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U.S., France Lobby Undecided Six

Aired March 10, 2003 - 11:01   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is shaping up to be a critical and perhaps decisive week on war. The U.S. is working furiously to round up votes for an ultimatum to Iraq. Disarm by a week from today, or face attack.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux begins -- begins us with our live coverage now -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Fred. The president has cleared his calendar for the next three days because he is going to be making critical calls to world leaders, trying to get that U.S. resolution passed. Also, not only to U.S. (sic) Security Council members. but also to countries that have influence.

We have been told that, already, the president has been on the phone with leaders from China, as well as Japan. The administration also reacting strongly, giving a stern warning to Russia. Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov saying that it does not support the U.S. resolution holding Saddam Hussein to account.

White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, earlier today using strong language saying -- and I am quoting here -- the president would indeed be disappointed if Russia were to veto. The president would look at this as a missed opportunity for Russia to take an important stand to defend freedom and to prevent the risk of a massive catastrophe taking place as a result of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. The administration making a moral argument in this case.

Also, Fred, we should mention that the administration is expressing some frustration here at U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. They say that details were left out of his presentation on Friday before the U.N. Security Council. Details that the administration feels could have bolstered its case to help particularly the undecided members of the U.N. Security Council that Saddam Hussein is not complying. They say that this came from a document that was actually distributed to members after Blix's presentation that gave some additional details, specifically, about a drone, an Iraqi drone that was not declared that had been recently discovered.

Now, Fred, about 4:00 this afternoon is when the administration says behind closed doors they are going to ask some questions, demand some questions -- some answers of Hans Blix. Why it was that he didn't include this in his presentation. They are not saying that he deliberately buried this information, but they certainly believe it would have been helpful in making the administration's case, and that it simply was not used -- Fred. WHITFIELD: All right, Suzanne, and they're talking about information such as rockets that were configured to send bomblets filled with chemical or biological agents. That is among those things. Suzanne Malveaux from the White House, thanks very much.

Well, the U.S. needs nine votes and no vetoes to get U.N. approval for the March 17 deadline. But publicly, at least, there seems to be little or no movement toward the U.S. position. Senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth joins us now -- Richard.

ROTH: Well, it's too soon to say which position the undecideds are leaning to. We may not know until there is a vote. If there is a vote, U.S. officials saying still here today, Tuesday, Wednesday for a vote. Consultations later this afternoon in New York here at the United Nations Security Council, but there will be no decision on any resolution today.

As for the hunt for votes, France's foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin is in Africa. His first stop was Angola. That is an uncommitted member of the Security Council undecided. Oil rich, but wracked by decades of war, needs massive amounts of international humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile in Britain today, British foreign secretary Jack Straw kept up the hard line against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: The choice before us is whether we stand firm in pursuing our objective of disarmament, or settle for a policy which, in truth, allows Saddam to rebuild his arsenal under cover of just enough cooperation to keep the inspectors tied down for years to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The British foreign secretary added that his government was going to examine moving inside the Security Council towards telling Iraq to cooperate or else on certain outstanding issues that the weapons inspectors outlined in a large report last week, as they were required to do.

The U.S. is also moving toward that direction. It may give some countries some assurance that these issues will be considered and tested with Iraq and they may, thus, sign on to this resolution -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, among those swing votes, Guinea and Chile, they have not quite committed to a yes vote. I imagine that they are getting an awful lot of lobbying going on from White House administration officials. Are you hearing anything about how that communication just might be taking place today? We know over the weekend a lot of phone calls were being made. What about today?

ROTH: Well, there may be, indeed, meetings or phone calls around here. Things are kept private. A lot of it is done by phone contact, and U.S. officials have been in those countries in recent weeks. That's just what goes on. It is the selling of a resolution. But if it gets adjusted, that helps swing some votes, and that's what may happen. It happened Friday with the British -- quote -- "amendment," giving a deadline of March 17, and we'll see what happens. The diplomatic path still open, but the window is like barely open.

WHITFIELD: All right, Richard, thank you very much, from the U.N.

Well, Iraq moved ahead today with plans to destroy another batch of banned missiles. CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson is in Baghdad with the latest -- Nic.

ROBERTSON: Fredricka, hello. While U.N. officials say that six more more of the Al Samoud 2 missiles have been destroyed along with three of the warheads. The U.N. has also been to about half a dozen other sites around the country. One of those sites including the site where Iraq is digging up some of its old R-400 (ph) biological bombs. Now, the U.N. had taken samples, test samples from that site recently. There are no results yet.

We've also seen some diplomatic comings and goings here. A Russian envoy, the speaker from Russia's Duma meeting with President Saddam Hussein today. That meeting to talk about strengthening and consolidating bilateral relationships between the two countries. No big headline reported from it, but the representative from Russia meeting with President Saddam Hussein.

We've also heard from Iraq's foreign ministry today very critical of U.S. efforts to have some of Iraq's diplomats expelled from countries around the world. Iraq's foreign minister here calling such efforts a CIA effort to get Iraqi diplomats to defect, and said that -- the foreign ministry says it knows one of its diplomats will be asked to leave Australia.

Also saying that they know diplomats in Austria, diplomats in Romania and Iraqi diplomats in Belgium have also been -- well, those countries, at least, have also been put under pressure to expel some Iraqi diplomats.

Iraq's foreign ministry here has warned those countries under United States pressure to expel those diplomats not to give in -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nic, thank you.

