Kerry might win the election and be easier to deal with than Bush, who has linked North Korea with Iran and Iraq in an "axis of evil."\nSaturday, Powell dismissed North Korean concerns about hostile U.S. intent. "We have no intention of invading them, no plans to attack," he said.\n"There's nothing wrong with naval forces coming together to exercise for the purpose of seeing if we can do a better job of keeping the most dangerous cargos from reaching the most irresponsible purchasers of such cargo," Powell said. "It does not threaten North Korea ... It protects the rest of the world"
(09/10/04 5:29am)
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration for the first time Thursday called attacks in Sudan's Darfur region by government-backed Arab militia against black Africans "genocide."\nThe designation by Secretary of State Colin Powell came as a U.S. proposal in the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions against Sudan encountered opposition. Powell told Congress that Sudan's government is to blame for the killing of tens of thousands and uprooting of 1.2 million people.\nIn recent interviews with 1,136 refugees in neighboring Chad, the State Department found a "consistent and widespread pattern of atrocities committed against non-Arab villagers," according to a department report. It added that about a third of the refugees who were interviewed heard racial epithets while under attack.\nPowell said that as a member of the 1948 international genocide convention, Sudan is obliged to prevent and punish acts of genocide.\n"To us, at this time, it appears that Sudan has failed to do so," he said.\nPowell's announcement came as the United States was pressuring the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Sudan's oil industry, among other measures, if the government does not take steps to improve security in Darfur.\nSuch sanctions are opposed by China and Pakistan, Security Council members that import Sudanese oil.\nThe Bush administration has not seriously considered sending troops to Sudan. The African Union, a continent-wide security group, has dispatched 125 monitors to Darfur who are protected by 300 African Union troops.\nU.N. envoy Jan Pronk urged Sudan last week to allow more than 3,000 troops into the region to stop violence and to prevent the conflict from escalating.\nIn Abuja, Nigeria, where Darfur peace talks are under way, Sudanese Deputy Foreign Minister Najeeb El-Khair Abdel Wahab criticized Powell's action.\n"We don't think this kind of attitude can help the situation in Darfur. We expect the international community to assist the process that is taking place in Abuja, and not put oil on the fire," he said.\nThe European Union also was critical. "We have not discussed specifically the use of the word genocide," said spokesman Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe. "For us, we have noted that there is an extremely serious situation that still requires a huge humanitarian aid effort."\nState Department officials acknowledged the possibility that the genocide designation could interfere with U.S. efforts to encourage more robust Sudanese government efforts to protect Darfur's citizens. And Powell has acknowledged that the designation will not lead directly to any material benefit for Darfur's victims.\nThe 1948 genocide convention defines that act as a calculated effort to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in whole or in part.\nState Department officials could not say whether any convention member had ever invoked the accord. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said he believes Powell's designation was a first.\nOther crises over the years that often carry the genocide label have occurred in Rwanda in 1994 and Cambodia from 1975-79. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is facing genocide charges before an international war crimes tribunal at The Hague.\nCongress this summer called the violence in Sudan genocide.\nPowell noted that part of the genocide convention provides that parties may call on the United Nations to take any action under the U.N. charter that "they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide ... ."\nHe urged the U.N. Security Council to approve a resolution on Sudan that requests that the United Nations look into "all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights that have occurred in Darfur."\nThe violence in Darfur began when black African tribes in the region rebelled in February 2003, accusing the national government in Khartoum of neglecting their interests.\nPowell said that in response, the Arab militias coupled with Sudanese military forces "committed large-scale acts of violence, including murders, rape and physical assaults on non-Arab individuals."\nHe told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he hopes the Sudanese government will respond to the genocide designation by recognizing that "this is not the time to go backward but go forward."\nSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who has visited Sudan repeatedly over the years, said the Darfur crisis "could be one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of all time." Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., criticized the administration for not having a presidential special envoy for Sudan.\nDarfur has not been a major theme of the presidential campaign. Democratic candidate John Kerry has called for decisive U.S. action to end the suffering.
(07/29/04 6:12am)
CAIRO, Egypt -- Touching on two sensitive Mideast issues, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell repeated Wednesday calls for reform in the Palestinian leadership and urged pressure on Sudan to stop violence blamed on ethnic cleansing.\nPowell, in the first stop on a regional tour, also condemned the car bombing in Iraq that killed dozens of Iraqis. He said that he still believed Iraq's elections could be held as scheduled in January.\n"We are holding to that date," Powell said at a news conference after a series of meetings with Egyptian leaders. "We continue to solicit assistance from other nations to provide additional forces that might be able to provide security for the U.N. workers who are coming in for the election."\nPowell arrived in Egypt Tuesday on a Mideast tour aimed at trying to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace process and talking with some of America's closest Arab allies about Iraq's future, the war on terror, violence in Sudan and the U.S. initiative to encourage greater democracy in this troubled region.\nOn Sudan, where Arab-led militias have attacked blacks in the Darfur region, Powell said he agreed with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that "we have to give the Sudanese government more time" to stop the fighting and facilitate humanitarian deliveries to the people in the besieged region.\nPowell described the situation as catastrophic in an interview with Egyptian Television and noted that a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution being circulated by the United States would give Sudan a month to make progress.\nReferring to the resolution, Powell said, "At the end of 30 days, one more month, the Security Council has to consider possible measures. It might even include sanctions," he said in an interview with the Al Akhbar newspaper.\nAfter Powell and Mubarak met Wednesday morning, presidential spokesman Maged Abdel Fattah issued a statement to reporters saying the two had agreed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia should work together.\nQureia withdrew a resignation he had offered 10 days ago in frustration at Arafat's refusal to let him restructure the security forces and deal with growing unrest in the Palestinian areas.\nArafat's almost absolute control over the Palestinian Authority has been a source of frustration for the United States and other countries demanding reform in the Palestinian leadership. The Israelis have frozen out Arafat, saying he is not a fit negotiating partner. The Americans have tried to present Qureia as an alternative.\nEgypt has agreed to work with the Palestinians and the Israelis to ensure order after Israel's proposed pullout from Gaza.\nAt the news conference, Powell said the United States hoped Qureia would be able to act "to provide political control and security control over Gaza."\nEgyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, appearing with Powell, said the Gaza plan should be linked to the U.S.-backed peace plan calling for a Palestinian state by next year.\nOn the issue of Sudan, Egypt and other Arab nations have resisted as counterproductive a U.S.-backed draft U.N. Security Council resolution that could threaten sanctions against Sudan.\n"Nobody wishes to make the situation any worse with the imposition of sanctions, but at the same time pressure must keep on the Sudanese government to make sure that access is allowed and that security is improved," Powell said.\nAid groups, U.N. officials and Western governments say ethnic cleansing in Sudan's Darfur region has killed 30,000 people, most of them black villagers, and threatens 2 million.\n"These people are in desperate need," Powell said. "We should give the Sudanese government time to respond, but these people don't have much time."\nThe Bush administration holds the Sudanese government principally responsible for the violence against Sudanese of African descent by Arab Sudanese believed to be backed by the government.\nThe Egyptian presidential spokesman reiterated that Egypt believes Sudan should be allowed to resolve the situation without outside interference and said his government would push Sudan to act "in order to prevent the adoption of this (Security Council) resolution."\nOn Iraq, the Egyptians told Powell they did not want to send in Egyptian troops. Most Arab governments have rebuffed requests from Iraq for peacekeepers. Many Arab citizens see the insurgents who oppose the interim Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces in Iraq as freedom fighters standing up to the United States.\nPowell expressed appreciation for an Egyptian offer to train Iraqi security forces.\nBesides talks with Egyptian officials, Powell met in Cairo with Egyptian political and civil society leaders to discuss U.S. plans to promote democratic reform in the Middle East.\nAfter the closed meeting, several participants told The Associated Press they had stressed to Powell that they believed reform could not be imposed from the outside and that a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict would make room for change.
