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CNN Sunday Morning

U.N. Weapons Inspectors Sit Down for Talks With Iraqi Officials

Aired February 09, 2003 - 08:00   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the hour's top story, the showdown with Iraq. The U.N. senior weapons inspectors report, they're getting some answers from Iraqi officials in Baghdad, but there's a growing crack in the Security Council, support for a war to disarm Saddam Hussein. We are covering all the bases. We have Richard Roth in Cyprus, Nic Robertson in Baghdad, Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. We'll begin in Larnaca, Cyprus where our chief U.N. correspondent Richard Roth is covering the story of the U.N. weapons inspectors' trip -- Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Miles, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the leading international arms inspectors, will pass through here, Cyprus, tomorrow morning on their way to New York and Vienna, respectively. And now it looks like some of the countries based in Europe want to back their inspection efforts with more numbers and even perhaps United Nations peacekeeping troops.

Germany and France are working on a plan to present to the U.N. Security Council, perhaps in a few days, maybe in a week or so, an idea to send peacekeepers in.

Of course, this is far from a done deal. The U.S. is likely not to be jumping for joy over this proposal. The U.S. was expressing a renewed interest in a second Security Council resolution. President Bush had said so a few days ago, but this was really to get authorization perhaps for military force, not to send in U.N. peacekeepers. That's not exactly a fit fighting force, more to keep the peace between two sides that already agreed on. And months ago, the inspectors were not happy about any type of armed force when that was circulated by the U.S. in an earlier draft resolution.

Hans Blix says inspectors backed by troops with guns would only unnecessarily complicate the situation and perhaps put the inspectors at risk. Nevertheless, Russian Defense Minister Igor Ivanov is signing on to this type of idea, as long as it passes through the U.N. Security Council. So a divided council now appears even more divided. A lot of this frustration, a sense of wanting to do something else in the days following Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation with slides and audio intercepts, the Europeans deciding to do something of their own -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Richard, it sort of seems as if the Russians are grasping at straws here. Am I right?

ROTH: Well, they'll sign on to anything that would in their view move away from the military option, and it's up to the U.S. to try to woo them back and try to do whatever they can to stop Germany and France from building up support so that Washington can get enough votes to back a resolution that would give them the power to wage war if Saddam Hussein doesn't comply on weapons of mass destruction handover or information.

O'BRIEN: Richard Roth, Larnaca, Cyprus. Thanks very much -- Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to Baghdad now. Our Nic Robertson has the very latest on the details of the date to talks, crucial talks, that is, with the U.N. chief weapons inspectors. Good morning to you, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. The two U.N. chief weapons inspectors here just about to sit down again for their third session of talks here. They had two hours of talks this morning, about four and a half hours of talks yesterday. This morning they were given some more documents by Iraqi officials. They'd also received documents yesterday.

Now, one U.N. official said that so far they have not done substantial analysis of the documents to know exactly what was contained, to know its relevance or its importance. But certainly the talks so far by the U.N. weapons chiefs have been characterized as useful and substantial. They say they've been covering outstanding issues.

These are the issues, the most important issues for the weapons inspectors, things that were left unresolved by the last U.N. weapons inspection program here in the 1990s, such as the accounting for VX nerve agent, the accounting for biological growth media, the accounting for chemical warheads, all things that Iraq failed to fully account for in its weapons declaration late last year.

These are the items the U.N. weapons chiefs are looking to get transparency on. At this stage, the talks appear to be going, from what we hear from the two U.N. weapons chiefs, well, but very unclear how far they progress and what substantial ground they may have gained at this time -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Nic, is there anything that could be in those documents that would help to avert a possible war, and if so, what would they be?

ROBERTSON: Very difficult to tell at this stage. What the inspectors have been looking for is documentary evidence, or people, engineers or scientists to come forward to give evidence about what happened to -- precisely what happened to Iraq's past weapons programs.

