Our aims are to explain U.S. policy, improve mutual understanding, and strengthen our long-term relationship with the Iraqi people. These criteria have served us well over the past year, as our contacts with a range of opposition groups have continued to expand. We fully support the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council. The Iraqi government's efforts to evade and undermine sanctions have failed completely. International support for sanctions nearly a year after the fact remains excellent.
Sanctions remain in effect.
In addition to economic sanctions, the Security Council established a Special Commission charged with stripping Iraq of its nuclear weapons program, its chemical and biological programs and the long range ballistic missiles which could deliver these weapons. Despite some much-publicized stalling and evasion by the Iraqi authorities, the Special Commission has identified most of the weapons of mass destruction we believe Iraq possesses, and has made significant progress toward their destruction. Critical in this endeavor is the long-term monitoring plan which is being worked out to keep Iraq from utilizing its knowledge to rebuild its weapons of mass destruction programs in the future. The eventual success of these efforts will require continuation of the broad international consensus in support of sanctions and against Iraqi aggression. On the evidence to date, we expect to be able to keep up the pressure for as long as it takes for the Iraqi people to change their leadership.