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Standoff With Iran; Pelosi's Syria Trip; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Says He Will Free British Troops Sailors

Aired April 04, 2007 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Heidi Collins today.

HARRIS: Watch events come in to the NEWSROOM on this Wednesday, April 4th.

Here's what's on the rundown.

WHITFIELD: Iran's president talks. British captives wait. The latest on the face-off this hour. We'll talk live with CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

HARRIS: They can't hear the bombs explode in Baghdad, but they can feel them. Hearing impaired Iraqi children and their message of hope.

WHITFIELD: And hormone replacement therapy and the heart, reassuring news this morning for women entering menopause. Dr. Sanjay Gupta live in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And at the top this morning, Iran's president lashes out at the U.S. and the U.N. over the Iraq war, and he defends his country's nuclear program. The news conference by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going on right now in Tehran. The Iranian leader again insisted his country's nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes, and he condemned the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying it was based on a lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

WHITFIELD: The news conference by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes during delicate diplomacy between Iran and Britain. They're trying to resolve the standoff over Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines.

Let's get the latest now from CNN's Jim Boulden, who joins us now from London -- Jim.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.

Yes, it did take 35 minutes for the president of Iran to get around to the current issues surrounding the debate between Britain and Iran over those 15 sailors and marines. But he did finally respond, and he had a very stark statement for the British.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Iran was saddened that Great Britain violated the territorial waters of Iran. During the Iran-Iraq War, Iran demonstrating bravery and consistency in upholding its territorial integrity and confronted any acts of aggression and will withstand any acts of aggression.

As a representative of our great nation, I want to thank our border guards who bravely protect our borders and also arrested the violators. And I grant them the bravery medal to their commander.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOULDEN: After he made that statement, he then presented medals to the commander, thanking the border guards for what he said was arresting those who had violated Iran's waters.

Now, of course the U.K. continues to say that it did not violate Iranian waters, that the 15 were in Iraqi waters. We're now 13 days into this crisis. Britain says it stands ready to send a delegation for high-level talks -- talks, not negotiations -- with Iran to get these 15 back -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And so, Jim, those talks might be encouraging? Because we're hearing from one of the security officials there in Iran who is saying that it is unlikely that these 15 marines and sailors would be put on trial, that perhaps the bilateral talks really will be the way to the end of all this.

BOULDEN: It's very clear both sides are trying to find diplomatic language, because the U.K. says it will not apologize. They need to find some sort of language that both sides save face and the 15 come home. But the foreign office here does warn us that we should not look for a quick resolution to this. That may not be just around the corner.

WHITFIELD: So, what is the difference between these talks, diplomacy/negotiations?

BOULDEN: Well, talks would involve probably Britain saying something like they would --= they would stand ready to help define the line between the Iraqi and Iranian waters and pledge not to violate that line, but certainly not go backwards and apologize for what happened 13 days ago.

WHITFIELD: Got you. All right. Jim Boulden, thanks so much for that update out of London -- Tony.

HARRIS: President Ahmadinejad says Iraq has an elected government but the "occupation forces" continue to stay.

Let's get some more insight on the comments by the Iranian leader. CNN's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, joins us live from London. And Christiane, first of all, great to see you.

Give us your impression of the speech to this point in time. What have you heard? What have you been struck by?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's one that's long on history lessons and a little short on actual prescriptions for what's going to happen in the future, both on the nuclear program and on the issue of the sailors. Yes, he has condemned -- continuing to do what the Iranian government has done, and that's condemning those British sailors for what the Iranians still claim, violating their territorial waters.

And in an act of political and public theater that I have never seen at any of these press conferences, he brought on the head of the Republican Guard there and the head of the navy and gave the head of the navy a medal of courage and bravery for "defending Iran's territorial waters" and arresting those British sailors. That was a real act of defiance and theater.

But, significantly, he has not made any demands on Britain. He has not said, we need this, we need that in order to resolve it. And pointedly, he said judgment to this will be left to the world public opinion and to the people of Britain.

Clearly, right now there are talks and conversations directly going on between the British and the head of the Supreme National Security Council there, Ali Larijani. And most analysts believe that now that Ali Larijani is the Iranian point man on this, it's possibly a good sign that it will be resolved diplomatically.

HARRIS: So, Christiane, the negotiations will begin in earnest, let's hope. And what do you see as sort of the end game in all of this, the deal that won't be discussed publicly?

AMANPOUR: Well, I think that certainly the British are sticking to their guns that they did not violate the territorial waters. The Iranians, in contrary, are sticking to their guns that they did.

