Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Showdown Iraq: Arab League Conflict
Aired February 17, 2003 - 08:36 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to turn our attention to what might be going on at the U.N. later this week and what's going on among Arab nations. Arab nations, like much of the rest of the world community, are wrestling with the Iraq issue, but Arab foreign ministers left their meeting Sunday in Cairo with more questions than answers about how to avert war. Despite signs of discord, the head of the Arab league tried to put a positive spin on things.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMR MOUSSA, ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL: To circumvent such a situation is effect for all of us to do whatever we can in order to avoid any military action, any invasion of Iraq. And, therefore, all those facilities will be not used, at least, and the situation or the issue for us is not to use or not to use this or that base, but to prevent war altogether.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Joining us now to talk about the possible conflict among Arab nations, Yahya Mahmassani, the Arab League representative to the U.N.
Thanks for braving these elements to drop by here at our studios this morning.
AMB. YAHYA MAHMASSANI, ARAB LEAGUE REP. TO U.N.: Thank you for having me.
ZAHN: Let's talk about the conflict that has surfaced among Arab nations. You, of course, have Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait hosting U.S. troops. That does not sit well with other members of the Arab League. How you going to resolve this division?
MAHMASSANI: Well there is no real conflict. In fact, let's look at that this way, all the Arab nations are completely and strongly opposing the war on Iraq. This is a unanimous position. All the Arab nations would like to see the weapons inspection continue their work. This also a non-position (ph).
Now, there are some minor that difference that appeared in yesterday's meeting. Of course, this relates to the meeting of the next Arab summit. As you know, there are some difficulties regarding the date. We have two summits now, one in nonaligned Equalamanpood (ph) and one in Africa. But the consultation will continue to find a suitable date to have the Arab summit meet. Anyway, that was supposed to be an emergency summit. We have a regular summit next month, so we -- definitely the Arab summit will meet.
ZAHN: One -- the thing that's become abundantly clear in this morning's newspaper is that even Arabs, and in particularly the "Los Angeles Times" is reporting Arabs in Cairo are saying -- quote -- "Arab governments are cowards" and they feel that somehow the Arab leadership has not been able to come up with a unified message and it's allowed these European governments to drive this issue of not going to war.
MAHMASSANI: Well that shows you...
ZAHN: Is there any truth to that?
MAHMASSANI: No. Let me tell you that that reflects actually the outrage of the Arab countries and the anger against the invasion of Iraq. There is an extreme strong acidity (ph) in the Arab world against the invasion of Iraq and yet at a time when we have war already on our hand, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and today you just heard 14 Palestinians were killed, at a time when we look at the United States to solve the Mid East question, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and bring peace, here we are faced with another invasion, with another occupation. This is absolutely rejected by the whole Arab world. It would bring so much hostility, anti-American sentiment and that should not happen.
ZAHN: Do you think there will be a war against Iraq?
MAHMASSANI: Well, we are doing everything possible to prevent a war. But here, Paula, let me say one thing, why the rush to war? Where is the eminent danger from Iraq to make war on Iraq? Now look, the inspectors are in Iraq scrutinizing every aspect of this country, the United Nations' eye are focused on Iraq, the satellite, your satellite, the spy planes are all controlling the airs of Iraq, now where is the danger from Iraq to go to war within weeks? Why can't we wait until the inspectors finish their work? Why preempt -- why preempt the decision, the final decision, of the inspectors?
ZAHN: Does that mean that you're discounting everything Secretary of State Powell laid out, not only on Friday, but in his previous statements before the council where he said there are obvious material breaches of the very resolution that members of the Security Council signed?
MAHMASSANI: Yes, I was in the Security Council, I had (ph) the secretary of state twice, and you know the report of the Mr. Blix, the head of UNMOVIC, repeated (ph) most of the intelligence services that the American have supplied to the weapons inspectors. But regardless of this, for example, the question of the trucks, he said nothing happened of this sort. The question of has he...
ZAHN: Well he may be -- he said that there's an innocent explanation for that.
MAHMASSANI: That's that. But... ZAHN: He didn't rule out that possibility completely.
MAHMASSANI: No, but Blix says that the inspections can continue. So far, we haven't found any weapons of mass destruction. In fact, ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, said there is so far no evidence that Iraq has nuclear (ph). So why preempt all this? Why don't we allow the inspectors continue their work? What's the hurry? Do you think that you can disarm Iraq by war faster than the inspection process? If you could -- if stuck you can stay a couple of years and bring destabilization, bring hostility, bring body bags, death, destruction, why the rush to war? What's the urgency? We don't see any reason why the rush to war. And beside, you saw the -- all the demonstration all over the world in 600 cities, the whole world (ph) public opinions against it and the United Nations Security Council. You don't have the votes so far.
