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American Morning
Christmas in Baghdad
Aired December 25, 2002 - 07:32 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we move on to Iraq, and it turns out the country may have hidden some of its weapons inside of Syria, at least Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon says that his government is checking out that information that chemical and biological weapons may have been sent to the north from Iraq to Syria. He didn't, though, say where he is getting that information from.
Rym Brahimi is live today in Baghdad with more on that. Rym, merry Christmas to you, and thanks for joining us.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas to you too, Daryn. Well, we haven't had any official reaction to those allegations by the Israel prime minister, and if there is going to be any reaction, it might take a while before Iraqi officials do anything about that or say anything about that formally.
Meanwhile, as you know, the inspections have gone on. Now -- sorry, just to go back so that Syrian issue, Daryn. This might put a lot of pressure on Syria. Of course, there are still allegations. But you know that Syria and Iraq have improved ties dramatically over the past few years, and Syria is the only Arab member at the United Nations Security Council. So although Syria has also been keen to sort of claim it has got very friendly ties with Iraq and sometimes try and defend it, it also hasn't been able to resist U.S. pressure. So this might add more pressure on Syria in weeks to come if indeed more searches or there is going to be a lot of verification over the issue.
And then, of course, there is the issue of if those weapons did -- I mean, they are just still allegations, but it depends where from the north of Iraq, part of the north of Iraq is Kurdish-controlled for now. So there are a lot of questions there, and the Iraqis might obviously point out to the fact that there isn't any evidence for now.
Now, as you were mentioning, the inspections have continued, despite this being Christmas Day. A group of them actually spent Christmas Eve at a city in the south of Iraq, Daryn, about five and a half hour drive south of Iraq (sic) in Basra. A team went out to a missile facility, a place where they are making nonprohibited missiles, according to Iraqi officials, and a couple of teams headed out south and west, but we still don't know whether they've reached their destination. So they are quite busy. And, of course, as you know, they've reached now a new stage in their inspections, since yesterday was the first time that they interviewed an Iraqi scientist formally -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Rym, let me ask you a little bit about Christmas since it is Christmas morning here in the U.S. I know that Iraq being a Muslim country, but there is a Christian minority. Are there any signs of Christmas around Baghdad or anywhere else around the country?
BRAHIMI: Yes, Daryn, there are, actually. There are a few areas -- you know, there are quite a lot of churches here in Baghdad, more than 50 just in Baghdad, and, of course, hundreds throughout the country.
There are only 3 percent of Christians here in Iraq, the majority of the Iraqis are Muslim, but there is quite a variety of Christian rites. There are Caldeans, Asyrians, a lot of Eastern Orthodox rites, some Protestants. So there is quite a nice mix. And you can see them. We've been seeing them -- actually, I saw a big group actually in church this morning. There were -- a lot of them went to church for the midnight mass last night, and a lot of shops in some of the areas here are showing Christmas decorations. They were setting Christmas trees in the street.
And yesterday, actually, one of the radios, FM youth radio that is owned by the son of President Saddam Hussein, all afternoon played Christmas songs. So there has been some of an air of Christmas, although, obviously, maybe not what you would find in the West -- Daryn.
KAGAN: A little bit different, but thanks for giving us a mental picture of Christmas in Baghdad. Rym Brahimi, thank you so much.
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 December 25, 2002 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we move on to Iraq, and it turns out the country may have hidden some of its weapons inside of Syria, at least Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon says that his government is checking out that information that chemical and biological weapons may have been sent to the north from Iraq to Syria. He didn't, though, say where he is getting that information from.
Rym Brahimi is live today in Baghdad with more on that. Rym, merry Christmas to you, and thanks for joining us.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas to you too, Daryn. Well, we haven't had any official reaction to those allegations by the Israel prime minister, and if there is going to be any reaction, it might take a while before Iraqi officials do anything about that or say anything about that formally.
Meanwhile, as you know, the inspections have gone on. Now -- sorry, just to go back so that Syrian issue, Daryn. This might put a lot of pressure on Syria. Of course, there are still allegations. But you know that Syria and Iraq have improved ties dramatically over the past few years, and Syria is the only Arab member at the United Nations Security Council. So although Syria has also been keen to sort of claim it has got very friendly ties with Iraq and sometimes try and defend it, it also hasn't been able to resist U.S. pressure. So this might add more pressure on Syria in weeks to come if indeed more searches or there is going to be a lot of verification over the issue.
And then, of course, there is the issue of if those weapons did -- I mean, they are just still allegations, but it depends where from the north of Iraq, part of the north of Iraq is Kurdish-controlled for now. So there are a lot of questions there, and the Iraqis might obviously point out to the fact that there isn't any evidence for now.
Now, as you were mentioning, the inspections have continued, despite this being Christmas Day. A group of them actually spent Christmas Eve at a city in the south of Iraq, Daryn, about five and a half hour drive south of Iraq (sic) in Basra. A team went out to a missile facility, a place where they are making nonprohibited missiles, according to Iraqi officials, and a couple of teams headed out south and west, but we still don't know whether they've reached their destination. So they are quite busy. And, of course, as you know, they've reached now a new stage in their inspections, since yesterday was the first time that they interviewed an Iraqi scientist formally -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Rym, let me ask you a little bit about Christmas since it is Christmas morning here in the U.S. I know that Iraq being a Muslim country, but there is a Christian minority. Are there any signs of Christmas around Baghdad or anywhere else around the country?
BRAHIMI: Yes, Daryn, there are, actually. There are a few areas -- you know, there are quite a lot of churches here in Baghdad, more than 50 just in Baghdad, and, of course, hundreds throughout the country.
There are only 3 percent of Christians here in Iraq, the majority of the Iraqis are Muslim, but there is quite a variety of Christian rites. There are Caldeans, Asyrians, a lot of Eastern Orthodox rites, some Protestants. So there is quite a nice mix. And you can see them. We've been seeing them -- actually, I saw a big group actually in church this morning. There were -- a lot of them went to church for the midnight mass last night, and a lot of shops in some of the areas here are showing Christmas decorations. They were setting Christmas trees in the street.
And yesterday, actually, one of the radios, FM youth radio that is owned by the son of President Saddam Hussein, all afternoon played Christmas songs. So there has been some of an air of Christmas, although, obviously, maybe not what you would find in the West -- Daryn.
KAGAN: A little bit different, but thanks for giving us a mental picture of Christmas in Baghdad. Rym Brahimi, thank you so much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
