|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jane Arraf: Baghdad blasts resolution effort
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Bush administration's call for a regime change in Iraq took a new twist when White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, responded to a reporter's question about a White House reaction if someone were to assassinate Saddam Hussein. Fleischer replied, "Regime change is welcome in whatever form that it takes." Wednesday morning, CNN Baghdad bureau chief, Jane Arraf, talked to CNN anchor Carol Costello about Iraqi officials blasting U.S. efforts to get a new and stronger U.N. resolution. COSTELLO: ... Jane, before we get to that, is there any reaction out of Iraq to Ari Fleischer's comments? ARRAF: No immediate reaction yet, but as you can imagine, it takes quite a while for a reaction to filter down from the palace, which is the only reaction that really counts. But it's not a surprise to the Iraqi government that the American administration wants to see Saddam Hussein dead. The point being, though, that Saddam Hussein does have a lot of enemies, and if someone were actually to assassinate him, would they be able to, it probably would have happened before this... COSTELLO: And, Jane, I read our viewers a bit of the U.S. resolution concerning weapons inspectors to Iraq, and one part of it says: "Immediate and unrestricted access to presidential palaces." Now, Hans Blix negotiated a resolution, but does not include that, and, of course, that still remains the major sticking point. Could that change from Baghdad's perspective? ARRAF: It really doesn't look very likely. What he has been hearing from everyone -- from officials, from unofficial sources -- is this is really the bottom line; that Iraq has really gone a long way to saying that it wants these inspectors back. In fact, according to the agreement reached in Vienna, they are opening up almost all of their sites with no notice. These were disputed sites that were deemed sensitive sites before. That leaves the palaces. And in Ankara earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz made clear that ... Iraq was going to take a stand [on the issue]; that it would not comply with any new plans to get into those palaces with no notice. Now, the reason Iraq says it's unacceptable if there is a procedure already in place that was agreed to with the U.N. and it says, if you want to inspect palaces, you have to give Iraq notice and actually have people going along with those weapons inspectors -- people such as diplomats. Also, today, we have just received a copy of Iraq's official response to the British dossier detailing why Britain believes, along with the U.S., that Iraq is a threat. Now, this is a 29-page document that goes into great detail, trying to refute all of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's allegations almost point-by-point. For instance, they say, allegations that they're importing tubes for use in a possible nuclear program are "ridiculous," and they give technical reasons why it's ridiculous. So again, part of the Iraqi campaign [is] to convince its allies and the rest of the world that it's really the victim of an American and British campaign to not only get these weapons inspectors in and let them roam around wherever they want, but to actually get rid of Saddam Hussein.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