ZAHN: But you're still not answering my question about Secretary of State Powell. Is there nothing in his report to the U.N. that you thought was true?
MAHMASSANI: Well there are some things, of course, which -- you see it's not up to us, it is up to Mr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei to verify. According to Resolution 1441, it's not up to a government to decide whether there are problems in Iraq or not, whether there are violation of Iraq (ph), it's up to the inspection team, it's UNMOVIC and IAEA. These are the only legitimate authority that are permitted under 1441 to submit their finding to the Security Council. Now if the Americans, if you have anything, just channel it to Mr. Blix or Mr. ElBaradei, they would verify and report to the council. This is the process. In fact, this resolution was sponsored by the United States and the United Kingdom.
ZAHN: And a bunch of other members of the Security Council signed on.
MAHMASSANI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and we all voted for it.
ZAHN: Absolutely.
MAHMASSANI: And we support it and we continue support it. Paula, let me say this, there is no reason to go to war in Iraq. There is absolutely no reason to predict (ph) destruction and body bags. There is no reason to destabilize the whole world. There is no reason to divert from your war and our war.
ZAHN: But you make it sound like the pressure on Iraq, that that shouldn't exist,...
MAHMASSANI: Yes.
ZAHN: ... that the -- that the burden is on the United States. The burden should be on Iraq.
MAHMASSANI: No.
ZAHN: Do we agree on that? MAHMASSANI: The burden should be on the weapon inspectors and on Iraq's cooperation, both of them, to eventually disarm Iraq and come with a clean record saying now up to this date, we have confirmed to the United Nations Security Council there are no weapons of mass destruction. That takes time. So is time a bad thing? Time is a good investment in peace. Let's give time.
ZAHN: We're going to have to leave it there this morning. Ambassador Mahmassani, thank you for coming out in this horrible weather.
MAHMASSANI: Thank you. Thank you.
ZAHN: Hope you get out of here.
MAHMASSANI: I will try.
ZAHN: May have to spend the night here at the CNN studios.
MAHMASSANI: I'll try. I'll try. I'll try.
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 February 17, 2003 - 08:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we're going to turn our attention to what might be going on at the U.N. later this week and what's going on among Arab nations. Arab nations, like much of the rest of the world community, are wrestling with the Iraq issue, but Arab foreign ministers left their meeting Sunday in Cairo with more questions than answers about how to avert war. Despite signs of discord, the head of the Arab league tried to put a positive spin on things.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMR MOUSSA, ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL: To circumvent such a situation is effect for all of us to do whatever we can in order to avoid any military action, any invasion of Iraq. And, therefore, all those facilities will be not used, at least, and the situation or the issue for us is not to use or not to use this or that base, but to prevent war altogether.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Joining us now to talk about the possible conflict among Arab nations, Yahya Mahmassani, the Arab League representative to the U.N.
Thanks for braving these elements to drop by here at our studios this morning.
AMB. YAHYA MAHMASSANI, ARAB LEAGUE REP. TO U.N.: Thank you for having me.
ZAHN: Let's talk about the conflict that has surfaced among Arab nations. You, of course, have Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait hosting U.S. troops. That does not sit well with other members of the Arab League. How you going to resolve this division?
MAHMASSANI: Well there is no real conflict. In fact, let's look at that this way, all the Arab nations are completely and strongly opposing the war on Iraq. This is a unanimous position. All the Arab nations would like to see the weapons inspection continue their work. This also a non-position (ph).
Now, there are some minor that difference that appeared in yesterday's meeting. Of course, this relates to the meeting of the next Arab summit. As you know, there are some difficulties regarding the date. We have two summits now, one in nonaligned Equalamanpood (ph) and one in Africa. But the consultation will continue to find a suitable date to have the Arab summit meet. Anyway, that was supposed to be an emergency summit. We have a regular summit next month, so we -- definitely the Arab summit will meet.
ZAHN: One -- the thing that's become abundantly clear in this morning's newspaper is that even Arabs, and in particularly the "Los Angeles Times" is reporting Arabs in Cairo are saying -- quote -- "Arab governments are cowards" and they feel that somehow the Arab leadership has not been able to come up with a unified message and it's allowed these European governments to drive this issue of not going to war.
MAHMASSANI: Well that shows you...
ZAHN: Is there any truth to that?
