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American Morning
Bush Working on Final Diplomatic Push
Aired January 30, 2003 - 09:33 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: President Bush is playing host at the White House, part of what is being described as final diplomatic push. Dana Bash is standing by on duty at the White House with more -- good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. You know, if you listen to President Bush's words and his tone over the past few days, he is really making it abundantly clear that military action could be right around the corner.
However, as you mentioned, the White House is saying that there is a very small window left to deal diplomatically with Saddam Hussein. That does exist, and the president is going to be working the phones and having very important meetings with key allies during those two weeks to try to show that there is a united front, that Saddam Hussein really doesn't have any option here, to try to get the world behind the U.S. efforts.
One of those meetings is today. He's meeting with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Now, Italy is not on the Security Council at the U.N. However, it is a very important country, it is a very important ally for the United States, a potential member of what the president calls that "coalition of the willing." And Italy also was one of the signatorys of that letter that you mentioned earlier from eight European countries that said there is solidarity there for the U.S. efforts in dealing with Saddam Hussein.
Now, another meeting later today, a late add to the president's schedule, which we won't, at this point, have any coverage of, is a meeting with the Saudi Arabia's foreign minister. Now he -- we're told by U.S. officials, said that he wanted to come meet with the president to talk about his tough language over the past few days on Iraq, but he also wants to talk to the president about a plan that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are trying to get together to try to get Saddam Hussein out of Iraq, to try to have him in exile somewhere and that, as you know, is a plan that Secretary of State Colin Powell and other members of the administration have said that they would definitely support if possible, but they're not holding out much hope for that -- Paula.
ZAHN: You just mentioned some of the key supporters who think it's a good idea, is that just the consensus of the whole administration?
BASH: Well, you know, this came up a couple of weeks ago on some of the talk shows, and for sure you heard Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and others -- I think even Condoleezza Rice said, sure, that would be something they would support if it would be possible to get him out of there and some of his key generals. But again, they're not sure if that's actually going to be a really viable option at this point.
ZAHN: Dana Bash, thanks so much. Dana is reporting from the White House 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 January 30, 2003 - 09:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is playing host at the White House, part of what is being described as final diplomatic push. Dana Bash is standing by on duty at the White House with more -- good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. You know, if you listen to President Bush's words and his tone over the past few days, he is really making it abundantly clear that military action could be right around the corner.
However, as you mentioned, the White House is saying that there is a very small window left to deal diplomatically with Saddam Hussein. That does exist, and the president is going to be working the phones and having very important meetings with key allies during those two weeks to try to show that there is a united front, that Saddam Hussein really doesn't have any option here, to try to get the world behind the U.S. efforts.
One of those meetings is today. He's meeting with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Now, Italy is not on the Security Council at the U.N. However, it is a very important country, it is a very important ally for the United States, a potential member of what the president calls that "coalition of the willing." And Italy also was one of the signatorys of that letter that you mentioned earlier from eight European countries that said there is solidarity there for the U.S. efforts in dealing with Saddam Hussein.
Now, another meeting later today, a late add to the president's schedule, which we won't, at this point, have any coverage of, is a meeting with the Saudi Arabia's foreign minister. Now he -- we're told by U.S. officials, said that he wanted to come meet with the president to talk about his tough language over the past few days on Iraq, but he also wants to talk to the president about a plan that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are trying to get together to try to get Saddam Hussein out of Iraq, to try to have him in exile somewhere and that, as you know, is a plan that Secretary of State Colin Powell and other members of the administration have said that they would definitely support if possible, but they're not holding out much hope for that -- Paula.
ZAHN: You just mentioned some of the key supporters who think it's a good idea, is that just the consensus of the whole administration?
BASH: Well, you know, this came up a couple of weeks ago on some of the talk shows, and for sure you heard Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and others -- I think even Condoleezza Rice said, sure, that would be something they would support if it would be possible to get him out of there and some of his key generals. But again, they're not sure if that's actually going to be a really viable option at this point.
ZAHN: Dana Bash, thanks so much. Dana is reporting from the White House 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
