Andrea Koppel: Iraq's surprise offer

CNN's Andrea Koppel

(CNN) -- In the face of intensifying pressure from the United States, the United Nations and from some of his neighbors, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said Monday he will allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq for the first time in four years. CNN State Department Correspondent Andrea Koppel spoke Monday night to CNN's Connie Chung about the Iraqi announcement and what it could mean.

KOPPEL: This was really a curveball. The U.S., as you know, President Bush just gave this big speech last week in which he's trying to build international consensus within the U.N. to have a new resolution which forces the inspectors back into Iraq, gives them a set deadline, and then says, "If you don't give us unconditional access, then there's going to be the threat of force."

Now Saddam Hussein has pulled the rug out from the U.S. and is saying: "Come on in, guys. Bring the inspectors back in. No conditions." And so the Bush administration, I'm sure, is saying, "Whoa, hold on a second," because here Secretary [of State Colin] Powell's in town. He's still trying to work things with these diplomats.

CHUNG: Right. He's been meeting with the U.N. Security Council, right, trying to galvanize a consensus so that they could come up with a really tough resolution with teeth?

KOPPEL: Exactly.

CHUNG: Now what?

KOPPEL: Now what? Well, it will be interesting to see what happens, because [U.N. Secretary-General] Kofi Annan -- this was a letter that Saddam Hussein's foreign minister delivered to Kofi Annan today. That letter has now been passed throughout the Security Council.

They're going to review it tonight and presumably come back to work tomorrow. And, Connie, I've got to tell you, there are going to be a number of countries who say: "This is great. We're going to avert war. Saddam Hussein is saying he's opening the doors and saying, 'Come back in.' And they're going to want to give him a chance."

That really does pre-empt what the U.S. was trying to do, because there is not an "or else."

CHUNG: So does that mean the U.S. will pull back some of that talk of war?

KOPPEL: We'll have to see. I mean, as you know, there are some within the Bush administration who didn't even want to go to the U.N., who said: "Why do we need to go to the international community? We know Saddam Hussein is a threat. He's got this weapons of mass destruction program. The guy is trying to get nuclear weapons. He poses an imminent threat to us. Let's go. And whoever wants to join us, that's fine."

But then there were others within the administration, like Secretary Powell, who said: "Hold on a second. We've got this war on terrorism. We need the support of the international community. Just the other day, Pakistan handed over some suspects, al Qaeda suspects that they had nabbed."

CHUNG: Yes.

KOPPEL: "We need to keep the world community on board, so let's go to the U.N." President Bush decided that was the right thing to do.

CHUNG: And now...

KOPPEL: This has upset the whole equation right now.

CHUNG: All right, Andrea Koppel, thank you so much.