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Amanpour

The Nuclear Physicist Negotiating for America; Fighting Hate with Humor; Imagine a World. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 07, 2015 - 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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[14:00:13] CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Tonight: how to close the Iran nuclear deal. I speak to the U.S. Energy Secretary, who's top physicist

and technical negotiator advising President Obama on the fine print.

Also ahead, forced to marry her rapist, we return to a shocking story and we ask has anything really changed for women in Afghanistan?

And tackling anti-Muslim prejudice here in the United States with humor. The comedian Aasif Mandvi joins me live to discuss his new project.

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Wake up and smell the curry, Jon. Indians are taking over America.

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AMANPOUR: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. I'm Christiane Amanpour.

The reality of a far reaching nuclear deal with Iran has begun to sink in. Critics and supporters alike are drilling down on the details and the

implications of a final agreement. A crucial element in Iran, the heads of the military and hardline Revolutionary Guards have thrown their weight

behind the deal while, in America's rebellious Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike are gathering steam behind a bill that would give them

the right to reject any final agreement.

The president says wait and see.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a political framework and an understanding, but the devil is in the details, and over

the next two to three months we are going to be in a very tough series of negotiations to make sure that the mechanisms we've set in place actually

work. And, you know, we have experts who have been working on this for decades now who have a pretty clear sense of what would work and what would

not.

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AMANPOUR: So advising the president onto how to close that deal is the most important technical expert on America's negotiating team, Energy

Secretary Ernest Moniz. He's one of the nation's top nuclear physicists and I spoke with him moments ago from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Secretary Moniz, welcome to the program.

ERNEST MONIZ, U.S. SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: This is, many people say, an amazing thing. You yourself have said, quote, "We have blocked all pathways to a nuclear bomb by Iran."

What makes you so sure?

MONIZ: Well, it's a combination of things. Certainly we have imposed some very strict limits on what they can do in particular in the first 10

years, although there are additional restrictions that go on for 15, 20, 25 years and some even longer than that.

Those block Iranian pathways; they block a plutonium pathway.

But probably most important of all, we have extraordinary access and transparency requirements so that we cannot only reinforce these direct

plutonium and uranium breakout possibilities, but also we believe we'll have excellent insight into any possible covert activities.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you specifically about the inspections? People who have looked at the fact sheet that's been put out seem to be quite amazed

that this amount of transparency was achieved.

Can you tell us is it any place, anytime? Is it additional protocol plus? And is transparency a deterrent as some have suggested?

MONIZ: Well, we certainly think so on your last point. And it is additional protocol plus. For example, we will have -- or, I say we, but

of course in the end, it's the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors will have access throughout the entire supply chain going all

the way back to uranium production through centrifuge manufacturing to actually operating facilities.

And some of these measures, for example, on the early parts of the supply chain will actually last for 25 years. So these are pretty extraordinary,

I think, measures. But we thought it was essential. Let's face it, we wouldn't be where we are today with international sanctions et cetera if

there were not significant suspicions shall we say about earlier activities.

AMANPOUR: In plain English that inspection regime means what exactly?

MONIZ: Well, it means that the inspectors will have continuous surveillance opportunities to all the declared facilities for sure.

[14:05:03] There's also put in place a defined time limit in terms of access to undeclared facilities, where there's reason to think there might

be activities not allowed in the agreement.

Furthermore, there's agreement that the IAEA will be able to use all of its advanced technologies, clearly cameras but also a whole variety of sensors,

communications devices attached to seals so that if there is any tampering, for example, that would be in essentially real time -- a real-time signal

to be explored.

So there -- it's really a very extensive set of measures.

AMANPOUR: The framework says that U.S., E.U. and U.N. Security Council will suspend sanctions pending Iranian compliance. Exact steps required

for suspension are vague as is the timing.

Can you please tell us when do these sanctions get lifted?

MONIZ: Well, first of all, I should emphasize that of course Secretary Kerry is our lead negotiator and was particularly engaged in that. But

basically as a general statement what I'd say is that the core nuclear provisions must be satisfied, the provisions that give us our confidence in

at least a one-year time period to any possible breakout before the sanctions start to gradually come off, a lot still needs to be worked out

in terms of the exact timing and the figures for various stages of the sanctions relief.

