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President Obama to Speak on Egypt

Aired August 15, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In military aid and that would change U.S. relationship with its strongest Arab ally in the region.

While we wait for President Obama's statement, let's bring in Wolf Blitzer. He's in Washington.

Hi, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM: Carol, hi. This is really a dramatic moment right now. In Egypt's history, a very dramatic moment in the entire Middle East. Egypt the largest of all of the Arab countries. It has a peace treaty with Israel, borders Israel. The closest U.S. ally in the Arab world.

We're going to be anxious to hear what the president of the United States is about to say on these dramatic confrontations over the past 24 hours on the streets of Cairo and other cities in Egypt.

The president may be on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, but this is a crisis that is unfolding for the United States in the region right now. But first and foremost, a major crisis in Egypt. The largest of all of the Arab countries with some 90 million people.

Ian Lee is in Cairo for us. He's been covering all of these events going back to the revolution at Tahrir Square where Hosni Mubarak was deposed as the president of Egypt.

Ian, what is the very latest right now as we await the president of the United States?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we saw just images on state TV showing a government building in Giza -- this is a neighborhood in Cairo -- that reportedly the Muslim Brotherhood supporters have attacked that building and torching it. We saw fires.

Now we can't independently verify that right now, but that is one of the latest clashes we have. We also saw the funerals today for some of the protesters that were killed yesterday as well as security forces. Over 500 protesters were killed, as well as over 40 police officers.

And just to kin of give you an idea, Wolf, earlier this morning the number of deaths were put over 200. Now it's over 500. That number has doubled. We're expecting to have that number increase as the day progresses, as they continue to count the bodies. BLITZER: Ian, we're anxious to hear the president -- President Obama, he's about to speak. And we're going to be anxious to hear if he's going to take any specific steps to deal with this.

Yesterday the Secretary of State John Kerry condemned all the violence on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere, but some of the questions that are being asked, should the U.S. suspend at least for now that $1.3 billion a year in military assistance -- financial military assistance to Egypt, should the U.S., for example, in the coming weeks suspend that planned annual military exercise Operation Bright Star, which goes on in the Sinai every year. Hundreds of U.S. and Egyptian military forces participating.

If the U.S., and we don't know if the U.S. is going to do it, if the president is going to make such an announcement. But if the U.S. were to do either, Ian, and you've been in Cairo for years now, what would be the reaction if that $1.3 billion a year in military aid were suspended and/or that military operation Bright Star were suspended?

LEE: I think you would have really two reactions, Wolf. If you talk to the average Egyptian on the street, they probably would say good riddance, that they don't want this aid from the United States. They feel that it holds them to things that they don't necessarily agree with. But then if you talk to the government, they do need a strong relationship with the United States to continue.

Egypt gets not only aid, but also they have economic benefits which also includes Israel, and they can't really afford to sever those ties. So you really would have two reactions to that. Also you have the Gulf and the Gulf has said that if the United States were to cut this military aid, that they would be willing to step in to fill that gap with the money.

So there really is a lot of different emotions you would have here from the streets. People wouldn't be too upset with that, but to the government who kind understands kind of the ramifications of upsetting the United States.

BLITZER: Yes. It would be a dramatic moment and we don't know if the president is going to do that, but we'll find out very soon. Ian, stand by.

Dan Lothian is on Martha's Vineyard where the president is vacationing but he's about to take a break from that vacation.

I know he's been meeting with his top National Security advisers. This is a real crisis in U.S. Egyptian relations, a real crisis for Egypt.

Dan, do we have any advance word, A, why the president decided to go out and speak publicly on this crisis, and B, what he's going to say?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, first of all, as you know the pressure has been increasing on the president to come out and say something because the violence has been escalating in Egypt. Yesterday the face for the administration was Secretary Kerry. And so that the White House felt that it was important for the president to break his vacation, come out and speak to the nation.

We do expect that the president will again reiterate what the White House put out in a statement yesterday, what Secretary Kerry himself said, that the U.S. condemns the violence calling for the interim government to respect the rights of the people there in Egypt.

I think what's unclear now is whether or not there will be any kind of policy shift. Will the president come out and label what happened in Egypt a coup, which of course would trigger the ceasing of that $1.3 billion that you've been talking about in aid to Egypt.

The other issue that's outstanding, as well, is will the U.S. cancel that joint exercise that it always has with Egypt military. Those are things that perhaps the president will address. But nonetheless, there has been a lot of pressure for the -- on the U.S. to step up its pressure on Egypt because a lot of conversation had been ongoing between U.S. officials and Egyptian officials, yet this violence continues -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Dan, stand by for a moment. I want to bring in Jill Dougherty, as we await the president. Jill covers the state department for as we heard from the secretary of state John Kerry. I know he's been on the phone with Egyptians. We know the secretary of defense Chuck Hagel has been on the phone with the top military leader in Egypt. General Al-Sisi.

