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American Morning
Analysis of Obama's Middle East Speech
Aired June 04, 2009 - 07:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama there in a very important speech at Cairo University to Arab nations and the broader Muslim world, the world over getting what looks like a standing ovation there. And that is a very important symbol.
Christiane Amanpour and Candy Crowley are here, along with Carol Costello this morning. And you were saying, Christiane, it will be interesting to see what the reaction of the crowd would be following the speech, whether or not he would get a standing ovation. What do you think?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm looking at the seats in the balcony, people seem to be standing and it's obviously a huge difference from the last speech the American president gave in that part of the world, and that was President Bush in Iraq on a farewell trip.
But beyond that, this is obviously the continuation of President Obama's detente with the Islamic world and actually with the extremist Islamic world. Because obviously the speech is because of extremism, it's not just out of nowhere.
And what he had to do is touch on quite a few issues. The most important for this audience as I said before was the issue of Palestine which he addressed and he used that word, and the issue of democracy, homegrown democracy. The biggest applause he got from that audience was when he talked about people's legitimate aspirations for democracy at home and for government that reflects the will of the people, transparency, the rule of law.
He talked about the Palestinians legitimate right for a homeland and Israel's legitimate right to exist in security. He said settlements were against U.S. policy and they opposed them. He said life in the Palestinian territories was intolerable. He used that word.
He also talked against incitement to hatred against Israel, against the denial of the Holocaust, that we see in a shot across the bow of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He talked about Iran and nuclear non-proliferation. He called on Iran to sort of move forward as he would with a new beginning towards that nation.
A lot of issues were touched on. I think the people of that region will be looking most closely at the commitment to the U.S. in pursuing democracy there and also in the resolution of the Israel-Palestinian crisis.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And in talking more about the audience's reaction, I think at least three times somewhat shouted "we love you" from the audience, which is quite unusual for an American politician in that part of the world. I don't know how that will be accepted by some at home, however. But there, was it a surprise?
AMANPOUR: Well, look, I mean, it's always a surprise. He's in a college campus area. He's got young people there. Whenever he made comments that addressed youth and young aspirations, he got applause.
I think it might be accepted here in the United States. One of the key things we see in polls is that the United States, the people of America, are pleased that their president is "restoring the position of America in the world." This was one of the key things going into the election. This is one of the key things Americans talk about right now.
But very importantly, it is a new page that's turning. It didn't talk about unveiling big, new policy, policies. It just put -- there's a light --
ROBERTS: More emphasis (ph) in the principles --
AMANPOUR: Yes, and a better light on existing U.S. policy.
ROBERTS: You know, Candy, Christiane ran down a long list of things that the president talked about and we were talking about this during the speech. He pretty much mentioned it all, didn't he?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he did. There was something in here for absolutely everybody that they can lead with in the hometown newspapers across the world, and I think that will happen. I think tonally, they'll be very pleased in the Muslim world. I think he adopted exactly the tone that we were talking about earlier -- respectful.
I think back home, people will be happy. He said, listen, America has done some great things and, by the way, Israel deserves this and it's been persecuted. Jews have been persecuted. I think there were a lot of things like that. Here's what it lacked. It lacked, and we didn't expect it, but it lacked a new plan.
ROBERTS: Right.
CROWLEY: It lacked a new idea. So, and he's got it right. In the end, one speech isn't going to do it. Great speech, it will please a lot of people. But, OK, you know, what's your next act?
COSTELLO: And we want to remind our viewers, this is AMERICAN MORNING. We've been listening to President Obama speak at Cairo University. And in case you missed it, here's some of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world. One based on mutual interest and mutual respect. And one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles, principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.
I do so recognizing that change cannot happen overnight. I know there's been a lot of publicity about this speech, but no single speech can eradicate years of mistrust. Nor can I answer in the time that I have this afternoon all the complex questions that brought us to this point. But I am convinced that in order to move forward, we must say openly to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are said only behind closed doors.
There must be a sustained effort to listen to each other, to learn from each other, to respect one another, and to seek common ground. As the Holy Quran (ph) tells us, be conscious of God and speak always the truth.
(APPLAUSE)
That is what I will try to do today -- to speak the truth as best I can. Humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: You know, the interesting line in there is we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts and that are too often only said behind closed doors. But you have to wonder how open is the president really going to be in the future?
