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CNN Live Sunday
Iraq Calls U.S., Great Britain Liars
Aired March 09, 2003 - 18:02 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: Turning now to something much more serious, the possibility of war. Iraq is hoping a visit by the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector on March 17 would add something interesting to the mix. And Baghdad is seizing on the latest U.N. weapons report to argue they don't have nuclear weapons. Here is CNN's Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): At his weekly media briefing, General Houssam Amin, the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, the group that deals with the U.N. weapons inspectors here, said that Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had told the U.N. Security Council, effectively, that Iraq did not possess any nuclear weapons, and had no intention of developing such weapons at this time.
He also indicated that the very fact that it had now been proven that the documents that had indicated that Iraq had been trying to procure uranium, enriched uranium, the very fact that these have been proven to be false was another indication that the United States and Great Britain have been lying all along.
GEN. HOUSSAM AMIN, NATIONAL MONITORING DIRECTORATE: Mr. ElBaradei declared vehemently that the accusation of attempts to import uranium from Niger was proof that it was based on forgery (UNINTELLIGIBLE) provided by British intelligence service, which proves the consequences that as the result of that that the Blair report and the CIA reports were just also lies and baseless.
ROBERTSON: Iraqi officials also say they believe their position that they have no nuclear weapons has been vindicated as well by Mohamed ElBaradei's speech at the U.N. Security Council, because they say it shows that they were only importing the aluminum tubing to re- or back engineer some missile components, that these had nothing to do with centrifuges and uranium enrichment. And they say the same thing about the magnets, the magnets that it had been suspected could be part of a uranium enrichment process. They say the very fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency does not believe these have any connection with a nuclear weapons program show that Iraq has not been lying and that it is only the United States and Great Britain that have been lying about Iraq's intentions all along.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 9, 2003 - 18:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to something much more serious, the possibility of war. Iraq is hoping a visit by the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector on March 17 would add something interesting to the mix. And Baghdad is seizing on the latest U.N. weapons report to argue they don't have nuclear weapons. Here is CNN's Nic Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): At his weekly media briefing, General Houssam Amin, the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, the group that deals with the U.N. weapons inspectors here, said that Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, had told the U.N. Security Council, effectively, that Iraq did not possess any nuclear weapons, and had no intention of developing such weapons at this time.
He also indicated that the very fact that it had now been proven that the documents that had indicated that Iraq had been trying to procure uranium, enriched uranium, the very fact that these have been proven to be false was another indication that the United States and Great Britain have been lying all along.
GEN. HOUSSAM AMIN, NATIONAL MONITORING DIRECTORATE: Mr. ElBaradei declared vehemently that the accusation of attempts to import uranium from Niger was proof that it was based on forgery (UNINTELLIGIBLE) provided by British intelligence service, which proves the consequences that as the result of that that the Blair report and the CIA reports were just also lies and baseless.
ROBERTSON: Iraqi officials also say they believe their position that they have no nuclear weapons has been vindicated as well by Mohamed ElBaradei's speech at the U.N. Security Council, because they say it shows that they were only importing the aluminum tubing to re- or back engineer some missile components, that these had nothing to do with centrifuges and uranium enrichment. And they say the same thing about the magnets, the magnets that it had been suspected could be part of a uranium enrichment process. They say the very fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency does not believe these have any connection with a nuclear weapons program show that Iraq has not been lying and that it is only the United States and Great Britain that have been lying about Iraq's intentions all along.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
