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CNN Live At Daybreak
NATO Members France, Germany, Belgium Block Help for Turkey
Aired February 11, 2003 - 06:02 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: A deep diplomatic crisis among NATO allies over Iraq -- that is our big story this morning. This NATO stalemate involves the decision by France, Germany and Belgium. They vetoed efforts to begin planning to defend fellow ally, Turkey, in the event of a war with Iraq. President Bush says he is disappointed by the veto.
An emergency meeting is now under way at NATO headquarters.
And we want to get right to the heart of this NATO diplomatic crisis. Our Matthew Chance is watching these unprecedented negotiations over the issue of protecting Turkey. He joins us live now from NATO headquarters in Brussels -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Carol.
And in fact, that emergency meeting -- it's just been announced to us by the NATO deputy spokesman -- has, in fact, been postponed. The NATO ambassadors here from the 19 countries of the alliance have gathered in the headquarters, and were expected about an hour ago to have sat down to try and hammer out a consensus between those three countries led by France, backed by Germany, and Belgium who are opposing military assistance to Turkey at this stage, and the other 16 countries of the NATO alliance who say they are in favor of it.
The meeting to discuss this has been postponed. They've set it back until 4:30 local time, about four-and-a-half hours from now here at NATO headquarters, while they say face-to-face meetings go on and sort of more informal negotiations continue between the various delegations here at the NATO alliance to try and reach some consensus.
NATO officials saying this should not be interpreted as a problem, but it really does underline the strong deep divisions between all of the countries here.
COSTELLO: Oh, it certainly does. Matthew Chance reporting live from Brussels, Belgium 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.
Turkey>
Aired February 11, 2003 - 06:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A deep diplomatic crisis among NATO allies over Iraq -- that is our big story this morning. This NATO stalemate involves the decision by France, Germany and Belgium. They vetoed efforts to begin planning to defend fellow ally, Turkey, in the event of a war with Iraq. President Bush says he is disappointed by the veto.
An emergency meeting is now under way at NATO headquarters.
And we want to get right to the heart of this NATO diplomatic crisis. Our Matthew Chance is watching these unprecedented negotiations over the issue of protecting Turkey. He joins us live now from NATO headquarters in Brussels -- Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Carol.
And in fact, that emergency meeting -- it's just been announced to us by the NATO deputy spokesman -- has, in fact, been postponed. The NATO ambassadors here from the 19 countries of the alliance have gathered in the headquarters, and were expected about an hour ago to have sat down to try and hammer out a consensus between those three countries led by France, backed by Germany, and Belgium who are opposing military assistance to Turkey at this stage, and the other 16 countries of the NATO alliance who say they are in favor of it.
The meeting to discuss this has been postponed. They've set it back until 4:30 local time, about four-and-a-half hours from now here at NATO headquarters, while they say face-to-face meetings go on and sort of more informal negotiations continue between the various delegations here at the NATO alliance to try and reach some consensus.
NATO officials saying this should not be interpreted as a problem, but it really does underline the strong deep divisions between all of the countries here.
COSTELLO: Oh, it certainly does. Matthew Chance reporting live from Brussels, Belgium 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.
Turkey>
