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CNN Live At Daybreak
Saddam Hussein Making Challenge to President Bush
Aired February 25, 2003 - 05:05 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: Speaking of discussion, Saddam Hussein is reportedly making a challenge to President Bush. CBS News is reporting the Iraqi leader, in an interview with Dan Rather, said, "I am ready to conduct a direct dialogue, a debate with your president. I will say what I want and he will say what he wants. I call for this because war is not a joke." But the White House says it is not taking this debate suggestion seriously.
We want to get reaction to the new resolution and to Saddam Hussein's comments from the center of this growing storm.
Our Rym Brahimi is in the ancient Iraqi capital of Baghdad, joins us live from there -- Rym, let's talk about this debate.
Saddam Hussein is serious about this?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, if you look at what Iraqi officials have been saying over the past few weeks and even months, Iraqi officials have more than once said that they would be glad or they would not have any opposition to having a dialogue with the United States if the United States were prepared to do that. It came up more than once in the words of the prime minister a couple of times and different Iraqi officials.
So I think this could probably be taken at face value. Apart from the challenge, of course, the other big issue that was discussed in that CBS interview was the issue, the question of whether Iraq is prepared or not to destroy this al-Samoud 2 missile at the request of the Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. And on that issue, there didn't seem to be much clarity.
We understood earlier on in the day from the top scientific adviser of President Saddam Hussein that a decision was going to be made soon. But from what we understand from that interview, the president only said Iraq does not have any missiles that exceed the authorized range and that's as far as it went -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, another question for you. This second resolution before the U.N. Security Council, what's the reaction on that out of Iraq?
BRAHIMI: Well, Iraq is now playing up any opposition that it sees to that new resolution and I can show you, the Iraqi daily, just the English language newspaper has this call here, "France Opposes Any New Resolution On Iraq. Schroeder Sees No Need For A New U.N. Resolution. The United Nations Say No To A War Against Iraq." Just in that one newspaper, three headlines playing up what Iraq says is wide opposition to the new resolution.
Now, of course, that's interesting because now Iraqi officials are also in Malaysia, where they've been at this non-aligned summit and there have been very strong words by Iraqi officials against that resolution -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Thanks for bringing us up to date.
Rym Brahimi reporting live out of Baghdad this morning.
Over southern Iraq today, coalition aircraft dropped leaflets warning Iraqi forces not to use weapons of mass destruction. The leaflets warned that any military unit using such weapons will face prompt and appropriate response by coalition forces.
Let's talk Turkey now. Turkey's cabinet is saying yes to allowing thousands of U.S. troops on its soil, but, of course, it's up to the Turkish parliament to decide. It votes later today on the measure.
Our Jane Arraf is in Ankara and she joins us live on the phone with more on that -- Jane, this debate is likely to go on all day, isn't it?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than all day, Carol, actually. It's just less than three hours from the start of parliament, the session that was to have voted on this, and it's still very much touch and go.
Now, what we're seeing in parliament right now is a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party. There's the head of the party, the de facto political leader of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, Abdullah Gul, a very tough job ahead of them. There have been meetings literally throughout the night at the Foreign Ministry on the American side and the Turkish side, trying to work out this agreement.
Now, even though, as you mentioned, cabinet has approved it, they don't yet have a final deal. Now, the foreign minister, Yasar Yakis, going into this meeting that we're seeing now, has just said that they're done with the political and military side, but they're still working out the economics.
Now, what this means in practical terms is that when parliament meets this afternoon, it can choose not to discuss this measure until it has all those final details or it can discuss it and postpone a vote on it or it can discuss it and actually vote.
But as of now, all of those options are still very much on the agenda and they have not yet decided which one of them they will take -- Carol.
COSTELLO: If there is a decision made, whatever it is, the U.S. warships will either come in within a matter of, what, hours, or leave?
ARRAF: Certainly they would come in as soon as they could. There has been quite a lot of pressure, as you know, from the U.S. side on Turkey to agree to this. In fact, there's been a feeling that they took Turkey for granted in this approval process. But as U.S. officials point out, this is a democracy here in Turkey, a very messy and large one, and this is what we're dealing with, parliament trying to make this decision.
Now those ships, some of them have been unloading equipment meant to renovate the bases that U.S. troops would use. That measure was approved by parliament a couple of weeks ago. As for the ships with combat troops and equipment for the Fourth Infantry Division, as you pointed out, they are just offshore in the Mediterranean port of Eskanderoon (ph) and they would, as soon as possible, if this measure is approved, come into port and start unloading that equipment -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. We'll keep tabs on the situation, as I know you will.
Jane Arraf reporting live from Ankara, Turkey this morning.
