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CNN Saturday Morning News
Iraq: Will Ignore UN Resolutions
Aired September 21, 2002 - 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq has turned a new page in its war of words with Washington, the Iraqi news agency saying this morning, Iraq will not abide by any new or different resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, sort of preemptively rejecting resolutions which haven't even been voted on.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us from Washington with the latest on the showdown with Saddam Hussein.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Well, really no surprises. The White House said that this is really to be expected. It was just a couple days ago the president, as well as Secretary of State Colin Powell, saying that this really was a ploy, that Saddam Hussein made this offer to allow UN weapons inspectors back inside unconditionally. They say Saddam Hussein cannot be trusted.
But clearly, the White House also rejecting, saying that if UN weapons inspectors do go back inside Iraq, it is not going to be the way it was last time, it has to be unfettered access, any time, any place, or face the consequences, those consequences possibly being military action.
But the main point here this morning from the administration is really, it doesn't really matter what Saddam Hussein says or agrees to, that even if the UN resolution is not passed, that the United States is certainly willing and capable of acting alone, of going inside of Iraq, of making sure that those weapons inspectors are allowed in, that Saddam Hussein complies, of course, the policy being regime change.
So the administration really saying, Well, this is business as usual, this is what we would expect from Saddam Hussein, to hear this kind of backing away from the promises that he's made before.
Now, the president is at Camp David this weekend, this after 24 hours of really hard-core diplomacy. He made a phone call yesterday to Russia's President Vladimir Putin. They spoke for about 20 minutes. He also met with the foreign and defense ministers of Russia as well in the White House, clearly trying to make the case here that the United Nations, world leaders, must not allow these weapons inspectors to go back inside Iraq until they have this tough new United Nations resolution that would force Saddam Hussein to comply. Of course, you know, this is a tough argument for the administration. Russian officials this morning saying that they're not going for that, that they don't think a UN resolution is necessary at this time. But the administration pushing for this in the weeks to come -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux, don't go too far. Have a cup of coffee on us, because you'll be back in, as you know, about 25 minutes or so for our Reporter's Notebook segment.
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 September 21, 2002 - 09:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq has turned a new page in its war of words with Washington, the Iraqi news agency saying this morning, Iraq will not abide by any new or different resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, sort of preemptively rejecting resolutions which haven't even been voted on.
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us from Washington with the latest on the showdown with Saddam Hussein.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Well, really no surprises. The White House said that this is really to be expected. It was just a couple days ago the president, as well as Secretary of State Colin Powell, saying that this really was a ploy, that Saddam Hussein made this offer to allow UN weapons inspectors back inside unconditionally. They say Saddam Hussein cannot be trusted.
But clearly, the White House also rejecting, saying that if UN weapons inspectors do go back inside Iraq, it is not going to be the way it was last time, it has to be unfettered access, any time, any place, or face the consequences, those consequences possibly being military action.
But the main point here this morning from the administration is really, it doesn't really matter what Saddam Hussein says or agrees to, that even if the UN resolution is not passed, that the United States is certainly willing and capable of acting alone, of going inside of Iraq, of making sure that those weapons inspectors are allowed in, that Saddam Hussein complies, of course, the policy being regime change.
So the administration really saying, Well, this is business as usual, this is what we would expect from Saddam Hussein, to hear this kind of backing away from the promises that he's made before.
Now, the president is at Camp David this weekend, this after 24 hours of really hard-core diplomacy. He made a phone call yesterday to Russia's President Vladimir Putin. They spoke for about 20 minutes. He also met with the foreign and defense ministers of Russia as well in the White House, clearly trying to make the case here that the United Nations, world leaders, must not allow these weapons inspectors to go back inside Iraq until they have this tough new United Nations resolution that would force Saddam Hussein to comply. Of course, you know, this is a tough argument for the administration. Russian officials this morning saying that they're not going for that, that they don't think a UN resolution is necessary at this time. But the administration pushing for this in the weeks to come -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux, don't go too far. Have a cup of coffee on us, because you'll be back in, as you know, about 25 minutes or so for our Reporter's Notebook segment.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
