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Iraqi Officials, U.N. Working on Details of Possible Inspections

Aired September 30, 2002 - 09:01   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: United Nations weapons inspectors and Iraqi officials are meeting this morning in Vienna. It is the first test of Iraq's cooperation since it said two weeks ago that inspectors may return.
Chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, hopes to work out details for his team to go back in there after an absence of nearly four years.

Covering the showdown with Iraq in Vienna this morning, our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. She joins us now. Good morning, Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paula, it is about 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon here, and the weapons inspectors are starting their second round of talks here, with the Iraqi counterparts.

They had launch break. What we are being told by sources here is that this morning's session went fairly well, the atmosphere was fairly positive, we are being told serious and businesslike. We are told that all of the agenda items were discussed in a methodical way and that some were discussed and approved fairly easily, some were taking more negotiation.

For instance, we are told that they are still discussing the issue of overflights, one of the things the weapons inspectors need is the permission to fly over various areas and monitor what may or may not be going on there. So, the over flights issue, we are told by a source, is what is being discussed at the moment. Hans Blix and his Iraqi counterpart, led by the chief scientific and technical adviser to Saddam Hussein, General Amir al-Saadi started talking at about 10:30 a.m. today. There were several people on each side of the table, and they have several items on the agenda.

First are the practical modalities of how weapons inspectors would work once they get back into Iraq. Blix saying that they want to hammer out all of those practical arrangements before even thinking about sending the weapons inspectors back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: There are many as such which we would like to go through, they are known, and can be deduced from resolutions and agreements of the past. It has to do with access to Iraq. Entry into Iraq, and the accommodation of inspectors, the headquarters that we have in Baghdad, movement inside Iraq, security of inspectors, taking of samples and taking samples out of Iraq, et cetera...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now, why they want to do -- why they want to hammer out these modalities now is because that they have had confrontations over some of these issues in the past, while on the ground in Iraq, and they want to be sure that that does not happen in any future weapons inspection regime. Number two on the agenda here, and that will be discussed either today or tomorrow, is the Iraqis owe the United Nations several years of reports on what has being going on at what is known as dual-use facility places in Iraq. These are facilities or factories, or places that can be used for civilian use, but also could be used for military purposes, and the weapons inspectors want to know what's been going on at these places over the last four years, in fact since 1998, which is when the last time the weapons inspectors were there.

We are told that at the beginning of today's discussions, the Iraqis told the weapons inspectors, told Hans Blix that they have the documents and they will be talking about them within these two days as these talks go on.

So, again, we have been saying that this will amount to a first test of whether the Iraqis do want to cooperate, a first test since the Iraqis said that they would accept, unconditionally, the weapons inspectors back, but as we know, it is going on against a rather highly charged political background, one in which the U.S. is trying to have a new resolution that toughens and essentially changes the rule of the game, and basically we know that that has come into some opposition from Russia, France, China, the other permanent members of the Security Council.

Iraq has said that they would not accept any new tough resolution. However, we have been telling -- we been told informally by an Iraqi diplomat in Europe, that Iraq does expect there to be an eventual compromise resolution, and does expect that Iraq will accept that. We'll have to wait and see when that becomes evident -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Yes, that will be very interesting to see what the phraseology might be, in a compromise resolution. Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

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




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Aired September 30, 2002 - 09:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: United Nations weapons inspectors and Iraqi officials are meeting this morning in Vienna. It is the first test of Iraq's cooperation since it said two weeks ago that inspectors may return.
Chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, hopes to work out details for his team to go back in there after an absence of nearly four years.

Covering the showdown with Iraq in Vienna this morning, our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. She joins us now. Good morning, Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paula, it is about 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon here, and the weapons inspectors are starting their second round of talks here, with the Iraqi counterparts.

They had launch break. What we are being told by sources here is that this morning's session went fairly well, the atmosphere was fairly positive, we are being told serious and businesslike. We are told that all of the agenda items were discussed in a methodical way and that some were discussed and approved fairly easily, some were taking more negotiation.

For instance, we are told that they are still discussing the issue of overflights, one of the things the weapons inspectors need is the permission to fly over various areas and monitor what may or may not be going on there. So, the over flights issue, we are told by a source, is what is being discussed at the moment. Hans Blix and his Iraqi counterpart, led by the chief scientific and technical adviser to Saddam Hussein, General Amir al-Saadi started talking at about 10:30 a.m. today. There were several people on each side of the table, and they have several items on the agenda.

First are the practical modalities of how weapons inspectors would work once they get back into Iraq. Blix saying that they want to hammer out all of those practical arrangements before even thinking about sending the weapons inspectors back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: There are many as such which we would like to go through, they are known, and can be deduced from resolutions and agreements of the past. It has to do with access to Iraq. Entry into Iraq, and the accommodation of inspectors, the headquarters that we have in Baghdad, movement inside Iraq, security of inspectors, taking of samples and taking samples out of Iraq, et cetera...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Now, why they want to do -- why they want to hammer out these modalities now is because that they have had confrontations over some of these issues in the past, while on the ground in Iraq, and they want to be sure that that does not happen in any future weapons inspection regime. Number two on the agenda here, and that will be discussed either today or tomorrow, is the Iraqis owe the United Nations several years of reports on what has being going on at what is known as dual-use facility places in Iraq. These are facilities or factories, or places that can be used for civilian use, but also could be used for military purposes, and the weapons inspectors want to know what's been going on at these places over the last four years, in fact since 1998, which is when the last time the weapons inspectors were there.

We are told that at the beginning of today's discussions, the Iraqis told the weapons inspectors, told Hans Blix that they have the documents and they will be talking about them within these two days as these talks go on.

So, again, we have been saying that this will amount to a first test of whether the Iraqis do want to cooperate, a first test since the Iraqis said that they would accept, unconditionally, the weapons inspectors back, but as we know, it is going on against a rather highly charged political background, one in which the U.S. is trying to have a new resolution that toughens and essentially changes the rule of the game, and basically we know that that has come into some opposition from Russia, France, China, the other permanent members of the Security Council.

Iraq has said that they would not accept any new tough resolution. However, we have been telling -- we been told informally by an Iraqi diplomat in Europe, that Iraq does expect there to be an eventual compromise resolution, and does expect that Iraq will accept that. We'll have to wait and see when that becomes evident -- back to you, Paula.

ZAHN: Yes, that will be very interesting to see what the phraseology might be, in a compromise resolution. Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

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




Inspections>