Interview on Fox News Special Report

MR. ANGLE: Deputy Secretary Armitage, thank you for joining us.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Good evening.

MR. ANGLE:  How much progress are we making on getting a resolution out of the UN?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well, Secretary Powell just finished a luncheon with the Perm 5.  He met most of the afternoon with the ten members who are elected to the Security Council.  I think he feels pretty good about where we're going.  I think most of the members in New York will have to return to their capitals to get instructions, so I think in the middle of next week I can give you a much better progress report.

The editorial opinion and the initial response from governments, pretty much around the world, has been favorable.

MR. ANGLE:  Now why even see another see another UN resolution?  The President, I am told, made this decision last week after a hearty debate among his advisors.  After so many other UN resolutions have been ignored, why even seek another one?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  The President is, at heart, a multilateralist and he wants to approach this, if possible, just as he approached the war in Afghanistan -- from a multilateral position.

He wants to be seen and is a reasonable man.  And that's the reason he's going to give the Security Council and the UN the chance to live up to the promise of the founding fathers or to make another decision and go the way of the League of Nations.

MR. ANGLE:  "At heart, a multilateralist."  That's not the view that the President's critics certainly have of him.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well, the President's critics are wrong yet again.  If you look at the 20 months that he's been in office, he's been a multilateralist in all the great endeavors -- whether it's NATO expansion, whether it's a war in Afghanistan, and now the attempt for a solution in Iraq.

MR. ANGLE:  Talk about timetables.  First, we want to get some sort of resolution out of the UN, out of the Security Council.  What would we hope to get from that resolution and when would we hope to get it?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well let's get something straight.  It's a resolution with teeth out of the Security Council, and what we are saying and what we've told all our friends in New York:  it's a matter of days and weeks and not months.

MR. ANGLE:  So we would want to get a resolution quickly, then?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  That's right.

MR. ANGLE:  Then we move on to the next phase, which would be whatever compliance that the UN is saying the Iraqis, once again, must commit to in order to avoid some other action.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well, that's right and the actual timetable the Iraqis would be given is one of the many things that Secretary Powell is discussing with his colleagues in New York.  There are some hints on the table, though not definitive timetables.  I would note that the UN Security Council Resolution 687, to which the President referred twice yesterday, has within it a 15-day time period for self-admission, self-revelation by the Iraqis, of course.  That would then have to be verified.

MR. ANGLE:  Now the President has made clear that there will be no negotiations with the Iraqis over this.  This is a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  That's right.

MR. ANGLE:  So what does the UN say to Saddam?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well, again, that's the subject of Secretary Powell's discussions, but I suspect it will be something along the lines of:  you're in material breach, you have X number of days to reveal the status of all your different programs with weapons of mass destruction which then have to be verified by some mechanism which is anytime, anyplace, anywhere inspection regime.  And I think the difference between this regime and past regimes is: diplomacy, which is not backed up by military force, is an empty gesture, and the President won't have that.

MR. ANGLE:  That is why we have, essentially, two parallel lines here.  One, the President's seeking the help of the United Nations in dealing with this but saying on the other hand, if you don't, military force will have to be used.

Without one, you're not likely to get the other.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  I was saying last night, technically what he said, what he said is if you don't, the United States will take action without specifying.  And already some of our friends, Mr. Blair of the UK has stated that he, himself, does not want a specter of a Saddam Hussein with a nuclear weapon on his conscience.  So I suspect that he'll act as well.  So we'll be moving forward, I think, in some sort of multilateral coalition if we don't get a UN Security Council resolution.

MR. ANGLE:  Now it is all but certain that once we truly go in, if in fact inspectors go in, that Saddam is going to try to impede or delay them in some way.  What happens at that point?

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  I think he'd be making a terrible error with our President.  And the President won't put up with it.

MR. ANGLE:  Now, in the UN resolution, will it clearly stipulate what happens if, in fact, they get in there -- he promises and they get in there, and the first building they go to, the first time they get close to discovering something the Iraqis say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.  You can't come in.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  We would prefer a resolution, which is as inclusive as possible.  Some have suggested, perhaps, a second resolution that would authorize all necessary means.  These are the subjects of Mr. Powell's discussions in New York.  I can't second-guess him from here.

MR. ANGLE:  But as one official told me, everyone seems to agree on the objective of dealing with Saddam now, and we're down to tactics.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well, the tactics are serious.  And let's, let's see if the UN Security Council wants to add, the words of the Secretary General yesterday -- face up to his responsibilities.

MR. ANGLE:  So by the end of the year, we would think, one might think that either at the hands of UN inspectors or as a result of some other action, Saddam's weapons would be in the process of being destroyed.

DEPUTY SECRETARY ARMITAGE:  Well, if they aren't then Saddam Hussein will have other things to worry about.  But I can't put a timetable for that down for you that'll satisfy you or me because these are under discussion.  But I think you should make careful note of the President's words yesterday.  He said that the world must act deliberately and decisively.  And I think that does signify a certain sense of urgency on his part.  He further said that if Saddam Hussein gains access to fissile material, he could have a nuclear weapon within a year.  Now, that's a sense of urgency.

MR. ANGLE:  Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage.