U.S. to re-examine policy on Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, MARCH. 5. The Bush administration said it would clarify its policy on Iraq soon and reiterated that it had inherited a mess from the Clinton administration. One of the chief members of the Bush administration's foreign policy team - the Vice-President, Mr. Dick Cheney - said the Iraq policy should be considered on a ``regional basis and look at all facets of our policy in that part of the globe''.

In a television interview, Mr. Cheney, who was one of the key players during the earlier Bush administration, pointed out that the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, had recently visited West Asia to begin a dialogue with American allies and to report back to the President, Mr. George W Bush. The Vice- President did not mince words when talking about Iraq. ``The fact of the matter is here we've inherited a policy that is really a mess,'' Mr. Cheney said. He added that the sanctions had eroded with a lot of material getting into Iraq in ways that were no longer consistent or controlled by the present policy. With the United Nations sanctions regime in tatters and allies in West Asia and the other permanent members of the Security Council not too keen on continuing the punitive measures, the Bush administration is talking about ``smart sanctions'' to get some support from the Arab world. The U.S. is now amenable to Iraq getting consumer goods in return for a tighter squeeze on oil exports from Iraq and weapons imports to that country.

The fact that the Bush administration is, on the surface, trying to soften the sanctions regime has made conservatives on Capitol Hill wonder where the policy is headed. For this reason, the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives has asked Gen. Powell to attend a hearing this week. Right through the campaign trail, senior advisors to Mr. Bush had said the U.S. should continue the objective of removing Mr. Saddam Hussein from power. And conservatives on Capitol Hill have ensured that the so-called Iraqi opposition is funded well.

Several factors have complicated the U.S. approach to Iraq. For one, Washington has been unable to cobble up a coherent strategy vis-a-vis Baghdad and this has had domestic political ramifications. Secondly, not many are sure that Mr. Hussein has been finished off as a military force even if the official refrain is to the contrary and thirdly, Iraq has started to play its hand in the West Asia peace process by way of open support and pledging of assistance to the Palestinians. The general feeling has been that the talks between Iraq and the United Nations last week did not produce any concrete result and a second meeting is on the cards in April or May. The U.N. Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has said the Security Council members must find common ground over sanctions if progress is to be made at all with the Government in Baghdad.

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Section  : International
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