Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Karzai Pushes U.N. For More Security Forces

Aired January 31, 2002 - 06:44   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: Afghan's interim leader is in London today for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The two are expected to talk about the multinational peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Earlier, while in New York, Karzai appealed to the United Nations to beef up security forces.

CNN's Richard Roth has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Kabul, Afghanistan to ground zero, yellow roses from the leader of Afghanistan.

HAMID KARZAI, INTERIM AFGHAN GOVERNMENT CHAIRMAN: I've come here to bring you these flowers from Afghan families to American families. We have that sharing of pain with you. A lot of it is from here.

ROTH: The plans to attack the World Trade Center towers were hatched in Afghanistan. Karzai said he had visited the towers once before and almost forgot they were gone as he headed toward them. Karzai compared the towers' fate to the blowing up of religious statues back home by the Taliban last year.

KARZAI: It's as horrific as the destruction of Buddha in Afghanistan. It's the destruction of life itself, of people.

ROTH: Karzai wants to protect his population now from Taliban and warlord resistance to a new national government. For the first time, he asked the U.N. Security Council to beef up the number of international peacekeepers and dispatch them to all parts of Afghanistan and not just the capital, Kabul, like now.

KARZAI: We hope that you would authorize an extension and expansion of the mandate of these forces.

ROTH: That would require a new security council resolution, which is no sure thing, despite the political charms of the visiting Afghan leader.

JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Certainly, if Chairman Karzai is proposing it as something that we, and the other members of the council, will have to look at in due course. ROTH (on camera): Senior U.N. officials privately wonder how nations can proudly support the fragile Karzai administration, but not back up their words with troops. But the 17 nations contributing forces are hesitant to be an occupying army in a lawless land.

Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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