So, what diplomats have been telling me, and actually what we've been reporting and other CNN correspondents even over the weekend, is that possibly a final resolution will look much like the following -- that the British will give a formal agreement that they will not violate Iranian waters, that they will not go too close to the border, that they will be very careful not to violate those waters, but it will probably fall short of a full apology. That's what certain analysts are saying right now.

The Iranian position, in the private conversations that I've had, background with some of the officials there, is that actually they say, they maintain -- you'll remember in 2004, the British were captured, a few sailors for a few days for crossing the waters. Well, they say that this has been going on a lot, once a month, they say, for the last several months. And they say that this is becoming really very much of a provocation. So, I think they were really making a point in terms of capturing these sailors, at least from their point of view.

HARRIS: Yes. And Christiane, one quick question about Iran's nuclear program. If the country, if Iran is feeling in any way isolated because of EU action, because of U.N. sanctions, did we hear any of those concerns reflected in the president's comments this morning?

AMANPOUR: No. We, in fact, heard the opposite, that actually Iran would not bend to what they call big power pressure. And there were long sort of diatribes on the U.N. Security Council saying, is the world run by just one country? Obviously, meaning the United States and their power at the U.N. Security Council.

But, you know, Iran doesn't show any signs of backing down on its nuclear program. And it continues to maintain that it's for peaceful purposes. But, yes, the sanctions have made a bit of an impact, not a massive impact, but in a country where already the economy is already very, very dicey, and people, you know, really have to work hard to make ends meet, physically having sanctions and psychologically having sanctions has not gone down well with the Iranian people.

HARRIS: CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour with us from London.

Christiane, great to see you. Thank you.

The president of Iran standing firm, honoring troops who seized British forces. International security analyst Jim Walsh will have an assessment. That is straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: And still in the general region, but a whole different type of diplomacy taking place, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heading to Saudi Arabia after a two-day stop in Syria. In Damascus, the California democrat sat down with Syrian president Bashar al- Assad. The visit drawing a strong rebuke from President Bush.

Our senior international correspondent, Brent Sadler, is in the Syrian capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Syria after holding three rounds of high-level talks with Syria's top leadership, including the president himself, Bashar al- Assad. This trip came after withering White House criticism, including rebukes from President George Bush himself, that the Pelosi delegation's visit to the Syrian capital, Damascus, was, in effect, undermining Bush policy to isolate Syria.

Now, the series of meetings included the Syrian foreign minister, Walid Muallem. One of the top agenda items, the continuing war in Iraq and ways in which Syria could help improve the conditions inside Iraq, notably by a flow, alleges the Bush administration, of foreign fighters across the porous Syrian border with Iraq. This is one of the main dividing issues between the U.S. administration and the Syrians. Also was discussed, the Arab peace initiative that was launched again last week to try to bring peace in the Middle East. Also, the issue of neighboring Lebanon, which is facing a political deadlock between forces, political forces that are backed by Syria and Iran and those that are backed by the United States and the West.

Later, at a news conference, Speaker Pelosi said that the Israelis had passed a message through her to the Syrians that the Israelis were ready for peace talks to resume with the Syrians. The Syrians responded in kind saying they, too, were willing to talk peace with Israel, providing it was based on a just solution in the region.

This is what Pelosi had to say to reporters here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Peace in the Middle East is a high priority for the American people, and indeed for people in this region and in the world. We were very pleased with the reassurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process. He was ready to engage in negotiations with peace with Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SADLER: Speaker Pelosi made no reference to the raging political debate back home in Washington that's been following her trip during her stay here in Damascus. Syrian officials told me that they were very pleased with the way the dialogue sessions went. They were also very pleased, they said, to note that after a Republican delegation came through here at the weekend, followed by this very high-profile Pelosi visit, that, in effect, the policy that's been led by President George W. Bush to isolate both Syria and Iran by shutting off all dialogue with Syria really has been proved not to work. Pelosi said continued dialogue with the Syrians should continue.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Damascus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And breaking news just in to CNN. Just moments ago, from the speech by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, we just heard moments ago that he is granting amnesty to the 15 sailors and marines taken nearly two weeks ago, two weeks ago on Friday. Moments ago, just in to CNN. During the speech by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the announcement that he is granting amnesty to the 15 sailors and marines taken nearly two weeks ago.

And who do we have on the phone with us right now? OK.

Who is on the phone with us, please?

SHIRZAD BOZORGMEHR, JOURNALIST: Shirzad Bozorgmehr, from Tehran.

HARRIS: Great to talk to you. Tony Harris with Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. And if you would, we are just getting word of this amnesty that is being granted to the 15 sailors and marines. Could you take us back just a moment or so ago and explain how it was -- how it was brought up in the context of the speech this morning?

