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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Looming Prospect of Vetoes Remains
Aired March 12, 2003 - 12:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Even before the latest compromise floated by Britain, the Bush administration persuaded some of the U.N. so-called undecided six to support an ultimatum on Iraq. There remains however the looming prospect of vetoes.
Our State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel has been keeping score on all the late-breaking developments. She's joining us now live -- Andrea.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. The Bush and Blair administrations believe that they could be just one vote away from having the nine necessary to pass the Security Council resolution obviously without a veto. The breakthrough came in the last day or so. As you know, there's been intense lobbying for those six votes, most especially focused on those three African countries, Angola, Cameroon and Guinea. The Guinean foreign minister was just here at the State Department earlier this week, meeting with Secretary Powell, while the French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin was in Africa, meeting with the three African heads of state there, now believed to be siding with the U.S.
Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf is also believed to be on the yes column. Now as for those who are not on board, there are two countries, the Latin American countries of Mexico and Chile. Those two countries, I'm told, both Bush and Blair are attempting to do whatever it takes to get them on board. That's a quote from one official I spoke with.
Another official told me, and I should actually point out as well, that there are still five countries opposed to any kind of military action against Iraq, even if it's implicit in any kind of Security Council resolution. Those countries, of course, the three permanent members, France, China, Russia, but also Syria and Germany.
Now, what is it going to take to get Chile and Mexico on board? Obviously, people talking about dollar diplomacy, trying to lobby them and whatnot. One official, Wolf, told me, that really when it comes down to it, these, all six, in fact, of these governments are looking to feel as if they had an input in the process. So that if they look at the text that existed last Friday, and then whenever we get this newly amended text, they can say, we brought the ball, moved the ball from here to there, that that will make them content and that could bring them on board. Obviously lots of negotiating, though, over the language of compromise proposals.
BLITZER: Andrea, I assume the Bush administration is looking, as is the Tony Blair government, for that moral victory, if you will, getting nine affirmative votes. But what are they doing to try to find a way if possible, even at this late moment, to avoid a veto from France, Russia or China? Is there anything, in other words, that could satisfy France and Russia, in particular, so they wouldn't cast their veto?
KOPPEL: I've asked that question over and over again, and the officials that I have spoken with, both in the U.S. and the British governments, are resigned to the fact, Wolf, that the French President Jacques Chirac has made up his mind that he is going to veto.
Now, obviously, the U.S., if there's going to be a veto, would prefer one over three. So the U.S. is continuing to work the relationships that it has with both Moscow and Beijing -- Wolf.
BLITZER: That's the key question now, is there anything left for the U.S. and Britain to do to try to avoid that veto? We'll continue to cover that.
Andrea, thanks very much for that report.
Just how far is Saddam Hussein willing to go to avert war? How far is President Bush willing to go? The British government, we now know, is willing to go to considerable lengths to get one more Iraq resolution through a bitterly divided U.N. Security Council.
CNN's Robin Oakley is standing by in London with the latest proposal put forward earlier by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair -- Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf.
With Tony Blair under massive political pressure to get that second U.N. Security Council resolution for political cover, the British are putting forward more and more concessions on their original position, in terms of trying to win over those key swing votes.
And Tony Blair started to outline to his MPs in the House of Commons today what might be the benchmarks by which Saddam Hussein could show that he was serious about disarming, and he's grouped them under the foreign office as set out since under six real headings. First of all, they are insistent that Saddam Hussein will make his scientists available for interviews outside the country, in Cyprus.
Secondly, he's got to say what he's done with his stocks of anthrax and other chemical agents or produce documentation to show that they have been destroyed.
Thirdly, he's got to say what he's doing about those drone aircraft, which Tony Blair was saying to his MPs, could be used to spray chemical or biological weapons.
Fourthly, he's got to say what he's doing with these mobile chemical laboratories trundling around Iraq.
He's also got to say, according to Tony Blair, he's got to go for destruction of all the Al Samoud-2 missiles.
