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CNN Saturday Morning News
War Opponents' Summit
Aired April 12, 2003 - 05:09 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You could call it the coalition of the unwilling, the leaders of France, Germany and Russia who opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Now those leaders are talking about a post- war Iraq.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is covering their summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Good morning -- Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.
Actually, we're monitoring it here, just to set the record straight, from Moscow. It is about to wrap up today, this two-day summit, the leaders of France, Germany and Russia, as you pointed out, the ones who opposed the war. And now what they are trying to do is paint their vision of what the post-war scenario in Iraq should be like.
There -- if there is one theme that emerges, of course, it's that they believe that the United Nations should play the key role in the post-war scenario in Iraq, which, of course, puts it in opposition to what the United States believes, which is that the coalition, which as Colin Powell said shed all the blood, should be the one that has the leading role.
We just heard -- or got some quotes from Jacques Chirac, the French president, who said that, "Today, we decide what the future world will look like." And he asks, "Will one country impose its will on others, or will it be a multi-polar world?"
And he also said that, in his belief at least, eliminating the Saddam Hussein regime was good, but it could have been done in a different fashion. He would argue, without war.
And that's pretty much the opinion of all of the people who are at this summit.
President Putin, Vladimir Putin of Russia, said that it was good that a "tyrannical regime," as he put it, is now gone. But he said that military action is not the right approach.
Here's how he explained his thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (through translator): If we want to treat the world according to just one model, then we have to do that in the majority of countries, and a minimum of 80 percent of the countries around the world would be affected by such changes. In many cases, we would come across the same situation as we now see in Iraq. We are risking getting involved in a series of military conflicts, and that is dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So this summit wraps up today, as I said. And although you're hearing a lot of kind of theoretical talk, behind that theoretical talk, Carol, is really a lot of very concrete economic factors at work, because Russia certainly, and the other countries, have economic interests in Iraq, and they feel that if they are not allowed into this reconstruction after the war that they will lose out a lot.
So Russia has made it clear from the beginning that it wants to try to get a piece of the action and will push for that legally. The question is, of course, they are not controlling things in Iraq; the United States and the coalition are -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And there are many hard feelings still between them. Thank you, Jill Dougherty reporting live from Moscow.
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 April 12, 2003 - 05:09 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You could call it the coalition of the unwilling, the leaders of France, Germany and Russia who opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Now those leaders are talking about a post- war Iraq.
CNN's Jill Dougherty is covering their summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Good morning -- Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.
Actually, we're monitoring it here, just to set the record straight, from Moscow. It is about to wrap up today, this two-day summit, the leaders of France, Germany and Russia, as you pointed out, the ones who opposed the war. And now what they are trying to do is paint their vision of what the post-war scenario in Iraq should be like.
There -- if there is one theme that emerges, of course, it's that they believe that the United Nations should play the key role in the post-war scenario in Iraq, which, of course, puts it in opposition to what the United States believes, which is that the coalition, which as Colin Powell said shed all the blood, should be the one that has the leading role.
We just heard -- or got some quotes from Jacques Chirac, the French president, who said that, "Today, we decide what the future world will look like." And he asks, "Will one country impose its will on others, or will it be a multi-polar world?"
And he also said that, in his belief at least, eliminating the Saddam Hussein regime was good, but it could have been done in a different fashion. He would argue, without war.
And that's pretty much the opinion of all of the people who are at this summit.
President Putin, Vladimir Putin of Russia, said that it was good that a "tyrannical regime," as he put it, is now gone. But he said that military action is not the right approach.
Here's how he explained his thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (through translator): If we want to treat the world according to just one model, then we have to do that in the majority of countries, and a minimum of 80 percent of the countries around the world would be affected by such changes. In many cases, we would come across the same situation as we now see in Iraq. We are risking getting involved in a series of military conflicts, and that is dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOUGHERTY: So this summit wraps up today, as I said. And although you're hearing a lot of kind of theoretical talk, behind that theoretical talk, Carol, is really a lot of very concrete economic factors at work, because Russia certainly, and the other countries, have economic interests in Iraq, and they feel that if they are not allowed into this reconstruction after the war that they will lose out a lot.
So Russia has made it clear from the beginning that it wants to try to get a piece of the action and will push for that legally. The question is, of course, they are not controlling things in Iraq; the United States and the coalition are -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And there are many hard feelings still between them. Thank you, Jill Dougherty reporting live from Moscow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