BOZORGMEHR: He made a speech, first of all, denouncing the United States and the United Nations Security Council, but -- and also awarded a medal for bravery to the commander of the Iranian forces who captured these 15 sailors. But then said that he is pardoning all the sailors, and he said that he hopes Prime Minister Blair does not punish them for having told the truth when they get back to England.

HARRIS: Do we know -- do we have any idea -- and I know this is just breaking at this moment. Do we have any idea why this is happening, why this announcement was made this morning? Can we -- do we know whether or not negotiations over the last 24 hours might have, in fact, led to this breakthrough?

BOZORGMEHR: They may well have, because behind closed doors, negotiations have been in progress since 24 hours ago. And we were expecting something like this, but not so quickly and not so -- you know, for all of them. We were expecting just the female, Faye Turney, to be released. But apparently, they decided that all sailors would be released, and he actually used the word "pardoned" by the Iranian nation, and as I said, expressed hope that they would not be prosecuted when they get back to England for having gone on television and confessed to having made an incursion to Iranian waters.

HARRIS: OK. Shirzad, if you will stay with us for just a moment, I want everyone at home to listen to the comments from the Iranian president just moments ago when he made this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): I announce their freedom and their return to the people of Britain.

I request the government of Mr. Blair not to question these people or to place them on trial for speaking the truth. And I request Mr. Blair, rather than to increase international controversy, or the occupation of other lands, to take steps towards peace, truthfulness and justice, and to serve the people of England.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Shirzad, are you still on the line with us?

BOZORGMEHR: Yes, I am.

HARRIS: All right.

Shirzad, is there any indication at all that this -- this amnesty is being provided in exchange for the release of Iranians being held by the U.S. military in Iraq?

BOZORGMEHR: The authorities here reject that idea, but the fact that the second secretary of the Iranian embassy in Iraq who was abducted a couple of months ago was suddenly released yesterday, and also the fact that the Iranian authorities have been given permission to visit the five Iranians who are still in U.S. custody in Iraq, in a way points to the fact that there may have been some dealings behind closed doors and that they have reached an agreement.

HARRIS: So there may, in fact, be a quid pro quo, but we may never know that from any of the officials involved in the negotiations?

BOZORGMEHR: Exactly. But analysts here believe that because of -- I've got to go.

HARRIS: OK. Shirzad Bozorgmehr, a journalist in Tehran at the news conference this morning.

Thank you.

Fred, fast-breaking developments. We've been saying that over the last couple of days.

WHITFIELD: That's right. And Tony, we're now getting more translated portions of that press conference from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Let's listen in right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: When will they be released exactly?

And my second question is (INAUDIBLE) has Iran started pumping gas in to the two central centrifuges?

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): I thought I was supposed to respond to one question.

They will be free after our meeting. We'll go to the airport and will join their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right.

HARRIS: There it is.

WHITFIELD: So, a little bit more, actually, freeing these 15 British marines and sailors so that they can be reunited with their families. That's the translation coming from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just moments ago.

Our Aneesh Raman is actually in Jordan.

Aneesh, you've spent a lot of time in Tehran. And just when it was thought there was no news really coming out of this press conference, the only news, seemingly, was that the president was awarding his military team for having captured those British sailors and marines. Now we're actually hearing that, you know, he is extending the olive branch and allowing them to go home to be with their families.

Quite the surprise?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. Talk about burying the lead -- 45 minutes into this press conference, the Iranian president saying that the 15 British military personnel had been pardoned. They will be freed soon. As far as I could hear, no specific reference in terms of when they will be released.

It does come as a bit of a surprise. We do know that in the past few days the rhetoric has really toned down between Tehran and London.

Meantime, we know that in the back-channel communications, diplomatic efforts were being made to try and find some resolution to this issue. We hadn't expected perhaps this statement to come from Iran's president. We had seen over the past few days that his role has been increasingly limited, and instead the portfolio for finding a solution to this issue was left with the country's National Security Committee secretary, Ali Larijani. So, the fact that it came out of this press conference, the fact that it was buried 45 minutes into it, certainly a bit of a surprise.

We do know that Ahmadinejad was supposed to have this press conference yesterday. It was a short time before it was set to begin postponed until today. Officially, the reason was that reporters, Iranian reporters who wanted to be there, couldn't make it yesterday because of the Iranian new year. That's why they postponed it.

But given the news, given the headline that's just emerged, it could very well be that this was postponed until a deal was made. And it seems that something has been achieved in terms of the diplomatic back and forth as Iran now announces that the 15 British military personnel have been pardoned and will soon be freed -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Aneesh Raman, thanks so much, from Jordan.

HARRIS: And Fred, let's get everyone to our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, in London for us.

