Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993 TAG: 9301150190
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
CLINTON: NO THAW WITH IRAQ
Anxious to erase any impression that he would change American policy on Iraq, President-elect Bill Clinton said Thursday that he had "no intention" of re-establishing diplomatic relations with Saddam Hussein.Asked about the subject at a news conference Thursday, Clinton said The New York Times had misinterpreted his policy in its account of an interview Wednesday.
The article quoted Clinton as saying that if Saddam "wants a different relationship with the United States and the United Nations, all he has to do is change his behavior."
Clinton did not dispute the quote and Wednesday night, after the interview was published, a senior press aide who was at the interview said the article accurately reflected Clinton's words.
But when a questioner said Thursday that Clinton had indicated a willingness to establish normal relations with Iraq if it complied with U.N. resolutions, Clinton denied he was sending such a signal.
He also said he had never been asked about normalizing relations, a term that refers to establishing diplomatic ties.
But a transcript of the interview shows Clinton specifically was asked about that subject. His spokesman, George Stephanopoulos, said after the news conference that Clinton had misspoken during the questioning Thursday about the interview and regretted it.
Clinton transition aides and Bush administration officials said Clinton was worried that any suggestion of an opening to Saddam, even if unintended, might be interpreted by Washington's Gulf War allies as weakness or interpreted by the American public as undermining Bush.
Therefore, they said, he decided to leave a different impression Thursday.