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3/15/2002 (19:47) |
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Powell Promises Nuclear Restraint
By BARRY SCHWEID
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (March 15) - As the Bush administration weighs possible confrontation with Iran and Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday the United States would stand by a 24-year pledge not to use its arsenal of nuclear weapons against states that don't have them.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Powell also said that he hoped Israel's pullback of troops and tanks on the West Bank would continue but that the withdrawal may not be permanent.
A Pentagon policy review that surfaced last weekend raised the prospect of the United States possibly using its powerful nuclear stockpile in a wide range of conflicts.
President Bush's denunciation earlier of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an ''axis of evil'' and the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism already had raised chances of using American military power generally.
Bush said at a news conference Wednesday he was leaving ''all options on the table'' as the Pentagon reworks its nuclear weapons policy to deter any attack on the United States, including from non-nuclear states such as Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria.
A U.S. pledge not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states was taken by President Carter's administration in 1978 and reaffirmed, most recently, by the Clinton administration in 1995.
''We have not changed our policy,'' Powell said Friday, reaffirming that commitment.
He also offered assurances that the United States did not have nuclear missiles targeted on Russia or any other nation. But, he said, to be ''perfectly honest,'' a missile can be redirected quickly and ''we have nuclear weapons obviously that are capable of being targeted.''
By contrast, Powell said up to 13,000 of the 28,000 long-range nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile during the Cold War were targeted on the Soviet Union and its allies, even at specific streets.
Reports of the new policy review named Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea and Libya as potential targets of a U.S. nuclear strike.
Russian officials reacted angrily. But, Powell said, ''once they got over the headlines'' and received an explanation from administration officials, ''they could see that, if anything, they should feel less threatened than they might have before reading the study.''
The United States and Russia are in the midst of negotiating cutbacks of about two-thirds in their arsenals of long-range nuclear warheads.
Powell said the agreement would be legally binding, as Russia had insisted from the outset, in the form of a treaty or a memorandum of understanding, either of which would be submitted to Congress for approval.
Initially, the administration was leery of working out a treaty. But, Powell said, ''there's no reason not to consider both.''
The agreement will be about three pages long, he said, and provisions for inspections to make sure the terms are carried out could be in the accord or be extended from previous agreements.
On the Middle East, Powell demanded a complete Israel military withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza in a telephone call Monday to Sharon. The demand was couched in terms of improving prospects for American mediator Anthony Zinni, who is shuttling between Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to work out a truce.
''What the Israelis said they would do, and I have this on high-level assurance, is executing staged withdrawals, and we are seeing staged withdrawals,'' Powell said Friday. ''There is nothing permanent about staged withdrawals. Obviously you could take a tank out of reverse and put it back in forward.''
But, he said he hoped the withdrawals would continue while Zinni tries to set up security talks with Israel and the Palestinians, both separately and in three-way meetings.
''The aim is to get them talking to each other,'' Powell said.
Turning to another subject, Powell said Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been trying to show a ''more positive and benign face to the world'' but that there was clear evidence he is attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction.
''I think it's idiotic on his part. I don't know why he continues to do it. But as long as he continues to do it, we will continue to watch carefully,'' he said. He said Libya's weapons program ''should be of concern to the whole civilized world.''
On Cuba, Powell said that country was an anachronism in an otherwise democratic hemisphere, and he predicted the eventual demise of its communist system.
''I think historic forces and pressures are such that Cuba eventually will be part of this American revolutionary 21st century. How it will happen, I don't know. ... We are not getting ready to invade.''
AP-NY-03-15-02 1732EST
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.
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