Do you get any advance word, Jill, on what we're about to hear from the president?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: No, Wolf, but I can certainly tell you that you could hear in the tone of Secretary Kerry a certain exasperation about the leaders right now in Egypt. Basically just going ahead with what they wanted to do which is apparently using force to crack down on the demonstrators.

And that is the last thing the United States wants to do. They when the -- the deputy to Secretary Kerry Bill Burns because in Egypt and he left and he was discussing all sorts of things with them -- proposals, ideas -- for bringing the two sides together, stopping the violence. They left them on the table. But apparently they were not picked up by the Egyptians.

So there is behind the scenes concern, exasperation. And we'll have to see how far this morning the president wants to take it. If he does take it to calling it a coup, it is as we've been saying a serious step. It would cut that aid $1.3 billion, almost $1.5 billion to Egypt.

It's something that they need. They need it for the military and yet the way the administration has been holding back from doing that is guided by the problem that they have. Which is if they call it a coup and there is no money, it creates further destabilization. It's a big problem -- Wolf. BLITZER: And it's a real dilemma for the Obama administration, Jill, because on the one hand President Morsy, who was democratically elected, he got 52 percent of the vote. He was no great friend of the United States, certainly "No great friend of Israel, and U.S.-Egyptian relations were seriously strained.

On the other hand, these new interim government leaders and the new military, they profess a much greater support for the U.S., they want to improve relations military to military. Want to improve military to military relations with Israel at the same time. So it's a real dilemma for the U.S. to decide what to do. And I know it's not an easy decision the president has to make.

Jill, stand by for a moment. I want to go to Cairo. Arwa Damon has been right in the middle of all of the action.

Arwa, I know you can -- you and your team came under some serious threats yesterday covering what was going on. But what are you seeing right now?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are at what was the sit-in in front of Cairo University. You can see now for the first time in nearly six weeks traffic being able to flow through here.

This entire area behind me used to have tents, families in it, especially at night it would get incredibly crowded. This is the smaller of the two sit-ins. It was cleared fairly quickly yesterday morning. But then there were clashes that broke out in the side streets around it.

People have been coming in, picking through things that are here. We've heard that some government institutions, clean-up crews, were here in the morning, and they will be back, too, really trying to focus on restoring as much the sense of normalcy as one possibly can.

But this action by the government, by the security forces, Wolf, is having some pretty serious consequences. The ripple effect from it most certainly not done just yet. We were just out filming at a church that was just one amongst at least 30 that had been attacked in the last 24 hours by angry mobs of Islamists, focusing their anger for some reason on the Christian community here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the Christian -- community, the Coptic community I Cairo, elsewhere in Egypt under serious threat, right now. As well. Arwa, stand by. The president getting ready to address the nation from Martha's Vineyard where he's vacationing with his family.

We'll have live coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: An important breaking news. There's a real crisis in Egypt right now. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We want to welcome once again our viewers in the United States and around the world.

The president of the United States, President Obama, is about to address the nation, indeed the world, on this crisis in Egypt. He's on vacation in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. We will first hear the president audio only. Later we'll get the videotape. But you will hear the president live. That's coming up within the next couple minutes or so.

The president will speak. What we will be listening for is what the U.S., what the Obama administration has decided to do to deal with this crisis in Egypt. Will there be, for example, a suspension of the $1.3 billion a year in military assistance to Egypt, military financial assistance, that pays for F-16 jet fighters, Abrams battle tanks, other sophisticated hardware. Let's see if the president says anything about that.

The second decision the president has to make in the next few weeks, every year the U.S. military and the Egyptian military, they have joint exercises in Sinai, exercises called Operation Bright Star. They do this every year. They postponed them one year when there was that earlier revolution in Egypt. What will the president say if anything about Bright Star? Several hundred U.S. soldiers, airmen -- and others, they're scheduled to go to Sinai within the next few weeks to participate in these lengthy weeks long exercises. They do it every year. We'll see if it happens this year.

And don't forget, there are still about 700 U.S. soldiers in Sinai right now as part of a multi-national peace keeping force. These soldiers pretty much vulnerable right now. They have been there since the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. We'll see what he says about those 700 American troops already in Sinai right now. We'll see if he says anything about those multi-national force -- troops in Sinai.

Dan Lothian is standing by.

Explain once again, Dan, why we're only going to hear the audio of the president now. We're not going to see him. We'll get to have videotape later. Walk us through that because I want to be transparent with our viewers.

LOTHIAN: Right. But first of all, the president will be making that statement from his vacation home, his rental, out in Chilmark. We are at the work area in Edgartown so a few miles away from the president. Our live location here in the president were to have come to this location, we could have piped it out to you live and with audio -- audio and video. But because it's being made, the statement being made to the pool, and there's no transmission available from the president's vacation location, that is the reason that you will be hearing audio only.