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, I guess it was, you know, it's the issue and the challenge to the Muslim world to say in public what you do in private. But we'll see as you said if that translates to the White House the next time there is some sort of issue that crops up there.
Our Ed Henry was watching the speech. He is live in Cairo, Egypt along with the president.
And, Ed, the president said there in the speech that no one -- no one address can solve all of the problems. He was looking to get it off to a good start today. How do you think he did on that front?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, it is a monumental task ahead as you say, John. And the bottom line is that this was just the start of the conversation, just a start of the dialogue. And what I thought was most striking to me here in Cairo is how personal the president got throughout this address.
First of all, you remember as a presidential candidate, then-Senator Obama did not highlight his family's Muslim roots. It was obviously a political controversy. Now, his aides acknowledge he sees this as an opportunity to talk about his family's Muslim roots.
He sprinkled the speech with references to the Quran (ph) as well, growing up in Indonesia as a child. They see an opportunity here to connect here in the Muslim world.
Secondly, he doesn't talk a lot about race back in the United States. He gave that big race speech during the campaign, critical moment in the campaign in Philadelphia. But as president, he has not spoken about race a lot.
I thought it was interesting that he spoke about the civil rights movement. He said at one point, "Black people in America suffered the lash of the whip and the humiliation of segregation." And his point was that it wasn't retaliation of violence, more violence that stopped it. It was the civil rights movement coming up because of peaceful nonviolence. And he tried to make the point that to stop the cycle of violence here in the Mideast, the same sort of process has to move forward, John.
ROBERTS: All right. As we said, Ed, off to a start here but a big mountain to climb. Ed Henry for us in Cairo this morning. Ed, thanks so much.
COSTELLO: And we're going to continue analyzing the president's speech. And we have a lot of people to do that. A lot of help for you this morning to understand exactly what went down in Cairo, Egypt.
Among our panelists, the Democratic strategist Lisa Caputo, Republican strategist Ed Rollins, Fawaz Gerges, a Middle East scholar, and Robin Wright, who wrote the book "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East," and she spent a lot of time in that part of the world. And we're going to get some fine analysis. And Candy Crowley, you're going to stick around too.
OK, we're going to have much more from the president's speech and analysis of that speech when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fifteen and a half minutes after the hour, we're back with the Most News in the Morning. A special edition as we are taking a look at the president's speech with some analysis, context and perspective on the whole thing. Right now, let's give you a little refresher on some of what he said regarding negative stereotypes in the Muslim world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I considered part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: There's the president there at a speech at Cairo University. Let's talk a little bit about the political aspects of this. We've got Ed Rollins with us, along with Lisa Caputo. Fawaz Gerges is with us and Robin Wright as well.
Ed, let's talk to you first of all because you were with Ronald Reagan for so long. The great work that he did in the international stage to help bring down communism. In terms of mending fences between the United States and the Arab world, how far do you think the speech went?
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: This is a magnificent speech. I mean, it was sort of his version of "I Had a Dream" speech.
I mean, there's a lot of things that aren't realistic in there. We're not going to have a world of no nuclear weapons. We're not going to have a world with clean water. We're not going to have a world of equality. But as setting out a road map, it obviously was very important.
I think the key thing here that he has to worry about is that he clearly drew the line and set some standards that the Israelis may not go along with. He accepts that the past agreements which they don't do at this point in time, that's going to be a big debate. He said they can have no settlements. That's a big debate.
But I think to a young audience, it was hopeful. There's also commitment of a lot of money here, rebuilding Pakistan and what have you with a county here that's worried about jobs and worried about things here that I think domestically we have some problems.
ROBERTS: Lisa, a lot of people in the Arab nations in the Muslim world were looking for some sort of plan for Israeli and Palestinian peace. He didn't have that. But he was fair to both sides, but he certainly was tough as well.
LISA CAPUTO, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I know he was. And I thought what was interesting in his speech is how he talked about how both sides have legitimate aspirations and how he also used slavery. He equated the violence of the Palestinians to, you know, the slavery violence and how that's not the route to go.
So he was -- he was -- and he also talked about the Arab countries having a responsibility, and I think that that's key. I think he used the right tone. I think he was really trying to send a message here to the young people because the young people of the Muslim world and in the religion of Islam are really going to be disillusioned going forward.
And I think politically, I saw a CNN poll last night where U.S. views of Muslim countries are 21 percent favorable, 31 percent unfavorable, and 46 percent undecided.
