Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

U.N. Weapons Inspectors Return to Baghdad

Aired November 17, 2002 - 11:01   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.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: After being gone for four years, United Nations weapons inspectors are getting ready to return to Baghdad tomorrow. An advance team of inspectors arrives in that city and right now they are at a staging ground in Cyprus getting ready to transition there.
CNN's senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar is with us now from Larnaca with the latest from them. Sheila, you've had a chance to actually talk with some of the weapons inspectors and Hans Blix spoke just a few -- a couple of hours ago.

What is it that you're hearing about how optimistic they are about this next mission?

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're being -- they are saying that they've got to go in, they've got to go back to Iraq. There are some stages of work that have to be performed before they can actually begin to have weapons inspections.

The first task, of course, is to get those offices opened that have been closed for four years, get the laboratories running, get the vehicles gassed up, make sure the tires aren't flat so the inspectors can come in and actually do their jobs.

And for Dr. Blix, the head of the U.N. weapons inspection teams, and Dr. El-Baradei, who is the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, there will be a round of talks with Iraqi officials aimed at reconnecting -- making, again, those diplomatic connections that will be so important to the work of this mission.

Now the inspectors are talking about their objective, which is to carry out, they say, objective, comprehensive, independent inspections -- something that will take a considerable period of time. They're talking about perhaps more than 700 sites that they want to visit.

In the course of the four years that inspectors have not been in Iraq they have been able to gather a tremendous amount of information and intelligence.

They have looked at procurement records where Iraq has been buying things. They have looked at satellite images and seen changes in buildings and facilities on the ground that they want to go and look at again.

More importantly so they say that what happens next is really up to Iraq, as we heard from Dr. Blix as he arrived at the airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANS BLIX, U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The question of war and peace remains, first of all, in the hands of Iraq and the Security Council and the members of the Security Council. We have a very important role to play and we are not going to play that down with you.

We have a very responsible task that we have before us and we will inspect and we will report cooperation and lack of cooperation. And we will do so objectively to the Security Council.

But it's for the Council to decide what -- how they assess that whatever lack of cooperation or cooperation there is and to draw the consequences from that. It's not me who will do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACVICAR: Now Dr. Blix, of course, talking about what's called a material breach or what might constitute a material breach -- a failure to live up to the requirements of the U.N. Security Council resolution.

Now that, as Dr. Blix was saying, is something for the Council to determine -- that the U.N. weapons inspectors, he says, will report factually what happens on the ground, what they encounter from the Iraqis, what they find or do not find, what they see or are not permitted to see and that it will be up to the U.N. Security Council and the members of the Council to make a determination as to what that constitutes if it is indeed a serious breach of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resolution and a breach perhaps serious enough that it could indeed lead to conflict.

Dr. Blix, when asked to describe what he might consider to be something he needed to report to the Security Council, said, "Well, in some cases perhaps a delay of half an hour being granted access to a site that they wanted to see could be something that was serious enough that that would have to be reported to the Council and that it would then be up to the Council to determine what happened next." Carol?

LIN: All right -- thank you very much. Sheila MacVicar reporting live from Larnaca, Cyprus.

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 November 17, 2002 - 11:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: After being gone for four years, United Nations weapons inspectors are getting ready to return to Baghdad tomorrow. An advance team of inspectors arrives in that city and right now they are at a staging ground in Cyprus getting ready to transition there.
CNN's senior international correspondent Sheila MacVicar is with us now from Larnaca with the latest from them. Sheila, you've had a chance to actually talk with some of the weapons inspectors and Hans Blix spoke just a few -- a couple of hours ago.

What is it that you're hearing about how optimistic they are about this next mission?

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're being -- they are saying that they've got to go in, they've got to go back to Iraq. There are some stages of work that have to be performed before they can actually begin to have weapons inspections.

The first task, of course, is to get those offices opened that have been closed for four years, get the laboratories running, get the vehicles gassed up, make sure the tires aren't flat so the inspectors can come in and actually do their jobs.

And for Dr. Blix, the head of the U.N. weapons inspection teams, and Dr. El-Baradei, who is the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, there will be a round of talks with Iraqi officials aimed at reconnecting -- making, again, those diplomatic connections that will be so important to the work of this mission.

Now the inspectors are talking about their objective, which is to carry out, they say, objective, comprehensive, independent inspections -- something that will take a considerable period of time. They're talking about perhaps more than 700 sites that they want to visit.

In the course of the four years that inspectors have not been in Iraq they have been able to gather a tremendous amount of information and intelligence.

They have looked at procurement records where Iraq has been buying things. They have looked at satellite images and seen changes in buildings and facilities on the ground that they want to go and look at again.

More importantly so they say that what happens next is really up to Iraq, as we heard from Dr. Blix as he arrived at the airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANS BLIX, U.N. CHIEF WEAPONS INSPECTOR: The question of war and peace remains, first of all, in the hands of Iraq and the Security Council and the members of the Security Council. We have a very important role to play and we are not going to play that down with you.

We have a very responsible task that we have before us and we will inspect and we will report cooperation and lack of cooperation. And we will do so objectively to the Security Council.

But it's for the Council to decide what -- how they assess that whatever lack of cooperation or cooperation there is and to draw the consequences from that. It's not me who will do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACVICAR: Now Dr. Blix, of course, talking about what's called a material breach or what might constitute a material breach -- a failure to live up to the requirements of the U.N. Security Council resolution.

Now that, as Dr. Blix was saying, is something for the Council to determine -- that the U.N. weapons inspectors, he says, will report factually what happens on the ground, what they encounter from the Iraqis, what they find or do not find, what they see or are not permitted to see and that it will be up to the U.N. Security Council and the members of the Council to make a determination as to what that constitutes if it is indeed a serious breach of the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resolution and a breach perhaps serious enough that it could indeed lead to conflict.

Dr. Blix, when asked to describe what he might consider to be something he needed to report to the Security Council, said, "Well, in some cases perhaps a delay of half an hour being granted access to a site that they wanted to see could be something that was serious enough that that would have to be reported to the Council and that it would then be up to the Council to determine what happened next." Carol?

LIN: All right -- thank you very much. Sheila MacVicar reporting live from Larnaca, Cyprus.

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