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American Morning

United Front

Aired October 17, 2003 - 07:14   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.N. vote on Iraq, a diplomatic victory for the U.S. Even though France and Germany approved that resolution, they refuse to commit troops or money to the reconstruction effort at this point. We want to revisit this issue.
Two of our regular contributors from the European press. Christian Malar is back with us, senior foreign analyst for France 3 television, he's live in Paris. Patricia Schlesinger, senior correspondent for German TV, is back with us from Washington.

Great to have you both here.

Christian, let's start with you in Paris. Why did the French come around on this and agree to it yesterday at the U.N.?

CHRISTIAN MALAR, SENIOR FOREIGN ANALYST, FRANCE 3 TV: Well, it's good that French President Chirac and his government don't want to have more split between the United States and the rest of the partners as we've had until now. It's clear that the French don't want to worsen the relationship we've had until now.

But everybody is aware of the fact that it's a good step forward which has been taken, decided by President Bush on this new resolution, but at the same time the French think it's not sufficient. They hope that the president will understand that he has to speed up the process towards an agenda, showing that power will be handed over to the Iraqis very soon with a precise calendar and a new constitution and new free elections.

But at the same time, the French want to say, let's move forward together. Let's preserve the unity of the united council, the Security Council of the U.N., and this is why we decided to vote for this resolution with the Germans, the Russians and the Chinese, who had some different views also.

HEMMER: Your answer indicates that there's a healing of the wounds under way right now.

Patricia, is that the same from the German view?

PATRICIA SCHLESINGER, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, ARD TV: That's definitely part of it. I mean, it's interesting because there only seems to be winners right now. The U.S. got the resolution, and the European countries, those famous three -- Russia, France and Germany -- they got their compromise. They are selling it like that. The fact is they got less than 10 percent of what they really wanted only five weeks ago.

I think the reasons why they voted yes yesterday are very easy to explain. First of all, they couldn't stop the resolution, so it's better to be with them. If you can't beat them, join them. I mean, that's the philosophy behind it. And it comes at a cheap price for us and for France as well. There will be no more troops contributed and there will be no more money involved. So, that's very easy, I think.

And the other reason is, and that's the same as Christian just pointed out, I wouldn't underestimate the good feeling about just healing rift between the United States and Germany and Europe. I think that's a big part of it.

And, in addition to that, I wouldn't underestimate the good feeling about the reborn multilateral approach of the United States right now. Everybody likes it, but everybody knows it's not out of conviction but because out of sheer need, I would say. They really need the rest of the world right now.

HEMMER: Patricia...

SCHLESINGER: So, it comes down really to very pragmatic reasons. And, I mean, you have that saying, I think. Diplomatic politics is something like sausage. You don't want to see how it is made, but you want the results.

HEMMER: Yes, we do have that saying.

SCHLESINGER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for everybody, but it's not very pretty if you look at the details.

HEMMER: Let me just stop you here for one second here, because after vote went through, a statement came out on behalf of France, Germany and Russia. This is what they said actually: "We believe that the resolution should have gone further on two major issues: First, the role of the United Nations, in particular in the political process, and second, the pace of the transfer of responsibilities to the Iraqi people."

Christian, some are saying the commitment is dubious. You know, how do you vote for it and then come out and release a statement like this minutes or even hours later?

MALAR: Well, Bill, I wouldn't say the commitment is dubious. It's clear that Chirac's position has always been known to George Bush. But once more, I think the French want to say they have goodwill. They want to help. They hope there will be more steps forward in this direction in the coming future, because what French President Chirac fears about is that he knows about the Iraqis, this nationalist approach they have, and they still consider that the U.S. troops on the ground with the British are forces of occupation.

And what they worry about is if the Americans are not speeding up the process towards handing power to the Iraqis as quick as possible, we will have some more terrorist attacks against the poor U.S. soldiers on the ground. You will be fueling the hatred towards the United States and the occidental world. This is what President Chirac is really worrying and feels concerned about.

HEMMER: Christian Malar from Paris, Patricia Schlesinger of German TV in D.C., thanks to both of you this morning and coming on sharing with us.

MALAR: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: We're going back to making sausage, Patricia.

SCHLESINGER: Thank you.

HEMMER: You got it. We'll talk again soon down the road.

