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American Morning
U.N. Weapons Inspectors, Iraqis Meet
Aired September 30, 2002 - 07:03 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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now more on the pivotal talks in Vienna between officials from the United Nations and Iraq. The meeting is the first test of Iraq's cooperation since it said two weeks ago that inspectors may return.
Weapons inspections Chief Hans Blix hopes to work out details for his team to go back in after an absence of nearly four years.
Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour now joins us from Vienna.
Good morning -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good afternoon from here.
We're at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is where these talks are going on. As you say, an important first test of whether Iraq does plan to cooperate in what it said would be an unconditional return of the inspectors.
Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, along with his IAEA counterpart and the senior Iraqis, came into their meeting about two- and-a-half hours ago in the building behind me. And they have been hammering out No. 1 on their agenda.
Point 1 was essentially the practicalities, the modalities, trying to absolutely hammer out what the U.N. inspectors need in order to be able to do their job smoothly. Things like visas, things like numbers of weapons inspectors, where they can go, what they can do, taking samples, taking samples out of Iraq, having rights for their helicopters to land, their 6th Wing airplanes to land -- all of that kind of stuff they absolutely say they have to have before they even contemplate going in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The purpose of the talk is that we would like to ensure that if and when inspections come about, we will not have clashes inside. We would rather go through these things outside, in advance. And we have even said that we will not deploy inspectors to Iraq until we have had talks about these things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Now, the reason they are doing this now, as Hans Blix said, is because in the past, they have had clashes inside -- famous clashes between weapons inspectors and Iraqi government officials.
And as you know, the last time weapons inspectors were in Iraq was in 1998. That's four years ago, and that brings us to No. 2 on the agenda due to be discussed here.
The Iraqis are due to present to Hans Blix a compilation, if you like, a backlog of four years' worth of what's been going on at so- called dual-use facilities -- factories, facilities. Any kind of facility that can be used for civilian use, but also, the weapons inspectors fear, are used for military purposes and indeed for WMD purposes -- weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraqis have indicated that they will present that information again. It was due to the U.N. and hasn't been given to the U.N. over a period of four years.
So, that will be a substantive test of whether the Iraqis plan to cooperate. And more than that, it's necessary, this information, for what the weapons inspectors call, to re-establish a baseline -- the kind of information they need to proceed with full disarmament. So, that's No. 2 on the agenda.
No. 3 on the agenda over the next two days will be what's called "national legislation." The Iraqis are meant to introduce into their Parliament legislation that says they will not produce weapons of mass destruction, and that these weapons are, in fact, illegal.
So, we wait to see exactly what will be the outcome here. But as you know, it's all against the backdrop of a new effort by the U.S. to basically have a tougher resolution, change the rules of the game and make sure everything is much tougher and much less easy for Iraq to not comply with.
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: So, Christiane, what does the reaction continue to be there to this new U.S. drafted resolution, as you said, that would threaten military action and change some of the ground rules of inspections?
AMANPOUR: Well, as you know, this has already run into resistance from the other three members of the permanent Security Council; that is France, China and Russia. What one expects is that there might be a compromise resolution.
Now, the Iraqis have already said publicly that they intend to operate from existing resolutions. However, informally, I have been talking to an Iraqi diplomat in Europe, who says that they do expect there to eventually be a compromise between the U.S. position and the French and Russian position. And they believe that that will lead to Iraq accepting that compromise, so we'll see
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, appreciate the update.
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 September 30, 2002 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now more on the pivotal talks in Vienna between officials from the United Nations and Iraq. The meeting is the first test of Iraq's cooperation since it said two weeks ago that inspectors may return.
Weapons inspections Chief Hans Blix hopes to work out details for his team to go back in after an absence of nearly four years.
Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour now joins us from Vienna.
Good morning -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good afternoon from here.
We're at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is where these talks are going on. As you say, an important first test of whether Iraq does plan to cooperate in what it said would be an unconditional return of the inspectors.
Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, along with his IAEA counterpart and the senior Iraqis, came into their meeting about two- and-a-half hours ago in the building behind me. And they have been hammering out No. 1 on their agenda.
Point 1 was essentially the practicalities, the modalities, trying to absolutely hammer out what the U.N. inspectors need in order to be able to do their job smoothly. Things like visas, things like numbers of weapons inspectors, where they can go, what they can do, taking samples, taking samples out of Iraq, having rights for their helicopters to land, their 6th Wing airplanes to land -- all of that kind of stuff they absolutely say they have to have before they even contemplate going in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX, CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The purpose of the talk is that we would like to ensure that if and when inspections come about, we will not have clashes inside. We would rather go through these things outside, in advance. And we have even said that we will not deploy inspectors to Iraq until we have had talks about these things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Now, the reason they are doing this now, as Hans Blix said, is because in the past, they have had clashes inside -- famous clashes between weapons inspectors and Iraqi government officials.
And as you know, the last time weapons inspectors were in Iraq was in 1998. That's four years ago, and that brings us to No. 2 on the agenda due to be discussed here.
The Iraqis are due to present to Hans Blix a compilation, if you like, a backlog of four years' worth of what's been going on at so- called dual-use facilities -- factories, facilities. Any kind of facility that can be used for civilian use, but also, the weapons inspectors fear, are used for military purposes and indeed for WMD purposes -- weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraqis have indicated that they will present that information again. It was due to the U.N. and hasn't been given to the U.N. over a period of four years.
So, that will be a substantive test of whether the Iraqis plan to cooperate. And more than that, it's necessary, this information, for what the weapons inspectors call, to re-establish a baseline -- the kind of information they need to proceed with full disarmament. So, that's No. 2 on the agenda.
No. 3 on the agenda over the next two days will be what's called "national legislation." The Iraqis are meant to introduce into their Parliament legislation that says they will not produce weapons of mass destruction, and that these weapons are, in fact, illegal.
So, we wait to see exactly what will be the outcome here. But as you know, it's all against the backdrop of a new effort by the U.S. to basically have a tougher resolution, change the rules of the game and make sure everything is much tougher and much less easy for Iraq to not comply with.
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: So, Christiane, what does the reaction continue to be there to this new U.S. drafted resolution, as you said, that would threaten military action and change some of the ground rules of inspections?
AMANPOUR: Well, as you know, this has already run into resistance from the other three members of the permanent Security Council; that is France, China and Russia. What one expects is that there might be a compromise resolution.
Now, the Iraqis have already said publicly that they intend to operate from existing resolutions. However, informally, I have been talking to an Iraqi diplomat in Europe, who says that they do expect there to eventually be a compromise between the U.S. position and the French and Russian position. And they believe that that will lead to Iraq accepting that compromise, so we'll see
Back to you -- Paula.
ZAHN: Christiane Amanpour, appreciate the update.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
