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American Morning

Iraq Wants Guarantees if Inspectors Allowed Back

Aired September 16, 2002 - 08:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back on to the issue of how the Iraqis are reacting to all of this. Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz said this weekend Baghdad is willing to let in weapons inspectors, but only if U.N. sanctions are lifted. The Bush administration rejected that offer, as you can imagine.
With -- that is, reaction from Iraq, let's go to Rula Amin in Baghdad -- good morning, Rula.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. As you said, Tariq Aziz did express Iraq's willingness to consider allowing the inspectors back, if they know that that is going to lead to the lifting of sanctions. But there is also another issue that Iraqis are very concerned about. They want to make sure, if they compromise and if they allow the inspectors back, that will mean that the U.S. won't launch an attack against Iraq. Iraqi officials and the Iraqi people are very skeptical. They believe that the weapons of mass destruction is just a pretext. They accuse the U.S. of using it to launch an attack against Iraq for other reasons, like the control of Iraq and its oil.

However, the Iraqis are working very hard, trying to rally support from different countries, from different people. The Iraqi leadership is meeting constantly. Today, we saw pictures of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, meeting with the leadership of the Ba'ath party, the ruling party, as well as his cabinet.

We didn't hear much about what happened in that meeting, but this is the second meeting this week since the start of the week. The Iraqis are saying they hope that there will be no war, but they are preparing for the worst, which is a war -- Paula.

ZAHN: So Rula, as this diplomatic dance goes on, it's quite clear the Iraqis aren't going to give anything up before these resolutions are, in fact, passed, and we don't even know what the resolutions are going to say. But what is the expectation there? Obviously, these guys say one thing publicly and another thing privately. Will the inspectors be allowed back in, and will they have unfettered access to numerous sites?

AMIN: Well, what the Iraqis are saying is that they don't have anything to hide, that they have destroyed all their weapons of mass destruction, that they are willing to give the inspectors unfettered access. This is not the issue. Their issue is that they want guarantees that if they allow the inspectors back, the U.S. won't launch an attack. Tariq Aziz -- he was asked, What is Iraq's response to leaders of the world call for the inspectors to come back without any conditions? And he said, can I ask, for example, Mr. Chirac, the president of France, can he guarantee for us that if we allow the inspectors back, that there will be no war? So this is on top of their agenda, that they want a guarantee that there will be no war if they allow the inspectors back -- Paula.

ZAHN: Rula Amin, thanks so much for the update, appreciate it.

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