ROBERTS: Right.
CAPUTO: And I think it will be very interesting to see what he does coming out of this speech and what impact that will have on those numbers.
ROBERTS: Yet both sides are suspicious of the other. CAPUTO: Very much so.
ROBERTS: Fawaz Gerges and Robin Wright, what did you think of the part of the speech particularly regarding the Middle East, Israeli- Palestinian process, this idea of no plan but it called for both sides to take responsibility here and say in public what you say in private?
FAWAZ GERGES, MIDDLE EAST SCHOLAR, SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE: Well, I think the strongest applause, actually, that he received was when he talked about the suffering of the Palestinians, the dislocation of the Palestinians, the humiliation of the Palestinian and the occupation.
This is very, very critical points because I think those points to a resonant, with Arabs and Muslims given the fact that basically there is a great deal of suffering and the Palestine-Israel question is the most important pivotal point (ph) line in the region.
Unfortunately, there were no specifics. Tomorrow morning -- tomorrow we're going to see, I mean, the majority of our commentators and Muslim commentators says where is the plan? Where are the specifics?
This is really a speech that basically covered a broad spectrum, a broad -- a shopping list.
ROBERTS: Right.
GERGES: I mean eight issues, no specifics. But I think I would argue that the strongest part of the speech was basically on relations between the United States and the world of Islam. What's really critical about the speech, John, how he weaved his own story, the story of Barack Hussein Obama, his life in Indonesia. The fact that Islam is part of America, there are seven million Muslims in America. America is not for Islam.
In this particular sense, remember, John, he is trying to reframe the debate between the United States and America. He's trying to disarm Al Qaeda. He's trying to basically deny Al Qaeda ideological ammunition.
The United States is not at war with Islam. And in this particular sense, I think what will resonate, not only his talk about the suffering of Palestinians but also about the facts that Islam is part of the American story. The United States is not a part (ph) of this.
ROBERTS: So, Robin, what did you think was significant? And can this president, because of his background, as Fawaz might be suggesting here, be the person who can turn things around?
ROBIN WRIGHT, AUTHOR, "DREAMS AND SHADOWS: THE FUTURE OF THE MIDDLE EAST": It's certainly possible, but I think that now that the speech is over, the big issue is how much determination does Barack Hussein Obama have in actually following through.
Already in the past, we've seen the Israelis indicate that they're not interested in stopping settlements. I think you heard in Saudi Arabia yesterday that the Arabs feel they've gone about as far as they can go right now in offering Israel a peace deal that in exchange for, recognizing Israel that they will return the land captured in the 1967 war.
And with both sides intransigent, Obama may find the same problems that every previous presidency has found. That you can lay out these wonderful principles as every president has at the beginning of his administration, but you can't get them to budge when it comes to these final critical steps.
ROBERTS: We were talking off camera, and you thought it was significant that there was a little bit of outreach to Hamas there.
WRIGHT: I thought so. I think that even though he talked in tough language about you have to abandon violence. He also later on talked about an issue that's very dear in the Islamic world, and that is, will the United States accept a vote? The democratic vote and the outcome. Because after pushing for Palestinian elections in 2006, the United States came up against a victory by Hamas.
And when we talked about that we are prepared to accept any government that is respectful of rights and peaceful, that's an outreach to a lot of groups with Lebanon facing an election next week, that is prepared to honor rights but also deal peacefully with all neighbors.
ROBERTS: And, Ed, with Iran's elections coming up too,(INAUDIBLE) certainly like anybody but Ahmadinejad. We've got a lot of thoughts to get out, but we need to take a quick break. So stay with us, folks. We'll be back with a lot more.
Twenty-two minutes after the hour on the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: And good morning, everyone. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.
Just about 20 minutes ago, President Barack Obama finished speaking at Cairo University before a crowd of about 3,000 people. At times there were shouts from the audience of "we love you." He had standing ovation at least from some in the crowd, and there were loud bursts of applause throughout the speech. In case you missed it, here's a bit of it for you right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
(APPLAUSE)
This truth transcends nations and peoples. A belief that isn't new, that isn't black or white or brown, that isn't Christian or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization and that still beats in the hearts of billions around the world. It's a faith in other people. And it's what brought me here today. We have the power to make the world we seek. But only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And he talked a lot about bringing people of all faiths together. And I know many were concerned. Some critics were concerned that the president would go on a sort of an apology tour. While he did talk about bringing everyone together, he also had some tough words about America and what America has done especially in the wars in Afghanistan.
