U.N. Reaction to Iraq's Acceptance
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq's defiant letter to the United Nations includes some harsh criticism of the United States, and it calls the British prime minister, Tony Blair, a "lackey" of the U.S. It also says the biggest and most wicked slander is that the U.S. believes Iraq is developing nuclear weapons. With the latest on the reaction over at the United Nations, let's once again go live to our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth. What is going on at the U.N. today -- Richard?</s>RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, everybody is waiting for Hans Blix and Mohamed Elbaradei to go into Iraq next Monday. They have seen letters before from Iraq, and they've have had to dodge them, deal with them, write back. They are well aware of Iraqi practices regarding the diplomacy with the United Nations. Norway's ambassador -- excuse me, I'm getting a little choked up about this event after 12 years, Wolf. Norway said, look, we get a lot of letters; let's see what happens when they're on the ground. Now, the Iraqi letter yesterday, though, had some very bad tidings, if you're looking at what kind of relationship this may turn out to be. Take a look at another portion of the letter. Iraq says: "We hereby inform you that we will deal -- it doesn't say "accept" -- "we will deal with Resolution 1441, despite its bad contents" -- throw in another 4 there. "If it is to be implemented according to the premeditated evil of the parties of ill intent, the important thing in this is trying to spare our people from any harm." So, again, not an out-and-out we intend to cooperate, though the ambassador in public here at the U.N. said they would. A second portion of the letter says there's going to be another letter from Iraq. The Iraqi foreign minister says he intends "to forward another letter to you on a later date in which I shall state our observations, the measures and procedures contained in Security Council Resolution 1441" -- that was the one passed Friday, unanimously -- "that are contrary to international law, U.N. Charter, the facts already established, and the measures contained in previous relevant resolutions of the Security Council." So, what is in this letter? Will there be some more hedging? Will there be more conditions? The British, the United States, they're not just worried. They're kind of saying this is what we've been telling you. France, Russia and China were more eager to accept what Iraq said in saying they want the inspectors in. The divisions are still there. They're just waiting to re-erupt if Iraq plays its cards right regarding language and letters and cooperation on the ground -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Can anyone really imagine, Richard -- I mean, I find it hard to believe that the Iraqi government would comply if Dr. Elbaradei, for example, said we want to take the head of your nuclear program and move him over to Geneva or to Cypress or some other country and interview him, and we want his family -- his wife and kids -- to come as well. Can you imagine the Iraqi government just saying, OK, sure, go ahead?</s>ROTH: It's hard to see at the moment, and that's why they've left it in Blix's hands. I'm not so sure he's going to be that eager to do it. The weapons inspectors say they like talking in person with people, which sometimes is a bit strange considering that Iraqi minders and officials are always around. But it's going to be in Blix's hands, and for the U.S., it might be better if he tries that, because Blix has to tell the Council, and the Security Council trusts Hans Blix a little bit more than the U.S. military plans. So, if it happens, it's going to be a big step forward, but it's hard to imagine Baghdad saying, people can leave and probably never come back.</s>BLITZER: It's an amazing story that we're going to be watching, and fortunately, we have Richard Roth at the United Nations helping us learn more about this on a daily basis -- Richard, thanks very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.