And Christiane, you are certainly aware of the news that is just breaking here on CNN. The president announcing that he is granting amnesty to the 15 sailors and marines taken nearly two weeks ago.

Your thoughts?

AMANPOUR: Well, Tony, this is obviously great news, but it's also a word of caution to us. There we were breaking away from this press conference and we were saying that nothing dramatic had been said yet about the hostages, when just as we broke away from our conversation, I looked down and Iranian television is flashing the banner underneath saying that these 15 are going to be released. And it looks like, according to Iranian television, they're going to be released at the end of the press conference currently under way. President Ahmadinejad saying this is a gesture to the British people.

Now, significantly, we know that there have been these bilateral negotiations between Iran and Britain over the last at least 24 hours, perhaps more. We also know that President Ahmadinejad is not expecting to get an apology from the British because he has said, "The Iranian government is sorry the British government is not brave enough to confess its mistake over entering Iranian waters." So, perhaps what we're going to see from the British is, as we mentioned before, a pledge not to do that in the future, and to be very careful of that rather difficult border there on that waterway.

But very interestingly, this is what was the culmination after 45 minutes of his press conference, after that incredible piece of public theater that we witnessed and we spoke about a few minutes ago, with President Ahmadinejad giving the presidential medal of courage to the navy people who "protected Iran's borders" and arrested those sailors. And I think also it's important to note, Iran -- and you noted what he was doing.

HARRIS: Yes.

AMANPOUR: He spent a lot of time talking about God and religion. But don't forget, it's Easter coming up, and perhaps part of this timing was also for Easter. A big, big holiday in the Christian world, as you know.

HARRIS: Christiane, if you would, stay with us. Many more questions on this news that we would love to ask you.

Christiane Amanpour sticking with us just the other side of the break. And Aneesh Raman is with us as well.

We're going to take a quick break, and we will come back with more of this developing story, the announcement out of Tehran just moments ago from the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his news conference and speech that he is granting amnesty to the 15 British sailors and marines taken nearly two weeks ago.

Time for a quick break. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): I declare that the people of Iran and the government of Iran in full power, given their legal rights to place on trial the military people, to give amnesty and pardon to these 15 people. And I announce their freedom and their return to the people of Britain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: There you have it, the breaking news in to CNN just moments ago. Iran's president granting amnesty to the 15 sailors and marines taken nearly two weeks ago -- two weeks ago on Friday.

Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, is with us from London.

And Christiane, just a couple of questions come to mind. Let me start with this one. Can you give us a sense of what the roller- coaster ride has been like for Brits, for the families, particularly when they've watched some of these sailors and marines, in particular, Faye Turney, paraded on video for consumption in Britain?

AMANPOUR: Yes. It has been a roller-coaster from the moment they were captured back on the 23rd of March.

If you remember, that was a Friday, and the first commentary mostly was that, oh, this happened once before in 2004, and hopefully it will be resolved and it will be resolved very quickly, just like it was before. But, of course, then, it sort of escalated.

After about three days, the British government was quite quiet for a little while, and then once they saw the pictures coming out, then that's when the British government started to go to the Security Council, ask for a condemnation of it, which the Security Council did not provide. It acknowledged what had happened, but it fell short of what the British wanted.

That, in turn, made the hard-liners in Iran pretty angry. They said that that was unnecessary and provocative. And even today, in his press conference, President Ahmadinejad said that it was -- Britain chose to create a controversy over it.

I think, you know, when you look at this, sometimes it's interesting to try to read how it's going and how it's being perceived on each side.

HARRIS: Yes.

AMANPOUR: On the Iranian side, basically what they thought -- and this is what I've been told by some of the Iranians -- by putting these people on television, yes, they had them "confess" to being in their territorial waters, but on the other hand, they also showed that they were alive, they were fairly well, that they weren't dressed up in orange jumpsuits, that they were being given food, and that they were, from what we could tell, together. There were several of them at least together during the times of these filmings. It didn't look like they were being abused, as we have seen in other such instances.

HARRIS: Yes.

AMANPOUR: But then it sort of went quiet again, and you heard early last week Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary of Britain, start to walk back from the angry language and start to say, well, you know, we're going try and resolve this, that it's a holiday in Iran right now, we're waiting for the officials to come back. Sort of giving them some breathing room to actually get down to the nitty- gritty between their officials and the Iranian officials. And just over the last 24 to 48 hours, there have been contacts between Britain and Ali Larijani, who's the head of the Iranian National Security Agency, and that seemed to spell that it was going to be resolved in a diplomatic way.

