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CNN Live At Daybreak
Iran Earthquake Aftermath
Aired January 07, 2004 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Iran earthquake aftermath is still a huge international story.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is back, and he's here with some of the latest developments from Bam -- good morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol.
Well, I missed a lot while I was away in Europe. And the Iranian earthquake was certainly one of the biggest stories that took place. And I had a story prepared for this morning which I hoped was going to be an optimistic one.
The Red Cross officials in Iran were telling us they were searching urgently for a way to evacuate a young 2-year-old boy who's suffering from leukemia there in Bam, and they had no hospital facilities for him. They were desperately trying to get him out to at least Tehran, perhaps even to the West, for urgent treatment for cancer. Unfortunately, just as we were preparing to come on air we got an update from the Red Cross that he died in Bam last night.
Now, the story there is that there really were no hospitals in Bam where children could get proper treatment for leukemia or lymphoma. In fact, that's the point, they didn't even actually know which he had because he had not been properly diagnosed in the first place.
So one of the stories about Bam, where this earthquake happened, is that the Iranians are very sensitive about the fact that they did not have facilities there to properly treat people, even before this earthquake happened, and they certainly don't now.
They did get some help from the U.S., obviously, immediately in the form of food and medical aid for the earthquake survivors. And, interestingly, on the political side, the president of Iran, you know, the foe, the evil axis Iran, was somewhat complimentary of the U.S. offer of aid yesterday, although they refused some further follow-up aid that the United States offered. He did say, however, that the Iranian suspicion, he described it, suspicion of the U.S., would not go away until there were much more concrete changes in U.S. policy towards Iran.
COSTELLO: I don't know when you -- I mean I've read several articles and I've read quotes from the populists there and one quote stuck with me. You know, Iranians have been saying they hate Americans all this time and yet in the hour of need, the Americans were there. And that really struck a chord with some Iranians. CLINCH: It did. And I think the president was acknowledging that when he was asked about that yesterday. He did acknowledge that they were very grateful for the U.S. aid. But he obviously making a distinction on the political side that it will take a lot more than that to get relations between the U.S. and Iran going again.
Now another story that obviously was not only going on while I was gone, but I was in it in Europe, was security at airports and on airlines all over the world. And in particular, we got an update this morning on one story we've been following, that Air France flight that was postponed again and then again and again, leaving Paris to go to the U.S.
We have been reporting now for a couple of days on U.S. sources that they were searching for -- authorities are searching for one individual who did not turn up for that flight, repeatedly did not turn up when it was rescheduled again and again.
French officials now saying in public for the first time, confirming that they are searching for an individual, but not giving us any details of who they believe that person is or the affiliation...
COSTELLO: But this person supposedly is a trained pilot.
CLINCH: Well, yes, again...
COSTELLO: And do we know if that guy was supposed to fly that plane?
CLINCH: Well, as I understand it, the U.S. officials are telling us that the person they're looking for fits the profile of somebody who is on their watch list. And that person, who is on their watch list, they think is a trained pilot with al Qaeda affiliations. Neither the French nor the U.S. officials are prepared to say for sure that that is the person who is missing. But obviously he is missing and French officials confirming they are still looking for him today.
French media have some more details, which we won't go into now, of who they think this person is. We're going to wait until we get confirmation from U.S. and French officials before we get into those specifics. But obviously terrorism and security alerts still a very big issue, both in Europe, and, of course, here.
COSTELLO: You're not kidding.
Thank you, David.
CLINCH: All right.
I'll be back at six. Princess Diana. Can't get enough of that. A little bit more of an update on that from yesterday's inquest.
COSTELLO: Some amazing stuff coming out of that story.
CLINCH: Yes. COSTELLO: Thank you, David.
CLINCH: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 7, 2004 - 05:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Iran earthquake aftermath is still a huge international story.
Our senior international editor, David Clinch, is back, and he's here with some of the latest developments from Bam -- good morning.
DAVID CLINCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL EDITOR: Yes, Carol.
Well, I missed a lot while I was away in Europe. And the Iranian earthquake was certainly one of the biggest stories that took place. And I had a story prepared for this morning which I hoped was going to be an optimistic one.
The Red Cross officials in Iran were telling us they were searching urgently for a way to evacuate a young 2-year-old boy who's suffering from leukemia there in Bam, and they had no hospital facilities for him. They were desperately trying to get him out to at least Tehran, perhaps even to the West, for urgent treatment for cancer. Unfortunately, just as we were preparing to come on air we got an update from the Red Cross that he died in Bam last night.
Now, the story there is that there really were no hospitals in Bam where children could get proper treatment for leukemia or lymphoma. In fact, that's the point, they didn't even actually know which he had because he had not been properly diagnosed in the first place.
So one of the stories about Bam, where this earthquake happened, is that the Iranians are very sensitive about the fact that they did not have facilities there to properly treat people, even before this earthquake happened, and they certainly don't now.
They did get some help from the U.S., obviously, immediately in the form of food and medical aid for the earthquake survivors. And, interestingly, on the political side, the president of Iran, you know, the foe, the evil axis Iran, was somewhat complimentary of the U.S. offer of aid yesterday, although they refused some further follow-up aid that the United States offered. He did say, however, that the Iranian suspicion, he described it, suspicion of the U.S., would not go away until there were much more concrete changes in U.S. policy towards Iran.
COSTELLO: I don't know when you -- I mean I've read several articles and I've read quotes from the populists there and one quote stuck with me. You know, Iranians have been saying they hate Americans all this time and yet in the hour of need, the Americans were there. And that really struck a chord with some Iranians. CLINCH: It did. And I think the president was acknowledging that when he was asked about that yesterday. He did acknowledge that they were very grateful for the U.S. aid. But he obviously making a distinction on the political side that it will take a lot more than that to get relations between the U.S. and Iran going again.
Now another story that obviously was not only going on while I was gone, but I was in it in Europe, was security at airports and on airlines all over the world. And in particular, we got an update this morning on one story we've been following, that Air France flight that was postponed again and then again and again, leaving Paris to go to the U.S.
We have been reporting now for a couple of days on U.S. sources that they were searching for -- authorities are searching for one individual who did not turn up for that flight, repeatedly did not turn up when it was rescheduled again and again.
French officials now saying in public for the first time, confirming that they are searching for an individual, but not giving us any details of who they believe that person is or the affiliation...
COSTELLO: But this person supposedly is a trained pilot.
CLINCH: Well, yes, again...
COSTELLO: And do we know if that guy was supposed to fly that plane?
CLINCH: Well, as I understand it, the U.S. officials are telling us that the person they're looking for fits the profile of somebody who is on their watch list. And that person, who is on their watch list, they think is a trained pilot with al Qaeda affiliations. Neither the French nor the U.S. officials are prepared to say for sure that that is the person who is missing. But obviously he is missing and French officials confirming they are still looking for him today.
French media have some more details, which we won't go into now, of who they think this person is. We're going to wait until we get confirmation from U.S. and French officials before we get into those specifics. But obviously terrorism and security alerts still a very big issue, both in Europe, and, of course, here.
COSTELLO: You're not kidding.
Thank you, David.
CLINCH: All right.
I'll be back at six. Princess Diana. Can't get enough of that. A little bit more of an update on that from yesterday's inquest.
COSTELLO: Some amazing stuff coming out of that story.
CLINCH: Yes. COSTELLO: Thank you, David.
CLINCH: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