AMANPOUR: Well, can I just ask you because are you talking about, I don't know, two months, 18 months? These things that you're saying have to be

done, how long does it take to do those?

MONIZ: Well, of course, that will be to a large extent in the hands of the Iranians. There will be a number of steps to be taken such as the one of

reducing a stockpile, such as reducing to the number of centrifuges that will be operating, which is about just over 5,000. I would give a rough

rule of thumb of perhaps six months, but could be a bit shorter, could be a bit longer. Again, it will depend upon their ability to execute those

moves.

AMANPOUR: And do you think that's going to be acceptable since they say, you know, once they've signed it immediate or do you have agreement on a

six-month implementation period?

MONIZ: Well, no, again, it's not a fixed six months. It's whatever time it takes them to do it. I'm just giving you a ballpark that I would guess.

As I said, I mean, there's quite a bit of work to do, you know, the 10,000, 10 tons of material and significant reduction in centrifuges, they will

have to be taking out centrifuges, putting them into IAEA monitored storage.

But they will also have to take out the infrastructure to support those centrifuges. They have to do that at Natanz. They have to do that at

Fordo. They have a lot of work to do. And that's why I think six months is probably a realistic guesstimate of the time required.

AMANPOUR: And they got that, did they? They knew that?

MONIZ: Oh, yes, for sure.

AMANPOUR: And can I ask you, you know, you were brought in by Secretary Kerry, by President Obama, to really hammer out the nuclear physics of it,

the technical expertise of it.

What was it like being around the table with the Iranian nuclear negotiator, Salahi? You were both at MIT during the '70s. You didn't know

each other there.

But how did the dynamic change and evolve?

MONIZ: Well, of course, I wasn't there prior to our being involved but I'm told the dynamic did shift. And we had many meetings with Secretary Kerry

and Foreign Minister Zarif, who, of course, were the leaders of the two delegations, if you like. Always on our side, by the way, with an E.U.

person there as well.

What I would say is -- and certainly in my direct negotiations with Dr. Salahi, that they were, first of all, extremely professional. And I think

we really established a very good personal relationship, which helped us to get into a problem-solving mode as opposed to a posturing mode.

And I think that is what allowed us to work through 20-plus issues and to do so with considerable specificity which encourages me for being able to

reach the 90-day agreement certainly on the issues with technical dimensions.

AMANPOUR: And politically, how do you read and are you encouraged by the fact that so far all the major power centers in Iran, whether it's the head

of the army, the head of the Revolutionary Guard, the speaker of the parliament, all have lined up behind this deal?

[14:10:00] MONIZ: Well, yes, obviously that's quite encouraging. And of course I -- we all assume that this could not go forward without a pretty

direct endorsement of the Supreme Leader in Iran.

But I have to say personally what gives me the most encouragement is the support, the public support of the young people in Iran. I think that

hopeful augurs well for the future relationship after a period in which hopefully trust and confidence can be built up in the international

community about the peaceful nuclear motives, at least, in Iran.

AMANPOUR: And on this issue, do you think the President of the United States will have a successful job wrangling support where it matters in

Congress?

MONIZ: Well, I'm certainly optimistic because I think we have a very good case. And in fact the president, by the way, has evidence in some of the

photographs that appeared, the president was very, very directly coupled with us. He is deeply knowledgeable about the agreement and was so during

the negotiations.

So he has a very, very deep knowledge of this and, again, I think he has a good case, a very good case to make. So I'm very hopeful that we'll be

able to move forward with this and, again, provide over 10, 20 years the opportunity for Iran to again regain the trust and confidence of the

international community in their nuclear ambitions.

AMANPOUR: Secretary Moniz, thank you very much indeed for joining me from the White House there.

MONIZ: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now of course Secretary Moniz's Energy Department is now dealing with that major power outage which has rolled through Washington and has

also the White House. And of course he did go into details about how Iran has to get...

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: -- enriched uranium. For that, you can go online at amanpour.com.

And of course as usual some of the most vocal and visual commentators are the cartoonists.

Here's one that caught our eye, saying it all about Hassan Rouhani, Barack Obama and the framing of the deal.

After a break, from cartoons to comics, "The Daily Show's" Aasif Mandvi on comedy, race and Jon Stewart's replacement -- that's next.

