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Cohen Weighs in on Iraqi, Ukrainian Elections

Aired November 23, 2004 - 12:13   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.


ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: That was U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaking at the conclusion of the international conference on the future of postwar Iraq. Joining us now to talk about the conference and some of the other stories making news is William Cohen, former U.S. secretary of defense. Good to have you here.
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Good to be here, Zain.

VERJEE: And see you in Atlanta. On the sidelines of the conference on Iraq's future there was an important meeting by the quartet talking about some of the ways to move forward. What do you think needs to be done to give an impetus to the roadmap, to the Israeli-Palestinian .

COHEN: Well, first of all, Israel promising to move out of the Gaza is going to be very important on that unilateral step, but the most important thing to follow-up is to now provide the Palestinians with some hope that there is going to be some progress made in terms of their economic opportunity. And that means a substantial amount of infusion of capital going into Gaza to show the Palestinians that this is the way forward, not in launching attacks against the Israelis but rather an economic development that will provide a bright future for them and their children.

Secondly, to provide security. This will require, I think, good participation on the part of a number of countries, Egypt in particular, but maybe even a NATO force that would provide some measure of security so that the economic reconstruction can go forward and then to see if that goes forward and the violence starts to cease, it would certainly be minimized, then you'd have to look to see whether the Israelis will follow through with a multi-step process, not simply pulling out of Gaza but them looking at what they can do with settlements on the West Bank because that's going to be key to implementing the president's roadmap. And so right now, economic development and security will be the key factors to look to.

VERJEE: Those are two issues that Secretary Powell brought up just a moment ago in talking about Iraq and its future. 80 percent of Iraq's debt burden has been forgiven by the Paris Club. There are military operations on the ground to try and secure the country before the election. What needs to happen between now and January 30th?

COHEN: Security and security and security. Unless there can be basically countrywide security it's going to be very difficult to hold elections with the many and multiple polling places, it will be required some thousands of polling places. A kind of security force will be required to protect them going to the polls. So again, a multinational force would be best. It's unlikely to come in the near future, so the United States and the coalition forces will have to bear the brunt of that. I suspect that we'll see a sort of stop-loss delaying the departure of some of the troops that are there now and accelerating the deployment of those who are scheduled to go in order to get the maximum number of troops there during this period between now and the elections.

VERJEE: Ukraine. A big drama playing out there. Some concern also. Vladimir Putin and other neighbors around the Ukraine have expressed their concern. Both candidates claiming victory and one of them, Viktor Yuschenko, saying the country is verging on civil conflict. Is it? Do you think that's the truth?

COHEN: Well, it appears, and I take Dick Lugar, Senator Lugar with a great deal of respect and at his word that there appears to have been less than open and fair elections. There is a fraudulent element to them. To the extent that these elections are allowed to stand, then that's going to pose, I think, significant challenges in maintaining any kind of civil discourse and so having free and open and fair elections, I think is going to be required and I think they have to go back to re-evaluate the electoral process in order to avoid any kind of confrontation between the parties.

VERJEE: What would be some of the regional consequences of instability in Ukraine?

COHEN: Well, first of all, Ukraine would become politically isolated. There certainly would be some economic consequences to remaining outside the mainstream and so the dissent within the country itself would become rather vocal and that could destabilize what remains of the economic future of the country and so there is a great deal riding on this and so I think the Ukrainian people are entitled to free and open elections and we'll have to wait and see whether they are willing to go back and re-do it.

VERJEE: Iran says it's suspending its uranium enrichment program. This deal has been made before with the Europeans. Do you think that Iran is really committed to this or that they're really just buying time so that they don't get UN sanctions slapped onto them?

COHEN: We don't know the answer to that question. A lot would depend upon their compliance in the coming months. Obviously the European Union is going to seal this particular proposal. We'll have to wait and see whether the verifications are going to be intensive enough to make sure that they comply with it but they have a heavy burden to carry given their practice of deceiving those in the West, the IAEA in particular and proceeding with this atomic energy program on a covert basis. So there is a great deal of suspicion. They'll have to overcome that. Verification will be critical.

VERJEE: Very briefly. Does the U.S. need to engage Iran?

COHEN: The U.S. does need to engage Iran and it has to do so on three conditions that have always been there. They have to stop supporting the export of terrorism. They have to give up their nuclear weapons program as such and not pose a threat to Israel, to recognize its existence. Those three conditions and we can have a very good relationship with Iran.

VERJEE: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen. Good to see you.

COHEN: Good to see you, Zain.