And you can keep up with all the latest developments on Iraq on our Web site. Just click onto cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
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 25, 2003 - 05:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of discussion, Saddam Hussein is reportedly making a challenge to President Bush. CBS News is reporting the Iraqi leader, in an interview with Dan Rather, said, "I am ready to conduct a direct dialogue, a debate with your president. I will say what I want and he will say what he wants. I call for this because war is not a joke." But the White House says it is not taking this debate suggestion seriously.
We want to get reaction to the new resolution and to Saddam Hussein's comments from the center of this growing storm.
Our Rym Brahimi is in the ancient Iraqi capital of Baghdad, joins us live from there -- Rym, let's talk about this debate.
Saddam Hussein is serious about this?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, if you look at what Iraqi officials have been saying over the past few weeks and even months, Iraqi officials have more than once said that they would be glad or they would not have any opposition to having a dialogue with the United States if the United States were prepared to do that. It came up more than once in the words of the prime minister a couple of times and different Iraqi officials.
So I think this could probably be taken at face value. Apart from the challenge, of course, the other big issue that was discussed in that CBS interview was the issue, the question of whether Iraq is prepared or not to destroy this al-Samoud 2 missile at the request of the Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. And on that issue, there didn't seem to be much clarity.
We understood earlier on in the day from the top scientific adviser of President Saddam Hussein that a decision was going to be made soon. But from what we understand from that interview, the president only said Iraq does not have any missiles that exceed the authorized range and that's as far as it went -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Rym, another question for you. This second resolution before the U.N. Security Council, what's the reaction on that out of Iraq?
BRAHIMI: Well, Iraq is now playing up any opposition that it sees to that new resolution and I can show you, the Iraqi daily, just the English language newspaper has this call here, "France Opposes Any New Resolution On Iraq. Schroeder Sees No Need For A New U.N. Resolution. The United Nations Say No To A War Against Iraq." Just in that one newspaper, three headlines playing up what Iraq says is wide opposition to the new resolution.
Now, of course, that's interesting because now Iraqi officials are also in Malaysia, where they've been at this non-aligned summit and there have been very strong words by Iraqi officials against that resolution -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Thanks for bringing us up to date.
Rym Brahimi reporting live out of Baghdad this morning.
Over southern Iraq today, coalition aircraft dropped leaflets warning Iraqi forces not to use weapons of mass destruction. The leaflets warned that any military unit using such weapons will face prompt and appropriate response by coalition forces.
Let's talk Turkey now. Turkey's cabinet is saying yes to allowing thousands of U.S. troops on its soil, but, of course, it's up to the Turkish parliament to decide. It votes later today on the measure.
Our Jane Arraf is in Ankara and she joins us live on the phone with more on that -- Jane, this debate is likely to go on all day, isn't it?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than all day, Carol, actually. It's just less than three hours from the start of parliament, the session that was to have voted on this, and it's still very much touch and go.
Now, what we're seeing in parliament right now is a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party. There's the head of the party, the de facto political leader of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, Abdullah Gul, a very tough job ahead of them. There have been meetings literally throughout the night at the Foreign Ministry on the American side and the Turkish side, trying to work out this agreement.
Now, even though, as you mentioned, cabinet has approved it, they don't yet have a final deal. Now, the foreign minister, Yasar Yakis, going into this meeting that we're seeing now, has just said that they're done with the political and military side, but they're still working out the economics.
Now, what this means in practical terms is that when parliament meets this afternoon, it can choose not to discuss this measure until it has all those final details or it can discuss it and postpone a vote on it or it can discuss it and actually vote.
But as of now, all of those options are still very much on the agenda and they have not yet decided which one of them they will take -- Carol.
COSTELLO: If there is a decision made, whatever it is, the U.S. warships will either come in within a matter of, what, hours, or leave?
ARRAF: Certainly they would come in as soon as they could. There has been quite a lot of pressure, as you know, from the U.S. side on Turkey to agree to this. In fact, there's been a feeling that they took Turkey for granted in this approval process. But as U.S. officials point out, this is a democracy here in Turkey, a very messy and large one, and this is what we're dealing with, parliament trying to make this decision.
Now those ships, some of them have been unloading equipment meant to renovate the bases that U.S. troops would use. That measure was approved by parliament a couple of weeks ago. As for the ships with combat troops and equipment for the Fourth Infantry Division, as you pointed out, they are just offshore in the Mediterranean port of Eskanderoon (ph) and they would, as soon as possible, if this measure is approved, come into port and start unloading that equipment -- Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. We'll keep tabs on the situation, as I know you will.
Jane Arraf reporting live from Ankara, Turkey this morning.
And you can keep up with all the latest developments on Iraq on our Web site. Just click onto cnn.com, AOL keyword: CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
