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American Morning
Coalition Warns Syria
Aired April 14, 2003 - 08:34 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: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying today that the U.S. and Britain have no plans to invade Syria, but he warned Damascus that it needs to answer some very important questions.
Well yesterday, President Bush accused Syria of having weapons of mass destruction and harboring former Iraqi officials.
Our senior international correspondent Shelia MacVicar is in Damascus with reaction now to some of those charges.
Good morning, Shelia. What's the latest from there?
SHELIA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
This has been a long litany of allegations that have come over the course of the last two weeks from Bush administration officials charging that Syria has basically been, in the words of one U.S. administration official, been behaving badly and not fully cooperating. Allegations that there are being harbored here, members of the regime, that Syria may have Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction, that Syria, itself, has chemical weapons, a whole long litany of charges and the clearly frustrated Syrian foreign minister attempted to address that issue at a news conference over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAROUK AL-SHARAA, SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Sometimes, they don't know what they want. Sometimes, they say you have mass destruction weapons smuggled from Iraq to Syria. Next day, in the Israeli press, they say the opposite. Because if we say to you no, you are not believing us because this is the third, third, fourth statement that you are directing against Syria. What are the clues, the evidence that you have got? They don't bring any evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: The Syrians are very clearly saying they have no one here who is wanted by the U.S., no family members, no regime members and actually, Paula, a very informed Western sources here in the Syrian capital tell me that they believe that that is also the truth -- Paula.
ZAHN: What can you tell us, Sheila, in a general sense, of how the Syrians are reacting to the increased pressure from now, a number of different U.S. administration officials?
MACVICAR: They clearly are being given a message. The pressure is coming, at least in part, perhaps as a warning to Syria not to do certain things.
It's also clear that Syria is hearing from a number of people, the French foreign minister, a junior British Foreign Office minister, the Saudi foreign minister, all of them in the town in the last couple of days, all of them talking to Syria and saying, Look at, you must cooperate. There are things you must do. We're hearing about regime members. We're hearing about weapons of mass destruction.
But we are very soon going to start hearing about those terrorists groups which either have offices in Damascus or are sponsored by Syria. Syria will be asked to cooperate, will be asked to sever its ties with those organizations. And the advice that they are being given from a number of different corners is when that request comes, you must be prepared to cooperate -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Sheila MacVicar reporting from Damascus for us today.
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 April 14, 2003 - 08:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying today that the U.S. and Britain have no plans to invade Syria, but he warned Damascus that it needs to answer some very important questions.
Well yesterday, President Bush accused Syria of having weapons of mass destruction and harboring former Iraqi officials.
Our senior international correspondent Shelia MacVicar is in Damascus with reaction now to some of those charges.
Good morning, Shelia. What's the latest from there?
SHELIA MACVICAR, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
This has been a long litany of allegations that have come over the course of the last two weeks from Bush administration officials charging that Syria has basically been, in the words of one U.S. administration official, been behaving badly and not fully cooperating. Allegations that there are being harbored here, members of the regime, that Syria may have Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction, that Syria, itself, has chemical weapons, a whole long litany of charges and the clearly frustrated Syrian foreign minister attempted to address that issue at a news conference over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAROUK AL-SHARAA, SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Sometimes, they don't know what they want. Sometimes, they say you have mass destruction weapons smuggled from Iraq to Syria. Next day, in the Israeli press, they say the opposite. Because if we say to you no, you are not believing us because this is the third, third, fourth statement that you are directing against Syria. What are the clues, the evidence that you have got? They don't bring any evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACVICAR: The Syrians are very clearly saying they have no one here who is wanted by the U.S., no family members, no regime members and actually, Paula, a very informed Western sources here in the Syrian capital tell me that they believe that that is also the truth -- Paula.
ZAHN: What can you tell us, Sheila, in a general sense, of how the Syrians are reacting to the increased pressure from now, a number of different U.S. administration officials?
MACVICAR: They clearly are being given a message. The pressure is coming, at least in part, perhaps as a warning to Syria not to do certain things.
It's also clear that Syria is hearing from a number of people, the French foreign minister, a junior British Foreign Office minister, the Saudi foreign minister, all of them in the town in the last couple of days, all of them talking to Syria and saying, Look at, you must cooperate. There are things you must do. We're hearing about regime members. We're hearing about weapons of mass destruction.
But we are very soon going to start hearing about those terrorists groups which either have offices in Damascus or are sponsored by Syria. Syria will be asked to cooperate, will be asked to sever its ties with those organizations. And the advice that they are being given from a number of different corners is when that request comes, you must be prepared to cooperate -- Paula.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Sheila MacVicar reporting from Damascus for us today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
