Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Netanyahu at AIPAC; Iran Nuke Talks Move Forward; Nemtsov's Girlfriend Speaks Out

Aired March 02, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: That's pretty good. In a dark and savage and desperate Middle East, Israel is a beacon of humanity, of light and of hope.

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel and the United States will continue to stand together because America and Israel are more than friends. We're like a family, we're practically (inaudible). Now, disagreements in the family are always uncomfortable. But we must always remember that we are family --

-- rooted in a common heritage, upholding common values, sharing a common destiny, and that's the message I came to tell you today. Our alliance is sound. Our friendship is strong. And with your efforts it will get even stronger in the years to come.

Thank you, AIPAC. Thank you, America. God bless you all.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrapping up his address at AIPAC -- we're covering the speech from all political angles. Elise Labott is with Netanyahu inside that auditorium. Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill. Jim Acosta is at the White House. Wolf Blitzer is in Washington. And Christiane Amanpour will join us from London.

Natan Sachs also with us. He's a fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

So let's discuss this speech. I want to start with you, Wolf. Because when Benjamin Netanyahu began his speech, he said that the United States and Israel's alliance is stronger than ever. I want to play a bit of that sound and then I want to ask you a question after. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: Reports of the demise of the Israeli/U.S. relations is not only premature, they're just wrong. You're here to tell the world that our alliance is stronger than ever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Wolf, I got to tell you, as I listened to the rest of his speech, I got the feeling that Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't really believe that. What did you take away from that? WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Well, he clearly disagrees with the President

of the United States on these negotiations with Iran to try to end its nuclear program. He made it clear. He thanked the President for all the economic support, military support, intelligence support.

He said there were certain things that the United States has done for Israel he couldn't even talk about publicly. He went out of his way to underline that that support comes not only from Republicans but from Democrats. He was trying to ease that partisan tension that has clearly developed in the aftermath of the invitation to invite him to speak before congress tomorrow.

At the same time, he didn't minimize the serious differences that his government in Israel has right now with the government of the United States, the President of the United States as to these negotiations. Negotiations aren't even done with yet but he's already saying this is a bad mistake. This may be a mistake for the U.S. but for Israel it could be the end of Israel. He's not mincing any words on that. I'm sure the White House will respond.

I know the President is going to be giving an interview later this afternoon to Reuters and presumably he'll respond. Susan Rice, the President's national security adviser, will be speaking later tonight before this same group. She'll have an opportunity to respond.

But he didn't mince any words. He says this deal is a bad deal that could endanger Israel's security and that's why he says he needs to speak up.

COSTELLO: And Christiane, it seemed to me that he started kind of schooling the audience or maybe the television audience that Israel is located in a part of the world that they can't take any chances with Iran.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, that is, of course, Prime Minister Netanyahu's main theme. He's been saying that as he said he's been prime minister for nine years and most Israeli prime ministers have been saying that obviously.

Obviously nobody wants to see a bad deal. But the question here is a couple. One, Israel if it could would rather that any deal with Iran involved absolutely no enrichment capability whatsoever. And the U.S. and its allies have said, Look, we've tried and we simply haven't managed with draconian sanctions over the better part of two decades to stop them from enriching. And only thing we can do is to make them not exercise any capability that would be military capability with that enriched. And that's the basis of the deal that they hope to strike.

John Kerry has said, look, Israel has benefited as has we and the rest of the world from this interim agreement where there's been no sort of belligerence from Iran over the last year or more since this interim agreement has been in place. And where there has been some sort of hole for the first time in a decade on Iran's nuclear program. So the question is what kind of deal eventually emerges? But they're saying that, look, you know, this is what we can do and it will be good for Israel and it will good for the rest of the world. Israelis are saying --

COSTELLO: I was just going to say the irony is that negotiations are continuing in Switzerland right now.

AMANPOUR: Well, they are. And Israelis are saying, look, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't like this deal, instead of rubbishing it, perhaps he should have tried to get some Israeli demands in it like make it a condition that the Iranians, you know, stop or say they are not going after the annihilation of Israel -- that kind of thing.

And yes, it is going on in Montreux, Switzerland right now. They have a deadline of the end of March to see whether they can come up with anything.