And I want to bring in Candy Crowley to talk more about this. Because he said some tough things, he reminded them of why we're in Afghanistan. He said, let us be clear, Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day. The victims were innocent men, women and children from America and many other nations who have done nothing or didn't harm anyone.
CROWLEY: Right. And even when he talked about Iraq, it was just, well, this caused a lot of debate but we all learned something from, you know, wars as we move on. And then, boom, and Afghanistan. Listen, we don't want to be there. I would gladly bring all these troops home if I thought America was safe from al Qaeda.
I think you will see this theme about -- this non-apology tour, as they are determined to make this, continuing Germany where he will go and visit Buchenwald inside that camp that his great uncle helped free.
And then, of course, the 65th anniversary of D-Day. And he will be there. So it's a -- hey, Americans spilled blood in these places to bring freedom to nations across the world. So I think that it's a very definite attempt to be the anti-apology tour because, as you know, his first trip over to Europe with the G-20, et cetera, a lot of people criticized him as apologizing.
COSTELLO: But was he tough enough to satisfy the critics, do you think?
CROWLEY: We'll see. Not all of them.
COSTELLO: Yes.
CROWLEY: I'm going to leave it up to them. But I'm sure they'll be something.
ROBERTS: It was interesting, too, that in the Iran section of the speech, he acknowledged America's role in overthrowing a democratically elected regime there.
CROWLEY: Right.
ROBERTS: Which led, of course, to (INAUDIBLE) and led, of course, to the Iranian revolution. And, you know, that's something that you don't normally hear.
CROWLEY: You don't but there are kind of statements of history as opposed to, well, we learned that we shouldn't do this or America made this mistake. It was just like, you know, sort of, OK, this happened, this happened, this happened and now.
ROBERTS: But it was different than the absolute hard line on Iran?
CROWLEY: It was. Although as you know, there seemed to be some lines in there that were aimed specifically at Iran, particularly when he talked about...
ROBERTS: Denying the Holocaust.
CROWLEY: ... refusing to deny it, refusing to deny is refusing to give Israel the right to exist and denying the Holocaust. So it seemed to me is sort of right at Ahmadinejad.
COSTELLO: And the other interesting thing is he said, you know, we want a world free of nuclear weapons. But, you know, if you want to use nuclear power, you should be able to do that for peaceful purposes.
CROWLEY: There's the rub, right? I mean, everybody that begins to put together nuclear capability always says it's for energy. You know...
ROBERTS: But that's not too different than the Bush administration, because for the Bush administration, it wasn't necessarily the issue of Iran having electrical power that was generated from a nuclear source, it was the fact that they had the fuel cycle there.
CROWLEY: Right.
ROBERTS: But I remember them trying to craft a deal in which Russia would enrich the uranium, give them the fuel. Iran would have to give back the spent fuel. That's not too far off with the previous administration.
CROWLEY: Right. No, it isn't. But it's also really difficult to do. And there are countries around them who don't want, you know, people in their country nosing around. And, you know, and they said, look, this is what we're doing it for. Iran rejected it. Iraq as we know rejected it for sometime. So, I mean, it's still the same old problem.
ROBERTS: It is. Candy, stay with us because lots to talk about this morning.
Meantime, it's half past the hour, 7:30 Eastern. We're spending a lot of time on President Obama's speech to the Muslim world that you saw here on the "Most News in the Morning." But there is, of course, lots of other stories making news right now. We want to give you a quick update on all of that.
Right now, the fate of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee being decided in a secret trial behind closed doors in North Korea. And within hours, potentially even minutes we may know if they will be freed or spend years in prison, maybe even a labor camp. The communist regime is holding the two women claiming they are spies and entered the country illegally.
New information on the final seconds of a tragedy in the skies. Investigators believe that Air France flight 447 may have broken apart in the air in its final moments over the Atlantic. That scenario based on messages that were automatically transmitted from the plane. Those transmissions suggest a loss of cabin pressure, complete electrical pressure in a violent storm that sent 100 mile-an-hour updraft winds into the plane's flight path.