VERJEE: Thank you.

END

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Aired November 23, 2004 - 12:13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: That was U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaking at the conclusion of the international conference on the future of postwar Iraq. Joining us now to talk about the conference and some of the other stories making news is William Cohen, former U.S. secretary of defense. Good to have you here.
WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Good to be here, Zain.

VERJEE: And see you in Atlanta. On the sidelines of the conference on Iraq's future there was an important meeting by the quartet talking about some of the ways to move forward. What do you think needs to be done to give an impetus to the roadmap, to the Israeli-Palestinian .

COHEN: Well, first of all, Israel promising to move out of the Gaza is going to be very important on that unilateral step, but the most important thing to follow-up is to now provide the Palestinians with some hope that there is going to be some progress made in terms of their economic opportunity. And that means a substantial amount of infusion of capital going into Gaza to show the Palestinians that this is the way forward, not in launching attacks against the Israelis but rather an economic development that will provide a bright future for them and their children.

Secondly, to provide security. This will require, I think, good participation on the part of a number of countries, Egypt in particular, but maybe even a NATO force that would provide some measure of security so that the economic reconstruction can go forward and then to see if that goes forward and the violence starts to cease, it would certainly be minimized, then you'd have to look to see whether the Israelis will follow through with a multi-step process, not simply pulling out of Gaza but them looking at what they can do with settlements on the West Bank because that's going to be key to implementing the president's roadmap. And so right now, economic development and security will be the key factors to look to.

VERJEE: Those are two issues that Secretary Powell brought up just a moment ago in talking about Iraq and its future. 80 percent of Iraq's debt burden has been forgiven by the Paris Club. There are military operations on the ground to try and secure the country before the election. What needs to happen between now and January 30th?

COHEN: Security and security and security. Unless there can be basically countrywide security it's going to be very difficult to hold elections with the many and multiple polling places, it will be required some thousands of polling places. A kind of security force will be required to protect them going to the polls. So again, a multinational force would be best. It's unlikely to come in the near future, so the United States and the coalition forces will have to bear the brunt of that. I suspect that we'll see a sort of stop-loss delaying the departure of some of the troops that are there now and accelerating the deployment of those who are scheduled to go in order to get the maximum number of troops there during this period between now and the elections.

VERJEE: Ukraine. A big drama playing out there. Some concern also. Vladimir Putin and other neighbors around the Ukraine have expressed their concern. Both candidates claiming victory and one of them, Viktor Yuschenko, saying the country is verging on civil conflict. Is it? Do you think that's the truth?

COHEN: Well, it appears, and I take Dick Lugar, Senator Lugar with a great deal of respect and at his word that there appears to have been less than open and fair elections. There is a fraudulent element to them. To the extent that these elections are allowed to stand, then that's going to pose, I think, significant challenges in maintaining any kind of civil discourse and so having free and open and fair elections, I think is going to be required and I think they have to go back to re-evaluate the electoral process in order to avoid any kind of confrontation between the parties.

VERJEE: What would be some of the regional consequences of instability in Ukraine?

COHEN: Well, first of all, Ukraine would become politically isolated. There certainly would be some economic consequences to remaining outside the mainstream and so the dissent within the country itself would become rather vocal and that could destabilize what remains of the economic future of the country and so there is a great deal riding on this and so I think the Ukrainian people are entitled to free and open elections and we'll have to wait and see whether they are willing to go back and re-do it.

VERJEE: Iran says it's suspending its uranium enrichment program. This deal has been made before with the Europeans. Do you think that Iran is really committed to this or that they're really just buying time so that they don't get UN sanctions slapped onto them?

COHEN: We don't know the answer to that question. A lot would depend upon their compliance in the coming months. Obviously the European Union is going to seal this particular proposal. We'll have to wait and see whether the verifications are going to be intensive enough to make sure that they comply with it but they have a heavy burden to carry given their practice of deceiving those in the West, the IAEA in particular and proceeding with this atomic energy program on a covert basis. So there is a great deal of suspicion. They'll have to overcome that. Verification will be critical.

VERJEE: Very briefly. Does the U.S. need to engage Iran?

COHEN: The U.S. does need to engage Iran and it has to do so on three conditions that have always been there. They have to stop supporting the export of terrorism. They have to give up their nuclear weapons program as such and not pose a threat to Israel, to recognize its existence. Those three conditions and we can have a very good relationship with Iran.

VERJEE: Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen. Good to see you.

COHEN: Good to see you, Zain.

VERJEE: Thank you.

END

TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com