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 October 17, 2003 - 07:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.N. vote on Iraq, a diplomatic victory for the U.S. Even though France and Germany approved that resolution, they refuse to commit troops or money to the reconstruction effort at this point. We want to revisit this issue.
Two of our regular contributors from the European press. Christian Malar is back with us, senior foreign analyst for France 3 television, he's live in Paris. Patricia Schlesinger, senior correspondent for German TV, is back with us from Washington.

Great to have you both here.

Christian, let's start with you in Paris. Why did the French come around on this and agree to it yesterday at the U.N.?

CHRISTIAN MALAR, SENIOR FOREIGN ANALYST, FRANCE 3 TV: Well, it's good that French President Chirac and his government don't want to have more split between the United States and the rest of the partners as we've had until now. It's clear that the French don't want to worsen the relationship we've had until now.

But everybody is aware of the fact that it's a good step forward which has been taken, decided by President Bush on this new resolution, but at the same time the French think it's not sufficient. They hope that the president will understand that he has to speed up the process towards an agenda, showing that power will be handed over to the Iraqis very soon with a precise calendar and a new constitution and new free elections.

But at the same time, the French want to say, let's move forward together. Let's preserve the unity of the united council, the Security Council of the U.N., and this is why we decided to vote for this resolution with the Germans, the Russians and the Chinese, who had some different views also.

HEMMER: Your answer indicates that there's a healing of the wounds under way right now.

Patricia, is that the same from the German view?

PATRICIA SCHLESINGER, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, ARD TV: That's definitely part of it. I mean, it's interesting because there only seems to be winners right now. The U.S. got the resolution, and the European countries, those famous three -- Russia, France and Germany -- they got their compromise. They are selling it like that. The fact is they got less than 10 percent of what they really wanted only five weeks ago.

I think the reasons why they voted yes yesterday are very easy to explain. First of all, they couldn't stop the resolution, so it's better to be with them. If you can't beat them, join them. I mean, that's the philosophy behind it. And it comes at a cheap price for us and for France as well. There will be no more troops contributed and there will be no more money involved. So, that's very easy, I think.

And the other reason is, and that's the same as Christian just pointed out, I wouldn't underestimate the good feeling about just healing rift between the United States and Germany and Europe. I think that's a big part of it.

And, in addition to that, I wouldn't underestimate the good feeling about the reborn multilateral approach of the United States right now. Everybody likes it, but everybody knows it's not out of conviction but because out of sheer need, I would say. They really need the rest of the world right now.

HEMMER: Patricia...

SCHLESINGER: So, it comes down really to very pragmatic reasons. And, I mean, you have that saying, I think. Diplomatic politics is something like sausage. You don't want to see how it is made, but you want the results.

HEMMER: Yes, we do have that saying.

SCHLESINGER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for everybody, but it's not very pretty if you look at the details.

HEMMER: Let me just stop you here for one second here, because after vote went through, a statement came out on behalf of France, Germany and Russia. This is what they said actually: "We believe that the resolution should have gone further on two major issues: First, the role of the United Nations, in particular in the political process, and second, the pace of the transfer of responsibilities to the Iraqi people."

Christian, some are saying the commitment is dubious. You know, how do you vote for it and then come out and release a statement like this minutes or even hours later?

MALAR: Well, Bill, I wouldn't say the commitment is dubious. It's clear that Chirac's position has always been known to George Bush. But once more, I think the French want to say they have goodwill. They want to help. They hope there will be more steps forward in this direction in the coming future, because what French President Chirac fears about is that he knows about the Iraqis, this nationalist approach they have, and they still consider that the U.S. troops on the ground with the British are forces of occupation.

And what they worry about is if the Americans are not speeding up the process towards handing power to the Iraqis as quick as possible, we will have some more terrorist attacks against the poor U.S. soldiers on the ground. You will be fueling the hatred towards the United States and the occidental world. This is what President Chirac is really worrying and feels concerned about.

HEMMER: Christian Malar from Paris, Patricia Schlesinger of German TV in D.C., thanks to both of you this morning and coming on sharing with us.

MALAR: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: We're going back to making sausage, Patricia.

SCHLESINGER: Thank you.

HEMMER: You got it. We'll talk again soon down the road.

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