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CNN Sunday Morning
U.N. Weapons Inspectors Continue Work in Iraq
Aired January 26, 2003 - 09:03 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. weapons inspectors continue their work in Iraq. The country's top science adviser says he believes a U.S.-led attack may be inevitable, regardless of what the inspectors find. We go live to Baghdad now and our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.
Hi, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INT'L CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi.
This morning, we were out there outside the U.N. weapons inspection headquarters. Cooperation between the U.N. weapons inspectors and the Iraqi officials that travel with them appears to be good. There are handshakes; they get out of the car in the morning, they greet each other.
We know the inspectors have gone to a number of different sites today. But there is that pervading sense of feeling here amongst Iraqi officials that deal with the U.N. that whatever they do, it isn't enough. That's why, I think we heard from the president's chief scientific adviser, General Amir Al-Saadi, saying he's convinced that war may just be inevitable at this situation.
Certainly, listening to Colin Powell's speech, although we've had no response to it here, the issues that he raised in that speech, the outstanding issue raised by previous U.N. weapons inspection missions, such as 10,000 liters of anthrax and botulism toxin, Iraqi officials have heard this before. And their position has been they have no weapons of mass destruction. And that they feel they've already gone a long way to complying.
And they've said, recently, the General Amir Al-Saadi, has said, that it is up to the international community to present Iraq with the evidence. Now, of course, U.N. Resolution 1441 is set up in such a way that Iraq has to take and lead the weapons inspectors to all of its -- all weapons of mass destruction programs.
So that very much is the backdrop to which Iraq is looking at tomorrow's speech by Hans Blix, the Security Council, delivering that 60-day report, Heidi.
COLLINS: Nic, I'm also curious about something else. I'm wondering about the latest on the two incidents at the U.N. A man with three knives trying to push past security at the U.N., and then another man yelling, "save me, save me" as he climbed into the car of the inspectors as they were leaving one of the sites. What is the U.N. reaction to that? I would wonder if it's frustration on the part of these men or desperation, maybe?
ROBERTSON: We haven't heard declaratively from the U.N. what they believe the motivation was -- or from the Iraqi officials. Now, these men were handed over into Iraqi custody very shortly after those incidents.
These incidents come after just the previous day, when the religious leaders in the mosques here have been preaching really a message of intolerance about the U.N. weapons inspectors, highlighting that a team of U.N. weapons inspectors had visited a mosque earlier in the week. Saying it was a provocation, it was a violation of the sanctity of the mosque. Now, of course, the U.N. said that visit was a private visit.
But that is sort of the background to these incidents outside the U.N. And earlier in the week, other instances of intolerance by the public in Iraq to the U.N. inspection teams, a farmer saying he was going to sue the U.N. inspectors for damaging property, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Nic Robertson, we appreciate it, live from Baghdad.
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 January 26, 2003 - 09:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: U.N. weapons inspectors continue their work in Iraq. The country's top science adviser says he believes a U.S.-led attack may be inevitable, regardless of what the inspectors find. We go live to Baghdad now and our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson.
Hi, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INT'L CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi.
This morning, we were out there outside the U.N. weapons inspection headquarters. Cooperation between the U.N. weapons inspectors and the Iraqi officials that travel with them appears to be good. There are handshakes; they get out of the car in the morning, they greet each other.
We know the inspectors have gone to a number of different sites today. But there is that pervading sense of feeling here amongst Iraqi officials that deal with the U.N. that whatever they do, it isn't enough. That's why, I think we heard from the president's chief scientific adviser, General Amir Al-Saadi, saying he's convinced that war may just be inevitable at this situation.
Certainly, listening to Colin Powell's speech, although we've had no response to it here, the issues that he raised in that speech, the outstanding issue raised by previous U.N. weapons inspection missions, such as 10,000 liters of anthrax and botulism toxin, Iraqi officials have heard this before. And their position has been they have no weapons of mass destruction. And that they feel they've already gone a long way to complying.
And they've said, recently, the General Amir Al-Saadi, has said, that it is up to the international community to present Iraq with the evidence. Now, of course, U.N. Resolution 1441 is set up in such a way that Iraq has to take and lead the weapons inspectors to all of its -- all weapons of mass destruction programs.
So that very much is the backdrop to which Iraq is looking at tomorrow's speech by Hans Blix, the Security Council, delivering that 60-day report, Heidi.
COLLINS: Nic, I'm also curious about something else. I'm wondering about the latest on the two incidents at the U.N. A man with three knives trying to push past security at the U.N., and then another man yelling, "save me, save me" as he climbed into the car of the inspectors as they were leaving one of the sites. What is the U.N. reaction to that? I would wonder if it's frustration on the part of these men or desperation, maybe?
ROBERTSON: We haven't heard declaratively from the U.N. what they believe the motivation was -- or from the Iraqi officials. Now, these men were handed over into Iraqi custody very shortly after those incidents.
These incidents come after just the previous day, when the religious leaders in the mosques here have been preaching really a message of intolerance about the U.N. weapons inspectors, highlighting that a team of U.N. weapons inspectors had visited a mosque earlier in the week. Saying it was a provocation, it was a violation of the sanctity of the mosque. Now, of course, the U.N. said that visit was a private visit.
But that is sort of the background to these incidents outside the U.N. And earlier in the week, other instances of intolerance by the public in Iraq to the U.N. inspection teams, a farmer saying he was going to sue the U.N. inspectors for damaging property, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Nic Robertson, we appreciate it, live from Baghdad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