It will be taped video and driven back to us so we can later pipe that out to you, Wolf. So that's sort of housekeeping wise. That's sort of behind the scenes as to why you will not be seeing the president initially but will be hearing his remarks.

Our understanding is that the president will again be echoing some of the remarks that we've heard recently first of all in a statement put out by the White House yesterday but also strong words from Secretary of State Kerry condemning the violence, urging for restraint. Also for the respect of the rights of the people in Egypt.

Also calling for the people of -- rather the government of Egypt to be held accountable for what they promise, which is a quick transition to a civilian democratically elected government. So these are some of the things that we expect the president to talk about, but also outstanding, Wolf, will the president be willing to change the policy and refer to what happened in Egypt as a you coup.

So far the administration has said no, that they have evaluated it, have decided that it's not in the best interests of the United States to call it a coup. So we'll be waiting to find out exactly what language the president uses when he addresses the nation not long from now.

BLITZER: Yes. And the president did do an extraordinary decision the other day sending John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two Republican senators, to Cairo to speak to the military leadership there. Clearly that didn't achieve the goals that the president and these two senators wanted.

Dan, stand by, good explanation. Once again, we're awaiting the president of the United States and we'll hear what he has to say.

Jill Dougherty is getting some more information for us, as well. Our foreign affairs correspondent.

What else are you picking up, Jill?

DOUGHERTY: Well, Wolf, you know, one of the dilemmas here is, if you really go all the way, if the president goes all the way and says it's a coup, it's bringing them into the mess, the diplomatic mess that they've been trying to stay out of. And so the -- pressure by the administration on itself, really has been to hold back and not define it.

So there might be a way that the president expresses his anger doesn't go that far. Because remember no matter which side you take, it's a coupe, if you say it is, it angers the military. If they say it's not a coup, it angers the Morsy supporters. And right now with, what is it, 525 people dead and thousands injured, you simply have to do something.

So what are the pressure points? The pressure points remain, as you pointed out, the military training exercises, and then also all the way to that $1.3 billion. And still they know in that White House very, very well that if you pull the plug on money, it creates very serious problems. And don't forget -- in the economy.

And do not forget, Wolf, of course, that it's -- that Egypt is very, very important with Israel. It is one of the states, Arab states, too, that have a peace agreement with Israel. They kept to it. President Morsy kept to that even in the beginning when people thought a Muslim Brotherhood president would not do that. He did stick with it.

And so keeping that -- the peace between Egypt and Israel is very important. Fighting terrorism is very important. There are a lot of strings that come from this that affect that entire region.

BLITZER: And the U.S., as you know, Jill, under enormous pressure from other friendly countries in the Arab world like the United Arab Emirates, like Kuwait, like Saudi Arabia, to back the military, the new interim government, shall we say, in Egypt right now. And the -- Obama administration clearly very sensitive to that.

As we await the president, and we expect him to be speaking momentarily, let's go to Chris Lawrence. He's over at the Pentagon.

Chris, a lot of focus on Bright Star, this annual joint exercise. U.S. and Egyptian forces, they meet in Sinai. They continue for several weeks. And there is a lot of suspicion right now, a lot of concern, I'm sure in Egypt, that the U.S. -- the president may announce as early as the next few minutes the U.S. is either postponing, suspending, derailing, or whatever, Bright Star.

What are you hearing?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We've been hearing that there has been intense discussion and consideration of postponing that exercise. And really when you say postpone, that's the word they'll use. They mean cancel because there's no chance that this would get rescheduled until at least 2015.

It was canceled in 2011 because of the unrest in Egypt and it's really a way for the U.S. military to demonstrate how it could deploy to the Middle East in the event of a war. It involves thousands of troops, ships, airplanes. That decision would have to be made now or in the next few days because you couldn't get that much personnel over there in time if you were trying to cancel at the last minute.

But, Wolf, in terms of the actual aid, the additional military aid to Egypt, the Foreign Assistance Act -- Assistance Act is very clear that you can't give aid after a coup. But look, presidents have fudged this before. Back in 2009, there was a coup in Honduras in June. President Obama and the Obama administration didn't cut aid until September. And back in 2001, former President George W. Bush asked and got a waiver to give aid to Pakistan when clearly President Pervez Musharraf, they've come to power during a coup. So presidents have fudged this idea of a coup, meaning an intermediate half to aid before. So we'll have to keep a close eye on that.

BLITZER: Yes. The president clearly has the authority if he deems it in the national security interests of the United States. There's a provision in there he can waive the suspension -- supposedly mandatory suspension of that aid. But it would be an extraordinary step as you correctly point out.

And as a lot of U.S. officials have said to me over the past few days, Chris, if the U.S. were to postpone Bright Star, this -- this semiannual exercise, that would send a signal to the opponents of the interim government in Cairo right now. Maybe embolden them and could further fuel the unrest on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt.

