Thomas Pickering  ALSO: U.N. aid workers return to Iraq International poll shows support for airstrikes

December 22, 1998
Web posted at: 4:07 p.m. EST (2107 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering said Tuesday Iraq had a clear choice -- allow U.N. weapons inspectors to resume work or face "sanctions in perpetuity."

Pickering said Iraq could only expect to have sanctions lifted by cooperating with the U.N. Special Commission in charge of monitoring and dismantling Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, known as UNSCOM.

"If, on the one hand, Iraq chooses to end its cooperation with UNSCOM, then it has literally chosen for sanctions in perpetuity, because it is only through disarmament, the common objective of the U.N. Security Council, and UNSCOM's verification of disarmament, that one can achieve the possibility of dealing with the issue of sanctions," said Pickering.

In that case, he said, the United States would enforce what he called its "red lines," which he defined as no threats to Iraq's neighbors, no reconstitution of its weapons of mass destruction and no move against the Kurds.

"The burden is on Iraq to demonstrate its absolute and authoritative commitment to cooperation," said Pickering.

At a news conference Monday in Baghdad, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said UNSCOM inspections had been "killed" by British and U.S. air attacks against Iraq last week.

He said Iraq would only consider a diplomatic solution to the latest crisis after the United States and Britain had been "condemned for their aggressions," and economic sanctions had been lifted.

Pickering said the United States was willing to look at "the possibility of expanding" the oil-for-food program that allows Iraq to trade a limited amount of oil for food and medicine.

He said if U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his staff felt the program needed expanding, the United States would be willing to go along.