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CNN Live At Daybreak
Meetings Between U.N. Weapons Experts and Iraqis Have Begun
Aired September 30, 2002 - 05:08 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we just told you a couple of minutes ago, the meetings between United Nations weapons experts and the Iraqis have begun. The U.N. team is expected to insist on unrestricted access to sites in Iraq.
Our Chris Burns is at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, where those talks are taking place -- good morning.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
The IAEA is actually the watchdog of the world for nuclear power and weapons. Over my shoulder, you can see some incredible media attention, television from all around the world, journalists from around the world watching to see if these talks show that the Iraqis really meant what they said two weeks ago when they sent a letter to the U.N. saying that they will accept unconditionally weapons of mass destruction inspections, as the U.S. has been demanding and threatening to attack Iraq if they don't.
Those meetings today and tomorrow are focusing on the nuts and bolts of how and when they do hope to send weapons inspectors in the next two weeks to Iraq. And they hope to resolve a lot of questions, including questions about communications, about transportation, about escorts to those sites and especially the sites themselves. A lot of questions to resolve, according to Hans Blix, who's going to head of that weapons inspection team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHAIRMAN, UNMOVIC: The purpose of the talks is that we would like to ensure that if and when inspections come about, we will not have clashes inside. We'd rather go through these things outside in advance. And we have even said that we will not deploy inspectors to Iraq until we have had talks about these things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now, what is he talking about, clashes inside? Well, there had been quite a few parking lot stand-offs as the weapons inspectors four years ago, they had to stop four years ago because Iraq kept blocking them from trying to inspect various areas. So a lot of stand-offs four years ago that they would like to avoid this time, especially, now the sites is the main question, where can they inspect? And the most salient issue are the palace grounds. Thirty square kilometers, about 20 square miles of palace grounds that Saddam Hussein insists that they can't inspect right away, that they have to say that they want to go and inspect them. There has to be a warning. This is, the question is will Saddam be accepting of that? If he doesn't, this is what the U.S. is trying to push, along with Great Britain, is a resolution demanding a number of things. One is that the Iraqis accept right away, within a week, these new terms, including within a month declaring all the arms and material that could be used as weapons of mass destruction; access to all sites, repeat, all sites; a protection for some of the inspectors, and, if all of that fails, then the use of force.
In other words, a war resolution. And this is something that Iraq is trying to avoid. This is something, also, that the other three members of the Security Council in the United Nations, which have veto powers -- France, Russia and China -- have yet to agree to. All of this hanging in the air as this meeting starts this morning -- Kyra.
COSTELLO: Oh, you're talking to Carol Costello this morning. I know it's hard to -- you can't see where you are on a monitor.
BURNS: Ah, Carol, sorry.
COSTELLO: OK, thank you, Chris Burns. We'll get back to you a little later.
If all does go well at the Vienna talks, a U.N. advance team could be on the ground in Iraq in as little as 15 days from now.
We're going to go live now to the Iraqi capital.
Rula Amin is in Baghdad this morning -- what's going on there, Rula?
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, here we have three U.S. congressmen who have been in Iraq for the last few days touring this country. They say they came here to have a closer look on what's it like here in Iraq, the humanitarian situation, the impact of sanctions and they are trying to explore the impact of another war, what kind of impact it will have on Iraq, its society and the Iraqi people.
Today they went and met with some Iraqi legislators. They said they are trying to start some kind of dialogue between U.S. legislators and Iraqi legislators, between the U.S. and Iraq.
These congressmen believe that yet they don't see the need for war. They think that every avenue has to be pursued, every diplomatic peaceful avenue, before war is and they think that war is the last option. So they have been making also strong statements saying that the Iraqis should give the inspectors unfettered access to make sure that this crisis is resolved diplomatically. And they're also trying to tell their constituency, the U.S., the American people, that whenever there is a war here, there is going to be damage and harm done both to American soldiers and to the Iraqi society and the Iraqi people.
Now, this is at the same time when the Iraqis here, the Iraqi officials especially, are looking to Washington and Vienna, trying to see what is going to happen in terms of the inspectors return here. The Iraqi line is that they are willing to have the inspectors come here whenever they are ready, that they will grant them unfettered access. But Iraqi officials are expressing certain concern, that if the United States manages to have the Security Council issue a new resolution on Iraq with tougher demands, with new guidelines on the inspectors, maybe that would be, that would change the situation here. And Iraq says it will not accept any new measures that it perceives as harmful to the Iraqi people -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Of course, one of the sticking points here is Saddam Hussein's palaces. Do you ever foresee a scenario that Saddam Hussein will allow his palaces to be searched with no warning and he'll allow those weapons inspectors to go in there and look around wherever they want to?
AMIN: The last word we heard from Iraqi officials was they will let the inspectors go wherever they want. However, they did say that they expect the inspectors to abide by the old guidelines on how such sites as the presidential sites or whatever they term as sensitive sites, like security buildings and so on, the inspectors have usually gone about the inspections there.
And they say that they have an agreement with Kofi Annan, with the inspectors, that if they want to visit these sites, they have to be accompanied by diplomats, for example. And they say that they expect these guidelines to still be applied.
However, we know that the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, had said earlier that he also thinks that these guidelines still apply. But the U.S. says new guidelines have to be issued. And that may be the problem -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I think that will be the problem.
Thank you.
Rula Amin reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
We appreciate it.
