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American Morning
Inspectors on the Hunt
Aired December 31, 2002 - 09:09 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn now to Iraq, where the U.N.'s team of experts is ending the year there with a flurry of inspections, and chief weapons inspector Hans Blix is planning to return to Iraq. He'll be going back there in mid-January, and that is right before he's supposed to make a final report to the U.N.
Rym Brahimi is standing by in Baghdad. She's got more on this.
Hello, Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
Well, inspectors have indeed stepped up the pace, despite this being New Year's Eve. The Foreign Ministry report of yesterday's inspections actually said 90 inspectors were out on the job. Today, at least seven teams went out among the sites visited. Mineral water factory, another place that does drug research, and a facility that does oil research and development.
Now, a lot of work for them, especially in view of that visit of Hans Blix coming up in mid-January.
The reason for that is, they have a couple of deadlines to meet. The first, when they're going to have to provide their own assessment of Iraq's weapons declaration on January 9th, and then they're going to have to work on the report to the U.N. Security Council, and prepare, maybe, a list of questions they may want the Iraqi officials to answer to.
Now, at the same time, Leon, there has been quite a bit of tension with regular patrols and sometimes bombings in the no-fly zones, and today Iraq's foreign minister complained to U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan about the latest bombing. A couple of days ago, Iraq says it killed three people. The foreign minister here accused not only the United States and Britain, but also Kuwait -- Leon.
HARRIS: Rym, with all of that as a backdrop, talking about preparations for New Year's Eve celebrations here, I'm wondering what it will be like there as the new year strikes in Baghdad?
BRAHIMI: Well, it's a difficult question. A lot of people you talk to say they're obviously going through this New Year celebration with a lot of holding their breath in a way, just hoping that it will not be as bad as they fear it will be. I can tell you for one that the inspectors, Leon, will be celebrating at their U.N. headquarters.
As for the Iraqi people, there are a number of areas that they are can go to and their families. They can -- the whole family can go out to certain clubs or places like this, not night clubs, but just sort of family clubs that they can go and have a nice meal and celebrate. Most people, though, will be celebrating in family. Definitely, people have tension. They've have started stocking up now on fuel, on things like lamps in case they have power cuts. So they're celebrating in the middle of a lot of tension -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, well, we can understand that. Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad. The afternoon call to prayers, if I'm not mistaken, going on in the background now. Happy New Year, Rym.
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Aired December 31, 2002 - 09:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn now to Iraq, where the U.N.'s team of experts is ending the year there with a flurry of inspections, and chief weapons inspector Hans Blix is planning to return to Iraq. He'll be going back there in mid-January, and that is right before he's supposed to make a final report to the U.N.
Rym Brahimi is standing by in Baghdad. She's got more on this.
Hello, Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.
Well, inspectors have indeed stepped up the pace, despite this being New Year's Eve. The Foreign Ministry report of yesterday's inspections actually said 90 inspectors were out on the job. Today, at least seven teams went out among the sites visited. Mineral water factory, another place that does drug research, and a facility that does oil research and development.
Now, a lot of work for them, especially in view of that visit of Hans Blix coming up in mid-January.
The reason for that is, they have a couple of deadlines to meet. The first, when they're going to have to provide their own assessment of Iraq's weapons declaration on January 9th, and then they're going to have to work on the report to the U.N. Security Council, and prepare, maybe, a list of questions they may want the Iraqi officials to answer to.
Now, at the same time, Leon, there has been quite a bit of tension with regular patrols and sometimes bombings in the no-fly zones, and today Iraq's foreign minister complained to U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan about the latest bombing. A couple of days ago, Iraq says it killed three people. The foreign minister here accused not only the United States and Britain, but also Kuwait -- Leon.
HARRIS: Rym, with all of that as a backdrop, talking about preparations for New Year's Eve celebrations here, I'm wondering what it will be like there as the new year strikes in Baghdad?
BRAHIMI: Well, it's a difficult question. A lot of people you talk to say they're obviously going through this New Year celebration with a lot of holding their breath in a way, just hoping that it will not be as bad as they fear it will be. I can tell you for one that the inspectors, Leon, will be celebrating at their U.N. headquarters.
As for the Iraqi people, there are a number of areas that they are can go to and their families. They can -- the whole family can go out to certain clubs or places like this, not night clubs, but just sort of family clubs that they can go and have a nice meal and celebrate. Most people, though, will be celebrating in family. Definitely, people have tension. They've have started stocking up now on fuel, on things like lamps in case they have power cuts. So they're celebrating in the middle of a lot of tension -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, well, we can understand that. Rym Brahimi reporting live from Baghdad. The afternoon call to prayers, if I'm not mistaken, going on in the background now. Happy New Year, Rym.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
