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American Morning
Blix: Iraq Promises Full Cooperation
Aired November 20, 2002 - 09:02 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: Iraq now, of course, is promising to cooperate fully according to the U.N.'s two top weapons inspectors. Hans Blix and Mohamed El-Baradei are now back at Cyprus this morning, which is serving as the operation center for the inspections team, which is where we find Sheila MacVicar this morning. She joins us now with a live update.
Good morning, Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, characterizing their discussions with senior Iraqi officials in Baghdad as professional and businesslike, Mohamed El- Baradei, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency say he and Hans Blix have received verbal assurances from senior Iraqis of complete cooperation. Now it's something, obviously, they want to see translated into complete cooperation on the ground as weapons inspections begin in the next week or so, and looking forward to the next big date for Iraq, December 8th. That's the date when Iraq is obliged by the U.N. Security Council resolution to present its complete documentation on all its weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological.
Hans Blix told a press conference here at the Larnaca Airport a few hours ago on his arrival that was the subject of a lot of discussion with the Iraqis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX: I think they will supply reports. They were somewhat concerned about the short time for presenting a big report, and the report is going to not only IEA and to us, but also to the Security Council directly, and they had particular concerns about reporting on the peaceful industries, like chemical industry, which are devoted for peaceful purposes. They have quite a lot of that, and they were a bit concerned about how they could go about it.
But I have no doubt there will be a report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: Now how detailed that report will be, whether it's one page long, Paula, and simply says that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, or whether they produce thousands of pages of documentation detailing their weapons programs, and what has been -- what has happened to those weapons programs, that is indeed the big question. Iraq being encouraged to provide as much documentation as possible -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Sheila. Sheila MacVicar reporting for us this morning.
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 November 20, 2002 - 09:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq now, of course, is promising to cooperate fully according to the U.N.'s two top weapons inspectors. Hans Blix and Mohamed El-Baradei are now back at Cyprus this morning, which is serving as the operation center for the inspections team, which is where we find Sheila MacVicar this morning. She joins us now with a live update.
Good morning, Sheila.
SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, characterizing their discussions with senior Iraqi officials in Baghdad as professional and businesslike, Mohamed El- Baradei, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency say he and Hans Blix have received verbal assurances from senior Iraqis of complete cooperation. Now it's something, obviously, they want to see translated into complete cooperation on the ground as weapons inspections begin in the next week or so, and looking forward to the next big date for Iraq, December 8th. That's the date when Iraq is obliged by the U.N. Security Council resolution to present its complete documentation on all its weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological.
Hans Blix told a press conference here at the Larnaca Airport a few hours ago on his arrival that was the subject of a lot of discussion with the Iraqis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANS BLIX: I think they will supply reports. They were somewhat concerned about the short time for presenting a big report, and the report is going to not only IEA and to us, but also to the Security Council directly, and they had particular concerns about reporting on the peaceful industries, like chemical industry, which are devoted for peaceful purposes. They have quite a lot of that, and they were a bit concerned about how they could go about it.
But I have no doubt there will be a report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: Now how detailed that report will be, whether it's one page long, Paula, and simply says that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, or whether they produce thousands of pages of documentation detailing their weapons programs, and what has been -- what has happened to those weapons programs, that is indeed the big question. Iraq being encouraged to provide as much documentation as possible -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Sheila. Sheila MacVicar reporting for us this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
