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Blair to Meet With Bush Thursday in Washington
Aired July 14, 2003 - 14:19 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Ariel Sharon is in London, but the Israeli's visit is overshadowed by the ongoing fear over Iraq and what Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has said about it.
CNN's Robin Oakley, joining us now from London with the latest.
Robin, what can you tell us about this dodgy dossier that Tony Blair is taking heat for.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony Blair continues to be in trouble, Kyra, over that dodgy dossier, and over the whole presentation of intelligence making the case for the war against Iraq. The latest opinion poll showed that two thirds of British voters now believe that they were misled by Tony Blair either knowingly or unknowingly about the causes of the war.
And another poll people were asked for their view of Tony Blair, and 54 percent said they wouldn't trust him further than they could throw him. So he is facing real trouble over the weapons of mass destruction, the failure to find them, the row (ph) with the United States over whether or not Saddam Hussein had been seeking to buy uranium from Niger.
But today, Tony Blair's main focus will be on a meeting in some 40 minutes now with Ariel Sharon, really a mending of fences after a row between Britain and Israel over a staging on a conference on Palestinian reform here in January to which the Israelis were not invited, which they then tried to wreck by preventing Palestinian leaders to travel to it.
Ariel Sharon will, of course, be pushing Tony Blair to shun Yasser Arafat, as his government does and the United States government does.
But the message coming back from British officials is that they need to go on talking to Yasser Arafat, as well as to Abu Mazen, the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, because they have got to keep Yasser Arafat and those who follow him, still, onside for the road map peace process -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Robin, then Blair heading to the U.S. to meet with President Bush, both taking a lot of heat for allegedly misleading their countries. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that meeting?
OAKLEY: Certainly would, Kyra. Because so far, Tony Blair and George Bush have got on so well, they've been great buddies, they've launched their anti-Iraq campaign together, but there are signs lately that they've been call falling out, certainly that their respective intelligence authorities have been falling out, and of course we've seen the president retract from that bit of British intelligence he used in his State of the Union Address, saying that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium from Niger.
U.S. authorities now saying that intelligence can't be trusted. Tony Blair is still insisting that the intelligence is good, that they got it from different sources, but they won't pass on that information to the CIA. And the CIA didn't tell Tony Blair about Ambassador Joe Wilson and his mission to Niger. It seems very strange the two intelligence services have not been working as closely together as might have been implied by the working together of Tony Blair and George Bush on Iraq.
PHILLIPS: All right, live from London, our Robin Oakley. Thanks, Robin.
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 July 14, 2003 - 14:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Ariel Sharon is in London, but the Israeli's visit is overshadowed by the ongoing fear over Iraq and what Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has said about it.
CNN's Robin Oakley, joining us now from London with the latest.
Robin, what can you tell us about this dodgy dossier that Tony Blair is taking heat for.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony Blair continues to be in trouble, Kyra, over that dodgy dossier, and over the whole presentation of intelligence making the case for the war against Iraq. The latest opinion poll showed that two thirds of British voters now believe that they were misled by Tony Blair either knowingly or unknowingly about the causes of the war.
And another poll people were asked for their view of Tony Blair, and 54 percent said they wouldn't trust him further than they could throw him. So he is facing real trouble over the weapons of mass destruction, the failure to find them, the row (ph) with the United States over whether or not Saddam Hussein had been seeking to buy uranium from Niger.
But today, Tony Blair's main focus will be on a meeting in some 40 minutes now with Ariel Sharon, really a mending of fences after a row between Britain and Israel over a staging on a conference on Palestinian reform here in January to which the Israelis were not invited, which they then tried to wreck by preventing Palestinian leaders to travel to it.
Ariel Sharon will, of course, be pushing Tony Blair to shun Yasser Arafat, as his government does and the United States government does.
But the message coming back from British officials is that they need to go on talking to Yasser Arafat, as well as to Abu Mazen, the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, because they have got to keep Yasser Arafat and those who follow him, still, onside for the road map peace process -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Robin, then Blair heading to the U.S. to meet with President Bush, both taking a lot of heat for allegedly misleading their countries. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that meeting?
OAKLEY: Certainly would, Kyra. Because so far, Tony Blair and George Bush have got on so well, they've been great buddies, they've launched their anti-Iraq campaign together, but there are signs lately that they've been call falling out, certainly that their respective intelligence authorities have been falling out, and of course we've seen the president retract from that bit of British intelligence he used in his State of the Union Address, saying that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium from Niger.
U.S. authorities now saying that intelligence can't be trusted. Tony Blair is still insisting that the intelligence is good, that they got it from different sources, but they won't pass on that information to the CIA. And the CIA didn't tell Tony Blair about Ambassador Joe Wilson and his mission to Niger. It seems very strange the two intelligence services have not been working as closely together as might have been implied by the working together of Tony Blair and George Bush on Iraq.
PHILLIPS: All right, live from London, our Robin Oakley. Thanks, Robin.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
