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CNN Live Today
Emergency Summit Set for Sunday
Aired March 14, 2003 - 10:12 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We mentioned the United Nations. Let's go right there to our senior United Nations correspondent, and that would be Richard Roth -- Richard, good morning.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. The emergency diplomatic summit now planned for Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean on the Azores islands owned by Portugal is certainly going to distract from the consultations going on here, and it may give a lot of the countries a reason to say I'm not going to tell you what my vote is. Let's just wait and see what Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom say. Those countries are the sponsors of the only existing resolution up for consideration, one which would give President Saddam Hussein and Iraq until Monday to turn over weapons of mass destruction.
But, of course, that resolution has not been voted on yet. The U.S. thinks it has the authorization for military force based on a resolution passed by everyone in November, and the U.S. still feels this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The issue is disarmament of Iraq, and that's what has been stipulated by Resolution 1441 and all the 15 or 16 resolutions that preceded it going all the way back to 1991, and whether or not Iraq is in compliance with those obligations. We do not believe it is, and we think the time has come for the council to face up to its responsibilities and decide that Iraq is out of compliance.
ROTH: Last night's discussions in the council, more deadlock. Everyone described it as people making the same speeches, circular discussion going around and around, no one coalescing around one side.
And Daryn, the main movement today will be the uncommitted six delegates working on their own strategy, their own proposals, possibly led by Chile, Guinea and everyone just waiting and watching to see what happens this weekend on the Portuguese islands -- back to you.
KAGAN: Well, Richard, what about word that that -- the group of the uncommitted will vote as a block, or would vote as a block if there was a vote?
ROTH: No one here is ready to confirm that, and everyone gets upset when they're pinned on one side of the camps because they say the resolution, the discussions are very fluid, they're still up for grabs, so how can they say how they're going to vote. They don't know the finished product yet.
KAGAN: All right. Well, we don't want to get anybody upset there. There's already enough of that going around with the United Nations. Richard Roth, thank you so much. We'll be back with you later in the morning.
The U.S. and Britain have run up against some especially tough opposition from France. Today the French president spoke with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in an effort to ease tensions.
Our Jim Bittermann joins us now. He is in Paris with more on that -- Jim, hello.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. I think it was just that, an effort to ease tensions. There's not a lot of change in substance in the French position. Basically, Jacques Chirac called Tony Blair just before lunchtime today and held a ten-minute telephone conversation with him to say that France was willing to negotiate the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. Well, that's what France has been saying all along because France believes that the inspection procedures are working, and that the inspectors should be allowed to remain on the ground in Iraq, and should continue their work, that no threat, no automatic threat, particularly, of war should be included in any resolution because things are working just fine under 1441, the resolution that's already been voted by the Security Council.
So basically no change in substance. The president, Chirac, reiterated once again today what his foreign minister, de Villepin, said a week ago, which is that the French are not wed to this 120-day inspection period that they had once talked about, this four-month inspection period, that they could be flexible on that, but they're talking about months, as opposed to the kind of days from now until Monday, that the U.S. is talking about -- Daryn.
KAGAN: They would have been most interesting to be able to listen in on that conversation. These are two countries, two cultures that have always had an interesting kind of tension between them, and even with this latest British proposal, this six-point benchmark proposal that came out, criticism of the French saying they nixed this thing before the Iraqis even did, saying that it's the French that are -- that is moving the world closer to war.
BITTERMANN: Well, it is hard to imagine how you would interpret it that way, but I suppose that some people over in Great Britain are. The fact is that the French have been consistent since last September 3 when their position was outlined in the "New York Times" by Jacques Chirac, and that is to say, you put the inspectors into Iraq, you let the inspectors do their work, when they say they can't do their work any further, then you make a decision about going to war.
And according to the French, the inspectors have yet to cry uncle in terms of not being able to work in Iraq, so they say let the inspectors continue. They point to the fact that the Al Samoud missiles continue to be destroyed, that we're supposed to hear from the weapons inspectors later today in the U.N. about VX gas. So there are a number of things that they see as positive signs in terms of disarming Iraq.
One of the things that was said outside of France today by the French defense minister who's touring in Greece, Michele Alliot-Marie, she said that France is determined to be polite to Great Britain, and she also said that the -- that France wanted to show the Bush administration, which she believes is talking with several voices right now and is very divided, she said that France wants to show the Bush administration what it feels like, and what it looks like if you will act outside of international legitimacy -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jim Bittermann in Paris, thank you for that from Paris.
