Bill Clinton: “I think, to be fair, the Russians and the French have made strenuous efforts to get Saddam Hussein to comply, to do…”

“I think, to be fair, the Russians and the French have made strenuous efforts to get Saddam Hussein to comply, to do something reasonable and consistent with the United Nations resolutions. I think they share many of our frustrations. They started from a different place. But we are working very hard. I've had good conversations with President Yeltsin, with President Chirac, and with others around the world. We will continue to work to try to build the strongest consensus we can. But let me say that the best solution is to have the weapons inspection program reinserted, have all the sites open, and have some system for regular monitoring. If you look at the astonishing results they have achieved--far more weapons, bigger volume of chemical and biological stocks found and destroyed by these UNSCOM inspectors than was destroyed during the Gulf war--that is the answer. And it's up to Saddam Hussein. No one wants a battle over this. But if you think about the potential even a small amount of biological agent--the damage, the number of people that can be killed-- if you think about the potential of it and you think about the evidence we have that the Prime Minister mentioned earlier, that he had actually used chemical weapons on the Iranians and on the Kurds, his own people, the United Nations resolution is right, and it needs to be seen through. Northern Ireland Peace Process”