(07/01/04 1:14am)
AL-FASHER, Sudan -- Thousands of Sudanese displaced from their homes by ethnic violence emerged from makeshift shelters at a dusty refugee camp Wednesday to give a raucous welcome to Secretary of State Colin Powell in a region the United States has said is veering toward possible genocide.\nOther than the rows of fragile shelters built mostly with plastic sheeting, there was no overt display of serious humanitarian need among the tens of thousands Powell saw. Earlier this week, Powell raised the possibility that Sudanese authorities might try to mask the gravity of the situation in Darfur province by emptying refugee camps in time for his visit.\nPowell said he hoped the people at the camp he visited would soon be able to return to their homes, though he noted that the refugees appeared less needy than those housed elsewhere because of greater availability of food and medicines.\nThe crowd, many in colorful native dress, strained for a glimpse of the visiting VIP as he took an often-chaotic, 20-minute stroll through the Abu Shouk Camp just north of here, one of a dozen or so temporary shelters around beleaguered Darfur province that house people uprooted over the last 16 months.\nPowell has called the overall situation in Abu Shouk "horrific" and "catastrophic," an assessment which is sharply disputed by the Sudanese government.\nSudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, who accompanied Powell to Darfur said Tuesday night that "there is no famine, no malnutrition and no disease" in Darfur.\nAfter Powell's visit Wednesday, Ismail told reporters that his government plans to work swiftly toward a political settlement between the rival factions in the province. "Hopefully in a very short time, we will reach agreement with the rebels," Ismail said.
(06/24/04 1:29am)
WASHINGTON -- Genocide has struck many victims over the past 65 years: European Jews during World War II, Cambodians in the late 1970s, Rwandans in 1994.\nThere may be a new addition: The black African tribes of Darfur province in western Sudan have faced murder, displacement, pillage, razing of villages and other crimes committed by Arab militias known as janjaweed.\nThe dictionary defines genocide as "the systematic killing of a racial or cultural group." The U.S. government is reviewing whether Darfur qualifies for the designation.\n"The janjaweed are the government's militia, and Khartoum has armed and empowered it to conduct 'ethnic cleansing' in Darfur," says Human Rights Watch. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group says Darfur can "easily become as deadly" as the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Then, soldiers, militiamen and civilians of the Hutu majority killed more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in 100 days.\nAll along, Sudan has denied allegations of complicity with the Arab militias and has blamed rebels for rights violations.\nIn February 2003, the Zaghawa, Fur and Masalit black tribes rebelled against what they regarded as unjust treatment by the Sudanese government in their historic struggle over land and resources with their Arab countrymen.\nCountless thousands of tribesmen have died in a brutal counterinsurgency. The conflict has uprooted more than 1 million, and the Bush administration believes this many could die unless a peace settlement is reached and relief supply deliveries are greatly accelerated. Sudanese cooperation has been limited but is improving.\nThe Muslim-vs.-Muslim conflict is separate from the 21-year war between ethnic Arab Muslim militants in northern Sudan and the black African non-Muslim south. That three-decade-long struggle may be ending thanks to peace accords signed last month.\nA U.S. interagency review is aimed at judging whether the Darfur tragedy qualifies as genocide under a 1946 international convention that outlaws the practice.\n"I believe what is occurring in Sudan approaches the level of genocide," says Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. He and several colleagues are pushing for $95 million in emergency assistance for Darfur's victims.\nRabbi Marvin Hier, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a group opposed to intolerance in all forms, says Washington could increase the pressure on the Sudanese government by issuing a "stern warning" that, in the U.S. view, it is "close to if not bordering on genocide." This would greatly impact international public opinion, said Hier, founder and dean of the center.\nMark Schneider, a vice president of the International Crisis Group, says Hier may have a point. He also cautions that a genocide designation by the United States could thrust the U.N. Security Council into prolonged debate, deflecting attention from Darfur's massive humanitarian needs.\nA role for the United Nations is made clear under Article 8 of the Genocide Convention: "Any contracting party may call upon the competent organs of the U.N. to take such action under the Charter of the U.N. as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide."\nU.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he wasn't ready to describe the situation in Darfur "as genocide or ethnic cleansing yet," but he called it "a tragic humanitarian situation."\nFor now, the U.S. administration seems to be tilting against the genocide label but is sticking with ethnic cleansing to describe the situation.\nWith so many in Darfur at risk of dying, "legal distinctions about genocide versus ethnic cleansing are going to seem rather hollow," says State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. The focus, he says, should be on helping the needy.\nHumanitarian access remains a serious problem, the result of both government resistance and the remoteness of the Iraqi-sized province. The United States has been airlifting relief supplies to the region, a costly process.\nOver the weekend, Sudan President Omar el-Bashir vowed to disarm the militias. Also, peace talks Tuesday between government and rebel leaders opened in Berlin. U.S. officials are wary about the Sudanese gestures, pointing out that Khartoum has routinely violated an April 8 cease-fire agreement.
