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American Morning

Inspectors Focus on Iraqi Air Force Today

Aired January 02, 2003 - 09:32   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Arms inspectors in Iraq are soon going to be taking to the air in their search for banned weapons. Today, though, they are still on the ground, but they are being very busy, none the less.
Our Rym Brahimi checks in now from Baghdad. She has got more on that for us this morning -- hello, Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. Well, indeed, the inspectors very busy indeed. At least five teams went out today and today, Leon, the focus seems to be military industry and the air force. One team went to a facility that does research and development on missile and rockets, and there were a couple of other teams.

One of them went to an air force warehouse. Another one to a state company that makes drones for the Iraqi air force. So, still busy on the ground here.

Now, at the same time, Leon, there's been a lot of frustration expressed at the United States. The main newspapers today actually hailing comments by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, after he made statements saying that he didn't think there were any grounds for a military attack against Iraq right now. Nonetheless, a lot of frustration against the United States, one newspaper even calling the U.N. Security Council the American Security Council.

Now, Iraq's vice prime minister was talking to a group of Spanish peace activists a little earlier on today, and he said that the United States was still going ahead with their military buildup, despite the fact that the U.N. inspectors haven't yet reported to the U.N. Security Council about their findings.

He accused the U.S. of making -- continuing their war -- launching preparations -- sorry -- for their war, despite the fact that inspectors were still on the ground doing a lot of work here, and he said the United States were just interested in invading and occupying Iraq. Let's listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TARIQ AZIZ, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, IRAQ: So everybody, most of the countries in the world, need their oil. Now they can take it by business mean from Iraq, from Iran, from other countries who produce oil. But when it's in the hands of the American capitalists, it will be different.

And every nation is going to pay a price, a price from its sovereignty, from its economic interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRAHIMI: Tariq Aziz saying there that he felt the U.S. was just interested in taking over the region's oil. He's been very pessimistic over the past few weeks saying that he believes it would take a miracle for the U.S. not to attack Iraq -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Rym, anything new to report with the inspectors and perhaps with their sitting down and talking with any of the the scientists there?

BRAHIMI: Well, that's also something that we're going to hope to hear from a little later in the day. We are going to briefed a little later on, Leon, by the head of the Iraqi national monitoring directorate. It seems that there is quite a lot going on, and I'm pretty sure the issue of the scientists will come up. There's word of a possible visit by U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to the region.

There has been a lot of pressure, as you know, on the U.N. chief weapons inspector to start talking about taking scientists out of the region, but that's not an easy issue to tackle, Leon. There are a lot of issues involved here, and a lot of issues regarding international law, what they're allowed to do, what they are not really allowed to do, what the resolution calls for. Of course, the resolution allows them, theoretically, to take Iraqi scientists out of the country with their families for interviews, but, on the other hand, a lot of Iraqi scientists that have been talking here have said that they wouldn't be prepared to do so. So we will have to wait and see what happens with that -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. We understand. Thanks, Rym. Rym Brahimi reporting live from the early evening hours there in Baghdad.

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 January 2, 2003 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Arms inspectors in Iraq are soon going to be taking to the air in their search for banned weapons. Today, though, they are still on the ground, but they are being very busy, none the less.
Our Rym Brahimi checks in now from Baghdad. She has got more on that for us this morning -- hello, Rym.

RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. Well, indeed, the inspectors very busy indeed. At least five teams went out today and today, Leon, the focus seems to be military industry and the air force. One team went to a facility that does research and development on missile and rockets, and there were a couple of other teams.

One of them went to an air force warehouse. Another one to a state company that makes drones for the Iraqi air force. So, still busy on the ground here.

Now, at the same time, Leon, there's been a lot of frustration expressed at the United States. The main newspapers today actually hailing comments by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, after he made statements saying that he didn't think there were any grounds for a military attack against Iraq right now. Nonetheless, a lot of frustration against the United States, one newspaper even calling the U.N. Security Council the American Security Council.

Now, Iraq's vice prime minister was talking to a group of Spanish peace activists a little earlier on today, and he said that the United States was still going ahead with their military buildup, despite the fact that the U.N. inspectors haven't yet reported to the U.N. Security Council about their findings.

He accused the U.S. of making -- continuing their war -- launching preparations -- sorry -- for their war, despite the fact that inspectors were still on the ground doing a lot of work here, and he said the United States were just interested in invading and occupying Iraq. Let's listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TARIQ AZIZ, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, IRAQ: So everybody, most of the countries in the world, need their oil. Now they can take it by business mean from Iraq, from Iran, from other countries who produce oil. But when it's in the hands of the American capitalists, it will be different.

And every nation is going to pay a price, a price from its sovereignty, from its economic interests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRAHIMI: Tariq Aziz saying there that he felt the U.S. was just interested in taking over the region's oil. He's been very pessimistic over the past few weeks saying that he believes it would take a miracle for the U.S. not to attack Iraq -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Rym, anything new to report with the inspectors and perhaps with their sitting down and talking with any of the the scientists there?

BRAHIMI: Well, that's also something that we're going to hope to hear from a little later in the day. We are going to briefed a little later on, Leon, by the head of the Iraqi national monitoring directorate. It seems that there is quite a lot going on, and I'm pretty sure the issue of the scientists will come up. There's word of a possible visit by U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to the region.

There has been a lot of pressure, as you know, on the U.N. chief weapons inspector to start talking about taking scientists out of the region, but that's not an easy issue to tackle, Leon. There are a lot of issues involved here, and a lot of issues regarding international law, what they're allowed to do, what they are not really allowed to do, what the resolution calls for. Of course, the resolution allows them, theoretically, to take Iraqi scientists out of the country with their families for interviews, but, on the other hand, a lot of Iraqi scientists that have been talking here have said that they wouldn't be prepared to do so. So we will have to wait and see what happens with that -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. We understand. Thanks, Rym. Rym Brahimi reporting live from the early evening hours there in Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com