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American Morning
Crucial Day at the U.N.
Aired March 07, 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: Right now, Andrea Koppel joins us from the U.N. with the very latest.
Good morning, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, as Secretary of State Powell has for the previous two Blix reports, he is also going to be in attendance during this morning's presentation. In fact, he just arrived here at the United Nations headquarters a couple of moments ago. He's going into some bilateral, some private meetings with two of the six undecided states, whose votes are essential if the United States is to get those nine out of 15 votes necessary to pass a second resolution. He's going to be meeting with the ambassador of Cameroon and the foreign minister of Guinea, who also is the president this month of the Security Council.
In addition, Secretary Powell set to meet this morning with Foreign Minister Ivanov of Russia. As you know, Russia has threatened to veto this resolution if it is, in fact, called for a vote.
Aides say they were still working on Secretary Powell's comments that he's expected to make after the Blix report. They were still feverishly working on tweaking the presentation Secretary Powell is expected to make this morning as they got more information as to what Mr. Blix is going to be saying in his report.
As one Powell aide told me, the Blix report appears to be too positive.
Now, as to what to expect Secretary Powell to say today, listen for him to make many of the same points, in fact, a lot of the same points that he made earlier this week in a talk before a Washington D.C. thinktank.
He's going to say that Iraq has not made the political or strategic decision to disarm. He'll explain how and why, and he's also going to challenge the Security Council membership to remember when they passed resolution 1441 last November that it was a 15-0 decision that had serious consequences, teeth in that resolution, and that they need to put their money where their mouth is.
But, Paula, as Secretary Powell prepares to listen to the Blix report, most of his aides and most U.S. officials that I've spoken with, are rather not confident, as you can put it, that the Blix report will give them the ammunition that they will need to continue to make this case, as things stand right now, again, the focus on those six undecided rotating members of the Security Council whose votes will be essential if this is going to pass.
One aide I spoke with this morning said that despite what President Bush said last night, there really is still a heated debate within the Bush administration and also with Britain as to whether or not to put this resolution to a vote, Paula, if they don't have the votes.
ZAHN: Thanks for the preview. Andrea Koppel, look forward to seeing you in our special coverage later on 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 March 7, 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: Right now, Andrea Koppel joins us from the U.N. with the very latest.
Good morning, Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
Well, as Secretary of State Powell has for the previous two Blix reports, he is also going to be in attendance during this morning's presentation. In fact, he just arrived here at the United Nations headquarters a couple of moments ago. He's going into some bilateral, some private meetings with two of the six undecided states, whose votes are essential if the United States is to get those nine out of 15 votes necessary to pass a second resolution. He's going to be meeting with the ambassador of Cameroon and the foreign minister of Guinea, who also is the president this month of the Security Council.
In addition, Secretary Powell set to meet this morning with Foreign Minister Ivanov of Russia. As you know, Russia has threatened to veto this resolution if it is, in fact, called for a vote.
Aides say they were still working on Secretary Powell's comments that he's expected to make after the Blix report. They were still feverishly working on tweaking the presentation Secretary Powell is expected to make this morning as they got more information as to what Mr. Blix is going to be saying in his report.
As one Powell aide told me, the Blix report appears to be too positive.
Now, as to what to expect Secretary Powell to say today, listen for him to make many of the same points, in fact, a lot of the same points that he made earlier this week in a talk before a Washington D.C. thinktank.
He's going to say that Iraq has not made the political or strategic decision to disarm. He'll explain how and why, and he's also going to challenge the Security Council membership to remember when they passed resolution 1441 last November that it was a 15-0 decision that had serious consequences, teeth in that resolution, and that they need to put their money where their mouth is.
But, Paula, as Secretary Powell prepares to listen to the Blix report, most of his aides and most U.S. officials that I've spoken with, are rather not confident, as you can put it, that the Blix report will give them the ammunition that they will need to continue to make this case, as things stand right now, again, the focus on those six undecided rotating members of the Security Council whose votes will be essential if this is going to pass.
One aide I spoke with this morning said that despite what President Bush said last night, there really is still a heated debate within the Bush administration and also with Britain as to whether or not to put this resolution to a vote, Paula, if they don't have the votes.
ZAHN: Thanks for the preview. Andrea Koppel, look forward to seeing you in our special coverage later on 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
