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Amanpour

Iraq's Humanitarian Crisis

Aired August 12, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN GUEST HOST (voice-over): While we wait for that press conference, tonight a race against time, thousands desperately flee ISIS

militants as Iraq's politicians struggle to form an inclusive government. I'll speak to the U.N. special envoy to Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country is facing a life-threatening threat because of this current situation.

PLEITGEN: Plus what's next in Baghdad: the military is on the streets of Iraq's capital as world leaders pressure Nouri al-Maliki to step aside.

The view from the country's ex-foreign minister.

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PLEITGEN: Good evening, everyone, thank you for joining us and welcome to the program. I'm Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane tonight.

These are people fleeing for their lives, thousands of men, women and children so desperate to escape ISIS they're trekking into Kurdistan on

foot with little more than the clothes on their back. It's a horrific humanitarian crisis; some have walked for 10 hours with infants in their

arms and many of them have nowhere to go and will have to sleep out in the open tonight.

Meanwhile the United States continues to push hard for a solution to Iraq's political crisis. President Obama and his chief diplomat, John Kerry, will

hardly utter Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's name, instead putting all the focus and the hope on the newly nominated prime minister, Haidar

al-Ibadi.

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JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: And we urge him to form a new cabinet as swiftly as possible. But I will tell you that without any question, we are

prepared to consider additional political, economic and security options as Iraq starts to build a new government.

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PLEITGEN: Meanwhile, al-Maliki is doing all he can to ensure there is no new government. Iraqi troops loyal to him are on the streets of Baghdad

and in a televised address, he said the decision to replace them was, quote, "a dangerous violation of the constitution," and he promised to --

again, a quote -- "fix that mistake."

So what can be done to stop the mounting political and humanitarian crises? Earlier I was able to speak to the U.N.'s special representative for Iraq,

Nikolay Mladenov. He joined me from Varna in his native Bulgaria.

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PLEITGEN: Nikolay Mladenov, thank you very much for joining the program.

First of all, I have to get right to this subject matter, obviously.

Right now, in Baghdad, you have Nouri al-Maliki calling the Iraqi forces for restraint. Nevertheless, they are on the street. It looks as though

there's a stand-off.

How big do you see the threat of violence between factions in Baghdad?

NIKOLAY MLADENOV, U.N. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR IRAQ: I think we should not overstate that threat, because the message from parliament has been

quite clear. There is a -- the largest parliamentary bloc has nominated Dr. Haider al-Ibadi to be the next prime minister. He now needs to focus

on forming a government.

Prime Minister Maliki, from the very beginning of the -- since the elections, has been --

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PLEITGEN: And we're going now to interrupt our coverage of Iraq for a moment to cross to San Rafael in California, where the sheriff's department

is giving a press conference on the death of Robin Williams. Let's listen in.

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