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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Reaction to President Bush's U.N. Speech

Aired September 13, 2002 - 06:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: COSTELLO: Democratic leaders are praising the president for seeking international support, but they still say President Bush must make his case to Congress before taking any military action against Saddam Hussein. The lawmakers are also emphasizing diplomatic options.
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SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I believe Saddam Hussein is a threat. We may have to go to war. But I don't want to do it if we haven't made legitimate efforts to find out whether we can enforce inspections, whether there is a way to guard the security of our country and exhaust other remedies. If we can't do it that way, then we may have no choice.

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Republicans, in the meantime, are pushing for a congressional resolution authorizing the president to use force against Iraq sooner rather than later.

China is now saying it will take an active role at the U.N. to resolve the crisis with Iraq. That statement comes this morning in reaction to President Bush's speech to the United Nations.

We want to get more reaction now from other key international players. Our senior European political correspondent, Robin Oakley, is with us live from London. And Martin Savidge is standing by live in Jerusalem.

Robin -- let's start with you.

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there has certainly been considerable relief, Carol, in Downing Street from Tony Blair and the members of his government at the tone adopted by George Bush when speaking to the United Nations. It's going to make it much easier for Mr. Blair to sell to a reluctant British public and, indeed, a reluctant Labour Party, his own party, the idea of Britain eventually becoming involved in any military action, should the United Nations not succeed in getting Saddam Hussein to comply with the resolutions and letting in the weapons inspectors.

Significantly, Britain is going to play a part in the framing of the U.N. resolution, and Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, has today said that they still hope that it can be -- that the objective can be achieved by peaceful means. And certainly, if the weapons inspectors are let in, then, he says the prospect of military action recedes -- Carol.

COSTELLO: As far as the people of Great Britain, is there more support, now that the president's speech is over?

OAKLEY: Well, I think, as far as one can measure from the phone- in programs and from the parliamentarians who have been talking about this, there is a relief that George Bush is prepared to take the U.N. route, and there is relief that he is also focusing on peace in the Middle East. That's certainly improving the prospects. It's beginning, I think, to win over some of the doubters. There are going to be plenty of hard-line opponents of action under almost any circumstances.

But that has certainly improved the chances of greater support for George Bush and Tony Blair in this particular exercise -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Robin Oakley, thank you.

We want to go to the Middle East now for reaction there. CNN's Martin Savidge picks up the story from Jerusalem.

Good morning -- Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Carol.

There has been no official reaction from the Israeli government. It has been unusually silent, and the government has made it quite plain, don't be expecting any reaction from them. We'll talk about that in just a second.

We should point out that the newspapers here, the editorial at least, have been very supportive of President Bush and the speech he gave to the U.N. They said it was one of the finest speeches that he has ever made. And they also greatly admire the way that he outlined point-by-point, or U.N. resolution-by-U.N. resolution, that president Saddam Hussein has violated over the years. They thought it was a perfect way to sell the case.

As to why Israelis -- or the Israeli government is not speaking out, well, two primary reasons. No, 1, they have said it all before. They stand quite squarely in the court of the U.S. administration. They have been very supportive all along. They believe is military action is taken, then the stronger the better when it comes to dealing with Saddam Hussein.

As far as another reason for perhaps not speaking out, they know that this is a critical time for the Bush administration. The coalition-building, not just with European leaders, but also with leaders of the Arab world, and they do not want any of their words or anything that they may interject to possibly interfere with that coalition-building process.

But should you have any doubts as to where Israel stands, listen to the words of Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, as he spoke before President Bush gave his speech.

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BENJAMIN BEN-ELIEZER, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: They are trying to do everything possible in order to avoid any possibility that they would dare to hit us. It cannot be -- it cannot be accepted by us that anytime that something happens in Iraq, the victim will be -- the first victim will be Israel.

Don't get me wrong. We are encouraging the United States, and we are backing the United States. And we will give the United States any support, anything required.

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SAVIDGE: And there you understand, directly, why Israel is supportive of the United States. As he points out, Israel would be the direct target of any weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein may use. Thereby, get rid of Saddam, and you get rid of a major threat that hangs over Israel at this particular point.

Something else high up on the speech of President Bush was that he pointed out -- and this was sort of a carrot to the Arab world -- that the United States is firmly behind the creation of a Palestinian state. As a result of that, he says it needs to exist, and also survive in harmony and with security and cooperation with Israel.

So, that's the carrot to the Arab world. And, of course, what the U.S. is saying is, hey, let us deal with Saddam; then we can focus on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for some sort of permanent peace settlement, and the Israelis are all for that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Martin Savidge reporting live from Jerusalem this morning.

And in case all of you are wondering what reaction there is coming out of Baghdad, this just crossed our wires, the CNN wires.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said, Baghdad would teach the Americans a lesson if they attack, and Iraq did not accept the conditions spelled out by President George W. Bush in his speech before the United Nations.

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