HARRIS: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Exactly the language, we're not sure. But what's really interesting is that President Ahmadinejad, while condemning what happened, and whilst continuing to insist that they were in Iranian territorial waters, has not asked for an apology and, in fact, has said that the Iranian government is "sorry" that the British government is not "brave enough to admit its grave mistake over entering our waters," and went on to say in a real twist of theater that he hoped that Prime Minister Blair would not sanction these sailors once they got home, would not put them on trial for "speaking the truth". And obviously, he was talking about when they were on Iranian television talking about how they were in Iranian waters.

HARRIS: Yes.

AMANPOUR: So, it's been a pretty interesting and dramatic press conference. I think the highlight visually was the president sort of going for it and giving the head of the Iranian navy that presidential medal of courage.

HARRIS: Christiane, as you know, there are five Iranians being held by the U.S. military in Iraq. Do you expect in, I don't know, the next couple of days, weeks, who knows, that we will see those Iranians released? We had a release yesterday. Do we expect that -- do you expect that we will see those five Iranians released?

AMANPOUR: Hard to tell. Word is that there's some movement on, that but it's still not fully confirmed. And, of course, Iran continues to claim that they were diplomats and continues to call for their release and for them to be given back.

More than that, continues to say that these people are part of a significant Iranian contingent who are there doing all sorts of things in Iraq, whether it's diplomatic, whether it's economic, whether it's financial. And Iran has had diplomats in Iraq for a long, long time. And, furthermore, says that the United States is very well aware of what personnel it has in Iraq. So, that's the rhetoric from Iran on that.

And yes, as you correctly point out, there was one released yesterday. It's again still unclear who actually held that diplomat who was released yesterday.

CHRISTIANNE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A diplomat who was released yesterday. Was it, you know, militia? Was it the Iraqi intelligence? Was the man held because of U.S. and Iraqi desires to keep him incarcerated? That's not yet clear.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: CNN chief international correspondent Christianne Amanpour. Christianne, thanks for your help on this breaking news into the CNN NEWSROOM this morning.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: And of course we continue to cover this breaking news, which is Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a press conference within the last hour saying that the 15 British Marines and sailors will be released as early as today we're hearing from our sources, after this press conference and in his words, they'll be reunited with their families. A huge breakthrough.

What we don't know is how this breakthrough came about, what may have been promised since these talks between Great Britain and Iran have been opened and have been aggressively been taken on over the past couple of days, perhaps Sunday when it really seemed to be that these bilateral talks were on the move. Our Jim Boulden is actually in London. He's gauging the reaction there from London. We'll touch base with him soon. But first we know Iran, a big oil producer there. Our Ali Velshi is also keeping close tabs on how this announcement may in any way impact the oil market. Ali?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Oil starts trading in New York in about 14 minutes. We've already seen oil that's been trading overseas down a little bit on this news. Now you'll know, if you follow this, oil prices have spiked since this incident began in Iran, one of the largest oil producers of the world, is also more influential than just its oil that it produces for two reasons. One is we know the obvious reason, it influences many events in the Middle East. So, tensions with Iran also influence tensions possibly with other countries in the Middle East.

But more importantly, most of the oil or at least more than a quarter of the oil that flows out of the Middle East from any country goes through the Strait of Hormuz, which is something that Iran actually controls. So, if Iran decided that it wanted to use oil as a measure against the west, it has a couple ways of doing so. One is its own oil. The second one is controlling the flow on ships of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. So, when tensions with Iran increased, you saw the price of oil going up dramatically.

We started the day with oil just under $65 a barrel, which is much higher than it's been in the last few months. We're now seeing -- we saw a little up tick in oil but it hasn't really started trading fully. It won't for another little while. So that's a big deal. Now that said, Iran, like many countries in the Middle East, get a lot of their revenue from oil, so a lot of analysts say that no matter how tense things get, they depend on that oil to pay for a lot of things. But the likely outcome of this news today is that you see a drop in the price of oil and subsequently a price in the drop of gasoline which we all like.

WHITFIELD: And quite quickly too, do we believe there will be a direct response to this kind of announcement?

VELSHI: Oh, yeah.

WHITFIELD: We did see the rise pretty quickly...

VELSHI: Very quickly...

WHITFIELD: ... when we saw the abduction or the seizure of these 15.

VELSHI: Right. Late last week, we actually saw a rise of several dollars within the course of one day. I don't know if you'll see a drop of several dollars, but you will see, I'm predicting we're going to see a drop, a fairly significant drop when oil starts trading in New York. We've already seen a drop of about 50 cents in oil that trades overseas, so we should see something similar very shortly.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Ali. Appreciate it.

