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CNN Live At Daybreak
Case Against Iraq
Aired October 17, 2002 - 06:17 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: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan backs a tougher resolution on Iraq, but he's not getting much support. In a rare move, Annan opened a Security Council forum to all U.N. members. Nation after nation lined up to warn Washington against military action. In the meantime, negotiations on a U.S.-sponsored draft resolution continue behind closed doors.
It is the day after Election Day in Iraq.
We want to go live now to Baghdad and CNN's Nic Robertson.
Good morning -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well it really is wait and see in Iraq for the leaders of the country here to find out what comes out of the U.N. in the coming days.
Late last night on television here there was a meeting -- a broadcast of a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council that is chaired by President Saddam Hussein. You can see sitting on his right hand side the deputy chairman of that council Izzat Ibrahim. On the president's left hand side, one of the two vice presidents, Taha Yassin Ramadan. And really that Revolutionary Command Council is the highest legislative body in Iraq.
They came there to greet the president, to give him their congratulations on the outcome of the referendum. But perhaps most striking about this meeting and the broadcasts on Iraq television, albeit at 2:30 in the morning when most people were asleep, that's a little strange, but the most striking thing about it was that the president spoke and his voice was actually broadcast on television. That doesn't happen often here. He said in that referring to the fact the United States might try after any conflict here to rebuild Iraq, he poured scorn on that notion saying what would that be like the situation in Afghanistan.
He also said that he wanted to thank all the observers from the Arab world who came to watch the referendum because they helped in this democratic process. That's what he called it. It was a meeting essentially not out of the ordinary but interesting perhaps only in as much as the president's voice and speech were carried. That's unusual -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nic, I have to ask you about this the revelation this morning that North Korea is busy developing nuclear weapons. It also is part of President Bush's axis of evil. The United States right now is dealing with North Korea diplomatically but it is not with Iraq. Will Saddam Hussein be able to use that against the United States?
ROBERTSON: Well the Iraqi position at this time is their -- they have no program for make -- for any nuclear weapons at this time. Yes, potentially there would be a fig leaf from which to declare the current situation to come out from behind, if you will, but that's not the position of the Iraqi government at the moment, that's not President Saddam Hussein's position. So it would seem unlikely at this stage that they would use this declaration from North Korea to perhaps announce and give evidence perhaps what they've been doing. However, they do say they have no such program.
COSTELLO: Well I guess I meant it more from why is the United States going to use military against us when there's no hardcore evidence that Iraq is even developing a nuclear weapon and North Korea has come right out and admitted to doing it. So I guess I was going along those lines -- Nic.
ROBERTSON: I think obviously in the past Iraq had been clearly known to be developing nuclear weapons. The situation for Iraq perhaps different from North Korea, the leadership here viewed differently to the way the United States and perhaps the rest of the world views the leadership in North Korea. So perhaps they're -- perhaps they're -- the parallels here between the two countries not too strong at this particular time, at this particular development of the leaderships in those two countries -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you very much for that live report from Baghdad this morning.
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 17, 2002 - 06:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan backs a tougher resolution on Iraq, but he's not getting much support. In a rare move, Annan opened a Security Council forum to all U.N. members. Nation after nation lined up to warn Washington against military action. In the meantime, negotiations on a U.S.-sponsored draft resolution continue behind closed doors.
It is the day after Election Day in Iraq.
We want to go live now to Baghdad and CNN's Nic Robertson.
Good morning -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well it really is wait and see in Iraq for the leaders of the country here to find out what comes out of the U.N. in the coming days.
Late last night on television here there was a meeting -- a broadcast of a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council that is chaired by President Saddam Hussein. You can see sitting on his right hand side the deputy chairman of that council Izzat Ibrahim. On the president's left hand side, one of the two vice presidents, Taha Yassin Ramadan. And really that Revolutionary Command Council is the highest legislative body in Iraq.
They came there to greet the president, to give him their congratulations on the outcome of the referendum. But perhaps most striking about this meeting and the broadcasts on Iraq television, albeit at 2:30 in the morning when most people were asleep, that's a little strange, but the most striking thing about it was that the president spoke and his voice was actually broadcast on television. That doesn't happen often here. He said in that referring to the fact the United States might try after any conflict here to rebuild Iraq, he poured scorn on that notion saying what would that be like the situation in Afghanistan.
He also said that he wanted to thank all the observers from the Arab world who came to watch the referendum because they helped in this democratic process. That's what he called it. It was a meeting essentially not out of the ordinary but interesting perhaps only in as much as the president's voice and speech were carried. That's unusual -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nic, I have to ask you about this the revelation this morning that North Korea is busy developing nuclear weapons. It also is part of President Bush's axis of evil. The United States right now is dealing with North Korea diplomatically but it is not with Iraq. Will Saddam Hussein be able to use that against the United States?
ROBERTSON: Well the Iraqi position at this time is their -- they have no program for make -- for any nuclear weapons at this time. Yes, potentially there would be a fig leaf from which to declare the current situation to come out from behind, if you will, but that's not the position of the Iraqi government at the moment, that's not President Saddam Hussein's position. So it would seem unlikely at this stage that they would use this declaration from North Korea to perhaps announce and give evidence perhaps what they've been doing. However, they do say they have no such program.
COSTELLO: Well I guess I meant it more from why is the United States going to use military against us when there's no hardcore evidence that Iraq is even developing a nuclear weapon and North Korea has come right out and admitted to doing it. So I guess I was going along those lines -- Nic.
ROBERTSON: I think obviously in the past Iraq had been clearly known to be developing nuclear weapons. The situation for Iraq perhaps different from North Korea, the leadership here viewed differently to the way the United States and perhaps the rest of the world views the leadership in North Korea. So perhaps they're -- perhaps they're -- the parallels here between the two countries not too strong at this particular time, at this particular development of the leaderships in those two countries -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you very much for that live report from Baghdad this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
