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American Morning

U.S. Lines Up for Votes on New Resolution of Iraq to Authorize Use of Force

Aired February 26, 2003 - 09:33   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: As the U.S. lines up for votes on a new resolution of Iraq to authorize the use of force, Germany, France and Russia are pushing their own proposal, a counterproposal. It would increase the number of inspectors on the ground and allow them to continue working for at least four more months.
At this hour, German Chancellor Schroeder is on his way to Moscow to meet with President Putin.

Our Jill Dougherty is in Moscow and joins us with a preview of that meeting.

Good morning, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Paula.

Well, Gerhard Schroeder is on his way. He'll be here in about 2 1/2 hours. It's going to be a very, very quick trip, about an hour meeting scheduled with President Vladimir Putin, and then he goes back to Europe.

Germany, France and Russia are on the same page, at least at this point, when it comes to Iraq. They want those inspections to continue. They say they want them tougher, but they want then for another 120 days. And that is something that the United States and Great Britain do not want to happen.

Just this afternoon, we've had some interesting comments coming out of the Russian foreign ministry saying -- praising Iraq for giving more information to the inspectors, but warning Iraq that it is very important for them to destroy those Al-Samoud missiles, the ones that the United Nations wants them to begin destroying by Saturday. Russia urging them very strongly to do that, and that is significant because that could -- if they do not do that, if Iraq does not destroy those missiles, it could play into the hands of countries like the U.S., that do want a second resolution.

So again, the question is, what will Russia do? Will it vote for, will it vote against, will it use its veto?

We spoke with a senior U.S. official who said today he did not believe that Russia would use its veto. And he also believes that china will not use its veto, that in the end, at the most, they might abstain in the U.N. Security Council.

Ultimately, of course, though, all of this is going to be up to President Vladimir Putin. And at this point, he seems to be keeping his options open. We'll hear what he says tonight.

ZAHN: Jill, can you give us a sense of how much pressure the Bush administration is putting on President Putin right now?

DOUGHERTY: It's very intense conversation, pressure if you want. There are people back and forth. We have John Bolton, who is the undersecretary of state, here in Moscow for three days. He's finishing that trip up today. Interestingly enough, the right hand man of President Putin, Alexander Voloshin (ph), is in Washington. He was at the White House. He met with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and then President bush also sat in, significantly, on that meeting. He'll be meeting all of the very important members of the Bush administration.

So it's very delicate, and it's very intense. And we understand we might be getting a few -- at least one other important visitor here in Moscow from the United States, perhaps next week.

ZAHN: And that would be?

DOUGHERTY: Can't tell you, Paula. We don't know yet. But it could be somebody very important. It won't be President Bush.

ZAHN: That's what I was wondering. All right, clues later on in the morning from Jill Dougherty.

DOUGHERTY: No, no.

ZAHN: Our bureau chief in Moscow. Thank you very much for that live report.

As President Bush gets ready to pressure the U.N. Security Council to disarm Baghdad, top U.S. officials are working behind the scenes to line up votes for the new resolution on Iraq.

Richard Roth standing by at the United Nations more on how the U.S. Is trying to win support.

So, Richard, does your analysis pretty much square with what Jill just reported, that the expectation is maybe you will not get a veto out of Russia or China, but instead abstentions.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, I wouldn't mind that important visitor here.

And second, it's a little early, but the U.S. would probably accept the abstentions. It's happened before on key Iraq resolutions. It takes some of the teeth and the international moral weight out of it. Russia says it is always willing to compromise, but it opposes use of force. That's what its ambassador, Sergey Lavarov, said here yesterday. France, Russia, China, Germany, Council Members are pushing an alternative proposal to extend by four months the time for the inspectors to be in the country.

France, also today, in Paris, French leader Chirac meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Spain supports the U.S. resolution, along with the United Kingdom. And the two basically agreed to disagree. Spain's leader said he favors the United States' resolution, calling it appropriate, while the French president said we are opposed to all new resolutions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, under fire in his own Labor Party, addressed the House of Commons in London, and he defended any assault on Saddam Hussein, because he said the Iraqi leader can't be trusted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Increasingly, the whole issue before the international community comes down really to this -- when we said last November this was a final opportunity to Saddam, when we said there had to be full, unconditional and immediate compliance, did we really mean it? Or did we mean that we would come along later, and say, well, let's postpone it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: U.K. ally, the United States, is expected to host today the nonelected 10, or you might say the elected 10, but they don't have permanent vetoes at all. These are the countries up for grabs, Paula, the hunt for votes. There's a meeting expected on the east side near the United Nations today.

ZAHN: Richard in closing, talking about the hunt for votes, Maureen Down (ph) of "The New York Times" characterized it this morning as the process of wooing the minnows, she said some in the Pentagon disparagingly call the small countries that could end up delivering a Security Council resolution. How important are these smaller countries?

ROTH: Well, they're very important. They may get the U.S. the needed nine votes without vetoes. They don't like to be called minnows. They can sometimes bite, as they may do in the next week and a half. They may not accept any payoffs, so to speak, but countries like Angola, shattered from years of war, need money, Mexico, immigration changes, Chile, trade law changes. Everybody wants something. They could easily hold out to the end to get the best possible bargain.

ZAHN: Richard Roth, thanks so much.