If we take one example here, anthrax. Now, according to Iraqi officials, they never produced it in a good quality form, they said. They were never able to take it from the liquid form to the powder form. So their position is, why talk about the quantity of what we had and what we did with it if we never produced it in significant quality because they said it would have degraded and therefore it's not necessary to account for it.

Of course, the U.N. inspectors want very much to account for it. They want to know more about what quality it was produced in, about what happened to all the different products of anthrax that the Iraqi officials had in their previous weapons program.

So documentary evidence, paper evidence that might illuminate that subject. For example -- and of course, we don't know what's in these papers -- but things like that are going to be very critical for the weapons inspectors. Transparency is the word they've been applying to finding out about Iraq's past weapons programs, and of course, for Iraq to build confidence in their cooperation by such measures -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Nic Robertson. Thank you, live from Baghdad this morning.

O'BRIEN: Let's go to the White House now, where the Bush administration continues to focus on efforts to get Iraq on a fast track to disarming. Our Suzanne Malveaux joining us with the latest from there. Hello, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. This is really a critical week for the president. He'll be traveling from Camp David to a retreat in West Virginia. He's going to be meeting with Republican lawmakers, really to strategize how to push for the domestic agenda, namely the economic stimulus package, but as you know, Miles, the next couple of days what we are going to see the White House engage in really intense pressure, not only on Saddam Hussein, but also on the members of the U.N. Security Council to do one of two things, either to back a second resolution that declares Iraq is in material breach of previous resolutions that requires for him to disarm, or either for those U.S. allies to get out of the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I think at bottom the administration is counting on the fact that the French and the Chinese and the Russians for economic and geopolitical reasons probably feel that they just can't sit out a war with Iraq. France and Russia in particular, but also to a certain extent, China have tremendous economic stakes in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, of course, this Franco-German plan complicates things for the White House somewhat, but the thinking here among administration officials is that if the United States decides that military action is necessary, it already has the authority under previous resolutions to move forward. At that point, those U.S. allies have a critical decision to make whether or not they'll get onboard -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux, at the snowy North Lawn of the White House. Thank you very much.

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




Officials>


Aired February 9, 2003 - 08:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More now on the hour's top story, the showdown with Iraq. The U.N. senior weapons inspectors report, they're getting some answers from Iraqi officials in Baghdad, but there's a growing crack in the Security Council, support for a war to disarm Saddam Hussein. We are covering all the bases. We have Richard Roth in Cyprus, Nic Robertson in Baghdad, Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. We'll begin in Larnaca, Cyprus where our chief U.N. correspondent Richard Roth is covering the story of the U.N. weapons inspectors' trip -- Richard.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Miles, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, the leading international arms inspectors, will pass through here, Cyprus, tomorrow morning on their way to New York and Vienna, respectively. And now it looks like some of the countries based in Europe want to back their inspection efforts with more numbers and even perhaps United Nations peacekeeping troops.

Germany and France are working on a plan to present to the U.N. Security Council, perhaps in a few days, maybe in a week or so, an idea to send peacekeepers in.

Of course, this is far from a done deal. The U.S. is likely not to be jumping for joy over this proposal. The U.S. was expressing a renewed interest in a second Security Council resolution. President Bush had said so a few days ago, but this was really to get authorization perhaps for military force, not to send in U.N. peacekeepers. That's not exactly a fit fighting force, more to keep the peace between two sides that already agreed on. And months ago, the inspectors were not happy about any type of armed force when that was circulated by the U.S. in an earlier draft resolution.

Hans Blix says inspectors backed by troops with guns would only unnecessarily complicate the situation and perhaps put the inspectors at risk. Nevertheless, Russian Defense Minister Igor Ivanov is signing on to this type of idea, as long as it passes through the U.N. Security Council. So a divided council now appears even more divided. A lot of this frustration, a sense of wanting to do something else in the days following Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation with slides and audio intercepts, the Europeans deciding to do something of their own -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Richard, it sort of seems as if the Russians are grasping at straws here. Am I right?

