President George W. Bush holds his first full-fledged Presidential news conference. He does not mention, nor is he asked by the White House press, about terrorism.
On Iraq, he says that Secretary of State Colin Powell was traveling to the Middle East to “listen to our allies as to how best to effect a policy, the primary goal of which will be to say to Saddam Hussein, we won’t tolerate you developing weapons of mass destruction, and we expect you to leave your neighbors alone.”
Bush says that the sanctions regime instituted in 1991 is like “Swiss cheese” and that his administration was reviewing how to make sanctions against the country “more effective.” He says though, that the primary goal will be to “make it clear to Saddam that we expect him to be a peaceful neighbor in the region, and we expect him not to develop weapons of mass destruction.” He does not push regime change.
Day: February 22, 2021