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Powell Sees Sanctions Against Iraq Collapsing
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday the existing UN sanctions against Iraq were starting to fall apart and must be modified to keep pressure on Iraq.
Appearing before the US House International Relations Committee, Powell said: "The sanctions were starting to fall apart. Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime had successfully put the burden on us as denying the wherewithal for civilians and children in Iraq to live and to get the nutrition and the health care they needed."
Powell said: "When I visited the Middle East last month I found that our allies wanted the sanctions to go off -- some of our allies did. I found weakening throughout the Gulf region with respect to the sanctions."
"I found the Russians wanting to make a serious change; the Syrians wanting to make a serious change; the UN wondering if this regime, this sanctions regime can continue," he said.
Although it is still formulating a policy for Iraq, the Bush administration is moving to support removing curbs on trade with Iraq on consumer goods while maintaining curbs on assistance to Iraqi weapons program and on the flow of oil.
Powell said: "What we've been trying to do for the last six weeks is to see how we could stabilize this collapsing situation and find some basis of stabilization that would bring the coalition back together."
"One model we are looking at is to keep Saddam from developing weapons of mass destruction. And we're also undertaking a fuller review of other things that can be done to promote a regime change."
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