(12/10/03 5:25am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Tuesday after meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that he opposes the apparent interest of Taiwan's leaders in taking steps toward independence.\nMeeting with reporters in the Oval Office after a 40-minute meeting with Wen, Bush said he had told the premier, "The United States policy is one China."\n"We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo," Bush said, "and the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally, to change the status quo, which we oppose."\nIt was the administration's strongest statement to date in opposition to Taiwan's plan to conduct a referendum on March 20 on whether the Taiwanese people want to demand that China withdraw hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan and renounce the use of force against the island.\nThe administration sees this as an indirect step toward independence, a view shared by Chinese authorities who have threatened military action against the island if the referendum proceeds as planned. But Wen, refraining from belligerent comments, said China's goal is to pursue peaceful reunification with Taiwan, "as long as a glimmer of hope" exists.\n"Stability can only be maintained through unswerving opposition to pro-independence activities," Wen said. He said his country sought to maintain a system of "one country, two systems."\n"We will do our utmost to bring about national reunification through peaceful means," Wen said.\n"The Chinese government respects the desire of people in Taiwan for democracy, but we must point out that the (Taiwanese leaders) are only using democracy as an excuse and attempt to resort to defensive referendums to split Taiwan away from China," he said. "Such separatist activities are what the Chinese side can absolutely not accept."\nOn the issue of stability on the Korean peninsula, the United States hopes to be able to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, with assistance from China.\nAt present, China is attempting to reconvene six-party talks aimed at resolving the impasse.\nBush expressed appreciation to China for starting the process this past summer.\n"The goal is to dismantle a nuclear weapons program in a verifiable and irreversible way, and that is a clear message that we are sending to the North Koreans," Bush said. "We will continue to work with China and the other countries involved to solve this issue peacefully."\nThe other countries, aside from China and the United States, are the two Koreas, Japan and Russia.\nIn response to a question on trade disputes, Wen said China has been taking steps to reduce the massive U.S. trade deficit, adding that he planned to submit a proposal on this issue during his luncheon meeting with Bush and other officials. He gave no hint on what was in the proposal.\nU.S.-China trade has come a long way since 25 years ago, Wen said. The combined total was a mere $2.5 billion a year, compared with the current figure of more than $100 billion, he said.\n"We have to admit, though, in our economic and trade relationship, problems still exist, and mainly the U.S. trade deficit with China," Wen said -- prompting a "thank you" from Bush.\n"The Chinese government takes this problem seriously, and has taken measures to improve the situation," Wen said.
(12/03/03 5:16am)
MAASTRICHT, Netherlands -- A month to the day after a Georgian parliamentary election marked by ballot fraud, Secretary of State Colin Powell met Tuesday with the country's acting president, Nino Burdzhanadze, and stressed the need for a free and fair process when Georgians return to the polls on Jan. 4 to choose a new president.\nPowell arrived here from Washington before dawn to attend a meeting of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Georgian leader was sworn in late last month following the forced resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze.\nAt a briefing after their meeting, Powell emphasized the importance of a constitutional process in Georgia that will "lead to a new government that will have been brought to office by free, fair and open elections."\nSince last month's upheaval in Georgia, the unstable situation there has become a priority for the OSCE. Donations from member nations are expected to cover virtually the entire cost of the January election. The United States also will make a contribution, Powell said.\nThe OSCE is Europe's largest security organization. Part of its mandate is to provide encouragement and resources to countries new to democratic processes. It also has been seeking to arrange a withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia and another former Soviet republic, Moldova.\nPowell said he was disappointed that the conference had failed to reach agreement on a consensus statement about the situation in the two countries.\nPowell criticized Russia for refusing to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to withdraw troops from Georgia and Moldova, each wracked by separatist movements.\n"This is a setback, though progress has been made," Powell told the convention. He called for a swift withdrawal of Russian forces from the two former Soviet Republics.\nDisagreement over the two states preoccupied the conference and overshadowed agreements to step up the fight against human trafficking, global terrorism and the spread of small weapons, especially lethal shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.\nAddressing the convention Monday, Burdzhanadze accused Russia of undermining Georgian sovereignty by supporting the dismemberment of the country over the past decade and by hosting their leaders last week in Moscow.\nAfter a stay here of less than four hours, Powell flew to Tunisia for a brief stop before heading for Morocco to spend the night. He will visit Algeria today and then fly to Belgium to meet with fellow NATO foreign ministers.\nHe is visiting the three North African countries partly to acknowledge their cooperation in the war on terrorism.\nThe Bush administration and the OSCE went to some lengths to bring about a credible parliamentary election in Georgia on Nov. 2.\nThe administration spent more than $2 million on a variety of activities, including sponsoring get-out-the-vote campaigns and town hall meetings. The OSCE dispatched 400 monitors to oversee the balloting. When the official results were announced, they were widely repudiated and mass protests ensued. Shevardnadze quit in a matter of days.\nAn embittered Shevardnadze said in an interview last week he believed the United States, after long years of friendship, had orchestrated his downfall. The State Department quickly denied the allegation.
