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US Will Continue to Contain Iraq: Powell
US Secretary of State Colin Powell Tuesday praised American efforts to contain Iraq over the past decade and vowed to continue the policy until Iraq complies with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Key US allies in the Middle East and Europe fiercely denounced US-British raids on Iraq. Despite the fact that they rallied behind the drive to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait 10 years ago, these countries say it was time Washington reconsider its policies on Iraq.
At a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, however, Powell said the criticisms were generally moderate.
"Containment has been a success," Powell said. "The Iraqi military is about a third of the size it was before the US-led war got under way in January 1991."
Fischer expressed his understanding -- but not support as US expected -- for the US-British air strikes on targets near Baghdad last Friday.
"We understand the action our allies had to take in an immensely difficult situation where they are really -- where they have to make sure that they safeguard the lives of the Kurds as well as of their own troops in those regions," Fischer said.
"We do agree that it is necessary to get Iraq to comply with the United Nations resolutions, all of them, and we listened with great interest to what Secretary of State Powell said in this respect in the briefing on this situation," he said.
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