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U.S. May End Diplomatic Push Next Week

Aired March 04, 2003 - 13:01   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, the battle to sell the United Nations on going to war with Iraq. The United States and Britain are moving toward ending their diplomatic push perhaps next week, and unless something changes, the effort to secure a U.N. endorsement may fall short.
CNN's Richard Roth is at the U.N., offering us the very latest. Is now the 11th hour for diplomacy, Richard?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, maybe the 6th hour, because this is the U.N., and this is a grave issue of war and peace. U.S. officials in Washington talking about possibly abandoning the resolution. But this would be common sense that the U.S. wouldn't want to put it to a veto unless it wanted to show the differences between the big powers.

Here in the United Nations, no one is officially saying yet just what the U.S. will or won't do. In fact, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte said it's too soon to say whether the United States would push the resolution off the table if it failed to, in advance, get word of nine favorable votes without a veto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We haven't crossed that bridge. We're at a state now where we're in the process of working with the cosponsors, of trying to mobilize the necessary support for that resolution, and we believe that support should be there, and we are -- we're not facing that kind of situation, and I think we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it, but we don't think we should have to come to that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: If so-called uncommitted six, countries on the Security Council want to move their vote one way or another, it may depend on this man's next briefing on Friday before the Security Council in open session. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who has previously called the destruction of Al Samoud missiles by Iraq a significant development.

Yet, he also has criticized in his written report Iraq's rate of cooperation, saying they could have done more.

Meanwhile, here at the United Nations, the French have said their foreign minister, Dominic de Villepin will be here for the Blix briefing on Friday. Also, the German foreign minister will be here. No word yet from the U.S., and the U.S. would be very interested in making sure it's just Blix in open session, and not some big high- powered shoot out verbally, which happened last time, where the French foreign minister drew a lot of applause -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Richard Roth, quick question for you. We hope we have time for it...

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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 4, 2003 - 13:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, the battle to sell the United Nations on going to war with Iraq. The United States and Britain are moving toward ending their diplomatic push perhaps next week, and unless something changes, the effort to secure a U.N. endorsement may fall short.
CNN's Richard Roth is at the U.N., offering us the very latest. Is now the 11th hour for diplomacy, Richard?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, maybe the 6th hour, because this is the U.N., and this is a grave issue of war and peace. U.S. officials in Washington talking about possibly abandoning the resolution. But this would be common sense that the U.S. wouldn't want to put it to a veto unless it wanted to show the differences between the big powers.

Here in the United Nations, no one is officially saying yet just what the U.S. will or won't do. In fact, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte said it's too soon to say whether the United States would push the resolution off the table if it failed to, in advance, get word of nine favorable votes without a veto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: We haven't crossed that bridge. We're at a state now where we're in the process of working with the cosponsors, of trying to mobilize the necessary support for that resolution, and we believe that support should be there, and we are -- we're not facing that kind of situation, and I think we'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it, but we don't think we should have to come to that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: If so-called uncommitted six, countries on the Security Council want to move their vote one way or another, it may depend on this man's next briefing on Friday before the Security Council in open session. Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who has previously called the destruction of Al Samoud missiles by Iraq a significant development.

Yet, he also has criticized in his written report Iraq's rate of cooperation, saying they could have done more.

Meanwhile, here at the United Nations, the French have said their foreign minister, Dominic de Villepin will be here for the Blix briefing on Friday. Also, the German foreign minister will be here. No word yet from the U.S., and the U.S. would be very interested in making sure it's just Blix in open session, and not some big high- powered shoot out verbally, which happened last time, where the French foreign minister drew a lot of applause -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Richard Roth, quick question for you. We hope we have time for it...

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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