(09/15/03 5:54am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he is convinced "the winds of freedom are blowing" across Iraq but acknowledged the possibility that terrorists are trying to make their way into the country and sabotage the process toward self-rule.\nPowell spent 12 hours in talks with the team of American officials guiding Iraq in the postwar period and with the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.\nOn his first visit to the nation that has dominated his attention since the early days of the Bush administration, Powell attended a Baghdad City Council meeting, met with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and joined the U.S. administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, at a joint news conference.\nHe described impressive moves toward self-government and seemed invigorated by what he heard as he made his rounds.\n"There is vibrancy to this effort, a vibrancy that I attribute to the winds of freedom that are now blowing through this land," he said after the city council meeting.\nPowell said the U.S. is committed to having Iraqis run their government, but wants to cede power after a "deliberative process" rather than the early transfer advocated by some fellow members of the U.N. Security Council. France has pressed for seating a provisional government within a month.\n"We are not hanging on for the sake of hanging on. We are hanging on because it's necessary to stay with this task until a new government has been created, a responsible government," Powell said at the news conference with Bremer.\n"The worst thing that could happen is for us to push this process too quickly, before the capacity for governance is there and the basis for legitimacy is there, and see it fail."\nPowell called attention to the appointment of an interim Iraqi Cabinet with 25 ministers, steps toward creation of an independent judiciary and general Arab acceptance of Zebari as a legitimate Iraqi representative even though Iraq still lacks an authentic government.\n"There is a sense of hope here even in this time of difficulty," Powell said. "Those who are so critical of the administration might want to hold their fire a bit."\nPowell acknowledged that the security situation remains challenging, with a major new threat coming from "terrorists who are trying to infiltrate into the country for the purpose of disrupting this whole process."\nThe secretary gave a rough estimate of 100 such infiltrators and said he was confident that the U.S. military can handle the problem.\nThe attacks on American occupying forces, an almost daily occurrence in Iraq, continued when a roadside bomb hit a convoy in the city of Fallujah, killing a U.S. soldier and injuring three others, the military said.\nSome 155 soldiers have died in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. During the heavy fighting before that date, 138 soldiers died.\n"This security threat comes from those who do not want to see (deposed President) Saddam Hussein go and those who want to foment trouble here, terrorists who are coming in, as well as remnants of the old regime," Powell told "Fox News Sunday" in Washington.\nHe said military commanders told him they are confident they can handle both threats, though it will take time.\nAlmost nine in 10 Americans, in an ABC-Washington Post poll released Sunday, said they were concerned that the U.S. is going to get bogged down in a long and costly peacekeeping mission in Iraq.\nIn Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney hinted that the administration would seek more money next year than the additional $87 billion already requested to pay mainly for postwar costs in Iraq. He also said the administration does not know when the U.S. military presence in Iraq will end.\nAbout 116,000 American troops are deployed in Iraq. While some U.S. lawmakers have urged the administration to increase that number and persuade other countries to commit troops, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld took issue with critics who say the mission has become a quagmire.\n"We've been there 4 1/2 months since the end of major military combat. Four-and-a-half months is not bogged down, in my view," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."\nLast week, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, made a comparison to Vietnam. That prompted a blunt response from Powell:\n"We ought to stop with these rather bizarre historical allusions back to something that happened 25, 30 years ago," Powell said on CNN's "Late Edition."\nHe asserted that "there is political life returning here on a democratic basis. The Iraqi people are being presented a future so totally different from the horrible past from which they've just come out."\nBremer has said a new government could be in place as early as the end of 2004. But the Iraqi chairman of a committee studying the constitutional process said Sunday that it could take as long as two years to write a new Iraqi constitution, hold a national referendum on it and conduct national elections.\nOn an unseasonably cool day, Powell was received warmly at the Baghdad International Airport by dozens of U.S. soldiers.\nHe posed with some for photographs. The former general, whose last military job was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, looked very much at home with the sergeants and corporals who surrounded him.\nPowell then flew to Baghdad by helicopter, avoiding the drive along an airport road that has been the scene of occasional sniper attacks.\nZebari, who took office just a week ago, acknowledged that the security environment will influence the pace of progress toward Iraqi self-rule. He expressed hope that by mid-2004, Iraq will have "an elected legitimate government."\nDetails about the length of Powell's stay in Iraq and his remaining activities were closely held by U.S. officials. He was expected to visit locations associated with rights abuses under Saddam's rule.
(08/29/03 5:37am)
WASHINGTON -- North Korea startled a six-nation conference on East Asian security by announcing its intentions to formally declare its possession of nuclear weapons and to carry out a nuclear test, a Bush administration official said Thursday.\nNorth Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il also told the gathering in Beijing that his country has the means to deliver nuclear weapons, an apparent reference to the North's highly developed missile program, the official said.\nThe comments cast a pall over Thursday's plenary session, which included representatives of the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, in addition to North Korea, raising questions about the success of negotiations scheduled to conclude today.\nNevertheless, the diplomats agreed on the need to hold more such talks and probably will, a South Korean official said.\nJames Kelly, the chief U.S. delegate, demanded at the talks that North Korea engage in the verifiable and permanent dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs, in return for which the United States would provide security guarantees and economic benefits to the impoverished nation, said the U.S. administration official, asking not to be identified.
(06/23/03 12:29am)
SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday the killing of a Hamas leader by Israel could set back the U.S.-backed peace initiative for the region.\nPowell said he was concerned about Saturday's shooting by the Israeli army of Abdullah Kawasme in the West Bank town of Hebron, but the U.S. official stopped short of condemning the act because he lacked details.\nPowell has said Israel is justified in going after "ticking bombs" -- militants preparing to commit a terrorist act. On the other hand, he has said Israel should show restraint in situations that do not meet those criteria.\n"We can't allow ourselves to be stopped because of these incidents," Powell told a news conference.\nHe was joined by three other members of the group that developed the blueprint for Middle East peace: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country heads the European Union's rotating presidency.\nThe four talked for more than an hour before they met with reporters. Their prime purpose in coming to this Dead Sea resort town was to attend a conference of the World Economic Forum.\nAnnan said the two sides should pursue political, humanitarian and security objectives at the same time.\nHe implored Israel not to engage in extrajudicial killings and said the Palestinian militants "must cease acts of terror against the Israeli people."\nThe group's chief concern is that unprovoked Israeli attacks against Palestinian leaders could undermine the efforts of the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, to persuade militant groups to agree to a cease-fire.\nIsrael's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said Sunday that security forces would continue tracking Palestinian militants if the Palestinian Authority does not crack down on violent groups. Hamas leaders pledged to avenge the latest killing of a top militant.\nPowell noted the progress by Israel and the Palestinians in putting in place the road map, as the peace plan is known.\nHe said Israel has begun dismantling unauthorized outposts set up by Israeli citizens in the territories. He also praised the "new seriousness" of the Palestinian side in negotiating security issues with Israel.\n"Both sides are committed to moving forward because, what is the alternative?" Powell asked.\nThe plan seeks to end 33 months of violence and establish a Palestinian state by 2005. In the first stage of the road map, the Palestinians must dismantle armed groups. Israel must freeze Jewish settlement-building and gradually withdraw to positions held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000.
