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President Bush Meets with Top Russian Officials

Aired September 20, 2002 - 13:08   ET

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

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Top Russian officials went to the White House this morning to hear out President Bush on the subject of Iraq.
CNN's John King is standing by there to tell us whether the president managed to make any progress on winning the Russians' support for possible military action.

John has been reading the tea leaves all morning. What do you know?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.

Trying to get a direct answer out of the White House as whether President Putin, in a phone conversation with President Bush early this morning, made any new commitments, or whether the Russian defense or foreign minister, who were both here at the White House, whether they made any new commitments.

The White House says it will let the Russians speak for themselves, but Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, in the briefing room just a short time ago, says the president has more of a sense of optimism today that he will ultimately get what he wants -- a tough, new United States Security Council resolution that puts Iraq on notice military strikes could follow if it does not fully comply with all of its obligations to the United Nations.

Here is Ari Fleischer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is confident of the ultimate outcome of the action that will be taken in the United Nations. The president just cannot imagine the United Nations making the same mistake twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the cautious optimism comes after a phone call between Presidents Bush and Putin, and then an Oval Office meeting with Sergei Ivanov -- he is the Russian defense minister -- and Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister, meeting with the president in the Oval Office. The discussions were on a number of subjects, but first and foremost in terms of priorities for the White House right now is Iraq. Russia has said up to this point, it does not see the need for a new Security Council resolution. The Russian position is, send weapons inspectors back in, see if Saddam Hussein interferes with them, and if he does, only then should the Security Council get involved.

But the White House taking some cautious optimism out of this statement by the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IGOR IVANOV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Russia and the United States are firmly interested in making the work of international inspectors in Iraq effective and to ensure and in insuring that this work gives a clear answer whether there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or not. And we agreed to pursue the exchange of views on how to make the work of the inspectors more effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is that last part there, the commitment to continue the exchange of views over how to make the inspections most effective have some at the White House believing Russia is open to considering a new Security Council resolution. Many here have been telling us for days, Miles, that private diplomacy is much more encouraging than the public statements. That will be put to the test in the next several days.

The U.S. and Britain working on a new resolution. They hope to circulate it early next week in the Security Council. And after lobbying the Russians today, Miles, we're also told, don't be surprised if the president picks up the phone to call the French president and the Chinese president, just like Russia, China and France also have a veto on the Security Council.

O'BRIEN: John, as the president makes his pitch, if you will -- that's probably not -- it's a bit of a pejorative -- but as he makes his case with these world leaders, is he drawing upon intelligence information? This gets into a dicey area of how much he can reveal about how much the U.S. knows.

KING: Well, we understand there has been some sharing of intelligence, but the main argument from the White House, we are told right now, is about the credibility of the United Nations.

And we also were told after the Iraqi foreign minister went before the General Assembly at the United Nations yesterday and said Iraq has always cooperated with the United Nations. Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction program. That the United States is saying in these conversations, look, President Putin, you know that to be a lie. The Security Council must do something here, or the Security Council's credibility is at stake.

And again, the United States has veto power; so do the Russians. So, neither can do something without the acquiescence in the end or a compromise involving the other. The U.S. believes in the very end if President Bush shows his resolve that's going to do this with or without the United Nations, the others will try to push his opinion a little bit, but ultimately get in line.

O'BRIEN: So, it seems as if he is using the U.N.'s own actions as a lever to get some action out of the U.N.?

KING: He certainly is. The president is making it quite clear that in the view of the United States government, certainly anyway this White House administration, that Mr. Bush will have little to do, little view of the U.N. as a credible organization if it does not step up to the plate and address his concerns when it comes to Iraq, and do that quite soon.

O'BRIEN: All right, John King, thanks for your insights on what's going on at the White House today. We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired September 20, 2002 - 13:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Top Russian officials went to the White House this morning to hear out President Bush on the subject of Iraq.
CNN's John King is standing by there to tell us whether the president managed to make any progress on winning the Russians' support for possible military action.

John has been reading the tea leaves all morning. What do you know?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Miles.

Trying to get a direct answer out of the White House as whether President Putin, in a phone conversation with President Bush early this morning, made any new commitments, or whether the Russian defense or foreign minister, who were both here at the White House, whether they made any new commitments.

The White House says it will let the Russians speak for themselves, but Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, in the briefing room just a short time ago, says the president has more of a sense of optimism today that he will ultimately get what he wants -- a tough, new United States Security Council resolution that puts Iraq on notice military strikes could follow if it does not fully comply with all of its obligations to the United Nations.

Here is Ari Fleischer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is confident of the ultimate outcome of the action that will be taken in the United Nations. The president just cannot imagine the United Nations making the same mistake twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the cautious optimism comes after a phone call between Presidents Bush and Putin, and then an Oval Office meeting with Sergei Ivanov -- he is the Russian defense minister -- and Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister, meeting with the president in the Oval Office. The discussions were on a number of subjects, but first and foremost in terms of priorities for the White House right now is Iraq. Russia has said up to this point, it does not see the need for a new Security Council resolution. The Russian position is, send weapons inspectors back in, see if Saddam Hussein interferes with them, and if he does, only then should the Security Council get involved.

But the White House taking some cautious optimism out of this statement by the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IGOR IVANOV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Russia and the United States are firmly interested in making the work of international inspectors in Iraq effective and to ensure and in insuring that this work gives a clear answer whether there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or not. And we agreed to pursue the exchange of views on how to make the work of the inspectors more effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is that last part there, the commitment to continue the exchange of views over how to make the inspections most effective have some at the White House believing Russia is open to considering a new Security Council resolution. Many here have been telling us for days, Miles, that private diplomacy is much more encouraging than the public statements. That will be put to the test in the next several days.

The U.S. and Britain working on a new resolution. They hope to circulate it early next week in the Security Council. And after lobbying the Russians today, Miles, we're also told, don't be surprised if the president picks up the phone to call the French president and the Chinese president, just like Russia, China and France also have a veto on the Security Council.

O'BRIEN: John, as the president makes his pitch, if you will -- that's probably not -- it's a bit of a pejorative -- but as he makes his case with these world leaders, is he drawing upon intelligence information? This gets into a dicey area of how much he can reveal about how much the U.S. knows.

KING: Well, we understand there has been some sharing of intelligence, but the main argument from the White House, we are told right now, is about the credibility of the United Nations.

And we also were told after the Iraqi foreign minister went before the General Assembly at the United Nations yesterday and said Iraq has always cooperated with the United Nations. Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction program. That the United States is saying in these conversations, look, President Putin, you know that to be a lie. The Security Council must do something here, or the Security Council's credibility is at stake.

And again, the United States has veto power; so do the Russians. So, neither can do something without the acquiescence in the end or a compromise involving the other. The U.S. believes in the very end if President Bush shows his resolve that's going to do this with or without the United Nations, the others will try to push his opinion a little bit, but ultimately get in line.

O'BRIEN: So, it seems as if he is using the U.N.'s own actions as a lever to get some action out of the U.N.?

KING: He certainly is. The president is making it quite clear that in the view of the United States government, certainly anyway this White House administration, that Mr. Bush will have little to do, little view of the U.N. as a credible organization if it does not step up to the plate and address his concerns when it comes to Iraq, and do that quite soon.

O'BRIEN: All right, John King, thanks for your insights on what's going on at the White House today. We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.