Regime Change May be Unnecessary if Saddam Disarms: Powell

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Regime Change May be Unnecessary if Saddam Disarms: Powell

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The stated US policy of seeking regime change in Iraq would become unnecessary if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein cooperates in disarmament, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview released in washington Monday.

"If he (Saddam) cooperates, the basis of regime-change policy has shifted because his regime has, in fact, changed its policy to one of cooperation," the secretary told Al Quads Al Arabi, an Arab newspaper based in London, last Thursday.

In the interview released by the State Department on Monday, Powell defended the Bush administration's quest for regime change in Baghdad, saying that the current administration inherited the policy from the Clinton administration.

"We came into office in 2001 and kept that policy because Saddam Hussein had not changed," Powell said.

"It remains our policy to change the regime until such time as the regime changes itself," he said.

But the secretary, who has repeatedly said Baghdad must be disarmed one way or the other, quickly added that if Saddam cooperates in disarmament, the cooperation alone will make his regime different.

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