Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Iraqis, Inspectors Back at Table Today

Aired October 01, 2002 - 10:09   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, talks are inching their way along in Vienna, Austria where U.N. weapons inspectors are hashing out the details of their return to Baghdad. Now, today's meetings are supposed to feature the turning over of some long overdue information by Iraqi authorities to the U.N. weapons inspectors.
Let's check in now with our Christiane Amanpour, who reports now live from Vienna on the very latest. Christiane, as we understand it, there's been quite a bit of progress made.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, we are going to wait and see before making a final judgment. Today's meeting started late, and then the delegations took a break at the request of the Iraqis, apparently because they needed to do more consultations with Baghdad.

Today on the agenda, the Iraqis were going to hand over a backlog of documents, accumulated information about what's been going on at their dual-use facilities in Iraq in the four years since these weapons inspectors were last there. Dual-use facilities are any kind of facilities or equipment or material that are used for civilian purposes, but that can be used for military purposes, and even for the production of weapons of mass destruction.

So they were going to hand over all of those documents, they said, today, and that was fully expected to be on the agenda. Included on the agenda was to finish up all the practical arrangements that the weapons inspectors need before they even contemplate sending any inspectors back.

Hans Blix saying that there were issues that had been sorted out relatively easy yesterday, and there were issues that still needed to be sorted out today.

Of course, these talks are happening against that backdrop of increased political maneuvering in the United States and Britain, and, of course, at the United Nations, and as you know, the secretary of state has said that the weapons inspectors probably will not be allowed to go back to Baghdad unless there is a new U.N. resolution.

Well, we asked the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix about that, and he said, Look, the Security Council has given me a job to do. That's to do this job here, to see if we can come to an agreement on practical arrangements, and that is what I am doing. And he said that they fully intend to send the weapons inspectors back, pending a successful outcome here unless the Security Council as a whole tells them not to do so. So we await, perhaps, the end of this will be in the next hour or so. We are apparently going to have a press conference, and we will know a lot more then about whether this was a success or failure -- back to you, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Christiane, I understand fully why you would not want to exactly characterize whether progress has been made on some of these issues or not, at least at this point, and we understand Hans Blix is going to be at that press conference, but let me ask you this.

As we understand it, some of the thorniest issues have been those surrounding these so-called sensitive sites, which has included presidential palaces and Ba'ath Party offices, intelligence offices. Have those issues at all come on the table for discussion either yesterday or will they come on today?

AMANPOUR: Well, first to address the first point of your question, there has been progress on certain of these nuts and bolts practical arrangements that Hans Blix and his colleagues have been trying to get from the Iraqis. Some are outstanding.

For instance, today, as you mentioned, the so-called sensitive sites. These are sites such as Ministries of Defense, of Intelligence, the Ba'ath Party headquarters, Saddam's party headquarters, and about a dozen or so other locations that over the past several years, the Iraqis have unilaterally put restrictions on.

These are the -- Hans Blix and his people are trying to get lifted, they want, obviously, unrestricted access to all the areas in Iraq.

Now, that is different from the so-called presidential sites. Presidential sites are about a 30 square kilometer complete area in various different areas of Iraq, which are also under restrictions, but these restrictions were agreed to by the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, back in 1998, and so these are not on the table for resolution here because the -- Hans Blix and his people are saying that because it was done by the secretary-general and the Iraqi government, it can only be the secretary-general and the Security Council that resolves that.

Having said that, Hans Blix has basically given the Iraqis the message that if they really wanted to show willing, and if they wanted to be transparent, as they said they have been, they could offer up right here and now to lift the restrictions on the presidential sites. But it doesn't appear that that's happening here today at this meeting.

HARRIS: Very interesting. Of course, you'll keep your eyes on that, and let us know what you do hear and see. Christiane Amanpour reporting live for us from Vienna -- take care, Christiane.

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 October 1, 2002 - 10:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, talks are inching their way along in Vienna, Austria where U.N. weapons inspectors are hashing out the details of their return to Baghdad. Now, today's meetings are supposed to feature the turning over of some long overdue information by Iraqi authorities to the U.N. weapons inspectors.
Let's check in now with our Christiane Amanpour, who reports now live from Vienna on the very latest. Christiane, as we understand it, there's been quite a bit of progress made.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, we are going to wait and see before making a final judgment. Today's meeting started late, and then the delegations took a break at the request of the Iraqis, apparently because they needed to do more consultations with Baghdad.

Today on the agenda, the Iraqis were going to hand over a backlog of documents, accumulated information about what's been going on at their dual-use facilities in Iraq in the four years since these weapons inspectors were last there. Dual-use facilities are any kind of facilities or equipment or material that are used for civilian purposes, but that can be used for military purposes, and even for the production of weapons of mass destruction.

So they were going to hand over all of those documents, they said, today, and that was fully expected to be on the agenda. Included on the agenda was to finish up all the practical arrangements that the weapons inspectors need before they even contemplate sending any inspectors back.

Hans Blix saying that there were issues that had been sorted out relatively easy yesterday, and there were issues that still needed to be sorted out today.

Of course, these talks are happening against that backdrop of increased political maneuvering in the United States and Britain, and, of course, at the United Nations, and as you know, the secretary of state has said that the weapons inspectors probably will not be allowed to go back to Baghdad unless there is a new U.N. resolution.

Well, we asked the chief weapons inspector Hans Blix about that, and he said, Look, the Security Council has given me a job to do. That's to do this job here, to see if we can come to an agreement on practical arrangements, and that is what I am doing. And he said that they fully intend to send the weapons inspectors back, pending a successful outcome here unless the Security Council as a whole tells them not to do so. So we await, perhaps, the end of this will be in the next hour or so. We are apparently going to have a press conference, and we will know a lot more then about whether this was a success or failure -- back to you, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Christiane, I understand fully why you would not want to exactly characterize whether progress has been made on some of these issues or not, at least at this point, and we understand Hans Blix is going to be at that press conference, but let me ask you this.

As we understand it, some of the thorniest issues have been those surrounding these so-called sensitive sites, which has included presidential palaces and Ba'ath Party offices, intelligence offices. Have those issues at all come on the table for discussion either yesterday or will they come on today?

AMANPOUR: Well, first to address the first point of your question, there has been progress on certain of these nuts and bolts practical arrangements that Hans Blix and his colleagues have been trying to get from the Iraqis. Some are outstanding.

For instance, today, as you mentioned, the so-called sensitive sites. These are sites such as Ministries of Defense, of Intelligence, the Ba'ath Party headquarters, Saddam's party headquarters, and about a dozen or so other locations that over the past several years, the Iraqis have unilaterally put restrictions on.

These are the -- Hans Blix and his people are trying to get lifted, they want, obviously, unrestricted access to all the areas in Iraq.

Now, that is different from the so-called presidential sites. Presidential sites are about a 30 square kilometer complete area in various different areas of Iraq, which are also under restrictions, but these restrictions were agreed to by the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, back in 1998, and so these are not on the table for resolution here because the -- Hans Blix and his people are saying that because it was done by the secretary-general and the Iraqi government, it can only be the secretary-general and the Security Council that resolves that.

Having said that, Hans Blix has basically given the Iraqis the message that if they really wanted to show willing, and if they wanted to be transparent, as they said they have been, they could offer up right here and now to lift the restrictions on the presidential sites. But it doesn't appear that that's happening here today at this meeting.

HARRIS: Very interesting. Of course, you'll keep your eyes on that, and let us know what you do hear and see. Christiane Amanpour reporting live for us from Vienna -- take care, Christiane.

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