One of the dilemmas the Obama administration is facing right now, what signals does it send and if it sends the wrong signal, could that exacerbate the current violence and death.

All right, but let's wait for the president. Let's take a quick break. We're told he will be speaking in the next few minutes. We'll have live coverage here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: The president of the United States on Martha's Vineyard right now on vacation but he's going to break that vacation, at least for a while. He's been in crisis meetings with his top national security advisers over the violence and the deaths, the enormous amount of injuries on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and elsewhere in Egypt.

He will address the nation momentarily. We will have live coverage. That's coming up. Anxious to hear what the president announces about Operation Bright Star, this U.S./Egyptian military exercise involving hundreds and hundreds of troops scheduled to begin in the next few weeks. We'll see if the president announces a suspension of Bright Star.

We'll also see what if anything the president says about the $1.3 billion in military assistance the U.S. provides Egypt every year to purchase F-16 jet fighters, Abrams battle tanks, and other sophisticated hardware.

Let's check in with Ian Lee right now. He's in Cairo for the very latest.

I know both sides, those who support the ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsy, including a lot of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and supporters, they will be anxious to hear what the president of the United States has to say. And General El-Sisi, the other leaders of the interim government, they will be anxious to hear what the president of the United States has to say.

Ian, this situation is enormously complicated and tense right now.

LEE: Well, that's exactly right, Wolf. Really -- and both sides aren't giving an inch either. Yesterday we really saw the genie let out of the bottle when security forces clashed with those supporters of former president, Mohamed Morsy, and really spread across the country.

Right now we have a bit of a lull, we're not really seeing the violence that we saw yesterday. Not even close seeing the violence we saw yesterday. But people will be watching what the president has to say. And if you look on Twitter and see the people, the Egyptians who are talking, they say they're going to be watching what the president has to say.

A lot of them are skeptical that something positive will come out to what he has to say especially a lot of people are anxious to see what will happen with the U.S. relations with Egypt if they will -- if President Obama will call it a coup, what that means for the aid that comes to Egypt, also the relations with military.

But we must remember that the United States has always had very close ties with the Egyptian military. This goes back very far to the ways -- to the days of Sadat. As if they've developing this close relationship. And it will be a big break if they do cut relations between the two militaries and really we've always seen the back channels here in Egypt go through the different militaries, whether it was when the -- they ousted Former President Hosni Mubarak, but now there always have been somewhat of a back channels between the two military's close relations. It be a big deal if those relations would be cut.

BLITZER: We're now told, Ian, the president is less than two minutes away from beginning his remarks. So we'll have of course live coverage.

Lots at stake right now for the United States. Certainly an enormous amount at stake for Egypt right now.

Jake, give us a little perspective on what's going on.

JAKE TAPPER, ANCHOR, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": Well, one of the things that the Obama administration hasn't really talked about much is the fact that the U.S. government has longstanding, deep ties to the Egyptian military. So the idea that the Egyptian military is behind this violence in many ways is awkward for the United States which wants to be on the side of not just stability in the region, but also of course on the side of democracy.

There is also a question of what the Muslim Brotherhood is doing as part of this violence. It's not as if the Muslim Brotherhood is blameless as we heard from many reports on CNN yesterday about people -- some of the confrontations being between activist and people who did not want them in their neighborhood, just normal ordinary Egyptians.

So there a lot of competing tensions when it comes to this dilemma and Obama has tried to thread the needle, talking about the need for the demonstrations to be peaceful.

BLITZER: All right. Hold on, Jake.

TAPPER: OK.

BLITZER: I want to go -- right. The president has started speaking.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning, everybody. I just finished a discussion with my national security team about the situation in Egypt, and I wanted to provide an update about our response to the events of the last several days.

Let me begin by stepping back for a moment. The relationship between the United States and Egypt goes back decades. It's rooted in our respect of Egypt as a nation and ancient center of civilization, and a cornerstone for peace in the Middle East. It's also rooted in our ties to the Egyptian people, forged through a longstanding partnership.

Just over two years ago, America was inspired by the Egyptian people's desire for change as millions of Egyptians took to the streets to defend their dignity and demand a government that was responsive to their aspirations for political freedom and economic opportunity. And we said at the time that change would not come quickly or easily, but we did align ourselves with a set of principles: nonviolence, a respect for universal rights, and a process for political and economic reform.

In doing so, we were guided by values, but also by interests, because we believe nations are more stable and more successful when they're guided by those principles as well.

And that's why we're so concerned by recent events. We appreciate the complexity of the situation. While Mohammed Morsy was elected president in a democratic election, his government was not inclusive and did not respect the views of all Egyptians. We know that many Egyptians, millions of Egyptians, perhaps even a majority of Egyptians were calling for a change in course.