Wall Street appears headed for a positive opening this morning. European stocks are heading higher while Japan's Nikkei fell overnight. Several factors could move our markets today. The Labor Department releases its weekly jobless claims report in about an hour's time. And many major retail chains will be reporting their sales numbers today.
President Obama has just wrapped up his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo. He's hoping to usher in a new era in America's relations with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. And here's little more of what he had to say today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable. It is based upon cultural and historical ties. And the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.
On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people Muslims and Christians, have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. So let there be no doubt, the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable, and America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: And welcome back. We like to examine a little bit of what the president was speaking about today at Cairo University.
And joining us now, our panel. Welcome to all of you once again. And Fawaz Gerges, our Middle East scholar. You wanted to talk about Iraq and what the president had to say about Iraq. And a little bit he said unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong differences of my country and around the world. How did that play with...
GERGES: I mean, the question we have been asking was the president making an apology. I think the president was critical reflect on Iraq came very close to telling the Iraqi people that, well look, this is the war of choice, it was not a war of necessity. And many Americans disagree with this particular war. What's impressive about what he said, we will be out of Iraq by 2012, out, fully out. No military permanent bases in Iraq. We have no designs on Iraq on oil, Iraq will be governed by Iraqis.
This message will resonate widely in the Arab world and the Muslim world as well. In terms of the president being critically reflective - look at what he said. Colonialism mutilated Muslim identity. The question of how the Muslim world was a pawn in the cold war, how we learned lessons from Iran. This is really a different type of president. A president that understands the power and the importance and the lesson of history.
COSTELLO: I guess the big question and Ed Rollins, maybe you can address this, is can the president follow through with that? Can we get all our troops out of Iraq by 2012?
ROLLINS: Who knows at this point in time? He's certainly committed to be fully involved in this region by which other president have and distracted by other things. He's got a lot on his plate. I think to me, you know, Teddy Roosevelt talked about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. George W. Bush basically spoke loudly and carried a big stick. This president today spoke softly and carried no stick. There was no promises of retaliation. There was no promises of - it was about we'll give you money, we'll give you resources, we want you to love us. And we'll see how that works.
COSTELLO: You'll see how that works but you don't seem convinced.
ROLLINS: I'm not convinced. I believe that everybody has a vested interest in power. And you deal with a lot of power players in that region and the country more than ever before. And the one country that's been our friend, our ally in democracy, we're dictating terms to them. And I don't think that's going to go very well.
GERGES: Barack Obama made it very clear that we will defend our interests, the United States will basically fight and defend its interests against extremists who attack America.
ROLLINS: I didn't hear any fight in there.
GERGES: What he said, America will defend its interests and will fight the extremists who basically attack America's interests.
ROLLINS: One thing he never talked about when he talked about Saddam Hussein and what have you is this was a country that basically with a dictator who had violated U.N. resolutions over and over and over again. And it may have been a war of choice in the sense that we decided to go in and implement those tactics. But there was nothing about their past bad behavior.
GERGES: And he said...
COSTELLO: OK.
GERGES: And Iraq is a better place without Saddam Hussein. That message was made. Absolutely. It was a war of choice. It was our war of choice. COSTELLO: So Lisa, do you think that the president -- I mean, did he carry a big enough stick?
CAPUTO: I think that he -- the point wasn't to come in and necessarily carry a stick. The point was to come in and to establish a dialogue, to turn a page, to have a conversation with the Muslim community. That was the point. He accomplished that in spades. The point was not to come in with a specific plan. That was not the point of his speech. So I thought that he did what he had to politically, which was to begin this dialogue, to again to try and change perceptions, to recognize the accomplishments of the Muslim world, to say that Islam is part of the American history, and to have a mutual respect and dignity between our world and their world.
What I would like to point out that I thought was extremely interesting and hit me obviously given my background with the current Secretary of State former first lady Hillary Clinton was what he said on women's rights. And talking about the investment in literacy for girls and employment through micro finance and how every woman's choice in terms of how she chooses to live her life should be respected.
That is something I have heard for years and years and years from now secretary of state Hillary Clinton I'm told President Barack Obama wrote that section and absolutely himself and I thought he was right on point and I thought it was a great statement to make.
COSTELLO: And Robin, we haven't heard from you. So button this up for us.