And above all else, the sixth condition is that Saddam Hussein has got to go on television publicly and admit that he's been hiding his weapons up until now, and say that he will now disclose their whereabouts -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Robin, is there a sense over there in London that this new resolution, this compromised version -- we heard from the British proposal that March 17st would be the deadline. Now we hear a week later, March 24th, maybe even 10 days later, March 27th. Do you know what date will be in the final text of this resolution that could come up for a vote perhaps as early as tomorrow or Friday?
OAKLEY: No, they're not talking about dates at this stage, Wolf. They're not revealing those to the media. And it's not really surprising because this is all part of the diplomatic bartering that is still going on. What is clear is that the British are willing to go perhaps a little bit further than Washington would like in terms of extending the deadline to Saddam Hussein.
But what was also interesting about Tony Blair's remarks today was the way that he clearly singled out France for attack, saying that while everybody was trying to get this second U.N. Security Council resolution, it wasn't going to be easy, with some countries apparently willing to veto that resolution, even without seeing what was in it, and he clearly had France in mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It is complicated in getting that agreement to the United Nations when one nation is saying that whatever the circumstances, it will veto a resolution.
Now, I hope he would accept that we cannot have such a situation, and that we have to make sure that we deal with this in the terms of the resolution 1441 that we all agreed upon, including himself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OAKLEY: Tony Blair told his MPs, Wolf, that he was going flat out to get that second U.N. Security Council resolution, that all his efforts were being pushed in that direction. And you can certainly see why with the pressure that he's under -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Robin Oakley in London, thank you very much. I'm told here from officials that if that resolution is vetoed, then there won't be any new date, there won't be anything effectively standing in the way of President Bush giving the order to go forward with war plans.
Coming up, an important interview. We'll talk one on one with the Russian ambassador to the United Nations Sergey Lavrov. In just a few minutes, he'll join us live from the United Nations. Lots of important questions to ask him, including this one -- will Russia cast a veto no matter what is in that draft U.N. Security Council resolution? We've been hearing a lot about those so-called drones the Iraqis have, which the U.S. says could be used to deliver chemical weapons.
Today CNN toured a facility where the Iraqi drones are made.
For the latest on that, let's go live to CNN's Nic Robertson.
He's joining us in Baghdad -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the reason this particular drone became so contentious was that back in January, Iraq declared it as having a wingspan of 4.4 meters, about 12, 13, 14 feet. Now, when the U.N. inspectors visited that drone and measured it themselves, they discovered it had a wingspan of 25 feet.
Immediately the next day, the Iraqi officials sent off a letter to the U.N., saying their original declaration had a typo, that was the reason for the mistake. The question that is still outstanding, the U.N. inspectors have here is, does this drone, or remotely piloted vehicle as Iraqis call it, is it capable of delivering chemical and biological weapons? And is it capable of flying beyond 150 kilometers, that is about 93 miles, set by the U.N. inspectors? Iraqi officials say this aircraft is a prototype, that it is designed for carrying surveillance equipment, that it can only travel 80 miles, and even that, they say, is in a tightly controlled radius of a small circle, perhaps two or three miles wide.
The reason, they say, the radio controlled equipment won't let the aircraft go any further. So from Iraq's point of view, the efforts to show this to journalists to try and knock down any notion that this particular drone or remotely piloted vehicle contravenes any of the U.N.'s regulations. Iraq says it is not designed for carrying chemical or biological weapons. There have been some other interesting developments here today as well.
President Saddam Hussein on television with his top ministers announcing an interest rate cut for civil servants and people in the military, cutting interest rates on loans from 8 percent to 1 percent, at a time when there is so much tension in this country, at a time when many people in Iraq are fearful of war, and the leadership here wanting to make sure that everyone stands behind the leadership. This could be a very critical move that the government's taken here, to cut those interest rates -- Wolf.
All right, Nic Robertson in Baghdad, we'll stay in touch with you.
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