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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Iraq Reaction to U.S. Decision to Halt U-2 Flights
Aired March 11, 2003 - 12:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Our Nic Robertson is standing by. He's getting some reaction from Iraqi officials on this U.S. decision to suspend those U.N./U.S. surveillance flights, those U-2 flights over Iraq.
Nic, what are you hearing?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Iraqi officials, Wolf, are saying this was a mistake by the U.N. What Iraqi officials say happened this morning, at 9:40 Iraqi time, they say they noticed a U-2 high surveillance aircraft flying into Iraqi airspace about 20,000 meters, about 60,000 feet. They realized this was the high-altitude surveillance aircraft. They say that U.N. officials have given them their standard 72-hours warning that an aircraft would be coming, and Iraqi officials say they tracked this aircraft flying into Iraqi airspace from Kuwait into Iraq. They say it flew down into southern Iraq, then towards central Iraq.
Then they say about 20 minutes later, at 10:00 a.m., they noticed another high altitude U-2 aircraft flying into Iraqi airspace from the Saudi border, from Saudi Arabia into Kuwait. At that moment, Iraqi officials say they contacted the U.N. in Baghdad on their hotline and asked them what was happening. Because according to Iraqi officials, they had only received notification that one aircraft was flying into their airspace, and that that aircraft would fly into Iraq from the Kuwait over the Kuwaiti border. So then the U.N. official said he would call New York and come back to the Iraqis with clarification.
According to Iraqi officials, about 10 or 15 minutes later, the U.N. official in Baghdad called back to his Iraqi counterpart, informing him, saying that the U.N. Had made a mistake, that the aircraft that had flown in was a mistake, the one that had flown in over the Saudi Border was a mistake, and that according to Iraqi officials, the two aircraft turned around and left Iraq around about 11:00 a.m.
Now, the Iraqi officials we've talked to here, General Hossam Amin, who is the head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, who deals on a day-to-day basis with the U.N., who spoke on the hotline with the U.N. official in question, said that the U.N. apologized to Iraq for what he said for the U.N. making a mistake flying two aircraft instead of one, flying from over the Saudi Arabia border into Iraq, rather than what the Iraqi officials said the U.N. had declared one aircraft coming from Kuwait -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Nic Robertson with a confusing situation. We're getting Iraqi reaction, obviously, from Nic. Thank you very much, Nic, for that information.
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