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Bush Administration Increasing Pressure on Security Council to Adopt New Resolution on Iraq

Aired October 04, 2002 - 09:32   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: Back to the issue of Iraq, the Bush administration increasing pressure on the Security Council to adopt a new resolution on Iraq, or even two of them. The U.S. has been given a little breathing room after the chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix agreed to delay the return of the inspection team. Richard Roth is busy covering that story, even as bullets were fired outside his office window. He joins us from New York with today's U.N. matters first, and then go back to yesterday.
Good morning, Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

To be precise, Hans Blix, it's really not up to him to decide when he leaves for Iraq, it's for his directors, the 15 nations on the Security Council. After a closed-door meeting yesterday, the Security Council, in effect, said don't go if you are planning to send your teams on October 15th or 19th. You will need new orders. The Security Council is divided on what the mission for the inspectors, if they get in there should be, considering the U.S. threat of consequences over Baghdad hangs over everything.

There are five permanent members of the Security Council. The U.S. cannot do whatever it wants to do, at least diplomatically, inside the Security Council. You've got Britain, France, Russia and China. France, Russia and China strongly oppose the United States' plan to use military force should there be any interference with the inspectors, and none of the countries wants to put the inspectors in what Blix himself calls an awkward with Iraq. That would buy them more time. The inspectors haven't been there since 1998 in December.

ZAHN: So how long will it take for this part of the story to play out, where Secretary of State Powell and Condoleezza Rice in her meeting with Hans Blix in Washington against the backdrop what's happening in the U.N.?

ROTH: There could be several weeks before there is a vote on the U.S./U.K. resolution, or a second vote, as the French would like. Any military campaign, many analysts think, could be a few months away. Iraq is playing for time, and the critics of the U.S. say the Bush administration can't take yes from the Iraqi government. Iraq did allow them back in, but skeptics will say it's a matter of time before there is any interference. But the resolution has a lot of strict language in it, such as if there is any lie or falsehood to be found by an Iraqi official, it opens the door for all kinds of consequences.

But this was all happening at the U.N. yesterday, while there was a lot of media attention there when suddenly the shots were fired.

ZAHN: Tell us what happened when you heard the shots?

ROTH: I heard pop, pop, pop. I yelled to my photographer, Ricky Shine (ph), who got pictures you see here. After he threw the gun on the ground, this man, identified as Steven Kim, throwing leaflets in the air. He was surrounded quickly by State Department Secret Service, who were normally not necessarily parked outside, as they were. They just happened to be there, escorting the visiting president of Cyprus. That's why the reaction time was about 30, 40 seconds or so.

U.N. uniformed security personnel, who usually handle these things, they're not out there in mass numbers, and the man jumped a fence, a five foot perimeter fence. The United Nations Security Department wants to have another fence with more cameras to prevent this type of thing from occurring. They complain it's been held up in the budget, 191 members, discussing all kinds of money matters. This is a postal worker from Illinois. His son says he was outside the U.N. just two weeks ago with his father. The father did not display any animosity towards the United Nations or North Korea. He was expressing conditions in North Korea, where people are going through tough economic times. He's being arraigned today in federal court in Manhattan.

ZAHN: Based on the video that you captured, it looks like it's pretty darn lucky no one else was hurt.

ROTH: Yes, bullet holes, 18-20 floors inside the U.N. building. I saw him up in the air firing the gun, straight up into the air, but the first two shots that I heard apparently, at least two to four went into the U.N. buildings. They're still digging out bullet holes.

There, one woman was out sick. Otherwise one bullet went over right her desk, through a ceiling, through the window there. And two other people who had been down at the World Trade Center in September 11th 2001 were pretty much traumatized by this whole incident.

ZAHN: And who can blame them? Boy, those pictures are extraordinary. I hadn't seen them until this morning.

Richard Roth, glad you are okay. Glad you didn't take unnecessary chances. Thanks for bringing that to us this morning. Appreciate it.

