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CNN Sunday Morning
Blix Meets Up With His Team in Cyprus
Aired November 17, 2002 - 07:19 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.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix meets up with his team, his advance team today in Cyprus. CNN senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar joins us now from Larnaca, Cyprus. Good morning, Sheila. First of all, want to get here, with one day left before inspectors arrive in Iraq, what is on the agenda today?
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Arthel. Well as you said, Dr. Hans Blix, the head of the U.N. weapons inspection team on his way here to meet up with the members.
This first group of about 25 people, the initial logistics component of the U.N. weapons inspection teams that will be going into Baghdad tomorrow. He's traveling here from Vienna with Dr. Mohammed El-Baradei, who's the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and between the two of them, they will basically be in charge of the two components of this that make up the U.N. weapons inspection team.
Now, today, obviously is a day for them to finalize their plans to get ready to go into Baghdad. Dr. Blix and Dr. El-Baradei obviously not going to wield paint brushes and unpack laboratory equipment, but to meet with political leaders in Iraq to re-establish those very important political and diplomatic contacts with Iraq's government.
Now, we've heard over the course of the last 24 hours, Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, saying that Iraq welcomes the U.N. weapons inspectors back, that they say that they will, according to the deputy prime minister, cooperate and coordinate with them, and that, of course, will be these meetings that Dr. Blix and Dr. El- Baradei have over the course of the next couple of days.
All important, establishing that very important political contact again. At the same time, while these logistics people get ready for the U.N. weapons inspectors to begin their work -- that means setting up laboratories, making sure their vehicles work, and establishing secure communications. All of that will take about a week, and about a week, 10 days from now, we should be seeing the first weapons inspections -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: OK, you know, Sheila, for the second time in two days, U.S. and British aircraft came under fire in an Iraqi no-fly zone. Now the White House says this is a material breach of this U.N. resolution. So, what happens next? MACVICAR: Well, the question of what's a material breach is, in fact, the most important question. A material breach meaning something that's a very important breach or trespass of the U.N. resolutions that oblige Iraq to cooperate.
Now, the question of U.N. weapons inspectors -- well, what is a material breach? Dr. Blix is on the record as saying, very clearly, that it is not up to him or the weapons inspectors to decide if a particular action or a particular lack of action on the part of Iraq constitutes a material breach. But that's for the U.N. Security Council to decide, that they say, according to Dr. Blix, that they will report factually to the council what happened.
Now, what in Dr. Blix's mind could be something serious? He is on the record as saying, well, perhaps even a delay of as little as half an hour getting into a particular site in Iraq that they want to see -- that could be something that he has said could be very serious, and could be reported back to the U.N. Security Council, and then it would be up to the U.N. Security Council to decide if that delay of perhaps 30 minutes was serious enough to be called a material breach -- material breach, of course, Arthel, being the words that could lead us toward war.
NEVILLE: Absolutely. Sheila MacVicar, thank you very much for that report from Larnaca, Cyprus.
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 17, 2002 - 07:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix meets up with his team, his advance team today in Cyprus. CNN senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar joins us now from Larnaca, Cyprus. Good morning, Sheila. First of all, want to get here, with one day left before inspectors arrive in Iraq, what is on the agenda today?
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Arthel. Well as you said, Dr. Hans Blix, the head of the U.N. weapons inspection team on his way here to meet up with the members.
This first group of about 25 people, the initial logistics component of the U.N. weapons inspection teams that will be going into Baghdad tomorrow. He's traveling here from Vienna with Dr. Mohammed El-Baradei, who's the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and between the two of them, they will basically be in charge of the two components of this that make up the U.N. weapons inspection team.
Now, today, obviously is a day for them to finalize their plans to get ready to go into Baghdad. Dr. Blix and Dr. El-Baradei obviously not going to wield paint brushes and unpack laboratory equipment, but to meet with political leaders in Iraq to re-establish those very important political and diplomatic contacts with Iraq's government.
Now, we've heard over the course of the last 24 hours, Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, saying that Iraq welcomes the U.N. weapons inspectors back, that they say that they will, according to the deputy prime minister, cooperate and coordinate with them, and that, of course, will be these meetings that Dr. Blix and Dr. El- Baradei have over the course of the next couple of days.
All important, establishing that very important political contact again. At the same time, while these logistics people get ready for the U.N. weapons inspectors to begin their work -- that means setting up laboratories, making sure their vehicles work, and establishing secure communications. All of that will take about a week, and about a week, 10 days from now, we should be seeing the first weapons inspections -- Arthel.
NEVILLE: OK, you know, Sheila, for the second time in two days, U.S. and British aircraft came under fire in an Iraqi no-fly zone. Now the White House says this is a material breach of this U.N. resolution. So, what happens next? MACVICAR: Well, the question of what's a material breach is, in fact, the most important question. A material breach meaning something that's a very important breach or trespass of the U.N. resolutions that oblige Iraq to cooperate.
Now, the question of U.N. weapons inspectors -- well, what is a material breach? Dr. Blix is on the record as saying, very clearly, that it is not up to him or the weapons inspectors to decide if a particular action or a particular lack of action on the part of Iraq constitutes a material breach. But that's for the U.N. Security Council to decide, that they say, according to Dr. Blix, that they will report factually to the council what happened.
Now, what in Dr. Blix's mind could be something serious? He is on the record as saying, well, perhaps even a delay of as little as half an hour getting into a particular site in Iraq that they want to see -- that could be something that he has said could be very serious, and could be reported back to the U.N. Security Council, and then it would be up to the U.N. Security Council to decide if that delay of perhaps 30 minutes was serious enough to be called a material breach -- material breach, of course, Arthel, being the words that could lead us toward war.
NEVILLE: Absolutely. Sheila MacVicar, thank you very much for that report from Larnaca, Cyprus.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