WRIGHT: Well, I think the most important thing probably was his outreach to the young people. The majority of people in that region are under the age of 24. In the Arab world, there are 10 million young people between the ages of six and 15 who are not in schools. He talked about creating a future for them in terms of not just the kind of Arab-Israeli conflict and the terrorism that defines our agenda, but in terms of what their agenda is.
And talked about whether it's education and development. He laid out very specific -- this is the one area in which he actually talked about specifics, in terms of aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan, in terms of setting up an internet pen pal system or a business peace corps to help address some of the core problems.
In the 57 nations of the Islamic world, the total gross domestic product is only half of what it is in the United States. And so poverty is a real issue. And to try to prove our bona fides in terms of our intent in that region, reaching out and saying to them we understand what your priorities are will resonate far more on what he says on either the Palestinians...
COSTELLO: Right. And with young people in the audience, you could start to tell that they were receiving his messages because a lot of them stood up and said we love you and applauded. I wish we could go on forever. We will go on a little later, but I must wrap this up now. John? ROBERTS: All right. The president after speaking in Cairo University on his way to see the pyramids at Giza later on today. He'll be heading to Germany as well. We got a lot more to talk about regarding the speech. Iran just ahead. Stay with us in the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Forty-two minutes after the hour now. A special edition of the most news in the morning. Looking at the president's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo and had a little something for everybody. As Christiane Amanpour and Candy Crowley pointed out, including a section on Iran. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is in fact a tumultuous history between us. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically-elected Iranian government. Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians. This history is well known.
Rather than remain trapped in the past, I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build.
I recognize it will be hard to overcome decades of mistrust, but we will proceed with courage, rectitude and resolve. There will be many issues to discuss between our two countries, and we are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point. This is not simply about America's interests. It is about preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that could lead this region and the world down a hugely dangerous path.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And again there, a little something for everybody. A message to the Iranian leadership, we'll be willing to deal with you. Message to the Iranian people, that we like your country, basically we like you as a people and also mentions the moderate Arab states they they've a common problem that they have to address. Christian, what did you think about that section?
AMANPOUR: Well, it was basically building on what he's already said about Iran. He has had several messages to Iran, including the Norouz message on the Iranian new year. And each and every time, he says we're willing to move forward, we want to engage, and this is the big issue - the nuclear issue. Here he said and he did also on BBC interview that Iran has a legitimate right to have a civilian nuclear process as long as it abides by all the obligations with the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
The real question is - is it a starter? How are they going to this? Iranian officials from top down say we're not going to discuss the nuclear issue. On the other hand, there is an election coming up and it's a very vigorous one. He talked about democracy a lot, President Obama. Iran may not be a full democracy. But it's very competitive.
And they've just had on television last night, a 90-minute debate between Ahmadinejad and his main reformist candidate opposition and it was very, very vibrant. The reformist said, "Listen, you're leading us down to dictatorship, you with your Holocaust denial are damaging our reputation. If he wins, it could set a new tone for a relationship with the United States, including the nuclear issue.
ROBERTS: Let's bring Candy in here, too, and if I could I'd like to come back to a point that Lisa made with Carol, just a couple of minutes ago regarding the section on women's rights. We understand that President Obama wrote a lot of that section himself. Of course, it's a big issue for him. Important that he want to put it out there. Yet at the same time, he spent all day yesterday and last evening with the Saudi leader, in a country where a judge said at a conference on domestic violence that it's OK to slap your wife if she spends too much money.
COSTELLO: And by the way, women can't drive in Saudi Arabia either.
ROBERTS: So there's a disconnect here.
CROWLEY: Well, there's a disconnect, but there's also diplomacy. I mean, this is a country that he badly needs to come in to the Middle East peace process and help the U.S. and that's why I sort of like the - well, let's say in public what we're saying in private because I would love to know what was said in private in that meeting in Saudi Arabia. Because that's generally when I've covered these things over the years, you said, "Well, did you bring up, you know, that they beheaded, you know, or that women's rights or they did this, that, or the other." And he said, "Well, the president made clear his views in private meetings."
So, you know, obviously this is something that has been raised. But it's not -- you know, he timing is a lot about, you know, diplomacy and a lot about timing and at least publicly, this speech obviously is going to be it in terms of...
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ROBERTS: You talk about -- when you talk about timing and public and timing this, is a country that sentenced this woman who was gang raped to years in jail saying it was her fault because she was out with the wrong guys.