(05/20/03 1:57pm)
WASHINGTON -- The United States should abandon its refusal to open direct negotiations with North Korea and instead seek "a verifiable nuclear settlement" with that country, a report sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations says.\nThe Bush administration, rejecting direct talks with North Korea, has pressed for a negotiation with broad international participation, to include China, South Korea, Japan and perhaps others.\nA start toward that objective began last month with the United States holding talks with China and North Korea in Beijing.\nDeclaring that the situation in North Korea poses a "genuine crisis," the panel said it believes that it is increasingly likely that North Korea can and will move to produce additional nuclear weapons material.\n"We cannot preclude that that is its aim and that it seeks to hold off the United States until it is successful," the report says. "The situation has drifted toward one in which the United States may have little choice but to live with a North Korea with more nuclear weapons and to find ways to prevent it from exporting its fissile material."\nAsserting that the United States must try to prevent that outcome, the panel urged a bilateral negotiation of "a verifiable nuclear settlement with the North and, in return, demand that America's regional partners adopt a tougher posture should negotiations fail."\nIt added that this option may not be available if North Korea has already processed spent nuclear weapons fuel, which could put the country within reach of additional nuclear weapons in the coming months.\nAs a contingency, the report says that if negotiations fail and the North continues to pursue nuclear weapons, the United States should seek sanctions "and consider imposing a blockade designed to intercept nuclear exports and other illicit or deadly exports."\nThe panel rejects the current administration approach, which says regional countries must be included in any negotiating process because of the strong stake they have in whether the North possesses nuclear weapons beyond the one or two it is believed to have already.\nFar from shunning nuclear weapons, as it has promised, North Korea is pursuing both uranium- and plutonium-based nuclear programs, the administration says.\nAccording to the report, America's regional partners "fear that the United States will attack North Korean nuclear facilities and unleash war on the peninsula." It says all regional countries oppose sanctions out of concern that this could trigger a war, as the North has threatened.\nThese countries, the report says, all agree on the need for serious U.S.-North Korean negotiations and attach less importance to the multilateral approach favored by the administration.\n"The United States has not persuaded its regional partners that it is serious about negotiations, making efforts to secure their approval for a significantly tougher position difficult if not impossible," the study says.\nThe panel is bipartisan, but many of its members have Democratic affiliations or served in the Clinton administration. The Council on Foreign Relations said the views in the report are solely those of its authors.
(04/25/03 4:51am)
WASHINGTON -- Talks between North Korea and the United States ended Thursday with State Department officials saying it was uncertain whether discussions on Pyongyang's nuclear program would continue.\nThe officials denied reports the talks had broken down.\nBefore the start of the second day's meeting in Beijing, North Korea accused the United States of leading the region toward war, an apparent attempt by the communist nation to increase pressure on negotiators, according to the U.S. officials.\nEarlier, Secretary of State Colin Powell had told a gathering of experts from the Asia-Pacific region that the talks, involving the United States, North Korea and China, had concluded, leaving the impression there would not be a third day of discussions on Friday.\nPowell expressed hope that South Korea and Japan would be able to participate "when and if" there is another round of talks.\nHe added: "North Korea should not leave the meetings having the slightest impression that they might force us to make a concession we would not otherwise make."\nA U.S. official said the North Koreans implied during the talks that they have nuclear weapons and that they may conduct a test.\nThe official said there are no indications a test is imminent. He acknowledged that preparations for an underground test could be concealed.\nAccording to the official, a North Korean nuclear detonation would deplete by half their estimated stockpile of two weapons.\nIn Beijing, the chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, declined to answer questions upon returning to his hotel in the afternoon, saying only that the sides "had talks."\nKelly was to fly to Seoul on Friday to meet with South Korean officials.\nNorth Korea continued to try to ratchet up the pressure and is believed to want economic aid in exchange for concessions.\nIts leaders are outraged over U.S. moves to cut off oil shipments because of its suspected nuclear weapons program, and fears it is next on Washington's list for military action.\n"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a war may break out any moment due to the U.S. moves," the North's KCNA news agency said.\nIt said relations with the United States had hit "rock bottom" because President Bush named North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq.\nKCNA said the war in Iraq had shown the only way for a country to protect itself was to have a strong military deterrent. Officials from Seoul and Washington say the swift U.S.-led victory in Iraq prompted North Korea to agree to the nuclear talks.\nThe North's Korea People's Army vowed to "put all people under arms and turn the whole country into a fortress" and urged its soldiers to become "human bombs and fighters ready to blow up themselves" to protect leader Kim Jong Il.\n"If the U.S. imperialists and their followers intrude into even an inch of the inviolable sky, land and sea of the (North) ... the (army) will deal merciless deadly blows at the aggressors," North Korean Defense Minister Kim Il Chol was quoted as saying by KCNA.\nStill, North Korea said it was ready to settle the dispute over its suspected nuclear weapons programs and that the "master key" for successful talks was for the United States to drop its hostile policy toward Pyongyang.\nLate Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Secretary of State Colin Powell talked by phone and agreed that the Beijing talks were beneficial, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.\nThe U.S. Embassy and Chinese Foreign Ministry said they had no details of Thursday's discussions. But ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the talks were "conducive to mutual understanding and finding ways to resolve the North Korean nuclear question peacefully."\nNorth Korea and China fought against the United States in the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended without a peace treaty. North Korea and Washington have no formal relations and are still technically at war.\nIn a likely reference to North Korea's demand for a nonaggression treaty with Washington, KCNA said: "The U.S. should settle the talks from a sincere stand and strive to settle the essential issue."\nWashington has refused to offer a formal treaty but says it would consider some sort of written assurance.\nChina, the North's ally and major aid donor, nevertheless says it doesn't want Pyongyang to acquire nuclear weapons and has appealed for a negotiated settlement to the crisis.\nThe talks are being led by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Ri Gun, deputy director of American affairs for North Korea's Foreign Ministry. China's delegation is led by Fu Ying, director general of the Asian Affairs Department of its Foreign Ministry.