Just a very interesting postscript: the obvious alternative diplomacy is military -- right. If you can't win diplomatically, you're going to have to go militarily. The outgoing IDF chief -- the Israeli Defense Force chief Benny Gantz has given a very interesting interview to Israeli television where he implied without saying it straight out that he stood in the way of any order to go militarily against Iran.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

Ok, I want to go back to President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu's relationship for just a second. Head out to the White House and check in with Jim Acosta.

So in that speech, Jim, Benjamin Netanyahu tried to make clear that things were fine between President Obama and Mr. Netanyahu. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: Let me clarify what's not the purpose of that speech. My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds. I have great respect for both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Of course he's talking about his big speech before congress, which will happen tomorrow. Did what Netanyahu say today, will it ease tensions at all?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don't think so -- Carol. Whenever you have to give a speech where you have to say I don't mean disrespect to the President, that should be a given in Washington and for the prime minister to have to say that, I think goes to the depths of how far this relationship has sunk in recent weeks.

And it is interesting that Netanyahu is giving this speech at AIPAC. He's going to be giving roughly a similar speech tomorrow, I guess. But from talking to administration officials outwardly, they're saying, you know, the relationship is fine. But, you know privately Carol, they are very, very dissatisfied with this visit. They feel like Bibi Netanyahu has injected politics into the U.S./Israeli relationship.

And, you know, one thing that they do say without attribution is that time and again Netanyahu has been wrong on this issue. They say that Netanyahu blasted the joint plan of action, the interim agreement that was reached in late 2013 and now Netanyahu, they say, wants to extend that agreement.

So they feel like Israeli security is being respected here and the thing that I'm told is that what people have to keep in mind in this country is what they're after is improving American security and enhancing American security and they feel like that's also at stake in these negotiations.

You know, Christiane was talking about well, the military prospect is there if these diplomatic talks fail and that is something that you hear privately from officials inside this White House. If this doesn't work, that is potentially where we're headed next and so why is Netanyahu in such a rush?

President Obama has said, Carol, with respect to this relationship, that he speaks to Prime Minister Netanyahu more than any other world leader and that they know where each other stands on this issue. What the President has said and officials say inside this White House is that if these negotiations fail with Iran, that they are moving down that road to other options that are on the table including sanctions and including the potential for military action and that's why the President has said on more than one occasion what's the rush.

COSTELLO: All right. Ok. Well, let's go to Dana Bash now because she's on Capitol Hill. Netanyahu also spoke about not wanting to inject himself into partisan politics. He didn't mean to do that. But he can't back away from that now, can he, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He says he's not trying to inject partisan politics but by definition that's happening because remember the whole reason this is controversial that he's coming to Capitol Hill this speak tomorrow is because he was invited by the House Speaker without prior approval by the White House, which is not certainly the rule but it is tradition and it is protocol for that to happen. That's number one.

Number two, Benjamin Netanyahu is up for re-election himself in just two weeks so there are politics all over this -- global politics going on here. Which is kind of ironic because I will tell you just covering AIPAC for years, their kind of theme has been that they're nonpartisan, bipartisan. They say forget the partisan. Well, it's hard to do that right now.

So that I think just in terms of politics but in terms of substance, I thought a very powerful moment that you're probably going to hear a lot more of tomorrow here on Capitol Hill is where he talked about the tentacles of terror and the image which you won't be able to show when he's speaking to a joint session. But the image of all of the places around the globe, that Iran is helping he says to incite terrorism and to fund terrorism and to prop us terrorist.

That is something that he clearly is using to speak to members of Congress here because everybody here in the United States, as Jim was mentioning has the same responsibility to their constituents as Netanyahu is going to say he has to his. He's coming here with a poll back home in Israel saying that about three-quarters of Israelis agree with him and disagree with the President on these talks with Iran.

That's the kind of Congress that he's going to be facing here and much more importantly, he's going to be facing a congress that he's going to likely ask to help him in his cause, help stop these nuclear negotiations from becoming a reality by using their power, their legislative power to try to do so.

COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash, thanks so much.

