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CNN Live At Daybreak
International Stories Today
Aired February 19, 2004 - 05:34 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: In Iran, the nation is preparing for a very controversial parliamentary election.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us with that part of the story.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol. Actually, a couple of very interesting stories in Iran coming up. We have the elections tomorrow, the same story, the conservatives holding onto power, not allowing the reformists to run, in many ways. Khatami, the president, calling the elections a sham at this point. They are going to go ahead, though.
But I mean just to illustrate how tense the situation there is, some reformist politicians put out a statement saying that Khameini, the all powerful supreme leader, who's never criticized in public, put out a public statement published in two newspapers saying he's presiding over a failed system.
Those two newspapers were immediately shut down today. So that just shows you how tense the situation is there.
Also in Iran, we're hearing today that the IAEA, that was allowed to send inspectors into Iran, has apparently discovered more undeclared centrifuges, which they had last week told us that they'd found blueprints for centrifuges. Now we're hearing from sources that they are going to tell us next week that they found equipment that may not even fit into any of the sites that Iran has declared, giving credence to the idea that Iran may be hiding other sites, nuclear weapons sites.
So we're looking into that, as well.
On Iraq now, we're hearing, just now getting confirmation from the U.S. military that two U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq today in an attack near Baghdad. We're going to get details for you from that, from Baghdad on that shortly. And, of course, waiting today to hear from Kofi Annan. He's in a position now of saying whether the U.N. supports or does not support the idea of early elections that could take place...
COSTELLO: Oh, I thought it already came out that he -- the U.N. does not?
CLINCH: Well, he has said, indicated before that he doesn't think elections can be held before the hand over. We are expecting him to officially say that today. The question then becomes is what is he going to say about what kind of a system should exist between the time when the U.S. does hand over power in July and when elections can be held so...
COSTELLO: I'm just wondering why that's the magical month, the magical date because...
CLINCH: Well, from the U.S. point...
COSTELLO: ... who's to say that things will be ready by then? I mean hopefully they will be.
CLINCH: Right. Well, the hand over is not the same as elections, obviously. And the hand over, the timing of the hand over is key from a U.S. point of view, because if it happens in July on schedule, that will be seen as a success. But then, of course, the question mark is what happens between then and when elections happen.
COSTELLO: True.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
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 19, 2004 - 05:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In Iran, the nation is preparing for a very controversial parliamentary election.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, joins us with that part of the story.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol. Actually, a couple of very interesting stories in Iran coming up. We have the elections tomorrow, the same story, the conservatives holding onto power, not allowing the reformists to run, in many ways. Khatami, the president, calling the elections a sham at this point. They are going to go ahead, though.
But I mean just to illustrate how tense the situation there is, some reformist politicians put out a statement saying that Khameini, the all powerful supreme leader, who's never criticized in public, put out a public statement published in two newspapers saying he's presiding over a failed system.
Those two newspapers were immediately shut down today. So that just shows you how tense the situation is there.
Also in Iran, we're hearing today that the IAEA, that was allowed to send inspectors into Iran, has apparently discovered more undeclared centrifuges, which they had last week told us that they'd found blueprints for centrifuges. Now we're hearing from sources that they are going to tell us next week that they found equipment that may not even fit into any of the sites that Iran has declared, giving credence to the idea that Iran may be hiding other sites, nuclear weapons sites.
So we're looking into that, as well.
On Iraq now, we're hearing, just now getting confirmation from the U.S. military that two U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq today in an attack near Baghdad. We're going to get details for you from that, from Baghdad on that shortly. And, of course, waiting today to hear from Kofi Annan. He's in a position now of saying whether the U.N. supports or does not support the idea of early elections that could take place...
COSTELLO: Oh, I thought it already came out that he -- the U.N. does not?
CLINCH: Well, he has said, indicated before that he doesn't think elections can be held before the hand over. We are expecting him to officially say that today. The question then becomes is what is he going to say about what kind of a system should exist between the time when the U.S. does hand over power in July and when elections can be held so...
COSTELLO: I'm just wondering why that's the magical month, the magical date because...
CLINCH: Well, from the U.S. point...
COSTELLO: ... who's to say that things will be ready by then? I mean hopefully they will be.
CLINCH: Right. Well, the hand over is not the same as elections, obviously. And the hand over, the timing of the hand over is key from a U.S. point of view, because if it happens in July on schedule, that will be seen as a success. But then, of course, the question mark is what happens between then and when elections happen.
COSTELLO: True.
CLINCH: All right.
COSTELLO: David Clinch, many thanks.
CLINCH: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