HARRIS: All right. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll get reaction from - to the extent that there is reaction this morning - from Number 10 Downing Street in London. Jim Boulden is there on the scene. He will have that for us. And we will also get reaction from international security analyst Jim Walsh. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We continue to follow developments in this fast-breaking story, as you know, inside the last hour. If you're just joining us, this news, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announcing that he is granting amnesty to the 15 British sailors and Marines held captive in Iran for nearly two weeks now. We want to get reaction to the extent that there is reaction this morning to this news from Number 10 Downing Street. CNN's Jim Boulden is on the scene. And Jim, I don't want to steal your thunder, but I understand we are going to get some reaction from the British foreign secretary soon.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We're told in about two hours' time, that she will be coming here, Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, to Downing Street and brief the Prime Minister Tony Blair. It would be then that we would expect her to come before the cameras and the microphones to give us a statement. What will be very interesting will be to see what language the British agreed to, to get this solved and solved so quickly.

Of course, we are 13 days into this crisis. But she told us just yesterday not to expect a quick resolution. Now it sounds like they're coming home today. So, something was agreed upon, some sort of diplomatic language, without the UK apologizing and admitting that its 15 sailors and Marines were in Iranian waters. Of course, they have said all along they were in Iraqi waters. Tony?

HARRIS: And Jim, what of this language from Iran's president hoping that Great Britain doesn't put these sailors and Marines on trial for quote, unquote, confessing to entering Iranian territorial waters?

BOULDEN: Yes. Seemed a lot of statements in that press briefing.

HARRIS: Yes, he did. BOULDEN: Certainly part of that was him playing to the cameras and part of that was playing to the British public, I think. There has been a split reaction here that four of the sailors were seen confessing just a few days after they were taken and the fact that Iran said it had all 15 on tape confessing. Some of the more tabloid papers here said they wished they'd held out and not said anything on camera. Of course we'll hear from them when they come back and see what kind of pressure they were under to make these statements. But I think importantly the government wanted to have a rather low-key diplomatic effort to solve this, to use some sort of language for both sides to save face, and apparently that seems to have worked, Tony.

HARRIS: Any suggestion at all Great Britain may have promised to work behind the scenes with the United States in an effort to get the five Iranians being held by the U.S. military in Iraq freed, some unspoken quid pro quo?

BOULDEN: Those statements seem to have been coming from the U.S., sources in the U.S. and sources in Iran. They were not coming out of the UK. Clearly here, the UK, they don't give a lot of information. They don't do a lot of background briefings and it was never indicated that they would take any steps in other areas to try to get their 15 free. If that has happened, if there is some kind of background, we will hear about that in the fullness of time, Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Jim Boulden for us, monitoring reaction from Number 10 Downing Street for us in London. Jim, thank you.

WHITFIELD: We think you need to hear again what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said just moments ago during this press conference. Here's a more clear translation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I declare that the people of Iran and the government of Iran, in full power, given their legal right to place on trial the military people, to give amnesty and pardon to these 15 people and I announce their freedom and their return to the people of Britain. I request the government of Mr. Blair not to question these people or to place them on trial for speaking the truth. And I request, Mr. Blair, rather than to increase international controversy or the occupation of other lands, to take steps towards peace, truthfulness and justice and to serve the people of England.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. International security analyst Jim Walsh is with us now. He has met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He knows him to some degree. So as you listen to that latest translation and you hear him say that he is granting the amnesty at the same time, he is hoping that Great Britain wouldn't punish these Marines or sailors for having spoken the truth, wouldn't put them on trial, he really is putting the ball back in the court of Great Britain by doubting their decency, doubting their truthfulness, isn't he? JIM WALSH, INTL SECURITY ANALYST: I think you're right, Fredricka. One of the most telling aspects of this press conference is he essentially admits Iran did not get everything it wanted. It did not get an apology and that he's sort of turning it around and saying I hope you, the British, don't prosecute these guys. We need to step back here. This morning we've talked about President Ahmadinejad because he gave the press conference. The person we haven't talked about so far is the supreme leader. The supreme leader is the only person in the Iranian political system with enough juice to have decided this issue to take the issue out of the hands of the revolutionary guard, out of the hands of the president.

WHITFIELD: So this pressure came from Khomeini, you're saying.

WALSH: Pardon me?

WHITFIELD: This pressure, this decision came from Khomeini?

WALSH: Absolutely. Moreover, I sort of think that the press conference itself is part of the compromise. This is speculation on my part, but essentially the supreme leader gave this issue to Ali Larijani (ph), the head of the supreme national security committee. He's the sort of guy where you knew it was going to get negotiated and it was going to get solved. As compensation, perhaps, it's the president who gets to have the press conference, gets to give a medal to someone from the revolutionary guard, so they're saying we took the issue away from you. We gave it to this other guy who's going to negotiate and settle it up, but in turn for you having done that, you get to make the announcement. You get to give a medal. You get to do X, Y and Z.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. Does this in any way kind of dwarf the stature, the position of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who really has gotten the world's attention as being hard and fast, take no prisoners kind of leader but then come to find out if his relinquishing of his position to parliament or even a supreme leader, does that kind of diminish his role?

