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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou
Aired March 01, 2003 - 09:10 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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Heidi, President Bush has often said that time is running out for Iraq to comply with the Security Council resolution. Now, in a "USA Today" interview, Mr. Bush strongly suggests war may be unavoidable. He says, and I quote, "My attitude about Saddam Hussein is that if he had any intention of disarming, he would have disarmed. We will disarm him now," Mr. Bush said.
Well, there is new pressure on Iraq today from its neighbors. President of the United Arab Emirates, as Richard Roth just mentioned, is now calling on Saddam Hussein to step down. The proposal was made at an Arab summit in Egypt.
And CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us from that summit in Sharm el-Sheikh -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, and that proposal by the United Arab Emirates is causing quite a stir here. It is the first formal proposal by any Arab country, put down in writing before the Arab leaders here, suggesting that Saddam Hussein should leave, leave the town, leave, surrender power, get immunity, and allow Iraq to be administered by the Arab League.
So far, it's causing, as I say, quite a stir. But also what's happening here is that the Arab leaders are expected to come out with a tough-worded declaration that calls very strongly on Saddam Hussein to do a lot more and do it much quicker in order to avert war. So far, in many of the opening speeches we've heard, it hasn't been such a clear message.
The clearest and the strongest message urging the Arab leaders to tell that to Saddam Hussein came from the foreign minister of Greece. He is here joining us now. Greece holds the chairmanship, the presidency, of the European Union.
Foreign Minister Papandreou, you basically told the Arab leaders they needed to send a much stronger message to Saddam Hussein.
GEORGE PAPANDREOU, GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, I did. And I am convinced that this is the only way that we might have a peaceful resolution to this problem, of this crisis.
Let's assume that they do take an initiative, and this would mean that it is possible they may convince, in the end, Saddam Hussein to really cooperate with the United Nations. And this would mean full disarmament, full compliance.
AMANPOUR: Now, we just heard on CNN a couple of moments ago that President Bush has given an interview to "USA Today" and is being interpreted as, war is inevitable, perhaps, and that the U.S. now, we will disarm Iraq.
But you addressed this summit, saying that you also had spoken to senior U.S. officials. You had asked them, Is war avoidable, and what would it take to avoid war? What did they tell you?
PAPANDREOU: Well, I felt that there was great skepticism in Washington that there would be any real cooperation with Saddam Hussein, or that they felt that the cooperation that they have seen up to now was really worth writing home about.
I think what -- however, they did not exclude is that there may be a change of mind at the last moment. And that if there really is this compliance, that, therefore, that might change the tide, and one could say, then, Yes, we have a success, a diplomatic one, a peaceful one.
Obviously a unanimous vote with the U.N. supported by a credible threat of force, but in the end, we don't have to go to war in order to get the disarmament of Iraq.
So I think there is this one small window of opportunity. And what we are doing as the European Union presidency, we have a mandate to look for all, even the smallest of possibilities, for a possible peaceful resolution before force is used. We don't exclude the force in the European Union, but we have said, Let us examine, let us search out all avenues to a possible peaceful resolution.
And as you know, there are different views in the European Union on how we move forward, some saying, Give more time, some saying, Time is running out. But all do want to see if we can get a peaceful resolution, a full compliance, that this would be the preferable solution, of course.
AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister, thank you very much indeed for joining us.
PAPANDREOU: OK.
AMANPOUR: And as I say, this summit is continuing for several more hours, and then there will be a final declaration. And, of course, we will have that. It is expected to call on Iraq to do more and to do it quickly in terms of cooperating, but also to call on the United States and Britain and other countries, which prefer the potential option of military action, if that's necessary, for them to work through the United Nations.
Back to you in Atlanta.
COOPER: All right. Christiane, thanks 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
Aired March 1, 2003 - 09:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Heidi, President Bush has often said that time is running out for Iraq to comply with the Security Council resolution. Now, in a "USA Today" interview, Mr. Bush strongly suggests war may be unavoidable. He says, and I quote, "My attitude about Saddam Hussein is that if he had any intention of disarming, he would have disarmed. We will disarm him now," Mr. Bush said.
Well, there is new pressure on Iraq today from its neighbors. President of the United Arab Emirates, as Richard Roth just mentioned, is now calling on Saddam Hussein to step down. The proposal was made at an Arab summit in Egypt.
And CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us from that summit in Sharm el-Sheikh -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, and that proposal by the United Arab Emirates is causing quite a stir here. It is the first formal proposal by any Arab country, put down in writing before the Arab leaders here, suggesting that Saddam Hussein should leave, leave the town, leave, surrender power, get immunity, and allow Iraq to be administered by the Arab League.
So far, it's causing, as I say, quite a stir. But also what's happening here is that the Arab leaders are expected to come out with a tough-worded declaration that calls very strongly on Saddam Hussein to do a lot more and do it much quicker in order to avert war. So far, in many of the opening speeches we've heard, it hasn't been such a clear message.
The clearest and the strongest message urging the Arab leaders to tell that to Saddam Hussein came from the foreign minister of Greece. He is here joining us now. Greece holds the chairmanship, the presidency, of the European Union.
Foreign Minister Papandreou, you basically told the Arab leaders they needed to send a much stronger message to Saddam Hussein.
GEORGE PAPANDREOU, GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, I did. And I am convinced that this is the only way that we might have a peaceful resolution to this problem, of this crisis.
Let's assume that they do take an initiative, and this would mean that it is possible they may convince, in the end, Saddam Hussein to really cooperate with the United Nations. And this would mean full disarmament, full compliance.
AMANPOUR: Now, we just heard on CNN a couple of moments ago that President Bush has given an interview to "USA Today" and is being interpreted as, war is inevitable, perhaps, and that the U.S. now, we will disarm Iraq.
But you addressed this summit, saying that you also had spoken to senior U.S. officials. You had asked them, Is war avoidable, and what would it take to avoid war? What did they tell you?
PAPANDREOU: Well, I felt that there was great skepticism in Washington that there would be any real cooperation with Saddam Hussein, or that they felt that the cooperation that they have seen up to now was really worth writing home about.
I think what -- however, they did not exclude is that there may be a change of mind at the last moment. And that if there really is this compliance, that, therefore, that might change the tide, and one could say, then, Yes, we have a success, a diplomatic one, a peaceful one.
Obviously a unanimous vote with the U.N. supported by a credible threat of force, but in the end, we don't have to go to war in order to get the disarmament of Iraq.
So I think there is this one small window of opportunity. And what we are doing as the European Union presidency, we have a mandate to look for all, even the smallest of possibilities, for a possible peaceful resolution before force is used. We don't exclude the force in the European Union, but we have said, Let us examine, let us search out all avenues to a possible peaceful resolution.
And as you know, there are different views in the European Union on how we move forward, some saying, Give more time, some saying, Time is running out. But all do want to see if we can get a peaceful resolution, a full compliance, that this would be the preferable solution, of course.
AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister, thank you very much indeed for joining us.
PAPANDREOU: OK.
AMANPOUR: And as I say, this summit is continuing for several more hours, and then there will be a final declaration. And, of course, we will have that. It is expected to call on Iraq to do more and to do it quickly in terms of cooperating, but also to call on the United States and Britain and other countries, which prefer the potential option of military action, if that's necessary, for them to work through the United Nations.
Back to you in Atlanta.
COOPER: All right. Christiane, thanks 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