(02/25/03 5:31am)
BEIJING -- Chinese officials rejected Secretary of State Colin Powell's appeal Monday for a regional approach to the North Korean nuclear standoff and called for direct talks between the United States and Pyongyang to resolve concerns over the communist nation's nuclear weapons programs.\nOn Iraq, Powell urged Chinese support for a second U.N. Security Council resolution that would authorize military action if President Saddam Hussein refuses to disarm, but the Chinese stood by their longstanding position that U.N. inspections should continue. It was not clear whether China would exercise its veto power if a second resolution is voted on by the Council.\nNorth Korea and Iraq dominated separate meetings Powell held with Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, Vice President Hu Jintao and President Jiang Zemin.\nA resolution on Iraq backed by the United States and Britain was to be introduced Monday.\nWhite House spokesman Ari Fleischer said it would be "very short and to the point," and that President Bush expects a vote on it soon. Fleischer would not offer a deadline for a vote.\nA spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the council would vote on the resolution by mid-March. Fleischer said "that's not a bad estimate."\nVice President Dick Cheney was meeting Monday morning in Washington with Angela Merkel, the head of the Christian Democrats and a possible German ally on Iraq.\nMerkel has said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made a mistake by ruling out force, and she believes that with force as an option, Saddam may be more prone to cooperate.\nOn North Korea, Chinese state television quoted Tang as saying that China hopes for talks on the nuclear issue between the United States and North Korea "on an equal basis."\nThe Chinese state news agency Xinhua, meanwhile, reported that Hu made the same point and said U.S. talks with North Korea should begin as soon as possible.\nPowell told an afternoon news conference that China is eager to play a positive role in helping to resolve concerns about Pyongyang's weapons programs. He added that China was undertaking initiatives with North Korea that he was unable to discuss publicly.\nAfter his discussions here, Powell flew to South Korea to attend the inauguration Tuesday of President-elect Roh Moo-Hyun. Roh also has advocated direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang to resolve the weapons issue.\nPowell has said direct talks with North Korea are possible so long as they are limited to a conversation on what Pyongyang must to do comply with its international obligations.\nHe said the United States feels strongly that "North Korea's actions pose a threat to regional stability and to the global non-proliferation regime.\n"I cannot emphasize how seriously all of us would view any move toward reprocessing of the spent fuel and the production of nuclear weapons."\nPowell said Japan backs the U.S. insistence on a regional approach to the issue. He also noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency agreed earlier this month in a near-unanimous vote by member states to refer the issue to the U.S. Security Council.\nAn administration official said last week that strong action by the Council is not likely because of opposition by Russia.\nChina is the chief provider of foreign assistance to North Korea. Privately, administration officials have said China has not used all the leverage it has to induce North Korea to curb its nuclear ambitions.\nPowell told reporters the administration has seen a deterioration in the human rights situation in China.\nSince December, he said the United States has been "deeply concerned by the execution of a prominent Tibetan, the detention of more than a dozen pro-democracy activists and the continuation of a pattern of inconsistent and irregular legal and judicial procedures"
(01/27/03 4:36am)
DAVOS, Switzerland -- Secretary of State Colin Powell, citing Iraq's lack of cooperation with U.N. inspectors, said Sunday he has lost faith in the inspectors' ability to conduct a definitive search for banned weapons programs.\nA U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, however, is not imminent, Powell told business and political leaders, and he did not explicitly call for the inspections to end.\nPresident Bush and heads of state were awaiting Monday's report by the chief weapons inspector to the U.N. Security Council. The summary of their findings is intended to help determine whether Iraq has programs for chemical, biological or nuclear arms.\nBush will "listen with great interest" to what the inspectors have to say and will talk to the American people about it in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, going into detail about why Washington considers Saddam a threat to the United States and other nations, White House aides said.\nPolls show most Americans do not believe Bush has made his case for military conflict in Iraq, and the Senate's top Democrat said Sunday, "We ought not be rushing to war." South Dakota's Tom Daschle also urged the White House to work harder to assemble an international coalition before deciding to go into Iraq.\nPowell said in his address at the World Economic Forum in this Swiss resort that only a strong international response will deter Saddam from sharing his weapons with terror groups or using them himself.\nEven though Iraq has responded to weeks of inspections "with evasions and with lies," the secretary said, "We are in no great rush to judgment tomorrow or the day after, but clearly time is running out."\nIn Washington, Bush's chief of staff said that military force is "the last option, but it's one that the president will be ready to use."\nAnd Andrew Card, raising the threat of a U.S. nuclear strike, warned: "Should Saddam Hussein have any thought that he would use a weapon of mass destruction, he should anticipate that the United States will use whatever means necessary to protect us and the world from a holocaust."\nPowell said Iraq should not be in doubt that "if it does not disarm peacefully at this juncture, it will be disarmed at the end of the road."\nU.S. officials have said war against Iraq could be a month or more away. They said they believe that extra weeks of unsuccessful inspections could weaken the resolve of key Security Council members -- Russia, France and Germany -- to maintain their opposition to military force against Iraq.\nIn London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's staunchest ally on Iraq, said it should not take the inspectors months to determine whether Saddam's government is cooperating fully.\n"I don't believe it will take them months to find out whether he is cooperating or not, but they should have whatever time they need," said Blair, who meets with Bush on Friday at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.\nThe European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said inspection team leaders may ask for additional time and resources to complete their assignment and should get that chance.\n"We are talking about a question of weeks, about months, but not an infinite amount of time," Solana said. "The contribution, the cooperation of Saddam Hussein with the inspectors, has to be proven very, very rapidly."\nThe inspectors could say in their report that Iraq's arms declaration is incomplete and its scientists are not cooperating with inspectors. But they have been unable to confirm U.S. contentions that Iraq is rearming, nor do they know what happened to Iraq's stockpiles of banned weapons.\n"Without Iraq's full and active participation, the 100 or so inspectors would have to look under every roof and search in the back of every truck in a country the size of California," Powell said in his speech.\nAfter weeks of inspections, he asked, "Where is the evidence that Iraq has destroyed the tens of thousands of liters of anthrax and botulinum we know it had before it expelled the previous inspectors?\n"What happened to the 30,000 munitions capable of carrying chemical agents. The inspectors can account for only 16."\nReflecting his impatience with the process, Powell asked, "How much more time does Iraq need to answer those questions?"\nCard said assuming that the inspectors' report will find that Saddam has not cooperated properly, "that will then be the challenge. What can we do to encourage Saddam Hussein to cooperate fully?"
