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American Morning

United States Looking at Summit with Britain, Spain

Aired March 14, 2003 - 07:10   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is word of a potential summit on Iraq this weekend, and for that, let's go to the White House and John King, who will sort this out for us.
Talk today, John, of the president meeting with the Prime Minister Tony Blair, possibly the president of Spain as well. Where could this take place? When would it go down? What are you hearing?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we are hearing, Bill, is that this is a possibility, not yet a definite summit meeting this weekend. One senior official says it is possible; another official this morning says it is probable. Officials here in Washington and in London say nothing has been finalized as yet.

If there is a summit, we are told that it will be a three-way meeting -- President Bush, Prime Minister Blair and Prime Minister Aznar of Spain, the three closest allies in this confrontation.

As to where it would be, there was some talk yesterday that it would be outside of London. Prime Minister Blair's office, though, says he would travel if there is such a summit. Some officials here say perhaps in a neutral country somewhere in Europe.

As we try to sort all of that out this morning, the main goal of that discussion, of course, would be how to salvage the shattered diplomacy, led by the United States and Great Britain. The goal was to get a new resolution out of the Security Council. The president was adamant that there would be a vote this week. That vote has now been put off until Monday at the earliest.

And Secretary of State Colin Powell telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday the administration might rethink its strategy completely and have no vote at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are working hard to see if we can take this to a vote that would be a vote that would help unify the council, but we haven't excluded any of the other obvious options that are out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the obvious options include not having a vote at all. Why would the United States not want to vote after the president said he wanted the world to show its cards? Because if the United States, Great Britain and Spain could not even muster a majority -- eight or nine votes on the Security Council, never mind a French veto -- if they could not even get a majority, they view that as politically more damaging than the sense that one could make the case that they tried and failed at the Security Council and then went to war anyway.

So very sensitive diplomacy right now, Bill, and we are told again there is a possible, possible summit this weekend; some officials say probable. And conversations now between Washington and London and Spain to work out the details if there is to be such a meeting. As of now, the president's schedule says he will go to Camp David this afternoon. We'll keep track of all of that -- Bill.

HEMMER: John, back to this U.N. issue. Is there a point -- as we try to anticipate the next move in this, is there a point the White House has talked about at which it says, OK, we've gone as far as we think we can go at the U.N., and now we are turning our backs and going the other way? As they're talking, at what point do they reach that?

KING: That point was to be today. The administration had said it would only go through the end of this week for diplomacy at the United Nations. Because this is so critical to Tony Blair, and to a lesser degree but also critical to Prime Minister Aznar, Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy because of public opinion across Europe, the United States has said it will continue the diplomacy through the weekend.

But make no doubt about it, this president is very frustrated with the process at the United Nations. We are told he is involved in this last-minute urgent diplomacy now only because it is so urgent, so important to his European allies. Officials say the president has to make this decision soon.

So we will watch the diplomacy over the weekend. We thought today would be the decisive day. It looks more likely now that it will be some day early next week.

HEMMER: John King at the White House Front Lawn. We'll talk later this morning. John, thank you.

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 14, 2003 - 07:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is word of a potential summit on Iraq this weekend, and for that, let's go to the White House and John King, who will sort this out for us.
Talk today, John, of the president meeting with the Prime Minister Tony Blair, possibly the president of Spain as well. Where could this take place? When would it go down? What are you hearing?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we are hearing, Bill, is that this is a possibility, not yet a definite summit meeting this weekend. One senior official says it is possible; another official this morning says it is probable. Officials here in Washington and in London say nothing has been finalized as yet.

If there is a summit, we are told that it will be a three-way meeting -- President Bush, Prime Minister Blair and Prime Minister Aznar of Spain, the three closest allies in this confrontation.

As to where it would be, there was some talk yesterday that it would be outside of London. Prime Minister Blair's office, though, says he would travel if there is such a summit. Some officials here say perhaps in a neutral country somewhere in Europe.

As we try to sort all of that out this morning, the main goal of that discussion, of course, would be how to salvage the shattered diplomacy, led by the United States and Great Britain. The goal was to get a new resolution out of the Security Council. The president was adamant that there would be a vote this week. That vote has now been put off until Monday at the earliest.

And Secretary of State Colin Powell telling lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday the administration might rethink its strategy completely and have no vote at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are working hard to see if we can take this to a vote that would be a vote that would help unify the council, but we haven't excluded any of the other obvious options that are out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, the obvious options include not having a vote at all. Why would the United States not want to vote after the president said he wanted the world to show its cards? Because if the United States, Great Britain and Spain could not even muster a majority -- eight or nine votes on the Security Council, never mind a French veto -- if they could not even get a majority, they view that as politically more damaging than the sense that one could make the case that they tried and failed at the Security Council and then went to war anyway.

So very sensitive diplomacy right now, Bill, and we are told again there is a possible, possible summit this weekend; some officials say probable. And conversations now between Washington and London and Spain to work out the details if there is to be such a meeting. As of now, the president's schedule says he will go to Camp David this afternoon. We'll keep track of all of that -- Bill.

HEMMER: John, back to this U.N. issue. Is there a point -- as we try to anticipate the next move in this, is there a point the White House has talked about at which it says, OK, we've gone as far as we think we can go at the U.N., and now we are turning our backs and going the other way? As they're talking, at what point do they reach that?

KING: That point was to be today. The administration had said it would only go through the end of this week for diplomacy at the United Nations. Because this is so critical to Tony Blair, and to a lesser degree but also critical to Prime Minister Aznar, Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy because of public opinion across Europe, the United States has said it will continue the diplomacy through the weekend.

But make no doubt about it, this president is very frustrated with the process at the United Nations. We are told he is involved in this last-minute urgent diplomacy now only because it is so urgent, so important to his European allies. Officials say the president has to make this decision soon.

So we will watch the diplomacy over the weekend. We thought today would be the decisive day. It looks more likely now that it will be some day early next week.

HEMMER: John King at the White House Front Lawn. We'll talk later this morning. John, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.