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American Morning

Iraq Without Saddam

Aired December 17, 2003 - 09:11   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Following the capture of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's foreign minister yesterday blasted the United Nations for having failed to rescue his country, he said, from Saddam. He challenged the U.N. to stop settling scores with the U.S. and to help build democracy in Iraq.
Well, joining us this morning from the United Nations is Hoshyar Zebari. He is the foreign minister of Iraq. Nice to see you, Mr. Zebari. Thanks for joining us.

You had some tough words yesterday for the United Nations. I want to read a little bit about what you had to say, and it was pretty harsh. You said, "The United Nations as an organization failed to rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny that lasted over 35 years. Then you went into a closed door meeting with the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Did you talk about that criticism? What did he have to say about what you had said?

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, in fact, we did explain to him that is the feeling of many Iraqis about the role of the U.N. in the past. But we are looking to the future. We want a constructive, engaged role for the U.N. and the construction and rebuilding of Iraq. In fact, we made those comments based on our experience. We've been living under this tyranny for so many years. And the international community did not come to our aid in any way to save us or to protect our human rights.

But we understand at the same time that the United Nations in the past has been a club of nations. And the views or positions of the ordinary people were not listened to. Now there are some readjustment to that for the U.N. future plans.

O'BRIEN: You took the member nations to task as well where you essentially told them to stop focusing on the political in-fighting and get together to help in the reconstruction and stabilization of Iraq. DO you think that plea was heard yesterday?

ZEBARI: I think what we heard from many members of the Security Council was very encouraging and it is a new approach I think to that problem. Of course, the political chapter(ph) was very important, but we -- the Iraqis -- expect more international support and solidarity. Iraq is no longer a local and regional issues, become an international issue. And I think the responsibility of all the nations -- those nations of the Security Council -- to come together and help the Iraqi people to overcome these difficulties because collapse of law and order, the security in Iraq is not confined to only Iraqi borders. It may spill over and affect other people and other interests. And that was the message we took to the gulf, we took to Europe recently and we're bringing it here.

O'BRIEN: Kofi Annan has said that it's still too dangerous to return his people into the area. And he also said, he needs clarification on exactly what people like you want from the United Nations. What do you want?

ZEBARI: In fact, we had a very good, constructive discussion with the Secretary General yesterday, after the Security Council meeting, and he insisted he wanted from us -- the Iraqi Governing Council and from the Coalition Provisional Authority -- more clarity about what do we expect from the U.N. to play? But from our part, also, we want what role the U.N. want to play or to help us in this? But we promised him, we pledged that we in the governing council are going to write to him officially to explain or to put it in writing exactly what do we expect from the U.N.

We think that the U.N. has a very important, significant role to play in Iraq on many levels, the electoral process, political process, constitutional process. But first and foremost, the U.N. has to be present inside Iraq to liase, to come back in separation. We welcome, in fact, the appointment of the acting special representative, Mr. Ross Martin, as a staff we see(ph) to become closer to Iraq. But we hope, at the end of the day, that the U.N. should be re-established in Iraq.

We do understand the security risk. We are all facing security risks. But the U.N. has been working under difficult circumstances and worst situations in many other parts of the world.

O'BRIEN: Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, joining us this morning. Mr. Zebari, thank you. Appreciate your time.

ZEBARI: 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 December 17, 2003 - 09:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Following the capture of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's foreign minister yesterday blasted the United Nations for having failed to rescue his country, he said, from Saddam. He challenged the U.N. to stop settling scores with the U.S. and to help build democracy in Iraq.
Well, joining us this morning from the United Nations is Hoshyar Zebari. He is the foreign minister of Iraq. Nice to see you, Mr. Zebari. Thanks for joining us.

You had some tough words yesterday for the United Nations. I want to read a little bit about what you had to say, and it was pretty harsh. You said, "The United Nations as an organization failed to rescue the Iraqi people from a murderous tyranny that lasted over 35 years. Then you went into a closed door meeting with the U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan. Did you talk about that criticism? What did he have to say about what you had said?

HOSHYAR ZEBARI, IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, in fact, we did explain to him that is the feeling of many Iraqis about the role of the U.N. in the past. But we are looking to the future. We want a constructive, engaged role for the U.N. and the construction and rebuilding of Iraq. In fact, we made those comments based on our experience. We've been living under this tyranny for so many years. And the international community did not come to our aid in any way to save us or to protect our human rights.

But we understand at the same time that the United Nations in the past has been a club of nations. And the views or positions of the ordinary people were not listened to. Now there are some readjustment to that for the U.N. future plans.

O'BRIEN: You took the member nations to task as well where you essentially told them to stop focusing on the political in-fighting and get together to help in the reconstruction and stabilization of Iraq. DO you think that plea was heard yesterday?

ZEBARI: I think what we heard from many members of the Security Council was very encouraging and it is a new approach I think to that problem. Of course, the political chapter(ph) was very important, but we -- the Iraqis -- expect more international support and solidarity. Iraq is no longer a local and regional issues, become an international issue. And I think the responsibility of all the nations -- those nations of the Security Council -- to come together and help the Iraqi people to overcome these difficulties because collapse of law and order, the security in Iraq is not confined to only Iraqi borders. It may spill over and affect other people and other interests. And that was the message we took to the gulf, we took to Europe recently and we're bringing it here.

O'BRIEN: Kofi Annan has said that it's still too dangerous to return his people into the area. And he also said, he needs clarification on exactly what people like you want from the United Nations. What do you want?

ZEBARI: In fact, we had a very good, constructive discussion with the Secretary General yesterday, after the Security Council meeting, and he insisted he wanted from us -- the Iraqi Governing Council and from the Coalition Provisional Authority -- more clarity about what do we expect from the U.N. to play? But from our part, also, we want what role the U.N. want to play or to help us in this? But we promised him, we pledged that we in the governing council are going to write to him officially to explain or to put it in writing exactly what do we expect from the U.N.

We think that the U.N. has a very important, significant role to play in Iraq on many levels, the electoral process, political process, constitutional process. But first and foremost, the U.N. has to be present inside Iraq to liase, to come back in separation. We welcome, in fact, the appointment of the acting special representative, Mr. Ross Martin, as a staff we see(ph) to become closer to Iraq. But we hope, at the end of the day, that the U.N. should be re-established in Iraq.

We do understand the security risk. We are all facing security risks. But the U.N. has been working under difficult circumstances and worst situations in many other parts of the world.

O'BRIEN: Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, joining us this morning. Mr. Zebari, thank you. Appreciate your time.

ZEBARI: 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