(01/17/03 5:37pm)
WASHINGTON - The White House said Friday that chemical warheads found in Iraq had not been declared by Saddam Hussein's government as required by U.N. rules, and called the discovery "troubling and serious."\nPresidential spokesman Ari Fleischer stopped short of calling the weapons cache a breach of an anti-arms U.N. resolution, saying the United States has already found Saddam in violation of several U.N. rules.\nU.S. officials hope the discovery of 11 empty chemical warheads at a storage area 75 miles south of Baghdad will bolster their case against Saddam. Iraq said the weapons were on its 12,000-page declaration required by the U.N., an assertion disputed by Fleischer.\n"Chemical warheads were not, not on the ... list of weapons Iraq issued," he said. "The fact that Iraq is in possession of undeclared chemical warheads ... is troubling and serious."\nHe repeated the line when asked if the discovery represented the long-sought "smoking gun" against Saddam.\nFleischer also dismissed Saddam Hussein's claim Friday that Iraqi enemies would face "suicide" at the gates of his capital if an attack were launched.\n"We are much less interested in Saddam Hussein's talking and much more interested in Saddam Hussein's disarming," Fleischer said.\nSen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., says that if Iraq had not declared the warheads, they would be in "material breach" of U.N. resolutions.\n"That is a big deal," Kyl said, adding that it would only be the tip of the iceberg. "There's a whole lot more we're never likely to find because it's too hard to find in a country as large as Iraq."\nThough Fleischer stopped short of labeling the discovery a "material breach," which Bush and the United Nations could use as justification for war, the press secretary said it "doesn't get them out of material breach."\nHe added that Iraq is barred from possessing chemical weapons.\n"Iraq's statement here is they forgot that they had these chemical weapons ... which raises the question of what other memory lapses they have which could ... bring harm to their neighbors or our allies," he said.\nState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.N. inspectors have indicated that Iraq has failed in a number of areas to cooperate fully with Security Council requirements.\n"There's no point in continuing forever, going on, if Iraq is not cooperating," Boucher said.\nThe Pentagon continued its war preparations, saying it might dispatch three more aircraft carriers to the region.\nBy stationing carriers in the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, Navy fighter-bombers would be in position to attack from three directions, complicating Iraq's effort to defend its airspace.\nThe administration believes that a U.N. blessing is not necessary and is prepared to take action without it if circumstances warrant, in concert with like-minded countries.\nA potential turning point in the Iraq debate could occur starting Jan. 27, when U.N. inspectors are due to report to the Security Council.\nSecretary of State Colin Powell will confer with fellow Security Council members during a visit to the United Nations on Sunday and Monday.\nMost European nations oppose a military attack against Iraq without the endorsement of the Security Council.\nA senior administration official, speaking to reporters in Germany on Thursday on condition that he not be identified, said countries that support that view only encourage Saddam not to cooperate with the inspectors.\nEuropean Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said he cannot see how a war against Iraq can start without clear evidence that Iraq pursues biological, chemical and nuclear arms.\nHe has not said what his position would be if such evidence were uncovered.\nThe chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, has spoken of a second deadline of March 27, citing an earlier U.N. resolution.\nSome U.S. officials favor disregarding the March 27 deadline, believing critics will use it as an excuse to delay a confrontation with Iraq.
(10/18/02 5:09am)
WASHINGTON -- The United States and South Korea, stung by North Korea's admission that it has a secret nuclear weapons program, are calling on Pyongyang to reverse course and abide by promises to renounce development of these armaments.\nPresident Bush characterized the announcement as "troubling, sobering news," a spokesman said Thursday.\nThe startling disclosure, revealed Wednesday night by the White House, changed the political landscape in East Asia, setting back hopes that North Korea was on the road to becoming a more benign presence in the region.\nTalking to reporters who accompanied Bush on a trip to the South Thursday, spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday that the president planned to bring up the issue in talks here next week with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.\nBut McClellan drew a clear distinction between Pyongyang and Iraq. "Clearly, North Korea is oppressive, has starved people, but these are different regions, different circumstances," he said.\nMcClellan said that Bush decided to address the issue through diplomatic channels. "We seek a peaceful solution," he said.\nPrivately, White House officials said Bush and his senior advisers decided to confront the problem in a low-key fashion. Bush, for example, planned no public statements on it Thursday. Said Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.: "Two things have to be done immediately. First, they have to open up their country to allow inspections to examine the facilities. And second, they have to agree to destroy whatever weapons of mass destruction they have. That has to be a commitment."\nSenate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi said, "Obviously, North Korea is a matter of concern. But clearly, the one we have to deal with immediately is Iraq."\nThe disclosure adds to the administration's list of foreign policy headaches, coming on top of a possible U.S. attack on Iraq and the overall U.S. war on terrorism.\nA senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea acknowledged having "more powerful" weapons. U.S. officials have interpreted that statement as an acknowledgment that North Korea has other weapons of mass destruction. However, the same officials say they are unsure whether North Korea actually does possess biological or chemical weapons.\nOn Aug. 29 U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said: "In regard to chemical weapons, there is little doubt that North Korea has an active program."\nAny administration inclination to try to confront North Korea, which Bush has labeled as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran, could be tempered by a desire not to become overextended internationally.\nPresidential spokesman Sean McCormack said North Korea was guilty of a serious infringement of a 1994 agreement with the United States under which Pyongyang promised to be nuclear-free in return for economic assistance.\n"The United States and our allies call on North Korea to comply with its commitments under the nonproliferation treaty and to eliminate its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable manner," McCormack said.\nU.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said North Korea told U.S. diplomats that it was no longer bound by the anti-nuclear agreement.\nIn Seoul, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik, said South Korea has consistently pursued the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula in line with international agreements. Japan and South Korea are treaty allies of the United States.\nState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said late Wednesday the United States had been ready to offer North Korea economic and other benefits if Pyongyang agreed to curb missile programs, end threats and change its behavior in other ways.\n"In light of our concerns about the North's nuclear weapons program, however, we are unable to pursue this approach," Boucher said.\nFor a time, North Korea had seemed ready to shed Bush's "axis of evil" designation. Pyongyang was carrying out capitalist reforms and reaching out to both Japan and South Korea. It also resumed talks with the United States earlier this month.\nAs McCormack made the announcement, Undersecretary of State John Bolton was flying to East Asia to consult with allies on the changed situation.\nUnder the 1994 agreement, in return for renouncing nuclear weapons, Pyongyang was to receive two light water nuclear reactors to replace the country's plutonium-producing reactors.\nGroundbreaking for the new reactors, which were supposed to have been completed by 2003, just took place in August, with a State Department official on hand.\nThe two countries had just resumed high-level security talks less than two weeks ago for the first time since October 2000. It was during those discussions that North Korea informed the United States of its nuclear activities.\nThe United States has been suspicious about North Korea's nuclear intentions for some time despite the 1994 agreement.\nThat has been a U.S. concern dating from before the 1994 agreement. International inspections were supposed to clear up that mystery but the North never permitted them despite a commitment to do so.\nThe North Korean revelations apparently refer to more recent nuclear development activities, possibly encompassing the period when former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang in October 2000. President Clinton thought seriously about making a visit as well before leaving office.\nAssistant Secretary of State James Kelly visited North Korea on Oct. 3-5 and demanded that the communist state address global concerns about its nuclear and other weapons programs, prompting the disclosure. After Kelly's departure the Koreans called the U.S. diplomat "high-handed and arrogant"
