Political Quotes

“Well, the Soviet Union is a major, significant country that should be treated, as we would other countries, with the proper respect. They have a long-standing knowledge of and interest in the Middle East. And so we will deal with the Soviets with mutual respect--for that reason as well as for the fact that to have the new United Nations be viable and meaningful in its so-called peace-keeping function, the Soviet Union is necessary to be working with them. I don't want to see the U.N. in 1991 go back to the way it was in 1971, where every vote we found ourselves--put it this way--the U.N. found itself hamstrung because of the veto from the Soviet Union or sometimes from the United States. So as we work with them on common goals in foreign policy, although we have great differences with them on some things--we've spelled it out here on the Baltics and use of force in the Baltics and all of that--I want to continue to work with them, and we'll try very hard to work with them. Because, one, they have some good ideas. I never resented the idea that Mr. Gorbachev was trying to bring a peaceful resolution to this question. I told him that. I've seen some cartoons that suggested I was being something less than straightforward, but I really didn't. The trouble was it stopped well short of what we and the rest of the coalition could accept. So they will be important players. And I'm very glad--I'll say this--that we wrestle with this whole problem of the Gulf today--yesterday--with Soviet cooperation, as opposed to what it would have been like a few years ago in the cold war days when every American was absolutely convinced that the only thing the Soviets wanted was access to the warm-water ports of the Gulf. And so the problem, which is highly complex in diplomacy, has been much easier to work because of the cooperation between the five veto- holding powers of the United Nations. And I want to continue that because the U.N. will have a role. It's not going to have the only role. We've got a coalition role; we've got a bilateral diploma- cy role; we've got a certain military role in encouraging the stability of the Gulf. But the United Nations can be very helpful. And the Soviet Union is important. And when I have differences with Mr. Gorbachev, or when we have differences with the Soviets, we'll state them. We'll state them openly. But we will treat them--we will deal with them with respect. And we will iron out our bilateral differences, and then I will reassure them that they are necessary to continue this multilateral diplomacy that has made a significant contribution to the solution to the Middle East problem. Thank you all very much. Note: The President's 72d news conference began at 12:45 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Abdul Aziz Khalid bin Sultan, commander of the Saudi forces, and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf; President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Secretary of State James A. Baker III; John H. Sununu, Chief of Staff to the President; Brent Scowcroft, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; King Hussein I of Jordan; Prime Minister Jim Bolger of New Zealand; Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney; and President Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union.”