I want to go to Natan Sachs now and ask you about politics in Israel. Because at times Netanyahu's speech kind of sounded like a campaign speech to me especially when he introduced his wife and extolled her virtues. What do you think?

NATAN SACHS, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Yes, there was an element of that certainly. Sarah Netanyahu, his wife has been a lot in the news in Israel. She's been criticized by many. And I think there's even an attempt to rebuff it and say Don't attack my family, attack me if you want to.

And really speaking to the Israeli audience, there's two things happening. On substance, the Israelis agree largely with Netanyahu. There's a lot of reason to be wary of this interim agreement (inaudible) or this actual agreement with Iran, if it comes to fruition. The question for Israel, of course, is can it produce a viable alternative. Can it convince the American people, the American legislators, the President, that alternative to this deal would be something short of war? This has been something that Netanyahu has not succeeded in doing so far.

So when he speaks to the Israeli public, he's doing a few things. He's making the case that they largely agree with that Iran is a threat to Israel, that it has spoken about the annihilation of Israel, that if it had the means to do so, it would be terrible.

He speaks about the dangers that many Israelis see in this potential agreement. The Sunset clause, the possibility of large scale enrichment and the threat that if the world lets down on its pressure on Iran, eventually Iran could break out without people being able to stop it in time.

But he's also confronting two other things. One, he's trying to say he has to convince Israelis that he's not damaging the relationship with the United States. So when he is saying this, he's not only saying it to the American people and to the President perhaps, he's also trying to convince Israelis that he's not causing damage to relationship that Israeli voters care about deeply.

Third, he's also trying to convince Israelis of the need to press forward with these kinds of tactics, not only substance of the agreement but these tactics in Washington right now.

COSTELLO: All right. Natan -- thanks so much.

And Wolf, I want you to wrap this all up for us because, of course, this is just a preview of what's to come tomorrow.

BLITZER: He's got a major challenge ahead of him tomorrow. He knows there are going to be a bunch of Democrats who are going to boycott the speech. This is unprecedented for Democrats and Republicans have always pretty much aligned themselves when it comes to supporting Israel and now for a Prime Minister of Israel to come to the United States and have a bunch of Democrats -- whether 20, 30, 40, whatever number eventually decide to boycott, that's a serious problem that the President of Israel faces.

A problem that was certainly brought on by the way of whole invitation was delivered to Israel by the Speaker without going through the White House, without giving the President of the United States the courtesy of knowing that there's an invitation to the Prime Minister of Israel to address a joint meeting of Congress.

Given the very bad way this all has started, he has a major challenge ahead of him tomorrow to try to fix this situation knowing also that as he does, he has an election in Israel in two weeks and there's no guarantee he's going to be re-elected. All polls in his row show, it is very tight right now. He thinks this visit to Washington is going to help him get re-elected although there are plenty of analysts in Israel who think it probably won't help him because it sort of underscores the rift that has developed on his watch between the United States and Israel.

It's a very fluid situation. He's got a huge challenge tomorrow.

COSTELLO: All right. Wolf Blitzer, thanks so much for being with me. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a world away from Washington, John Kerry is in Switzerland today meeting with the Iranian foreign minister. We'll talk a little bit about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Switzerland, a fresh round of talks aimed at making a deal with Iran's nuclear capability is set to start tonight. Secretary of State John Kerry arriving in Geneva where he'll speak with his Iranian counterpart, the foreign minister there -- both sides say progress has been made but acknowledge key sticking points remain.

Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is in Switzerland with more on this. Hi -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. You know, these are the talks here, these are negotiations that are at the root of the acrimony right now between the U.S. and Israel. And in fact it's just in a few minutes when Secretary of State Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Javad Sarif are going to have their first, of what State Department officials say will be multiple meetings over the next three days. So these talks are continuing, they're accelerating even as you have all this division between the U.S. and its ally Israel.

Over the last several days, what you've heard mostly from U.S. officials are attempts to knock down the Israeli position saying that in fact this is the best way forward for peace and stability and in fact for Israel security. Today though we did hear from Secretary of State John Kerry in effect draw a redline in these negotiations say what the U.S. and the West will not give up.