(10/17/02 7:12am)
WASHINGTON -- In a startling revelation, North Korea has told the United States it has a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of an 1994 agreement with the United States, the White House said Wednesday night.\nSpokesman Sean McCormack called the North Korean disclosure a serious infringement of the agreement, under which Pyongyang promised not to develop nuclear weapons.\nU.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said North Korea told U.S. officials that it was no longer bound by the anti-nuclear agreement.\nState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said late Wednesday the United States had been ready to offer North Korea economic and other benefits if Pyongyang agreed to curb missile programs, end threats and change its behavior in other ways.\n"In light of our concerns about the North's nuclear weapons program, however, we are unable to pursue this approach," Boucher said.\nHe said Undersecretary of State John Bolton and other officials are traveling to the region to exchange views with allies.\nThe 1994 commitment had raised hopes for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, but that hope is dashed for the time being, and relations with the United States are back to square one.\nIt was not clear from the remarks by McCormack and other officials whether the United States believes the North actually has the bomb or whether it is still being developed.\nThere was no immediate reaction from North Korea to the White House announcement.\nThe two countries had just resumed high-level security talks less than two weeks ago for the first time in two years. It was during those discussions that North Korea informed the United States of its nuclear activities.\nMcCormack said the United States is consulting with it allies, South Korea and Japan, and with members of Congress on next steps.\n"We seek a peaceful resolution of this situation," McCormack said. "Everyone in the region has a stake in this issue and no peaceful nation wants to see a nuclear-armed North Korea."\n"The United States and our allies call on North Korea to comply with its commitments under the nonproliferation treaty and to eliminate its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable manner."\nThe dramatic disclosure complicates President Bush's campaign to disarm Iraq under threat of military force, coming almost nine months after Bush said North Korea was part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq.\nIt seems unlikely, however, that North Korea will become a target country for the United States much as Iraq is nowadays. With war plans for Iraq already on the drawing board and a broader war on terrorism still under way, threats against North Korea could leave the United States overextended.\nUntil now, the United States' main concern with North Korea has been its sale of ballistic missiles to Syria, Iran and other countries. Now North Korea's nuclear program is added to the mix.\nThe United States has been suspicious about North Korea's nuclear intentions for some time despite the agreement.\nA CIA report in January said that during the second half of last year, North Korea "continued its attempts to procure technology worldwide that could have applications in its nuclear program.F\n"We assess that North Korea has produced enough plutonium for at least one, and possibly two, nuclear weapons."\nSouth Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-sik said South Korea has consistently pursued the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula in line with international agreements.\n"We urge North Korea to abide by its obligations," he said.\nYim Sung-joon, a national security adviser, said President Kim Dae-jung called the North Korean disclosure a "very serious matter which cannot be accepted under any circumstances."\nIn Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's spokeswoman, Misako Kaji, said, "Japan is gravely concerned about the U.S. announcement North Korea is developing nuclear weapons."\nShe said Koizumi "will continue to press the North Korea strongly on this matter."\nLater Koizumi said, "We hope North Korea will take a sincere stance toward dispelling suspicions over its nuclear program."\nNorth Korea's stunning disclosure about its weapons program came after its remarkable admission just weeks ago that its agents had kidnapped at least 13 Japanese in the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of a program to train communist spies in Japanese language and culture.\nAssistant Secretary of State James Kelly visited North Korea on Oct. 3-5 and demanded that the communist state address global concerns about its nuclear and other weapons programs.\nIn response, the Pyongyang government accused Bush's special envoy of making "threatening remarks." The United States refused all comment on the discussions.\nUnder the 1994 agreement, North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons program and to allow inspections to verify that it did not have the material needed to construct such weapons.\nBut it has yet to allow the inspections, drawing criticism from the Bush administration.\nThe agreement also called for the construction of two light water nuclear reactors to replace the plutonium-producing reactors Pyongyang had been using. The reactors were being financed mostly by South Korea and Japan. Construction of the reactors began just two months ago.\nAn administration source said Kelly also raised with North Korea evidence that Pyongyang may have a uranium-enrichment program. The program, which the United States believes would only be used to develop a nuclear bomb, began under the Clinton administration, according to the official.\nSurprisingly, North Korea confirmed the allegation.\nThe Bush administration has not decided how to respond. "We're going to keep talking," an official said.\nAfter months of tension with South Korea, the North resumed high-level talks in August that restarted stalled reconciliation efforts on the Korean peninsula -- divided by the most heavily armed border in the world.\nThe Koreas were divided after World War II and remained that way at the end of the inconclusive Korean War from 1950-53. About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against the North.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Colin Powell headed to Asia Sunday on a diplomatic mission intended to keep tensions between Pakistan and India from further complicating the U.S. anti-terror campaign in neighboring Afghanistan. \nPakistan has been supporting Islamic militants who seek an end to Indian rule in the predominantly Muslim region of Kashmir. A terrorist attack last week in the Indian sector of Kashmir killed about 40 people. \nDeputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said last week that Powell would try to see if there were a way "to lower the temperature" between the two countries. \nPakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has cooperated with U.S. efforts to track down Osama bin Laden and go after his Taliban government hosts in Afghanistan. Musharraf has allowed American military aircraft to land in Pakistan and has granted the United States use of at least two air bases despite widespread protests in Pakistan. \nMindful of that cooperation, President Bush last month lifted sanctions against Pakistan and India that were imposed after the two nations tested nuclear weapons in 1998. The sanctions barred economic and military assistance to the two countries. \nThe United States and Pakistan also recently signed an agreement to reschedule $379 million in bilateral debt. \nOn Friday, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation announced a variety of economic initiatives for Pakistan, including extension of a $300 million special line of credit. \nOPIC is a self-sustaining federal agency that backs U.S. business expansion programs in developing countries. \n"Pakistan's commitment to the war against terrorism becomes even more meaningful for ordinary Pakistanis when foreign direct investment supports the country's economic development," OPIC president Peter S. Watson said. \nIndia also has won praise from the State Department for sharing intelligence on terrorist groups after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. \nWhile acknowledging concern about the situation in Kashmir, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last week that "the most important thing is to thank India and Pakistan each in their own way for their cooperation." \nPakistan's foreign minister, Abdul Sattar, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that the United States and the United Nations "can help recommence a dialogue between Pakistan and India so that we, with the rest of the world community, can attempt to arrive at the solution acceptable to the people of Kashmir." \nAfter visiting Pakistan and India, Powell will travel to Shanghai, China, where he will join President Bush at the meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation ministers.