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




Authorize Use of Force>


Aired February 26, 2003 - 09:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: As the U.S. lines up for votes on a new resolution of Iraq to authorize the use of force, Germany, France and Russia are pushing their own proposal, a counterproposal. It would increase the number of inspectors on the ground and allow them to continue working for at least four more months.
At this hour, German Chancellor Schroeder is on his way to Moscow to meet with President Putin.

Our Jill Dougherty is in Moscow and joins us with a preview of that meeting.

Good morning, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Paula.

Well, Gerhard Schroeder is on his way. He'll be here in about 2 1/2 hours. It's going to be a very, very quick trip, about an hour meeting scheduled with President Vladimir Putin, and then he goes back to Europe.

Germany, France and Russia are on the same page, at least at this point, when it comes to Iraq. They want those inspections to continue. They say they want them tougher, but they want then for another 120 days. And that is something that the United States and Great Britain do not want to happen.

Just this afternoon, we've had some interesting comments coming out of the Russian foreign ministry saying -- praising Iraq for giving more information to the inspectors, but warning Iraq that it is very important for them to destroy those Al-Samoud missiles, the ones that the United Nations wants them to begin destroying by Saturday. Russia urging them very strongly to do that, and that is significant because that could -- if they do not do that, if Iraq does not destroy those missiles, it could play into the hands of countries like the U.S., that do want a second resolution.

So again, the question is, what will Russia do? Will it vote for, will it vote against, will it use its veto?

We spoke with a senior U.S. official who said today he did not believe that Russia would use its veto. And he also believes that china will not use its veto, that in the end, at the most, they might abstain in the U.N. Security Council.

Ultimately, of course, though, all of this is going to be up to President Vladimir Putin. And at this point, he seems to be keeping his options open. We'll hear what he says tonight.

ZAHN: Jill, can you give us a sense of how much pressure the Bush administration is putting on President Putin right now?

DOUGHERTY: It's very intense conversation, pressure if you want. There are people back and forth. We have John Bolton, who is the undersecretary of state, here in Moscow for three days. He's finishing that trip up today. Interestingly enough, the right hand man of President Putin, Alexander Voloshin (ph), is in Washington. He was at the White House. He met with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and then President bush also sat in, significantly, on that meeting. He'll be meeting all of the very important members of the Bush administration.

So it's very delicate, and it's very intense. And we understand we might be getting a few -- at least one other important visitor here in Moscow from the United States, perhaps next week.

ZAHN: And that would be?

DOUGHERTY: Can't tell you, Paula. We don't know yet. But it could be somebody very important. It won't be President Bush.

ZAHN: That's what I was wondering. All right, clues later on in the morning from Jill Dougherty.

DOUGHERTY: No, no.

ZAHN: Our bureau chief in Moscow. Thank you very much for that live report.

As President Bush gets ready to pressure the U.N. Security Council to disarm Baghdad, top U.S. officials are working behind the scenes to line up votes for the new resolution on Iraq.

Richard Roth standing by at the United Nations more on how the U.S. Is trying to win support.

So, Richard, does your analysis pretty much square with what Jill just reported, that the expectation is maybe you will not get a veto out of Russia or China, but instead abstentions.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, I wouldn't mind that important visitor here.

And second, it's a little early, but the U.S. would probably accept the abstentions. It's happened before on key Iraq resolutions. It takes some of the teeth and the international moral weight out of it. Russia says it is always willing to compromise, but it opposes use of force. That's what its ambassador, Sergey Lavarov, said here yesterday. France, Russia, China, Germany, Council Members are pushing an alternative proposal to extend by four months the time for the inspectors to be in the country.

France, also today, in Paris, French leader Chirac meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Spain supports the U.S. resolution, along with the United Kingdom. And the two basically agreed to disagree. Spain's leader said he favors the United States' resolution, calling it appropriate, while the French president said we are opposed to all new resolutions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, under fire in his own Labor Party, addressed the House of Commons in London, and he defended any assault on Saddam Hussein, because he said the Iraqi leader can't be trusted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Increasingly, the whole issue before the international community comes down really to this -- when we said last November this was a final opportunity to Saddam, when we said there had to be full, unconditional and immediate compliance, did we really mean it? Or did we mean that we would come along later, and say, well, let's postpone it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: U.K. ally, the United States, is expected to host today the nonelected 10, or you might say the elected 10, but they don't have permanent vetoes at all. These are the countries up for grabs, Paula, the hunt for votes. There's a meeting expected on the east side near the United Nations today.

ZAHN: Richard in closing, talking about the hunt for votes, Maureen Down (ph) of "The New York Times" characterized it this morning as the process of wooing the minnows, she said some in the Pentagon disparagingly call the small countries that could end up delivering a Security Council resolution. How important are these smaller countries?

ROTH: Well, they're very important. They may get the U.S. the needed nine votes without vetoes. They don't like to be called minnows. They can sometimes bite, as they may do in the next week and a half. They may not accept any payoffs, so to speak, but countries like Angola, shattered from years of war, need money, Mexico, immigration changes, Chile, trade law changes. Everybody wants something. They could easily hold out to the end to get the best possible bargain.

ZAHN: Richard Roth, thanks so much.

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




Authorize Use of Force>