Bush Suggests to Let Hussein Keep His Regime If He Disarms

The statement like this suggested that the American policy against Iraq, which pursued the change of the Hussein regime in Iraq, might be changed to inspection and dismantling of the massive killing weapons in Iraq, and she might not attack Iraq depend on whether Iraq accepted the inspection or not.

However, the White House Spokesman Erry Flisher had an explanation briefing immediately and said, “The President Bush has never stepped back from his existing state that Hussein must give up the regime.”

The Spokesman Flisher said, “It is difficult to think that the Hussein`s Regime, which has violated the UN Resolution for 11 years, responds well to the UN, so the President Bush stated like that.”

However, there is an observation that since the justification to attack Iraq has been weakened since the acknowledgment of nuclear weapon development by North Korea on the 16th, so the President Bush might be stepping back from his existing state.

The New York Times titled the article on the 22nd about the statement of the President Bush, “Bush announced to use diplomatic methods to disarm Hussein.”

Prior to this, the Secretary of State Collin Powel said on the 20th that the first objective of America was to remove massive killing weapons in Iraq. The Spokesman Flisher said the statement of the Secretary Powell “does not mean the relief of the American state, either.”

Some analyzed that the President Bush temporarily lowered the degree of statement to get agreement from the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council in time that the revised version of the UN Resolution against Iraq was distributed to them.

In the revised version of the Resolution, △the expression that Iraq will be retaliated if she does not cooperate with inspection and removing of massive killing weapons is changed to she will face the ‘serious result,’ △the expression that the UN Weapons Inspectors will be evenly dispatched from each country to it will be consisted with ‘the most competent inspectors,’ and △the article saying that the UN Squad of Guardsmen might go into Iraq and guard the Inspectors is added.

France, China, and Russia still worries that the expression “Iraq has clearly violated the UN Resolution undeniably” might tolerate the automatic military intervention of America and still show negative attitudes about the revised version; therefore, it is not clear whether is passed the Security Council by this week or not.

However, the Spokesman Flisher expressed a positive opinion by saying, “Although we do not know when the Security Council takes an actual action, we know that things are going to the positive direction.”

Eun-Taek Hong euntack@donga.com