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CNN Live At Daybreak
Six Key Muslim Nations Meeting Today in Turkey
Aired January 23, 2003 - 05:08 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: Six key Muslim nations are meeting today in Turkey to devise a strategy to prevent a U.S. war with Iraq.
CNN's Jane Arraf is covering that meeting in Istanbul and she joins me live with more on that -- when is the meeting scheduled?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the meeting is scheduled this evening. But foreign ministers right now are beginning and continuing to arrive and the work has already begun by foreign ministry officials below the foreign minister's level who are drafting a declaration that will be discussed by their bosses at this evening's meeting.
Now, the declaration broadly calls for giving the U.N. more time to do its work and insisting that the U.N. have the main role in this. It also, in sort of a bow to Iraq, if you will, reiterates that Iraqi sovereignty and integrity must be protected. That's a reference to if any war happens, if anything happens, then it has to be made clear that Iraq will remain intact and not break apart.
Now, there isn't a whole lot of optimism as the foreign ministers arrive that this meeting will actually go a long way to averting war. But what they really want to do is send a message. They want to send a message to their own people that they're trying very hard to get a diplomatic solution, to Iraq that they need Iraq's cooperation, but also to the United States that they really believe that war would be a catastrophe and they want to explore other possible options, if there are any -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know you said that they're reaching out to Iraq. Is there any possibility at all that Iraq will be receptive to their message?
ARRAF: A lot of that depends really on the perception within Iraq on where it stands. And one of the things that Turkish officials have pointed out is that they really want to make sure that the message is getting through to the Iraqi leader that this is really a very serious situation. If that weren't apparent with the buildup of troops, they hope it will become more apparent by this meeting, which essentially brings together almost all of Iraq's neighbors plus Egypt, getting together to tell Iraq that it really has to comply more than it already is, even, with the U.N. weapons inspectors.
Now, their fear is that that message is not getting through internally, that perhaps the Iraqi leadership isn't really sending the message that things are as bad as they really are, to the Iraqi president. That's partly what they hope this meeting will do. But they also want to be able to tell their own people, certainly, that they really tried, that war would be a catastrophe and they're doing everything they can to prevent that. And that message is going back to Iraq, as well -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We understand.
Jane Arraf reporting live from Istanbul, Turkey 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 January 23, 2003 - 05:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Six key Muslim nations are meeting today in Turkey to devise a strategy to prevent a U.S. war with Iraq.
CNN's Jane Arraf is covering that meeting in Istanbul and she joins me live with more on that -- when is the meeting scheduled?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the meeting is scheduled this evening. But foreign ministers right now are beginning and continuing to arrive and the work has already begun by foreign ministry officials below the foreign minister's level who are drafting a declaration that will be discussed by their bosses at this evening's meeting.
Now, the declaration broadly calls for giving the U.N. more time to do its work and insisting that the U.N. have the main role in this. It also, in sort of a bow to Iraq, if you will, reiterates that Iraqi sovereignty and integrity must be protected. That's a reference to if any war happens, if anything happens, then it has to be made clear that Iraq will remain intact and not break apart.
Now, there isn't a whole lot of optimism as the foreign ministers arrive that this meeting will actually go a long way to averting war. But what they really want to do is send a message. They want to send a message to their own people that they're trying very hard to get a diplomatic solution, to Iraq that they need Iraq's cooperation, but also to the United States that they really believe that war would be a catastrophe and they want to explore other possible options, if there are any -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know you said that they're reaching out to Iraq. Is there any possibility at all that Iraq will be receptive to their message?
ARRAF: A lot of that depends really on the perception within Iraq on where it stands. And one of the things that Turkish officials have pointed out is that they really want to make sure that the message is getting through to the Iraqi leader that this is really a very serious situation. If that weren't apparent with the buildup of troops, they hope it will become more apparent by this meeting, which essentially brings together almost all of Iraq's neighbors plus Egypt, getting together to tell Iraq that it really has to comply more than it already is, even, with the U.N. weapons inspectors.
Now, their fear is that that message is not getting through internally, that perhaps the Iraqi leadership isn't really sending the message that things are as bad as they really are, to the Iraqi president. That's partly what they hope this meeting will do. But they also want to be able to tell their own people, certainly, that they really tried, that war would be a catastrophe and they're doing everything they can to prevent that. And that message is going back to Iraq, as well -- Carol.
COSTELLO: We understand.
Jane Arraf reporting live from Istanbul, Turkey 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