Have a listen to how he put that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I cannot emphasize this enough. I have said this from the first moment that I became engaged in this negotiating process. President Obama has said this repeatedly. We will not accept a bad deal. We have said no deal is better than a bad deal because a bad deal could actually make things less secure and more dangerous. Any deal that we would possibly agree to would make the international community and especially Israel safer than it is today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Of course, the trouble is the U.S. and Israel have different definitions of a bad deal. From the Israeli Prime Minister's perspective any ability for Iran to keep even a civilian nuclear program not acceptable. The outlines of the deal that we're hearing developing here is one that allows some enrichment capability for Israel -- for Iran rather I should say but under tight supervision with a number of limitations, et cetera.

That's a fundamental disagreement, Carol, that really are not going to come together with tomorrow's speech before congress but the negotiators here continuing hard work. They have a deadline at the end of March and another at the end of June. And I'll tell you when you talk to both sides, they do say they're getting closer but those last final gaps still involve a lot of hard work.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Sciutto reporting live from Switzerland this morning -- thank you.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We're following new developments in the death of Boris Nemtsov. Mr. Nemtsov's girlfriend who was with him the night he was shot is now speaking out describing what happened the night the outspoken Putin critic was shot. She spoke with a reporter from Reuters' via Skype a short time ago.

CNN's Diana Magnay has more for you from Kiev. Take it away -- Diana.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right -- Carol. Well, she was actually speaking to a Dozhd TV which is a Russian independent broadcaster.

They were asking what happened on the bridge. She said she didn't see anything. This happened when she was walking with him. She had been going out with him for about two and a half years. And she heard the shooting but it was from behind. When she turned around, she said all she could see was a light colored car. She couldn't make out any kind of license plate or the brand of the car.

I spoke to her mother Ina Duritskaya (ph) who is here in Kiev and extremely worried about her daughter who has been held for interrogation for the last three days and isn't allowed to get back to Ukraine, which is her home country.

Her mother told me that as soon as she called the police when Nemtsov was killed, she then called her mother. This is what she told her happened. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INA DURITSKAYA, MOTHER OF NEMTSOV GIRLFRIEND (through translator): At first when I heard she was dating him, it was a bit of a shock. Then when I met him in person, I liked him a lot. He was straightforward. He treated my daughter very well. She was happy.

I couldn't influence it anyway. My daughter did what she wanted to. Of course, I was worried and scared but I couldn't change it.

She was crying and she was saying Boris had been killed and he's lying next to me. She was in such shock she couldn't say anything else. Just "Mom, Boris is killed and he's lying next to me."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: Now, her mother says that although she's still being described by interrogators as simply a suspect -- sorry, a witness -- forgive me, a witness in the case, she is worried that from the pressure that her daughter is being put under by the mode of questioning, by the fact that she's had some of her possessions taken away from her and the fact that her lawyer, that the questioners have threatened to take her lawyer away from her, that the authorities will try and somehow implicate her daughter in this case.

She's desperately trying to work every avenue she can to get her daughter back to Ukraine, Carol.

COSTELLO: Where is this young woman now -- Diana? Does anyone know?

MAGNAY: She's staying in the apartment of one of Boris Nemtsov's aides. She is then apparently taken by police convoy to a detention facility where she is questioned and last night she was interrogated until 2:00 a.m. in the morning. She says that they're not telling her when she can leave and when she can go home. But for the moment, she's kept in this apartment, which is under 24/7 surveillance and she says she doesn't think she'll even be able to go out to attend the Boris Nemtsov's funeral -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Diana Magnay reporting live from Kiev, Ukraine this morning.

Checking some other top stories for you at 58 minutes past: North Korea has fired two missiles into the Sea of Japan. The launch comes as United States and South Korea begin their annual joint military drills. North Korea slammed those drills saying they are merely a smokescreen to quote, "cover up the surprise invasion of the north", end quote.

A Texas nurse who was the first person to contract ebola in the United States says she's ready to sue. Nina Pham got ebola after treating a patient at a Dallas hospital. Pham claims the hospital did not provide adequate training and then violated her privacy by sharing her medical records. The hospital released a statement saying they continue to support Pham, wish her the best and remain optimistic they can resolve the matter.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)