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CNN Live At Daybreak
United States Trying to Gain Support from Russia on Iraq
Aired October 02, 2002 - 05:31 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: Now let's get back to the Iraq issue, shall we, and negotiations over the proposed U.N. resolution. The United States has been trying to gain support from Russia, one of the nations that could veto such a resolution in the Security Council.
Our Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty is monitoring the mood there -- Jill, what is the mood?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, essentially what the Russians are saying is we like it as it is already. We don't need any new resolutions. What we need to do is get Iraq to carry out the existing resolutions. In fact, they said that they're very happy that in Vienna they did, the U.N. and Iraq did reach agreement on those existing resolutions to get the inspectors back.
So essentially if you boil it down to two points, the Russians want the international inspectors to get back as quickly as possible. And number two, they say those inspectors are the only ones who can really concretely, definitively establish whether or not Iraq actually does have weapons of mass destruction.
Now, the Russians have not come out directly and said it, but they, that does put them in opposition to what the United States is proposing, which is new resolutions, new tougher resolutions against Iraq. The Russian position remains, Carol, that they want a political solution to the stand-off.
COSTELLO: So, Jill, Iraq is sort of playing this just right. They're agreeing to just enough so Russia and France, by the way, will stay behind them. This thing could drag on forever.
DOUGHERTY: Well, it could, and the question is what will happen, can the U.S. actually pull it off to put together this proposal, this new resolution, bring it to the U.N. and what kind of support it would get. But right now, you're hearing from Russia -- and it really hasn't changed over the past few weeks. They say the legal existing framework should be carried out, that we don't need anything new and, they would say, we don't need any military action by the United States or anybody else to carry out those resolutions.
COSTELLO: All right, Jill Dougherty reporting live from Moscow this morning.
Thank you.
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Aired October 2, 2002 - 05:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's get back to the Iraq issue, shall we, and negotiations over the proposed U.N. resolution. The United States has been trying to gain support from Russia, one of the nations that could veto such a resolution in the Security Council.
Our Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty is monitoring the mood there -- Jill, what is the mood?
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, essentially what the Russians are saying is we like it as it is already. We don't need any new resolutions. What we need to do is get Iraq to carry out the existing resolutions. In fact, they said that they're very happy that in Vienna they did, the U.N. and Iraq did reach agreement on those existing resolutions to get the inspectors back.
So essentially if you boil it down to two points, the Russians want the international inspectors to get back as quickly as possible. And number two, they say those inspectors are the only ones who can really concretely, definitively establish whether or not Iraq actually does have weapons of mass destruction.
Now, the Russians have not come out directly and said it, but they, that does put them in opposition to what the United States is proposing, which is new resolutions, new tougher resolutions against Iraq. The Russian position remains, Carol, that they want a political solution to the stand-off.
COSTELLO: So, Jill, Iraq is sort of playing this just right. They're agreeing to just enough so Russia and France, by the way, will stay behind them. This thing could drag on forever.
DOUGHERTY: Well, it could, and the question is what will happen, can the U.S. actually pull it off to put together this proposal, this new resolution, bring it to the U.N. and what kind of support it would get. But right now, you're hearing from Russia -- and it really hasn't changed over the past few weeks. They say the legal existing framework should be carried out, that we don't need anything new and, they would say, we don't need any military action by the United States or anybody else to carry out those resolutions.
COSTELLO: All right, Jill Dougherty reporting live from Moscow this morning.
Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
