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CNN Saturday Morning News
President Bush Hosts Spanish Prime Minister
Aired February 22, 2003 - 09:14 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.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is doing some coalition building this weekend. He's conferring with one of his strongest European allies today at his Texas ranch.
And CNN's Chris Burns is following that story from Crawford. Chris, good morning.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jonathan.
After days of very miserable cold, rainy weather here in Texas, a very beautiful day for lunch. But a power lunch it is between President Bush and Jose Maria Aznar, the prime minister of Spain. He is member of Bush's coalition of the willing in support of the U.S. effort to pressure Iraq.
However, he is a badly wounded member of the coalition of the willing. His polls back in Spain show, the latest ones show, 85 percent of the population indicating that they are against any conflict against Iraq. So he's very much up against public opposition at home.
However, that is why he is very much in need of the second U.N. Security Council resolution that the U.S. would like to push through. They will be talking about that. Why is Spain so important for that? It is because Spain is one of the members on the Security Council right now, and it is one of three Latino countries on the Security Council. President Bush hoping that Aznar can lobby Chile and Mexico on this as well.
At the same time, there is a real drama going on with Turkey as well. The U.S. is hoping that it can reach agreement with the Turkish government on stationing 40,000 U.S. troops there to open up a second front against Iraq in the case of war. That agreement is pensioned on an agreement, a financial agreement, some $20 billion in loan guarantees and $6 billion in aid.
Could it be more? Well, the talks are continuing. However, the talks seem to be improving. The Turks are saying that they're seeing broad agreement, but they still need some agreement. There is going to be -- there is some comment from Ari Fleischer, a couple days ago he talked about it coming down to crunch time. He's sounding a lot more positive in last -- in his last statements.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is America's commitment, not just the executive branch's commitment to Turkey, and the legislature must and is involved -- must be and is involved. And this is a sign of how much America values our relationship with Turkey, how seriously we take that relationship with Turkey. And we will continue to talk with Turkey and see where this ultimately ends up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: But the parliament, Turkish parliament is going to have to approve this, so very important to see how that plays out, Jonathan.
KARL: All right, Chris Burns doing duty at the Western White House there in Crawford, Texas. Thanks a lot.
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 February 22, 2003 - 09:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is doing some coalition building this weekend. He's conferring with one of his strongest European allies today at his Texas ranch.
And CNN's Chris Burns is following that story from Crawford. Chris, good morning.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jonathan.
After days of very miserable cold, rainy weather here in Texas, a very beautiful day for lunch. But a power lunch it is between President Bush and Jose Maria Aznar, the prime minister of Spain. He is member of Bush's coalition of the willing in support of the U.S. effort to pressure Iraq.
However, he is a badly wounded member of the coalition of the willing. His polls back in Spain show, the latest ones show, 85 percent of the population indicating that they are against any conflict against Iraq. So he's very much up against public opposition at home.
However, that is why he is very much in need of the second U.N. Security Council resolution that the U.S. would like to push through. They will be talking about that. Why is Spain so important for that? It is because Spain is one of the members on the Security Council right now, and it is one of three Latino countries on the Security Council. President Bush hoping that Aznar can lobby Chile and Mexico on this as well.
At the same time, there is a real drama going on with Turkey as well. The U.S. is hoping that it can reach agreement with the Turkish government on stationing 40,000 U.S. troops there to open up a second front against Iraq in the case of war. That agreement is pensioned on an agreement, a financial agreement, some $20 billion in loan guarantees and $6 billion in aid.
Could it be more? Well, the talks are continuing. However, the talks seem to be improving. The Turks are saying that they're seeing broad agreement, but they still need some agreement. There is going to be -- there is some comment from Ari Fleischer, a couple days ago he talked about it coming down to crunch time. He's sounding a lot more positive in last -- in his last statements.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is America's commitment, not just the executive branch's commitment to Turkey, and the legislature must and is involved -- must be and is involved. And this is a sign of how much America values our relationship with Turkey, how seriously we take that relationship with Turkey. And we will continue to talk with Turkey and see where this ultimately ends up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: But the parliament, Turkish parliament is going to have to approve this, so very important to see how that plays out, Jonathan.
KARL: All right, Chris Burns doing duty at the Western White House there in Crawford, Texas. Thanks a lot.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