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




Council to Adopt New Resolution on Iraq>


Aired October 4, 2002 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the issue of Iraq, the Bush administration increasing pressure on the Security Council to adopt a new resolution on Iraq, or even two of them. The U.S. has been given a little breathing room after the chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix agreed to delay the return of the inspection team. Richard Roth is busy covering that story, even as bullets were fired outside his office window. He joins us from New York with today's U.N. matters first, and then go back to yesterday.
Good morning, Richard.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

To be precise, Hans Blix, it's really not up to him to decide when he leaves for Iraq, it's for his directors, the 15 nations on the Security Council. After a closed-door meeting yesterday, the Security Council, in effect, said don't go if you are planning to send your teams on October 15th or 19th. You will need new orders. The Security Council is divided on what the mission for the inspectors, if they get in there should be, considering the U.S. threat of consequences over Baghdad hangs over everything.

There are five permanent members of the Security Council. The U.S. cannot do whatever it wants to do, at least diplomatically, inside the Security Council. You've got Britain, France, Russia and China. France, Russia and China strongly oppose the United States' plan to use military force should there be any interference with the inspectors, and none of the countries wants to put the inspectors in what Blix himself calls an awkward with Iraq. That would buy them more time. The inspectors haven't been there since 1998 in December.

ZAHN: So how long will it take for this part of the story to play out, where Secretary of State Powell and Condoleezza Rice in her meeting with Hans Blix in Washington against the backdrop what's happening in the U.N.?

ROTH: There could be several weeks before there is a vote on the U.S./U.K. resolution, or a second vote, as the French would like. Any military campaign, many analysts think, could be a few months away. Iraq is playing for time, and the critics of the U.S. say the Bush administration can't take yes from the Iraqi government. Iraq did allow them back in, but skeptics will say it's a matter of time before there is any interference. But the resolution has a lot of strict language in it, such as if there is any lie or falsehood to be found by an Iraqi official, it opens the door for all kinds of consequences.

But this was all happening at the U.N. yesterday, while there was a lot of media attention there when suddenly the shots were fired.

ZAHN: Tell us what happened when you heard the shots?

ROTH: I heard pop, pop, pop. I yelled to my photographer, Ricky Shine (ph), who got pictures you see here. After he threw the gun on the ground, this man, identified as Steven Kim, throwing leaflets in the air. He was surrounded quickly by State Department Secret Service, who were normally not necessarily parked outside, as they were. They just happened to be there, escorting the visiting president of Cyprus. That's why the reaction time was about 30, 40 seconds or so.

U.N. uniformed security personnel, who usually handle these things, they're not out there in mass numbers, and the man jumped a fence, a five foot perimeter fence. The United Nations Security Department wants to have another fence with more cameras to prevent this type of thing from occurring. They complain it's been held up in the budget, 191 members, discussing all kinds of money matters. This is a postal worker from Illinois. His son says he was outside the U.N. just two weeks ago with his father. The father did not display any animosity towards the United Nations or North Korea. He was expressing conditions in North Korea, where people are going through tough economic times. He's being arraigned today in federal court in Manhattan.

ZAHN: Based on the video that you captured, it looks like it's pretty darn lucky no one else was hurt.

ROTH: Yes, bullet holes, 18-20 floors inside the U.N. building. I saw him up in the air firing the gun, straight up into the air, but the first two shots that I heard apparently, at least two to four went into the U.N. buildings. They're still digging out bullet holes.

There, one woman was out sick. Otherwise one bullet went over right her desk, through a ceiling, through the window there. And two other people who had been down at the World Trade Center in September 11th 2001 were pretty much traumatized by this whole incident.

ZAHN: And who can blame them? Boy, those pictures are extraordinary. I hadn't seen them until this morning.

Richard Roth, glad you are okay. Glad you didn't take unnecessary chances. Thanks for bringing that to us this morning. Appreciate it.

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




Council to Adopt New Resolution on Iraq>