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[14:15:24] AMANPOUR (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) and "The Daily Show" appears to be embracing a global view, choosing now a South African comedian to

replace long-time host Jon Stewart.

Here with me now to talk about all of this is Aasif Mandvi.

AASIF MANDVI, "THE DAILY SHOW" CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

AMANPOUR: Hi, welcome back.

MANDVI: Yes, thank you. Thanks for having me back.

So humor, you're going to break down racial stereotypes and prejudices? What is this?

MANDVI: Yes. We're going to solve the problem. We're going to solve -- we're going to finish Islamophobia. That's it. Done.

AMANPOUR: Is that what it was that made you have this idea? What was it?

MANDVI: Well, you know, we have done a piece on "The Daily Show" about five years ago, and it was dealing with this idea of Islamophobia. And

we've created this parody sitcom and it was myself and Miles Khan (ph), who is one of the producers of "The Daily Show."

And so cut to several years later, I was approached to create something that was dealing with this issue or say something in this arena, you know,

having been that person on "The Daily Show" for a number of years. And I thought would it be great to just sort of resurrect this idea of this all-

American sitcom and give it a spin of dealing with certain issues that American Muslims deal with on a regular basis.

AMANPOUR: We're going to play another clip and then we'll talk about it.

MANDVI: Yes.

(VIDEO CLIP, "FUNNY OR DIE")

AMANPOUR: Well, there you are, mosques and pork with bacon --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: -- are people going to get it?

MANDVI: I hope so. I mean, I think they will. We're satirizing a lot of things. One of the main things we're satirizing on this is the racism and

the Islamophobia and how the absurd sort of nature of it, you know, in that particular episode, it deals with the idea of an informant where I think

that my kids' teacher, because he's a Muslim and he happens to be white, must be an informant for the FBI because -- and it sort of talks about how

the American Muslims do deal with surveillance and FBI infiltration into their communities and their mosques and things --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: And not only that, you know, one of the latest polls basically say that 27 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Muslims, which

has actually dropped over the past several years, but get this, amongst those who know Muslims or Arabs, figures are much higher in terms of

favorability towards them.

So is this what you're trying to do, get people to know through humor?

MANDVI: Yes, I think so. I think that, look, you know, Muslim -- for most Americans, when they hear the word "Muslim" it's like hearing the word

cancer, you know. They have a reaction to it. And I think that's unfair. And I think this conversation that after 9/11 I felt like Americans were

asking the question why, why did this happen? What prompted this? What happened in the world that this -- now 15 years later that conversation has

been hijacked by politicians, media to say here's what it is. It's that you need to be afraid. We need to be afraid of these people and so you end

up with statistics like the one you just read. And it changes when people have personal relationships or have -- and humor is an access point for

people to get to deal with some of these issues and talk about this stuff in a way that, you know, other things might not really -- you know, people

might not watch.

AMANPOUR: One hundred percent.

What happened in your life that propelled you to do this?

Did you find any of that kind of anti-Muslim bias, because this is the first time you've tackled this issue. You did the play, "Disgrace,"

several years ago, which was about interracial, interreligious tension.

MANDVI: I grew up as an actor. I was doing comedy theater and not really addressing this specific Muslim identity that I had until I got on "The

Daily Show."

And when I got on "The Daily Show," suddenly I was out there, speaking to people, interviewing people who were saying crazy things to me and also

9/11 happened just prior to that.

And so there was this kind of -- 9/1 happened; I got on "The Daily Show." I found I had this platform.

[14:20:00] I found that there was a voice that was not out there. And I was suddenly being looked at as like the person who was --

AMANPOUR: The spokesman.

MANDVI: -- for the friendly Muslim on TV, you know, which was a very uncomfortable situation for me.

AMANPOUR: Let's talk about the friendly foreigner.

MANDVI: Yes.

You know, "The Daily Show" has actually embraced quite a global outlook, whether it's Aasif Mandvi and his Muslim correspondent, where it's John

Oliver, the Brit who's now gone over to HBO, or whether it's the new replacement for Jon Stewart, the South African comedian, Trevor Noah.

You know, he's been in a little bit of trouble recently because of some tweets. I just want to put there what Jon Stewart has said in his defense,

then we'll talk about it.