MAHMASSANI: No. Let me tell you that that reflects actually the outrage of the Arab countries and the anger against the invasion of Iraq. There is an extreme strong acidity (ph) in the Arab world against the invasion of Iraq and yet at a time when we have war already on our hand, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and today you just heard 14 Palestinians were killed, at a time when we look at the United States to solve the Mid East question, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and bring peace, here we are faced with another invasion, with another occupation. This is absolutely rejected by the whole Arab world. It would bring so much hostility, anti-American sentiment and that should not happen.
ZAHN: Do you think there will be a war against Iraq?
MAHMASSANI: Well, we are doing everything possible to prevent a war. But here, Paula, let me say one thing, why the rush to war? Where is the eminent danger from Iraq to make war on Iraq? Now look, the inspectors are in Iraq scrutinizing every aspect of this country, the United Nations' eye are focused on Iraq, the satellite, your satellite, the spy planes are all controlling the airs of Iraq, now where is the danger from Iraq to go to war within weeks? Why can't we wait until the inspectors finish their work? Why preempt -- why preempt the decision, the final decision, of the inspectors?
ZAHN: Does that mean that you're discounting everything Secretary of State Powell laid out, not only on Friday, but in his previous statements before the council where he said there are obvious material breaches of the very resolution that members of the Security Council signed?
MAHMASSANI: Yes, I was in the Security Council, I had (ph) the secretary of state twice, and you know the report of the Mr. Blix, the head of UNMOVIC, repeated (ph) most of the intelligence services that the American have supplied to the weapons inspectors. But regardless of this, for example, the question of the trucks, he said nothing happened of this sort. The question of has he...
ZAHN: Well he may be -- he said that there's an innocent explanation for that.
MAHMASSANI: That's that. But... ZAHN: He didn't rule out that possibility completely.
MAHMASSANI: No, but Blix says that the inspections can continue. So far, we haven't found any weapons of mass destruction. In fact, ElBaradei, head of the IAEA, said there is so far no evidence that Iraq has nuclear (ph). So why preempt all this? Why don't we allow the inspectors continue their work? What's the hurry? Do you think that you can disarm Iraq by war faster than the inspection process? If you could -- if stuck you can stay a couple of years and bring destabilization, bring hostility, bring body bags, death, destruction, why the rush to war? What's the urgency? We don't see any reason why the rush to war. And beside, you saw the -- all the demonstration all over the world in 600 cities, the whole world (ph) public opinions against it and the United Nations Security Council. You don't have the votes so far.
ZAHN: But you're still not answering my question about Secretary of State Powell. Is there nothing in his report to the U.N. that you thought was true?
MAHMASSANI: Well there are some things, of course, which -- you see it's not up to us, it is up to Mr. Blix and Mr. ElBaradei to verify. According to Resolution 1441, it's not up to a government to decide whether there are problems in Iraq or not, whether there are violation of Iraq (ph), it's up to the inspection team, it's UNMOVIC and IAEA. These are the only legitimate authority that are permitted under 1441 to submit their finding to the Security Council. Now if the Americans, if you have anything, just channel it to Mr. Blix or Mr. ElBaradei, they would verify and report to the council. This is the process. In fact, this resolution was sponsored by the United States and the United Kingdom.
ZAHN: And a bunch of other members of the Security Council signed on.
MAHMASSANI: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and we all voted for it.
ZAHN: Absolutely.
MAHMASSANI: And we support it and we continue support it. Paula, let me say this, there is no reason to go to war in Iraq. There is absolutely no reason to predict (ph) destruction and body bags. There is no reason to destabilize the whole world. There is no reason to divert from your war and our war.
ZAHN: But you make it sound like the pressure on Iraq, that that shouldn't exist,...
MAHMASSANI: Yes.
ZAHN: ... that the -- that the burden is on the United States. The burden should be on Iraq.
MAHMASSANI: No.
ZAHN: Do we agree on that? MAHMASSANI: The burden should be on the weapon inspectors and on Iraq's cooperation, both of them, to eventually disarm Iraq and come with a clean record saying now up to this date, we have confirmed to the United Nations Security Council there are no weapons of mass destruction. That takes time. So is time a bad thing? Time is a good investment in peace. Let's give time.
ZAHN: We're going to have to leave it there this morning. Ambassador Mahmassani, thank you for coming out in this horrible weather.
MAHMASSANI: Thank you. Thank you.
ZAHN: Hope you get out of here.
MAHMASSANI: I will try.
ZAHN: May have to spend the night here at the CNN studios.
MAHMASSANI: I'll try. I'll try. I'll try.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
