Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
'International News Desk'
Aired October 22, 2003 - 05:31 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: Colin Powell flies to a Red Sea resort today. But it's anything but a vacation. He and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will look for ways to get the Middle East peace process back on track. The secretary of state is in Kenya now to help with peace talks between the government of Sudan and Sudanese rebels.
And for more on Powell's trip and other global developments, we turn, as usual, to our senior international editor, David Clinch -- good morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Hey, Carol, good morning.
You know, listening to Jerrold talking about that vote at the U.N. yesterday -- and, again, stressing it was the General Assembly, not the so-Security Council, so no vetoes were available -- but the Americans voted against it, which is to be expected. They don't want to be on the record voting against Israel in any form.
But they voted against it but they are still pretty angry with the Israelis about the fence and they'/re going to keep a close eye on that. The question is still there of, though, exactly how involved the U.S. is in the Middle East peace process. We've talked about this again and again, particularly after those Americans were killed in Gaza the other day. I think there was an expectation it might drive a new involvement by the U.S. That hasn't really happened yet. Colin Powell, though, as we're saying there, is on his way sort of to the region today, stopping for about an hour and a half in Egypt to talk to President Mubarak. We may or may not hear a press conference from him while he's there. Now...
COSTELLO: What can he possibly say?
CLINCH: Well, I suppose he's meeting with Mubarak there. He's in the region. He wants to take advantage and talk to him about the process. But more interestingly, the Palestinian prime minister, Qureia, will actually be in Cairo, just a couple of hours away, meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister. But as far as we know, they're not all going to get together. There's either no time or no incentive to do that right now.
So involvement, but limited. So we'll see. Maybe we'll hear more from Colin Powell, though. He's going to be there around nine o'clock or so. We'll see if there's a press conference, we'll bring that in live. Now, what else? For the record, yesterday we were talking about North Korea, President Bush traveling in Asia giving a somewhat vague offer to North Korea of a deal, a non-aggression deal, but only in a multilateral form. I said yesterday we hadn't heard from the North Koreans. Well, we heard from them not necessarily flaming rhetoric, which, you know, we might have expected. But they did describe -- they did basically reject the offer. They basically described the offer as laughable and not worth considering.
COSTELLO: You're kidding.
CLINCH: Now, again, though, reading the tea leaves in North Korea is a profession I'm glad I'm not in, full-time, anyway. But it wasn't...
COSTELLO: So you're saying this could mean absolutely nothing.
CLINCH: It could mean nothing. It probably does mean nothing because it wasn't, as I said, flaming rhetoric, anti-American. It was just a straightforward they consider it laughable. But it remains to be seen. There is still a chance, I suppose, that talks will come together and they'll consider that offer more seriously.
If I have time, I'll come back at six o'clock and we'll just talk about President Bush going to Australia and what President Bush and I have in common.
COSTELLO: Really?
CLINCH: Yes. Not a lot, but something.
COSTELLO: Not Texas.
CLINCH: No. I'll tell you what it is at six if we have time.
COSTELLO: OK. Well, we will have time.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: We'll make time for that, David.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Thank you very 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
Aired October 22, 2003 - 05:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Colin Powell flies to a Red Sea resort today. But it's anything but a vacation. He and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will look for ways to get the Middle East peace process back on track. The secretary of state is in Kenya now to help with peace talks between the government of Sudan and Sudanese rebels.
And for more on Powell's trip and other global developments, we turn, as usual, to our senior international editor, David Clinch -- good morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Hey, Carol, good morning.
You know, listening to Jerrold talking about that vote at the U.N. yesterday -- and, again, stressing it was the General Assembly, not the so-Security Council, so no vetoes were available -- but the Americans voted against it, which is to be expected. They don't want to be on the record voting against Israel in any form.
But they voted against it but they are still pretty angry with the Israelis about the fence and they'/re going to keep a close eye on that. The question is still there of, though, exactly how involved the U.S. is in the Middle East peace process. We've talked about this again and again, particularly after those Americans were killed in Gaza the other day. I think there was an expectation it might drive a new involvement by the U.S. That hasn't really happened yet. Colin Powell, though, as we're saying there, is on his way sort of to the region today, stopping for about an hour and a half in Egypt to talk to President Mubarak. We may or may not hear a press conference from him while he's there. Now...
COSTELLO: What can he possibly say?
CLINCH: Well, I suppose he's meeting with Mubarak there. He's in the region. He wants to take advantage and talk to him about the process. But more interestingly, the Palestinian prime minister, Qureia, will actually be in Cairo, just a couple of hours away, meeting with the Egyptian foreign minister. But as far as we know, they're not all going to get together. There's either no time or no incentive to do that right now.
So involvement, but limited. So we'll see. Maybe we'll hear more from Colin Powell, though. He's going to be there around nine o'clock or so. We'll see if there's a press conference, we'll bring that in live. Now, what else? For the record, yesterday we were talking about North Korea, President Bush traveling in Asia giving a somewhat vague offer to North Korea of a deal, a non-aggression deal, but only in a multilateral form. I said yesterday we hadn't heard from the North Koreans. Well, we heard from them not necessarily flaming rhetoric, which, you know, we might have expected. But they did describe -- they did basically reject the offer. They basically described the offer as laughable and not worth considering.
COSTELLO: You're kidding.
CLINCH: Now, again, though, reading the tea leaves in North Korea is a profession I'm glad I'm not in, full-time, anyway. But it wasn't...
COSTELLO: So you're saying this could mean absolutely nothing.
CLINCH: It could mean nothing. It probably does mean nothing because it wasn't, as I said, flaming rhetoric, anti-American. It was just a straightforward they consider it laughable. But it remains to be seen. There is still a chance, I suppose, that talks will come together and they'll consider that offer more seriously.
If I have time, I'll come back at six o'clock and we'll just talk about President Bush going to Australia and what President Bush and I have in common.
COSTELLO: Really?
CLINCH: Yes. Not a lot, but something.
COSTELLO: Not Texas.
CLINCH: No. I'll tell you what it is at six if we have time.
COSTELLO: OK. Well, we will have time.
CLINCH: OK.
COSTELLO: We'll make time for that, David.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: Thank you very 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