ROTH: Well, they'll sign on to anything that would in their view move away from the military option, and it's up to the U.S. to try to woo them back and try to do whatever they can to stop Germany and France from building up support so that Washington can get enough votes to back a resolution that would give them the power to wage war if Saddam Hussein doesn't comply on weapons of mass destruction handover or information.

O'BRIEN: Richard Roth, Larnaca, Cyprus. Thanks very much -- Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to Baghdad now. Our Nic Robertson has the very latest on the details of the date to talks, crucial talks, that is, with the U.N. chief weapons inspectors. Good morning to you, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. The two U.N. chief weapons inspectors here just about to sit down again for their third session of talks here. They had two hours of talks this morning, about four and a half hours of talks yesterday. This morning they were given some more documents by Iraqi officials. They'd also received documents yesterday.

Now, one U.N. official said that so far they have not done substantial analysis of the documents to know exactly what was contained, to know its relevance or its importance. But certainly the talks so far by the U.N. weapons chiefs have been characterized as useful and substantial. They say they've been covering outstanding issues.

These are the issues, the most important issues for the weapons inspectors, things that were left unresolved by the last U.N. weapons inspection program here in the 1990s, such as the accounting for VX nerve agent, the accounting for biological growth media, the accounting for chemical warheads, all things that Iraq failed to fully account for in its weapons declaration late last year.

These are the items the U.N. weapons chiefs are looking to get transparency on. At this stage, the talks appear to be going, from what we hear from the two U.N. weapons chiefs, well, but very unclear how far they progress and what substantial ground they may have gained at this time -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Nic, is there anything that could be in those documents that would help to avert a possible war, and if so, what would they be?

ROBERTSON: Very difficult to tell at this stage. What the inspectors have been looking for is documentary evidence, or people, engineers or scientists to come forward to give evidence about what happened to -- precisely what happened to Iraq's past weapons programs.

If we take one example here, anthrax. Now, according to Iraqi officials, they never produced it in a good quality form, they said. They were never able to take it from the liquid form to the powder form. So their position is, why talk about the quantity of what we had and what we did with it if we never produced it in significant quality because they said it would have degraded and therefore it's not necessary to account for it.

Of course, the U.N. inspectors want very much to account for it. They want to know more about what quality it was produced in, about what happened to all the different products of anthrax that the Iraqi officials had in their previous weapons program.

So documentary evidence, paper evidence that might illuminate that subject. For example -- and of course, we don't know what's in these papers -- but things like that are going to be very critical for the weapons inspectors. Transparency is the word they've been applying to finding out about Iraq's past weapons programs, and of course, for Iraq to build confidence in their cooperation by such measures -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Nic Robertson. Thank you, live from Baghdad this morning.

O'BRIEN: Let's go to the White House now, where the Bush administration continues to focus on efforts to get Iraq on a fast track to disarming. Our Suzanne Malveaux joining us with the latest from there. Hello, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. This is really a critical week for the president. He'll be traveling from Camp David to a retreat in West Virginia. He's going to be meeting with Republican lawmakers, really to strategize how to push for the domestic agenda, namely the economic stimulus package, but as you know, Miles, the next couple of days what we are going to see the White House engage in really intense pressure, not only on Saddam Hussein, but also on the members of the U.N. Security Council to do one of two things, either to back a second resolution that declares Iraq is in material breach of previous resolutions that requires for him to disarm, or either for those U.S. allies to get out of the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH POLLACK, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: I think at bottom the administration is counting on the fact that the French and the Chinese and the Russians for economic and geopolitical reasons probably feel that they just can't sit out a war with Iraq. France and Russia in particular, but also to a certain extent, China have tremendous economic stakes in Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, of course, this Franco-German plan complicates things for the White House somewhat, but the thinking here among administration officials is that if the United States decides that military action is necessary, it already has the authority under previous resolutions to move forward. At that point, those U.S. allies have a critical decision to make whether or not they'll get onboard -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux, at the snowy North Lawn of the White House. Thank you very much.

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




Officials>