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JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": I do hope you give him an opportunity to earn that trust and respect, because my experience with him is that he

is an incredibly thoughtful and considerate and funny and smart individual. And man, I think, you give him that time, and it's going to be well worth

it. I'm excited for where he's going to take this thing.

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AMANPOUR: So I'm excited. I want to talk to Trevor Noah, so any influence you have.

But you told him just simmer down and just you know, don't take those tweets --

(CROSSTALK)

MANDVI: I can't put it any better than Jon Stewart put, you know, and the only thing I can say is that, look, it feels a little bit hysterical.

AMANPOUR: And funny, though, those tweets?

MANDVI: I don't want to say whether they're funny or not; I mean it was comedic -- look. He's probably done 8,000 tweets and we're looking at four

of them. Like, there's going to be a presidential candidate like 25 years from now.

What are we going to do? Are we going to go back to his Twitter feed when he was 15?

AMANPOUR: But you know that's happening right?

MANDVI: I know. But is that the world we want to live in in terms of like we just somebody on five tweets that they've done over the course of their

life?

So I think that we're having a little bit of a hysterical reaction to the fact that Daddy's leaving and --

AMANPOUR: Daddy being Jon Stewart leaving the chair.

MANDVI: Yes, he's leaving the chair. We don't want to see him go. No one wants to see him go. But he's going. And we're going to have a new guy

and it's going to be -- you know, we're going to have to get used to it.

AMANPOUR: And we're going to have a new guy who's not an American.

What does this say about, I don't know, the society, the body politic?

MANDVI: I love it. I mean, I love the fact that there's -- that what Trevor's going to bring is a global perspective. You know, he is a global

comedian. He's not American. And I love that idea that like there's going to be a more of a global perspective. It's -- you know, it's CNN

International.

AMANPOUR: Hey, hey.

(LAUGHTER)

MANDVI: You know what I mean?

AMANPOUR: I couldn't agree more.

And you're staying, right?

MANDVI: I am.

AMANPOUR: You're staying on "The Daily Show"?

MANDVI: Yes, right now, yes.

AMANPOUR: Aasif Mandvi, thank you very much indeed.

MANDVI: Thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And of course we live in a world of mirror opposites, comedy and tragedy. And after a break, we turn to the latter. Imagine a world where

one of the great successes in Afghanistan becomes a portrait of failure. Afghan women paying the price -- after this.

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[14:25:24] AMANPOUR: And finally tonight, imagine a world where a family portrait exposes the tragic failure of humanity. Gulnaz, the bride in this

picture, sits by her husband, who is her rapist. In 2009 she was assaulted by him and then imprisoned under Afghanistan's sharia code, which declares

her guilty of adultery because he was married to her cousin at the time of the attack.

Now CNN covered this story extensively back then. And after an international outcry, she was freed; alas, only trading one jail for

another as she and her new husband told our Nick Paton Walsh in this exclusive.

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ASADULLAH (through translator): If I hadn't married her, according to our traditions, she couldn't have lived back in society. Her brothers didn't

want to accept her back. Now, she doesn't have any of those problems.

GULNAZ (through translator): I didn't want to ruin the life of my daughter or leave myself helpless so I agreed to marry him. We are traditional

people. When we get a bad name, we prefer death to living with that name in society.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: The look on Gulnaz's face says it all. And almost 15 years since the Taliban was overthrown there have, though, been significant

progress for women in Afghanistan. But the country's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, told me last month that it was imperative to cement

those advances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, CEO OF AFGHANISTAN: We cannot survive as a nation if half our population is deprived from their basic rights.

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AMANPOUR: Of course, Gulnaz's case shows that many still are seriously deprived of those rights. Today an Amnesty International report says the

Afghan government still isn't doing enough to protect women from attacks, concluding that, quote, "Perpetrators almost always walk free and threats

reported by women's rights defenders are often simply ignored."

Since 2002, USAID has channeled more than $17 billion of aid to Afghanistan. Not a penny of that has helped Gulnaz. But she lives in hope

that for her daughter protection will not prove so elusive.

And that is it for our program tonight. Remember you can always see the whole show online at amanpour.com, and follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

[14:27:40] Thank you for watching and goodbye from New York.

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