AMANPOUR: It's clear that the state of women in much of the Arab and Islamic world is deplorable. It's clear. Most U.S., certainly first ladies, others talked about women's rights all the time. Now the president has done that. What's also clear is actual factually, if you look at the UNDP report of several years ago and again updated, but because this part of the world basically disempowers half of its population, it is not nearly as developed.
As Robin Wright pointed out, the entire GDP of all of the Arab and Islamic countries is something like half that of the United States. And that's in part, not entirely, but in part because they don't allow half their population to contribute. That's a fact.
Another fact is that when you educate and empower women, you actually raise the entire level of the community and the nation and they are a firewall against extremism. So for many, many reasons, not just the basic human rights of women, but the basic rights in terms of engagement and development, women's rights need to be addressed and it's now that they need to be addressed.
COSTELLO: Well, but you did make that point.
CROWLEY: The economic point in the speech saying, you know, there must be some connection here. The way women are treated and...
COSTELLO: And they did talk about, like a community, a grassroots effort by women, you know? You increase your power in small increments.
CROWLEY: Well, what's interesting when Lisa was talking about this. Because I think she was on the same trip. We went with Hillary Clinton while she was deciding whether to run for the U.S. Senate. And we went to Egypt and then Tunisia, Morocco, and the whole focus of the trip was these micro loans. And I remember talking to the U.S.A.I.D. guy there, and I said, "Who do you give the micro loans to?" He said primarily the women.
So because when we give, like $1,000. And they said that we find when we give micro loans to a male, they tend to go off and spend it on something that, you know, doesn't produce anything. If we give it to a female, she buys a couple more sheep and makes more rugs or she buys more tools to take plates or whatever she's making in to sell in town. So the micro loan program -- I would really be surprised if the secretary of state had not pushed this -- that particular part in to this speech because I know it's something she was...
COSTELLO: Women actually create their own little economies within these poverty-stricken lands and improve their own lives by themselves without their own government's help.
CROWLEY: And improve their family's lives, ergo, you know, the group's life in you know, sort of...
ROBERTS: I remember the story of the woman -- it might have been in Nigeria. She got a micro loan and she set up a sewing shop where they were sewing clothes and she was employing 10 or 12 people and she was like a little vibrant enterprise that was going on in the actual village itself. Again, back to this idea of diplomacy, you know, where do you draw the line? When you're the leader of the free world, and you're talking about women's rights, where do you draw the line between standing up and saying this is what we like and then really rattling some cages of these nations that oppress half their population? AMANPOUR: Well, he said something important. He said it in the interview with Tom Friedman in "The New York Times" as well, and Candy just pointed out. This whole idea of we're going to start saying the truth, we're going to keep talking the truth, in public as well as in private. And we'll see whether that relates to women as well. He's really means it about the Arab-Israeli peace process and other such things that Israelis know we can't go on having settlements and denying the Palestinians the right to have a place to live.
Most Muslims know that we cannot expect that Israel is going to disappear, but let's say that in public and let's get on with it. So, it's hard to know. But, clearly, many, many people, if you take the Nobel peace prize winner in Iran, Shirin Ebadi, for instance, she has said many, many times that instead of sort of holding and sort of sword (INAUDIBLE) over Iran and regime change, that it should be about human rights, about women's rights as well and push those kinds of issues, too. So I think many people are hoping that the people will be addressed by this next administration, whether it's young people in their hopes for democracy, education, economic development or, indeed, women as well.
CROWLEY: I think the line of what you're talking about is you do not stand in Saudi Arabia and publicly say, you know, I want the leaders here to stop allowing, you know, the following five things. You don't go to Egypt and insult your host...
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ROBERTS: ... women in Saudi Arabia who would like to...
CROWLEY: Absolutely. But you don't do it by name. I think that is something that is much better. I mean, anyone will tell you, I'm no diplomat but, you know, I think that there's a fine line between this sort of thing where he made clear how he feels about women and women's rights and the mutual interest everyone has in seeing that women across the world have rights, and then accusing a, you know, an existing government of doing bad things while standing on their turf.
COSTELLO: And it was nice to hear the applause. Actually I think many women would feel that way after the president remarked about, you know, women should have a right to equal education. This was a big round of applause.
AMANPOUR: What's interesting is also pursuing this notion of respect. The Islamic world, the Arab world are desperate for respect. They don't want to be dictated to.
ROBERTS: It was a very respectful speech.
