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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Powell: U.S. to Continue Arab Diplomacy
Aired March 27, 2003 - 12:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: As America wages war in Iraq, the U.S. government is having to fight a public relations battle of sorts. U.S. officials are using the Arab media to sell the war in Iraq. But is the message being heard? CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel reports.
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ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A week into war, the Bush administration finds itself in a pitched battle for hearts and minds, not only in Iraq, but on an increasingly angry Arab street.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are here to help them and to remove oppression and to give them a better life.
KOPPEL: Secretary of State Powell's comments to the Al-Jazeera television network, just one of several back-to-back interviews Powell had with the Arab media, designed to address the region's key concerns, including a U.S. commitment to Arab-Israeli peace. But in each interview, Powell found himself on the defensive. Questioned about U.S. motives and civilian casualties.
POWELL: And we are sorry for that. We try our best not to allow that to happen. But I still believe that at the end of the war, people realize that we came to prevail peace.
KOPPEL: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also took to the Arab airways on Lebanese television. And Arab networks carried the president's speech live from McDill Air Force Base in Florida. CNN's Octavia Nasr has been closely monitoring Arab broadcasts since the war began.
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SR. ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: If you judge by the experts that the Arab stations had on following these interviews, you can immediately tell that the message was not received at all. As a matter of fact, it seems that the Arab street believes that all these are empty messages, and it seems that they want action rather than empty words.
KOPPEL (on camera): But far from throwing in the towel, Secretary Powell said the U.S. plans to continue its public diplomacy campaign to try to win over the Arab world, even as the U.S. continues to try to win the war in Iraq. Andrea Koppel, CNN, at the State Department.
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