WALSH: From the beginning, Ahmadinejad has always been the guy who got the ink, who got the cameras because of his outlandish statements on occasion and because he likes the video cameras. All along, it has always been the supreme leader who has been the most powerful player in Iran. What made this issue a little different was that, in addition to the supreme leader, you have to revolutionary guard, arguably the most independent institution, organization in Iran, a government within a government, if you will and it was only the supreme leader, I think, who had the power to make this happen. So, Ahmadinejad is always going to be out in front, but when it comes to Iranian politics, you want to peel that back and look behind the curtain and when you do, more often than not, you're going to see the supreme leader.

WHITFIELD: So, Iran did not get the apology that it wanted, that the president underscored having wished to have received. Do you suppose Great Britain gave Iran anything at least in promise in exchange for the release of these Marines and sailors?

WALSH: Yes, I do.

WHITFIELD: What?

WALSH: There must have been compromise. One, you referred to it earlier Fredricka, the release of this Iranian diplomat. Number two, there was an announcement this morning -- I haven't seen it confirmed -- but there was an announcement that Iran diplomats will be able to visit the five revolutionary guard members that are being held by the Iraqi government that were arrested by U.S. and Iraqi forces earlier this year. So that now the Iranians will have access to them. That's a change. So, I think part of it is compromise and part of it is the supreme leader after having gotten back from the holiday, may have said this is issue is a loser for us. Every day this goes on, we may hold the prisoners, we may be tactically strong, but we look terrible and we've got other fish to fry, the nuclear issue, Iraq, so on and so on. And they probably decided enough with this, let's get this settled and then there were some compromises on both parties.

WHITFIELD: Except at the same time, you see that Iran perhaps may have emboldened its position just by virtue of the fact that they did get something out of it.

WALSH: Well, yes and no. They didn't get all that they wanted. That was pretty clear from the president's press conference, but I think the longer this went on, they were going to be politically weaker. They had a U.N. resolution against them. The EU was against them, so it was getting worse and worse.

WHITFIELD: OK, Jim Walsh, thanks so much. Always appreciate your insights.

WALSH: Thank you Fredricka.

HARRIS: And Fred, just want to get some early reaction from Great Britain to the folks at home. We're getting early indications, reaction from Prime Minister Tony Blair's office. Let me just read this to you. We welcome what the president has said about the release of our 15 personnel. We are now establishing exactly what this means in terms of the method and timing of their release. This from a spokeswoman in Prime Minister Tony Blair's office. We will hear from the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett we expect in the next, about 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. And we are also waiting - do we have that shot of Marine one? The president is heading to California this morning. We are also waiting for reaction from the White House on this news that Iran's president is granting amnesty to the 15 sailors and Marines taken almost two months ago. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we will talk once again with CNN chief international correspondent Christianne Amanpour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: We're smiling because it's good news that we're reporting this morning. The amnesty being granted to the 15 British sailors and Marines by Iran's president this morning, that announcement coming within the hour here in the NEWSROOM. And we're getting some initial reaction now from the prime minister's office, Prime Minister Tony Blair's office. A spokeswoman suggesting this morning in this statement: we welcome what the president had said about the release of our 15 personnel. We are now establishing exactly what this means in terms of the method and timing of their release.

Let's get you back now to our chief international correspondent, Christianne Amanpour, who is following developments for us in London. Christianne, we can hear the reservation, happy about the news, but the reservation in that initial statement from the prime minister's office. How is all of this going to work out?

CHRISTIANNE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, hard to say, but the president of Iran has said that these people are amnestied and pardoned and in his press conference said that they would be released after the press conference, which, as far as I can tell, it may still be under way with Q&A there in Tehran. An initial report which was not from the president, but just from the press person there, said that the Marines would go to the airport.

But it does seem more logical the report that's coming out now, which is that apparently they're going to go first to the British embassy. That seems more logical. We'll wait and see exactly how that turns out. But clearly, they took a decision. You know, the press conference was postponed. It was due to happen yesterday. Finally announced today they were going to be pardoned and released. And he has also called on Prime Minister Blair to, quote, I request that the government of Prime Minister Blair not to question these people or place them on trial for speaking the truth.