For complete coverage of today's Iraq developments, tune in to "Showdown Iraq," hosted by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. That's at noon Eastern, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Begun>
Aired September 30, 2002 - 05:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As we just told you a couple of minutes ago, the meetings between United Nations weapons experts and the Iraqis have begun. The U.N. team is expected to insist on unrestricted access to sites in Iraq.
Our Chris Burns is at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, where those talks are taking place -- good morning.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
The IAEA is actually the watchdog of the world for nuclear power and weapons. Over my shoulder, you can see some incredible media attention, television from all around the world, journalists from around the world watching to see if these talks show that the Iraqis really meant what they said two weeks ago when they sent a letter to the U.N. saying that they will accept unconditionally weapons of mass destruction inspections, as the U.S. has been demanding and threatening to attack Iraq if they don't.
Those meetings today and tomorrow are focusing on the nuts and bolts of how and when they do hope to send weapons inspectors in the next two weeks to Iraq. And they hope to resolve a lot of questions, including questions about communications, about transportation, about escorts to those sites and especially the sites themselves. A lot of questions to resolve, according to Hans Blix, who's going to head of that weapons inspection team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHAIRMAN, UNMOVIC: The purpose of the talks is that we would like to ensure that if and when inspections come about, we will not have clashes inside. We'd rather go through these things outside in advance. And we have even said that we will not deploy inspectors to Iraq until we have had talks about these things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Now, what is he talking about, clashes inside? Well, there had been quite a few parking lot stand-offs as the weapons inspectors four years ago, they had to stop four years ago because Iraq kept blocking them from trying to inspect various areas. So a lot of stand-offs four years ago that they would like to avoid this time, especially, now the sites is the main question, where can they inspect? And the most salient issue are the palace grounds. Thirty square kilometers, about 20 square miles of palace grounds that Saddam Hussein insists that they can't inspect right away, that they have to say that they want to go and inspect them. There has to be a warning. This is, the question is will Saddam be accepting of that? If he doesn't, this is what the U.S. is trying to push, along with Great Britain, is a resolution demanding a number of things. One is that the Iraqis accept right away, within a week, these new terms, including within a month declaring all the arms and material that could be used as weapons of mass destruction; access to all sites, repeat, all sites; a protection for some of the inspectors, and, if all of that fails, then the use of force.
In other words, a war resolution. And this is something that Iraq is trying to avoid. This is something, also, that the other three members of the Security Council in the United Nations, which have veto powers -- France, Russia and China -- have yet to agree to. All of this hanging in the air as this meeting starts this morning -- Kyra.
COSTELLO: Oh, you're talking to Carol Costello this morning. I know it's hard to -- you can't see where you are on a monitor.
BURNS: Ah, Carol, sorry.
COSTELLO: OK, thank you, Chris Burns. We'll get back to you a little later.
If all does go well at the Vienna talks, a U.N. advance team could be on the ground in Iraq in as little as 15 days from now.
We're going to go live now to the Iraqi capital.
Rula Amin is in Baghdad this morning -- what's going on there, Rula?
RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, here we have three U.S. congressmen who have been in Iraq for the last few days touring this country. They say they came here to have a closer look on what's it like here in Iraq, the humanitarian situation, the impact of sanctions and they are trying to explore the impact of another war, what kind of impact it will have on Iraq, its society and the Iraqi people.
Today they went and met with some Iraqi legislators. They said they are trying to start some kind of dialogue between U.S. legislators and Iraqi legislators, between the U.S. and Iraq.
These congressmen believe that yet they don't see the need for war. They think that every avenue has to be pursued, every diplomatic peaceful avenue, before war is and they think that war is the last option. So they have been making also strong statements saying that the Iraqis should give the inspectors unfettered access to make sure that this crisis is resolved diplomatically. And they're also trying to tell their constituency, the U.S., the American people, that whenever there is a war here, there is going to be damage and harm done both to American soldiers and to the Iraqi society and the Iraqi people.
Now, this is at the same time when the Iraqis here, the Iraqi officials especially, are looking to Washington and Vienna, trying to see what is going to happen in terms of the inspectors return here. The Iraqi line is that they are willing to have the inspectors come here whenever they are ready, that they will grant them unfettered access. But Iraqi officials are expressing certain concern, that if the United States manages to have the Security Council issue a new resolution on Iraq with tougher demands, with new guidelines on the inspectors, maybe that would be, that would change the situation here. And Iraq says it will not accept any new measures that it perceives as harmful to the Iraqi people -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Of course, one of the sticking points here is Saddam Hussein's palaces. Do you ever foresee a scenario that Saddam Hussein will allow his palaces to be searched with no warning and he'll allow those weapons inspectors to go in there and look around wherever they want to?
AMIN: The last word we heard from Iraqi officials was they will let the inspectors go wherever they want. However, they did say that they expect the inspectors to abide by the old guidelines on how such sites as the presidential sites or whatever they term as sensitive sites, like security buildings and so on, the inspectors have usually gone about the inspections there.
And they say that they have an agreement with Kofi Annan, with the inspectors, that if they want to visit these sites, they have to be accompanied by diplomats, for example. And they say that they expect these guidelines to still be applied.
However, we know that the chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, had said earlier that he also thinks that these guidelines still apply. But the U.S. says new guidelines have to be issued. And that may be the problem -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I think that will be the problem.
Thank you.
Rula Amin reporting live from Baghdad this morning.
We appreciate it.
For complete coverage of today's Iraq developments, tune in to "Showdown Iraq," hosted by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. That's at noon Eastern, 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Begun>
