Political Quotes

“More to the point, even if we were obligated--which we're not, we maintain export controls on chemical defense equipment. In other words, we do not allow it to be sold to the rogue states. The only specific obligation contained in Article Ten is in paragraph seven, which is where you provide assistance to nations facing attack by chemical weapons. This provision also has much flexibility--it allows a nation to choose one of three methods for providing assistance. But to ensure that this paragraph does not become a loophole, we have added a binding condition, condition number fifteen, which limits the type of assistance we will provide--at least when it comes to countries ineligible for economic or military assistance, which includes the rogue states--to medical antidotes and treatment. Let me now turn to Article Eleven. The proponents of this condition contend that this article requires us to weaken our export controls under the CWC. There is nothing in the CWC that requires us to weaken our export controls. But just to ensure that there isn't any doubt, we have agreed to a binding condition that addresses the problem. Condition seven requires the President to certify that nothing in the Convention requires us to weaken our export controls, and that the Australia Group--an informal group of potential supplier states to which the United States belongs--will continue to maintain controls over chemical weapons precursors that are equal to, or exceed, those in effect today.”