And what he means is precisely what some of the pictures that we've been showing with the pictures of some of the Marines, Faye Turney (ph) and the others, talking about having crossed into Iranian waters, apologizing for having crossed into Iranian waters, quote, unquote, confessions. President Ahmadinejad has asked Prime Minister Blair in that press conference there not to take it out on the sailors.

He's also said that the Iranian government regrets that the prime minister -- Prime Minister Blair's government is, quote, not brave enough to admit that it was inside Iranian waters. So Iran clearly sticking to its own position that they were inside Iranian waters. I think that certainly the timing -- I would say the fact that Britain and Iran have been in direct negotiation over this for at least the last day or so with Ali Larijani (ph), the civilian head of the national security agency there, considered more of a diplomat in terms of comparison with the president and some of his more staunch supporters, certainly more of a diplomat than the Iranian revolutionary guard, who had arrested them. And also the fact that it's Easter. Tomorrow is mourning Thursday, begins the very solemn and then joyous celebration of the Christian holiday of Easter and President Ahmadinejad saying that this pardon and this amnesty, quote, unquote, was a gift to the British people.

HARRIS: Christianne, how decisive do you think that decision that you just mentioned, the decision to turn the negotiations over to a man who is considered more of a diplomat, how decisive a move was that in bringing this situation, the standoff, to an end?

AMANPOUR: Well, I'm sure it was decisive, but I think a lot of this was being played out across the airwaves. Obviously, Britain has bilateral relations with Iran, has a functioning embassy and an ambassador inside Tehran and that ambassador had been speaking to the foreign minister and others for almost since the beginning of the crisis. But it was -- you know, there were sort of ups and towns to the way the rhetoric was going.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

AMANPOUR: Exactly. And at the time, you were having comments from the Iranian military, then comments from the Iranian foreign ministry and then finally it seemed to take a step back and move into serious negotiations between those most able to resolve this issue. And I remember for me, one of the turning points was watching Margaret Beckett at an EU meeting a few days ago when she was asked, you know, how things were going, and she almost put the brakes on some of the public sort of hysteria that was going on, saying we must just wait, be patient. Remember, it's the Iranian holiday. In Iran it's what they call (INAUDIBLE) which is new year. And this goes on for a long time. Government officials take two to three weeks off and so she was trying to sort of allude to that. I thought, well, if she's making this sort of conciliatory rhetorical, diplomatic gesture, maybe things are moving in a more diplomatic way.

HARRIS: Here's a - and I don't know that we know the answer to this yet, but you follow it as closely as anyone. Is there a chance through what the Iranian president we'll certainly hope is viewed as a good-will gesture, that Iran is under so much pressure in so many areas now, you mentioned the EU certainly, the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program, is there a chance that this move might begin in some way to ratchet down some of the pressure that is obviously on Iran from the international community?

AMANPOUR: Look, that's a really interesting question because it totally doesn't seem to be likely that the United States government or the British governments are going to change their positions on Iran's nuclear program. And that is the big issue that stands between Iran and the west right now. Obviously, peripherally, you also have the situation of U.S. accusing Iran of negative interference in Iraq and you know, the capture of the five Iranian diplomats sort of brought things to a head and these things are viewed sort of, you know, with great sort of suspicion by Iran and Iran continues to be defiant over its nuclear program, continuing to maintain that this is a peaceful nuclear program that we're doing within our rights as signatories to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. So I think the tension over that will continue and I think that perhaps releasing the British sailors will bring things back to the status quo anti (ph) rather than making some great leap forward into the arms of mutual engagement.

HARRIS: Christianne, thanks for your help this morning, CNN chief international correspondent, Christianne Amanpour, from London.

WHITFIELD: On this side of the pond, no official comment coming from the White House as of yet, but the deputy spokesperson Dana Perino is saying that the White House continues to monitor the situation as the president makes his way from east coast to west coast. He is making his way to California. You see him there getting off Marine one, soon to be boarding Air Force One before he makes his journey to California. We're going to continue to monitor the situation as well. There you see Air Force One now taxiing, getting ready for takeoff. We're going to continue to monitor the situation coming out of Tehran, Iran. We are awaiting the release of those 15 Britons. They are supposed to be released following the press conference of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but that press conference still underway. We're going to continue to monitor that. Our Aneesh Raman is in Jordan. He often covers Tehran, so he knows the inside scoop their out of Iran and we'll also be joined by our Jim Boulden, who is monitoring the reaction from Great Britain outside 10 Downing Street. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Good morning again everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. Big news out of Iran this morning, the country's president announcing the release of 15 British sailors and Marines captured almost two weeks ago. The surprise announcement came just over an hour ago during a news conference by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. CNN Jim Boulden has been following the breaking developments.

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