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 14, 2003 - 10:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We mentioned the United Nations. Let's go right there to our senior United Nations correspondent, and that would be Richard Roth -- Richard, good morning.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. The emergency diplomatic summit now planned for Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean on the Azores islands owned by Portugal is certainly going to distract from the consultations going on here, and it may give a lot of the countries a reason to say I'm not going to tell you what my vote is. Let's just wait and see what Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom say. Those countries are the sponsors of the only existing resolution up for consideration, one which would give President Saddam Hussein and Iraq until Monday to turn over weapons of mass destruction.
But, of course, that resolution has not been voted on yet. The U.S. thinks it has the authorization for military force based on a resolution passed by everyone in November, and the U.S. still feels this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN NEGROPONTE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The issue is disarmament of Iraq, and that's what has been stipulated by Resolution 1441 and all the 15 or 16 resolutions that preceded it going all the way back to 1991, and whether or not Iraq is in compliance with those obligations. We do not believe it is, and we think the time has come for the council to face up to its responsibilities and decide that Iraq is out of compliance.
ROTH: Last night's discussions in the council, more deadlock. Everyone described it as people making the same speeches, circular discussion going around and around, no one coalescing around one side.
And Daryn, the main movement today will be the uncommitted six delegates working on their own strategy, their own proposals, possibly led by Chile, Guinea and everyone just waiting and watching to see what happens this weekend on the Portuguese islands -- back to you.
KAGAN: Well, Richard, what about word that that -- the group of the uncommitted will vote as a block, or would vote as a block if there was a vote?
ROTH: No one here is ready to confirm that, and everyone gets upset when they're pinned on one side of the camps because they say the resolution, the discussions are very fluid, they're still up for grabs, so how can they say how they're going to vote. They don't know the finished product yet.
KAGAN: All right. Well, we don't want to get anybody upset there. There's already enough of that going around with the United Nations. Richard Roth, thank you so much. We'll be back with you later in the morning.
The U.S. and Britain have run up against some especially tough opposition from France. Today the French president spoke with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in an effort to ease tensions.
Our Jim Bittermann joins us now. He is in Paris with more on that -- Jim, hello.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. I think it was just that, an effort to ease tensions. There's not a lot of change in substance in the French position. Basically, Jacques Chirac called Tony Blair just before lunchtime today and held a ten-minute telephone conversation with him to say that France was willing to negotiate the peaceful disarmament of Iraq. Well, that's what France has been saying all along because France believes that the inspection procedures are working, and that the inspectors should be allowed to remain on the ground in Iraq, and should continue their work, that no threat, no automatic threat, particularly, of war should be included in any resolution because things are working just fine under 1441, the resolution that's already been voted by the Security Council.
So basically no change in substance. The president, Chirac, reiterated once again today what his foreign minister, de Villepin, said a week ago, which is that the French are not wed to this 120-day inspection period that they had once talked about, this four-month inspection period, that they could be flexible on that, but they're talking about months, as opposed to the kind of days from now until Monday, that the U.S. is talking about -- Daryn.
KAGAN: They would have been most interesting to be able to listen in on that conversation. These are two countries, two cultures that have always had an interesting kind of tension between them, and even with this latest British proposal, this six-point benchmark proposal that came out, criticism of the French saying they nixed this thing before the Iraqis even did, saying that it's the French that are -- that is moving the world closer to war.
BITTERMANN: Well, it is hard to imagine how you would interpret it that way, but I suppose that some people over in Great Britain are. The fact is that the French have been consistent since last September 3 when their position was outlined in the "New York Times" by Jacques Chirac, and that is to say, you put the inspectors into Iraq, you let the inspectors do their work, when they say they can't do their work any further, then you make a decision about going to war.
And according to the French, the inspectors have yet to cry uncle in terms of not being able to work in Iraq, so they say let the inspectors continue. They point to the fact that the Al Samoud missiles continue to be destroyed, that we're supposed to hear from the weapons inspectors later today in the U.N. about VX gas. So there are a number of things that they see as positive signs in terms of disarming Iraq.
One of the things that was said outside of France today by the French defense minister who's touring in Greece, Michele Alliot-Marie, she said that France is determined to be polite to Great Britain, and she also said that the -- that France wanted to show the Bush administration, which she believes is talking with several voices right now and is very divided, she said that France wants to show the Bush administration what it feels like, and what it looks like if you will act outside of international legitimacy -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Jim Bittermann in Paris, thank you for that from Paris.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
