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Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan

February 14, 1994

Bosnia

Q. President Nazarbayev, do you support NATO's decision to threaten the Bosnian Serbs with air strikes in case they don't remove all their artillery from the hills surrounding Sarajevo?

President Nazarbayev. Despite the fact that Kazakhstan is well removed from those events by a great distance, I still believe we all as members of the U.N. respect the decision taken by the Security Council.

Q. Mr. President, is there a gap between the U.N. and the United States on what steps need to be taken in order to launch air strikes?

President Clinton. I don't have any reason to believe that there is. Keep in mind the Secretary-General asked NATO to take the action we took and made it clear that—we made it clear that we do not want to take that action unless we could follow through on it, that is, unless the conditions were met that we would take the action we said. And he agreed with that. So I have no reason to believe that there is any difference of opinion.

Q. Do you sense that the Serbs are beginning to cooperate?

President Clinton. I think so. Again, let me say that the larger issue is whether we can move toward a reasonable peace agreement quickly after establishing a safe zone around Sarajevo. But we're just going to have to see. There's still a few more days left before the time runs out.

NOTE: The exchange began at 11:35 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of this exchange.

William J. Clinton, Exchange With Reporters Prior to Discussions With President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/218418

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