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CNN Live At Daybreak
Iraq Reacts to House Vote
Aired October 11, 2002 - 06:05 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: Iraq is responding to the action by Congress. The country's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, says he's not surprised by the vote, and adds that Iraq is ready for a possible attack by U.S. forces.
We turn now to CNN Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf.
And I know what Tariq Aziz said, Jane, but now that the branches of the U.S. government are unified in this, does that increase the pressure on Iraq?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Carol.
I suppose it increases the pressure to a certain extent, but there is, and always has been, a feeling here that, this time, the United States is serious.
So, as Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, says, it's not really a huge surprise to him, nor a surprise to the Iraqi people. If people here feel that there is going to be any salvation to what sounds like impending war, it's not going to come from Washington. It's going to come from their friends at the Security Council if they're able to block this new resolution tightening up rules for past inspections that Iraq has so far rejected.
Now, the Iraqi government is trying to take peoples' minds off of this a little bit by hosting festivities for one of the biggest events, it says, this decade. And that is a celebration of a referendum seven years ago in which, the story goes, Iraqis went to the polls, and over 99.9 percent of them voted to keep Saddam Hussein in power.
Now, they're re-enacting this. That will be in just a few days, and to do this, they've let in hundreds of journalists; they say hundreds of observers as well. There are banners going up around the city, saying, "Yes, yes, Saddam." All of this meant as a huge show of support.
Now, the reality is, people are not going to have a choice at what the government here likes to call "the polls," but it is meant to be a show of support for the Iraqi president -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's a first. I have never heard of a re-enactment of a vote.
ARRAF: Well, actually, they say that this referendum itself goes back to the Babylonian kings. That's according to historians here. Now, the Iraqi president likes to see himself as someone who will go down in history, and reaches back in history to his very illustrious predecessors, the kings of Babylonia and Syria. So, it does have that element to it.
It also has an element of risk, though. With such a high-profile event, any moves to disrupt this will just gain enormous attention, particularly with the journalists here. In previous years, the next biggest events to this have been the president's birthday, and there have been car bombs, for instance, that have gone off on those occasions, which the Iraqi government has usually blamed on the Iranian (ph) opposition -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, we'll have to -- of course, we'll keep following this and see what happens.
Jane Arraf reporting live from Baghdad -- thanks.
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Aired October 11, 2002 - 06:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq is responding to the action by Congress. The country's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, says he's not surprised by the vote, and adds that Iraq is ready for a possible attack by U.S. forces.
We turn now to CNN Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf.
And I know what Tariq Aziz said, Jane, but now that the branches of the U.S. government are unified in this, does that increase the pressure on Iraq?
JANE ARRAF, CNN BAGHDAD BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Carol.
I suppose it increases the pressure to a certain extent, but there is, and always has been, a feeling here that, this time, the United States is serious.
So, as Tariq Aziz, the deputy prime minister, says, it's not really a huge surprise to him, nor a surprise to the Iraqi people. If people here feel that there is going to be any salvation to what sounds like impending war, it's not going to come from Washington. It's going to come from their friends at the Security Council if they're able to block this new resolution tightening up rules for past inspections that Iraq has so far rejected.
Now, the Iraqi government is trying to take peoples' minds off of this a little bit by hosting festivities for one of the biggest events, it says, this decade. And that is a celebration of a referendum seven years ago in which, the story goes, Iraqis went to the polls, and over 99.9 percent of them voted to keep Saddam Hussein in power.
Now, they're re-enacting this. That will be in just a few days, and to do this, they've let in hundreds of journalists; they say hundreds of observers as well. There are banners going up around the city, saying, "Yes, yes, Saddam." All of this meant as a huge show of support.
Now, the reality is, people are not going to have a choice at what the government here likes to call "the polls," but it is meant to be a show of support for the Iraqi president -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That's a first. I have never heard of a re-enactment of a vote.
ARRAF: Well, actually, they say that this referendum itself goes back to the Babylonian kings. That's according to historians here. Now, the Iraqi president likes to see himself as someone who will go down in history, and reaches back in history to his very illustrious predecessors, the kings of Babylonia and Syria. So, it does have that element to it.
It also has an element of risk, though. With such a high-profile event, any moves to disrupt this will just gain enormous attention, particularly with the journalists here. In previous years, the next biggest events to this have been the president's birthday, and there have been car bombs, for instance, that have gone off on those occasions, which the Iraqi government has usually blamed on the Iranian (ph) opposition -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK, we'll have to -- of course, we'll keep following this and see what happens.
Jane Arraf reporting live from Baghdad -- thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
