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American Morning
Iraq Reacts to Troop Buildup in Persian Gulf
Aired January 08, 2003 - 07:30 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: The U.S. and Britain are planning a devastating aggression against the people of Iraq, that is how Iraq's deputy prime minister is reacting this morning to the troop buildup in the Persian Gulf.
Rym Brahimi joins us from Baghdad with details -- good morning, Rym.
How seriously are the Iraqis taking this latest deployment?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, good morning to you.
They're taking it very seriously, indeed. There's been a lot of defiance in the past couple of days from President Saddam Hussein, saying he is sure that Iraq will triumph. But in the meantime, Iraq's foreign minister has complained to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He wrote a letter on January 5 saying that the U.S. had again violated international law. He said that the United States had 60 heavy tanks cross the border from Kuwait into the demilitarized zone that's located between Iraq and Kuwait.
Now, that area is patrolled by a United Nations observation mission and the spokesman of that mission has told CNN that they were not aware of any such movement. He said that they would have noticed if there were so many tanks crossing into that area.
Now, from a practical perspective, people are being prepared in some way. They're preparing to receive soon something like five months worth of food rations. And against all this backdrop, well, there have been quite a few peace delegations coming into Iraq. The latest that's arrived just last night includes relatives of victims from the September 11 attacks.
Now, they're going to see, visit a shelter that was bombed in the 1991 Gulf War. One of the Iraqi officials that's been meeting with those various peace delegations is Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARIQ AZIZ, IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: The anti-war movement in the whole world is growing. And it shows also that many, many honest women and men in the world do not believe the lies which are being fabricated in Washington and London.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRAHIMI: Now, in the middle of all that, of course, U.N. weapons inspections continue. They're working hard here to meet that January 27th deadline when they have to present a progress report to the United Nations Security Council -- Paula.
ZAHN: Rym Brahimi, thanks for that live update.
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
Aired January 8, 2003 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. and Britain are planning a devastating aggression against the people of Iraq, that is how Iraq's deputy prime minister is reacting this morning to the troop buildup in the Persian Gulf.
Rym Brahimi joins us from Baghdad with details -- good morning, Rym.
How seriously are the Iraqis taking this latest deployment?
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, good morning to you.
They're taking it very seriously, indeed. There's been a lot of defiance in the past couple of days from President Saddam Hussein, saying he is sure that Iraq will triumph. But in the meantime, Iraq's foreign minister has complained to the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He wrote a letter on January 5 saying that the U.S. had again violated international law. He said that the United States had 60 heavy tanks cross the border from Kuwait into the demilitarized zone that's located between Iraq and Kuwait.
Now, that area is patrolled by a United Nations observation mission and the spokesman of that mission has told CNN that they were not aware of any such movement. He said that they would have noticed if there were so many tanks crossing into that area.
Now, from a practical perspective, people are being prepared in some way. They're preparing to receive soon something like five months worth of food rations. And against all this backdrop, well, there have been quite a few peace delegations coming into Iraq. The latest that's arrived just last night includes relatives of victims from the September 11 attacks.
Now, they're going to see, visit a shelter that was bombed in the 1991 Gulf War. One of the Iraqi officials that's been meeting with those various peace delegations is Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARIQ AZIZ, IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: The anti-war movement in the whole world is growing. And it shows also that many, many honest women and men in the world do not believe the lies which are being fabricated in Washington and London.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRAHIMI: Now, in the middle of all that, of course, U.N. weapons inspections continue. They're working hard here to meet that January 27th deadline when they have to present a progress report to the United Nations Security Council -- Paula.
ZAHN: Rym Brahimi, thanks for that live update.
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
