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CNN Live At Daybreak
Iraqi Government Hosting International Trade Fair
Aired November 01, 2002 - 05:32 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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In Baghdad, the Iraqi government is hosting an international trade fair. Well, despite sanctions, dozens of countries are taking part in the event.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is live in Baghdad with details -- Rym, isn't this a violation of the sanctions against Iraq?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact, Carol, it isn't a violation of the sanctions. What it is is just a lot of businessmen from many countries coming here to present their goods, to exhibit their goods at the international trade fair. And they're just doing business under the United Nations sponsored Oil For Food program.
What it is, though, is it's a message on the part of the Iraqi government. They've publicized this event very highly. This morning, the Iraqi vice president was talking to the businessmen in front of the international media and the diplomats here in Baghdad and the message was more or less, well, we have international support because we have all these businessmen coming from 49 different countries in the world, many of them U.S. allies.
Let's listen to what the vice president had to say about the debate at the U.N. Security Council.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN, IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT: Iraq has announced its agreement to the return of international inspectors in response to the desire by friendly states and to refute false allegations made by the American administration of evil and its ally, the British government. We are confident that these states will stand by Iraq and they will oppose any drat resolution the U.S. administration and Britain will try to pass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: So, as you can see, Iraq is actually using all these businessmen coming from different countries, including countries like France, Russia and China, which are members of the United Nations Security Council, to basically get support and tell the world, and maybe tell the U.S. in particular, we do have support from other countries, because if they're doing business with us, they might not want to have to deal with a U.S. attack right now.
This comes, Carol, as you know, after very strong wording here in Baghdad. Yesterday, the foreign ministry, there was a foreign ministry statement blasting Washington for actually having met with the U.N. chief weapons inspector, saying that the Bush administration only wanted to bring about death, destruction and war in order to divert the U.S. public opinion from financial scandals and from economic failure -- Carol.
LIN: Rym, what sort of stuff are they actually displaying at this trade fair?
BRAHIMI: Well, there's a bit of everything, Carol. There's a lot of heavy machinery for agricultural, a lot of agricultural projects, a lot of industrial projects. Food, also. Interestingly enough, yesterday was the opening at the border with Saudi Arabia. This is the first time since the Gulf War that that border has been opened for trade. A hundred Saudi businessmen came in and representing a lot of products from Saudi Arabia like just glass or honey, but also products that come from countries like Switzerland. In addition to that, you have countries like France, who are here to present different products, different models of engineering devices.
So there's a big variety of things on sale here or on exhibit here in Baghdad -- Carol.
LIN: And it tells us a little bit about the Iraqi society. I mean is there money to buy these goods, then, obviously?
BRAHIMI: Well, the money for these goods is money that the state has, well, it's not really money the state has. It's money the state can use, monitored by the United Nations. This is the money they get from selling their oil.
So this is, the oil for food deal has been slightly amended in the past few months -- Carol.
LIN: I see.
BRAHIMI: What it is now is Iraq is allowed to sell as much oil as it can to buy products primarily for humanitarian needs, but also it can buy anything except articles that are on a list of 300 pages, which is called the goods review list, and those articles, those are elements that are banned, that Iraq cannot buy because they're considered dual use. They could be used also for military purposes.
LIN: Right.
BRAHIMI: So apart from those items, well, Iraq can buy anything it wants now -- Carol.
LIN: Got you.
All right, thank you very much.
Rym Brahimi live from Baghdad.
In the next hour of DAYBREAK, CNN's Andrea Koppel wraps up her week long series "Life After War." You may not know about Washington's multi-million dollar P.R. campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world. She's got more on that. 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 November 1, 2002 - 05:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In Baghdad, the Iraqi government is hosting an international trade fair. Well, despite sanctions, dozens of countries are taking part in the event.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is live in Baghdad with details -- Rym, isn't this a violation of the sanctions against Iraq?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact, Carol, it isn't a violation of the sanctions. What it is is just a lot of businessmen from many countries coming here to present their goods, to exhibit their goods at the international trade fair. And they're just doing business under the United Nations sponsored Oil For Food program.
What it is, though, is it's a message on the part of the Iraqi government. They've publicized this event very highly. This morning, the Iraqi vice president was talking to the businessmen in front of the international media and the diplomats here in Baghdad and the message was more or less, well, we have international support because we have all these businessmen coming from 49 different countries in the world, many of them U.S. allies.
Let's listen to what the vice president had to say about the debate at the U.N. Security Council.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAHA YASSIN RAMADAN, IRAQI VICE PRESIDENT: Iraq has announced its agreement to the return of international inspectors in response to the desire by friendly states and to refute false allegations made by the American administration of evil and its ally, the British government. We are confident that these states will stand by Iraq and they will oppose any drat resolution the U.S. administration and Britain will try to pass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRAHIMI: So, as you can see, Iraq is actually using all these businessmen coming from different countries, including countries like France, Russia and China, which are members of the United Nations Security Council, to basically get support and tell the world, and maybe tell the U.S. in particular, we do have support from other countries, because if they're doing business with us, they might not want to have to deal with a U.S. attack right now.
This comes, Carol, as you know, after very strong wording here in Baghdad. Yesterday, the foreign ministry, there was a foreign ministry statement blasting Washington for actually having met with the U.N. chief weapons inspector, saying that the Bush administration only wanted to bring about death, destruction and war in order to divert the U.S. public opinion from financial scandals and from economic failure -- Carol.
LIN: Rym, what sort of stuff are they actually displaying at this trade fair?
BRAHIMI: Well, there's a bit of everything, Carol. There's a lot of heavy machinery for agricultural, a lot of agricultural projects, a lot of industrial projects. Food, also. Interestingly enough, yesterday was the opening at the border with Saudi Arabia. This is the first time since the Gulf War that that border has been opened for trade. A hundred Saudi businessmen came in and representing a lot of products from Saudi Arabia like just glass or honey, but also products that come from countries like Switzerland. In addition to that, you have countries like France, who are here to present different products, different models of engineering devices.
So there's a big variety of things on sale here or on exhibit here in Baghdad -- Carol.
LIN: And it tells us a little bit about the Iraqi society. I mean is there money to buy these goods, then, obviously?
BRAHIMI: Well, the money for these goods is money that the state has, well, it's not really money the state has. It's money the state can use, monitored by the United Nations. This is the money they get from selling their oil.
So this is, the oil for food deal has been slightly amended in the past few months -- Carol.
LIN: I see.
BRAHIMI: What it is now is Iraq is allowed to sell as much oil as it can to buy products primarily for humanitarian needs, but also it can buy anything except articles that are on a list of 300 pages, which is called the goods review list, and those articles, those are elements that are banned, that Iraq cannot buy because they're considered dual use. They could be used also for military purposes.
LIN: Right.
BRAHIMI: So apart from those items, well, Iraq can buy anything it wants now -- Carol.
LIN: Got you.
All right, thank you very much.
Rym Brahimi live from Baghdad.
In the next hour of DAYBREAK, CNN's Andrea Koppel wraps up her week long series "Life After War." You may not know about Washington's multi-million dollar P.R. campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Arab world. She's got more on that. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
