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CNN Live Sunday

White House Seeks Support to Stand Up Against Iraq

Aired September 15, 2002 - 18:13   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is seeking support from international leaders to stand firm against any stonewalling by Iraq. Secretary of State Colin Powell is optimistic the United Nations will begin drafting a resolution sometime this week. CNN's White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has the latest on that, lots of appearances on the morning talk shows, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right, President Bush's plea for Saddam Hussein to be held accountable through a new United Nations resolution is really gaining a lot of international support from European allies as well as Arab allies and Americans at home, but the question really is still what is that U.N. resolution going to look like? Is it going to satisfy the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council?

These are still things that are being debated but the White House today saying that any U.N. resolution has to have the following three things. First of all, a record of all U.N. resolutions violated by Saddam Hussein; secondly, clear requirements for Saddam to come into compliance with those resolutions, including immediate unfettered access for weapons inspectors returning to Iraq; and finally, the consequences for non-compliance, some sort of punishment carried out by the international community if Saddam causes trouble.

Now this is really going to be a tough sell for the Bush administration. The White House says it wants a resolution that lays out the criteria for Saddam but, at the same time, authorizes enforcement by the international community. There are some world leaders who do not want this U.N. resolution to deal with punishment or enforcement at all.

The other aspect is some world leaders are still asking for evidence. Saddam Hussein, why do we have to deal with him at this moment? Is he such a threat that he has to be dealt with immediately?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime is in violation of 16 resolutions and multiple conditions within those resolutions. Nobody needs any more information about that. The other thing no one needs any more information about is that he has every intention of developing and acquiring, stockpiling, and perhaps even using weapons of mass destruction. He's done it before.

What we are debating is whether or not he has got X number of VX shells or Y number of biological agents. That is a legitimate discussion to have. We will try to give the Congress and our friends all the information that we can subject to not losing sources and methods by giving out too much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, Secretary Powell says the Bush administration is going to give world leaders a couple of days to decide whether or not they're going to move forward on a U.N. Security Council resolution. They say if all goes well, they hope they'll have that resolution in their hands by the end of next week. Carol.

LIN: All right, thank you very much Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House.

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