S P E C I A L:

The Standoff with Iraq

Albright: Hussein 'has to back down'

February 22, 1998
Web posted at: 2:35 p.m. EST (1935 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright indicated Sunday that Washington wouldn't necessarily accept any agreement reached with Iraq by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the arms inspection deadlock.

"It is possible that he will come with something we don't like in which case we will pursue our national interest," Albright said on the ABC television program "This Week" on Sunday.

Albright said the administration was waiting to see what deal Annan might be able to strike with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein aimed at averting U.S.-led military strikes.

"There is no question. He (Hussein) has to back down," Albright said.

The secretary of state also reiterated the administration's hard line that any agreement must provide unfettered access to all sites, including presidential palaces.

Cohen appears on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday

Defense Secretary William Cohen, appearing on NBC's "Meet The Press," said that time restrictions on inspections of presidential palaces in Baghdad -- as Iraq previously has proposed -- would be unacceptable as part of the agreement.

Cohen also said he would sign orders calling up several hundred more reservists for possible military action.

He said he realized that Hussein's image among Arab nations could be bolstered by military action. But "ignoring him, remaining indifferent and allowing him to get away with an absolute flouting of the rules will make him ... a greater threat to the region," Cohen said.

National Security Adviser , appearing on "Fox News Sunday," also said time restrictions would be unacceptable.

"You can't put artificial deadlines on a process like this. What the U.N. inspectors are charged with doing is determining whether or not he's destroyed all his weapons of mass destruction," Berger said.

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