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CNN Live At Daybreak

Bush's Speech to U.N. Getting Desired Results

Aired September 13, 2002 - 05:02   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush's speech to the United Nations is getting its desired results -- support at home and abroad for U.N. action against Iraq.
Our senior White House Correspondent John King has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A defining speech on Iraq and a direct challenge to the United Nations.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding or will it be irrelevant?

KING: The Iraqi delegation looked on as Mr. Bush labeled Saddam Hussein an outlaw and accused him of more than a decade of defying his commitments to the United Nations, including a promise to dismantle his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

BUSH: By breaking every pledge, by his deceptions and by his cruelties, Saddam Hussein has made the case against himself.

KING: Mr. Bush said he wants to work through the United Nations and would push for tough new action by the Security Council. But the president also made clear his patience is limited.

BUSH: The just demands of peace and security will be met or action will be unavoidable and a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

KING: Iraq's U.N. envoy complained that Mr. Bush has no proof that Iraq possess weapons of mass destruction or that it supports terrorism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He chooses to deceive the world and his own people by the longest series of fabrications that has been ever told by a leader of a nation.

KING: But the U.N. secretary general warned that Iraq must keep its commitment or face action by the Security Council, a point echoed by France.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot agree to the status quo. We cannot agree to violations of Security Council resolutions.

KING: Secretary of State Powell will lobby key members of the Security Council, with Russia and China considered pivotal.

(on camera): The Bush team says it is encouraged by the initial response and will push now to have all this play out over the next six to eight weeks, first, a tough new U.N. Security Council resolution, then a return of weapons inspectors to Iraq, with the clear understanding that any interference by Baghdad would be considered justification for military strikes.

John King, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And as John hinted at there, Russia has veto power at the U.N. Security Council. That makes Moscow's position crucial to any U.N. resolution against Iraq.

We want to go live to the Russian capital now for a reaction to President Bush's U.N. speech.

Our Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty joins us live -- good morning.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Well, the Russians have finally come out with a statement from the foreign ministry and it is very similar to what they have been saying about this issue all along. Here's what they said. We agreed with President Bush's position that a decisive joint effort to fight global terrorism is necessary. At the same time we think the central role in those anti-terrorist efforts belongs to the United Nations. And then they went on to say specifically on Iraq, political and diplomatic resources for resolving the issue are far from exhausted.

Actually, what President Bush's speech did was it avoided two things that might have be problematical for the Russians. One is he did not set a deadline and the other is he did not talk about any unilateral action by the United States.

There are those two things that Russia has spoken out against many times, certainly doesn't want any unilateral action by the United States. Russia has been a traditional friend of Iraq, but on the other hand it does want those inspectors to get back. And they have economic interests, longstanding economic interests in Iraq.

Today, in fact, a senior U.S. official said that it is in Russia's economic interests to go along with military action and potentially a regime change in Iraq because, after all, he said, and this is the U.S. argument that they're going to be making to the Russians, if there is a regime change, then the economic situation will be more normal, Iraq would be able to export more oil, there would be more potential for Russians to have a piece of the economic action there in Iraq.

So that's the argument, Carol. We'll have to see whether the Russians accept it.

COSTELLO: Yes, and the lobbying effort will go on by U.S. officials, too.

Jill Dougherty reporting live from Moscow this morning.

Secretary of State Colin Powell actually will begin that first round of intense lobbying at the United Nations today and he will be meeting with ministers from the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, France, China and, of course, Russia.

Washington needs all of their support for a new U.N. resolution against Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: One can argue as to what his development activities are, one can argue as to what his stockpiles look like, one can argue at the pace of development within Iraq of these terrible weapons. But what is not arguable is that he is in violation of international law and the international constraints that were placed upon him. And what is also not arguable is that he has the intent. He has never lost the intent to develop these kinds of weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mr. Powell will be a guest on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING with Paula Zahn and you can catch that interview at 7:15 Eastern time.

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