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 March 10, 2003 - 11:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is shaping up to be a critical and perhaps decisive week on war. The U.S. is working furiously to round up votes for an ultimatum to Iraq. Disarm by a week from today, or face attack.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux begins -- begins us with our live coverage now -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Fred. The president has cleared his calendar for the next three days because he is going to be making critical calls to world leaders, trying to get that U.S. resolution passed. Also, not only to U.S. (sic) Security Council members. but also to countries that have influence.

We have been told that, already, the president has been on the phone with leaders from China, as well as Japan. The administration also reacting strongly, giving a stern warning to Russia. Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov saying that it does not support the U.S. resolution holding Saddam Hussein to account.

White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, earlier today using strong language saying -- and I am quoting here -- the president would indeed be disappointed if Russia were to veto. The president would look at this as a missed opportunity for Russia to take an important stand to defend freedom and to prevent the risk of a massive catastrophe taking place as a result of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. The administration making a moral argument in this case.

Also, Fred, we should mention that the administration is expressing some frustration here at U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. They say that details were left out of his presentation on Friday before the U.N. Security Council. Details that the administration feels could have bolstered its case to help particularly the undecided members of the U.N. Security Council that Saddam Hussein is not complying. They say that this came from a document that was actually distributed to members after Blix's presentation that gave some additional details, specifically, about a drone, an Iraqi drone that was not declared that had been recently discovered.

Now, Fred, about 4:00 this afternoon is when the administration says behind closed doors they are going to ask some questions, demand some questions -- some answers of Hans Blix. Why it was that he didn't include this in his presentation. They are not saying that he deliberately buried this information, but they certainly believe it would have been helpful in making the administration's case, and that it simply was not used -- Fred. WHITFIELD: All right, Suzanne, and they're talking about information such as rockets that were configured to send bomblets filled with chemical or biological agents. That is among those things. Suzanne Malveaux from the White House, thanks very much.

Well, the U.S. needs nine votes and no vetoes to get U.N. approval for the March 17 deadline. But publicly, at least, there seems to be little or no movement toward the U.S. position. Senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth joins us now -- Richard.

ROTH: Well, it's too soon to say which position the undecideds are leaning to. We may not know until there is a vote. If there is a vote, U.S. officials saying still here today, Tuesday, Wednesday for a vote. Consultations later this afternoon in New York here at the United Nations Security Council, but there will be no decision on any resolution today.

As for the hunt for votes, France's foreign minister, Dominique de Villepin is in Africa. His first stop was Angola. That is an uncommitted member of the Security Council undecided. Oil rich, but wracked by decades of war, needs massive amounts of international humanitarian aid.

Meanwhile in Britain today, British foreign secretary Jack Straw kept up the hard line against President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK STRAW, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: The choice before us is whether we stand firm in pursuing our objective of disarmament, or settle for a policy which, in truth, allows Saddam to rebuild his arsenal under cover of just enough cooperation to keep the inspectors tied down for years to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: The British foreign secretary added that his government was going to examine moving inside the Security Council towards telling Iraq to cooperate or else on certain outstanding issues that the weapons inspectors outlined in a large report last week, as they were required to do.

The U.S. is also moving toward that direction. It may give some countries some assurance that these issues will be considered and tested with Iraq and they may, thus, sign on to this resolution -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, among those swing votes, Guinea and Chile, they have not quite committed to a yes vote. I imagine that they are getting an awful lot of lobbying going on from White House administration officials. Are you hearing anything about how that communication just might be taking place today? We know over the weekend a lot of phone calls were being made. What about today?

ROTH: Well, there may be, indeed, meetings or phone calls around here. Things are kept private. A lot of it is done by phone contact, and U.S. officials have been in those countries in recent weeks. That's just what goes on. It is the selling of a resolution. But if it gets adjusted, that helps swing some votes, and that's what may happen. It happened Friday with the British -- quote -- "amendment," giving a deadline of March 17, and we'll see what happens. The diplomatic path still open, but the window is like barely open.

WHITFIELD: All right, Richard, thank you very much, from the U.N.

Well, Iraq moved ahead today with plans to destroy another batch of banned missiles. CNN Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson is in Baghdad with the latest -- Nic.

ROBERTSON: Fredricka, hello. While U.N. officials say that six more more of the Al Samoud 2 missiles have been destroyed along with three of the warheads. The U.N. has also been to about half a dozen other sites around the country. One of those sites including the site where Iraq is digging up some of its old R-400 (ph) biological bombs. Now, the U.N. had taken samples, test samples from that site recently. There are no results yet.

We've also seen some diplomatic comings and goings here. A Russian envoy, the speaker from Russia's Duma meeting with President Saddam Hussein today. That meeting to talk about strengthening and consolidating bilateral relationships between the two countries. No big headline reported from it, but the representative from Russia meeting with President Saddam Hussein.

We've also heard from Iraq's foreign ministry today very critical of U.S. efforts to have some of Iraq's diplomats expelled from countries around the world. Iraq's foreign minister here calling such efforts a CIA effort to get Iraqi diplomats to defect, and said that -- the foreign ministry says it knows one of its diplomats will be asked to leave Australia.

Also saying that they know diplomats in Austria, diplomats in Romania and Iraqi diplomats in Belgium have also been -- well, those countries, at least, have also been put under pressure to expel some Iraqi diplomats.

Iraq's foreign ministry here has warned those countries under United States pressure to expel those diplomats not to give in -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nic, thank you.

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