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CNN Live Sunday
Russia, France, Germany Want More Time for U.N. Inspectors in Iraq
Aired February 09, 2003 - 17:11 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 LIN, ANCHOR: It's already playing out across Europe. In fact, three of Europe's major powers weighed in on the Iraq crisis today.
Russia, France, and Germany want more time for weapons inspections, and in the words of Russian president Vladimir Putin, "we don't see any foundation, any cause for the use of force against Iraq."
Now on the phone to wrap up today's talks between President Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is CNN's Stephanie Halasz.
Stephanie, can you tell us more about the meeting and specifically what they said about Iraq?
STEPHANIE HALASZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol Lin. Yes I can. The Russian president and the German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, held a joint press conference this evening in freezing Berlin.
There, they reiterated their hope for a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.
Really, what their notion is, they said, is give the United Nations weapons inspectors more time, more means, more personnel, make everything available to them so they can disarm the country.
Vladimir Putin said that the position of France, Germany and Russia were very similar, as was that of China and most other members in the United Nations. And Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, repeated that what was most important to him to find out whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction through the U.N. weapons inspectors. They were the right instrument for this, he said -- Carol Lin.
LIN: Stephanie, so it sounds like both of them support France's proposal to triple the number of inspectors in Iraq and give the inspectors more time.
HALASZ: Yes, it does. And of course, you know that there has been a lot of chatter about the alleged Franco-German proposal that entails several points. The story about this is that yesterday, Saturday, one of the most respected of the German weekly magazines ran a story of this Franco-German peace proposal.
There, there have been a lot of rumors about this idea, but the Germans have not come out officially and confirmed this, and the French foreign ministry flat out denied involvement in such a plan.
The idea behind it is apparently to triple the U.N. weapons inspectors in the country and to put U.N. peace keepers in Iraq, possibly even 20,000 of them, and extend the no-fly zone to the whole country.
Now of course, especially the idea of putting blue helmets there is complicated and risky and it seems that if indeed such a plan exists, it has angered the Americans even more towards Germany. Of course, Germany has said time and time again it will not take part in any military conflict against Iraq, so Washington sees this effort as counter productive to a unified strategy -- Carol Lin.
LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Stephanie Halasz, with the latest out of Berlin.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
in Iraq>
Aired February 9, 2003 - 17:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, ANCHOR: It's already playing out across Europe. In fact, three of Europe's major powers weighed in on the Iraq crisis today.
Russia, France, and Germany want more time for weapons inspections, and in the words of Russian president Vladimir Putin, "we don't see any foundation, any cause for the use of force against Iraq."
Now on the phone to wrap up today's talks between President Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is CNN's Stephanie Halasz.
Stephanie, can you tell us more about the meeting and specifically what they said about Iraq?
STEPHANIE HALASZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol Lin. Yes I can. The Russian president and the German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, held a joint press conference this evening in freezing Berlin.
There, they reiterated their hope for a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.
Really, what their notion is, they said, is give the United Nations weapons inspectors more time, more means, more personnel, make everything available to them so they can disarm the country.
Vladimir Putin said that the position of France, Germany and Russia were very similar, as was that of China and most other members in the United Nations. And Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, repeated that what was most important to him to find out whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction through the U.N. weapons inspectors. They were the right instrument for this, he said -- Carol Lin.
LIN: Stephanie, so it sounds like both of them support France's proposal to triple the number of inspectors in Iraq and give the inspectors more time.
HALASZ: Yes, it does. And of course, you know that there has been a lot of chatter about the alleged Franco-German proposal that entails several points. The story about this is that yesterday, Saturday, one of the most respected of the German weekly magazines ran a story of this Franco-German peace proposal.
There, there have been a lot of rumors about this idea, but the Germans have not come out officially and confirmed this, and the French foreign ministry flat out denied involvement in such a plan.
The idea behind it is apparently to triple the U.N. weapons inspectors in the country and to put U.N. peace keepers in Iraq, possibly even 20,000 of them, and extend the no-fly zone to the whole country.
Now of course, especially the idea of putting blue helmets there is complicated and risky and it seems that if indeed such a plan exists, it has angered the Americans even more towards Germany. Of course, Germany has said time and time again it will not take part in any military conflict against Iraq, so Washington sees this effort as counter productive to a unified strategy -- Carol Lin.
LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Stephanie Halasz, with the latest out of Berlin.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
in Iraq>
