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American Morning
U.S. May Support Turkey
Aired February 11, 2003 - 09:05 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: We are going to turn our attention back to NATO now as NATO tries to resolve what could be its biggest crisis ever. President Bush also faces opposition in the U.N. Security Council. Permanent members Russia, France, and China are calling for more weapons inspections in Iraq. With skeptics at both NATO and the U.N., what happens to the administration's goal of disarming Baghdad?
John King joins us with more from the White House. John, first up, what happens if the U.S. and its NATO partners remain at odds?
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, if they cannot reach a compromise at the NATO alliance, and administration officials are hopeful that can happen over the next several hours, but if not, the defense secretary, Don Rumsfeld, made perfectly clear yesterday, the United States will deliver to Turkey the help it had hoped would come from NATO, Patriot anti-missile batteries, AWACS reconnaissance planes, some chemical and biological warfare equipment and troops. The U.S. will do it, perhaps asking friends like the Czech Republic to pitch in and help. But if that happens, if the United States has to do this outside of NATO, Bush administration officials say there will be a serious reassessment of the relevance and the helpfulness of the alliance in this new world, as the president puts it, so this is a tough diplomatic challenge, and it has broader ramifications than just the issue of defending Turkey.
ZAHN: Yes, let's talk about that for a moment, because is the prevalent view there that this is a much broader problem than a NATO problem?
KING: Certainly, and you have coming to the forefront here long standing, long simmering tensions about the role of the United States and European perceptions, especially in France and in Germany that the Bush administration likes to bully its way, if you will, into getting its way. You have France and Germany blocking this NATO consensus. You have France and Germany among those blocking consensus on the U.N. Security Council.
President Chirac said yesterday he is not even convinced that there is evidence that Saddam Hussein still has weapons mass destruction, so you have the Bush administration at loggerheads with countries that traditionally are key U.S. allies. This will carry out in the NATO debate over the next several hours, perhaps several days, and also, and more importantly, in the Security Council debate throughout this week and perhaps into next. The Bush administration wants this resolved within the next week or so. Very hard to see a resolution, at least from the public statements of those other governments right now. ZAHN: John King, we are going to leave it there this morning. Thanks 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 February 11, 2003 - 09:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to turn our attention back to NATO now as NATO tries to resolve what could be its biggest crisis ever. President Bush also faces opposition in the U.N. Security Council. Permanent members Russia, France, and China are calling for more weapons inspections in Iraq. With skeptics at both NATO and the U.N., what happens to the administration's goal of disarming Baghdad?
John King joins us with more from the White House. John, first up, what happens if the U.S. and its NATO partners remain at odds?
JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, if they cannot reach a compromise at the NATO alliance, and administration officials are hopeful that can happen over the next several hours, but if not, the defense secretary, Don Rumsfeld, made perfectly clear yesterday, the United States will deliver to Turkey the help it had hoped would come from NATO, Patriot anti-missile batteries, AWACS reconnaissance planes, some chemical and biological warfare equipment and troops. The U.S. will do it, perhaps asking friends like the Czech Republic to pitch in and help. But if that happens, if the United States has to do this outside of NATO, Bush administration officials say there will be a serious reassessment of the relevance and the helpfulness of the alliance in this new world, as the president puts it, so this is a tough diplomatic challenge, and it has broader ramifications than just the issue of defending Turkey.
ZAHN: Yes, let's talk about that for a moment, because is the prevalent view there that this is a much broader problem than a NATO problem?
KING: Certainly, and you have coming to the forefront here long standing, long simmering tensions about the role of the United States and European perceptions, especially in France and in Germany that the Bush administration likes to bully its way, if you will, into getting its way. You have France and Germany blocking this NATO consensus. You have France and Germany among those blocking consensus on the U.N. Security Council.
President Chirac said yesterday he is not even convinced that there is evidence that Saddam Hussein still has weapons mass destruction, so you have the Bush administration at loggerheads with countries that traditionally are key U.S. allies. This will carry out in the NATO debate over the next several hours, perhaps several days, and also, and more importantly, in the Security Council debate throughout this week and perhaps into next. The Bush administration wants this resolved within the next week or so. Very hard to see a resolution, at least from the public statements of those other governments right now. ZAHN: John King, we are going to leave it there this morning. Thanks 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