AMANPOUR: Right. That also comes in the issue of women as well. And it's also, you know, what President Obama did just then was sort of pursue and promote soft power versus hard power.
ROBERTS: Yes.
AMANPOUR: Hard power was the hallmark of the last eight years. This was a soft power speech.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll see how that goes. Come to take a quick break. 52 minutes after the hour. We'll be back with more of our special edition.
COSTELLO: Actually, we will have Octavia Nasr here who has been Twittering. She is receiving tweets from all over the world about the president's speech -
ROBERTS: Oh, great.
COSTELLO: And she's going to share them with us.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Stay with us.
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COSTELLO: We head to Atlanta now to check in with Octavia Nasr. She has been what, the queen of twittering? The queen of tweets? You have been monitoring tweets from all over the world about the president's speech. What are people saying?
OCTAVIA NASR, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, ARAB AFFAIRS: Actually, it's been really fun. Because we had people tweet from all over. We have people from Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, also Pakistan and here in the U.S.. And I'll tell you one thing. The main thing is that they've been counting how many times President Obama had applause breaks. They counted 30 times. And people from inside the hall at the University of Cairo said that the applause was genuine, and people really enjoyed the speech.
I met the dean of (ph)-- a leader -- a media leader in Egypt, he was inside the hall and he said that it was President Obama's charisma which was very obvious that drove the audience, but he said also that the speech had substance and he said that people felt that and they enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, the reaction has been very, very positive to the speech, to the man. They were scrutinizing everything he said. They looked at every word he said. And the reaction was unanimously positive. Even those who oppose him, he had a positive sort of speech.
COSTELLO: Octavia, I was just curious. Because we noticed the loudest applause came when Barack Obama quoted from the Quran and mentioned the history of Islam, you know, the history of the Muslim people, I mean, from your perspective, what parts of the speech did people like best?
NASR: Actually, this was very important. And we were tweeting people were commenting on it that he started his speech first of all, thanking people in Arabic, saying shokran and then he started the speech with "asalam alakum." Peace be with you, the Muslim version of "peace be with you." People loved that. The tweets were going on at that point. This is a good start, this is a good beginning. The quotes from the Quran were very interesting, he chose the one about telling the truth and being conscious of god. He chose the one that says that the Quran teaches if you kill one innocent person it will lead to killing an entire humanity. This is mostly what you hear from moderate Muslims when they talk, when they complain about terror attacks in the name of Islam. They say these terrorists are hijacking the religion.
So when you hear President Obama basically using that same quote from the Quran and getting the applause that he did get, it really shows the support. He was able, through the speech, to bridge the gap, at least for now, and bring people to listen, to pay attention to what he is saying.
One line that I loved from Ahmad Dinadib (ph) who was in the audience, a critic of the U.S., a critic of the Egyptian administration. He said that what he liked most is that President Obama put everything on the table and said, "You pick and choose. This is who I am, this is what I believe. Now it's up to you to either choose to be a partner or be an enemy." He said, "The era, if you're not with us, you're against us, that is over," and he was able to see a new page. And this seems to resonate across the board.
COSTELLO: Fascinating. I just want to read a quick e-mail, actually a Facebook comment from our AMERICAN MORNING site. This is from Hassan. He said, "I'm a Muslim Egyptian and honestly I don't know from where to start but this man changed it all in less than hour. It's like he stopped the time from both of us, Western and Arabs, and took us back to the way we used to be when we really cared about one another. We'll see if that sentiment, lasts but it's nice thing to hear."
NASR: It is. It seems that this is the sentiment. Even though like I said, not everyone agrees with President Obama on everything, but it seems that even those who disagree with him like the speech. They like the tone of the speech. They said that he came across as someone who understands Islam, someone who appreciates Islam, and actually one comment that I got on twitter from Iran, it said they appreciated the fact that President Obama separated al Qaeda from the rest of Islam and it seems that, by just watching what he has been doing - you know, this is message number three to Muslims around the world. This is not his first message. This is the largest, of course.
COSTELLO: Yes.
NASR: But if you watch what he has been doing, it seems that President Obama is going after the moderates which were alienated under the Bush administration...
COSTELLO: Absolutely.
NASR: ... and trying to bring them back.
COSTELLO: Octavia, I have to end the conversation right there because we're going to hit the top of the hour. But we'll talk to you again. Thanks so much.
