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The Amanpour Hour

Interview WITH Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares; Interview With 22-Time Tennis Grand Slam Champion Rafael Nadal; On the Perilous Road To Ukraine's Front Lines; Interview With Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty; NYT: U.S. Eyed Return Of Hardliner For Iran's Leadership; Marking Memorial Day Weekend. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired May 23, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:40]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR. Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: I asked the Spanish foreign minister why his country has swapped appeasement for criticizing Trump policies towards allies.

Then a sporting Spaniard, the King of Clay, tennis legend Rafael Nadal, joins me on a new documentary revealing the pain behind his athletic prowess.

RAFAEL NADAL, 22-TIME TENNIS GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: There's another part of real life in the professional athlete world. And that's my story.

AMANPOUR: And as drone warfare gets more and more advanced and deadly, Nick Paton Walsh follows Ukrainian troops on a long march to the front.

Also, my exclusive interview with the Egyptian foreign minister. Why his nation believes an end to the war with Iran is getting closer.

BADR ABDELATTY, EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We are doing our best efforts. But it takes two to tango.

AMANPOUR: And with "The New York Times" reporting that Israel and Washington's plan for a vassal Iranian state included wanting the ultra-hardliner, Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take over.

From my archives, the former president reveals why he may not have been the perfect choice.

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, FORMER IRANIAN PRESIDENT: Do not doubt that our people will not lose.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London.

Has the relationship between Europe and the United States ever been lower? Patience is wearing dreadfully thin on both sides of the Atlantic. America's European allies are now becoming openly critical of the U.S.

But one country has been pushing back for a while on everything from immigration, to denying the U.S. access to its air bases for its war on Iran, to constantly criticizing the Israeli government's harsh policies against the Palestinians.

Yes. I am talking about Spain. Their latest move, demarching Israel's envoy to Madrid after this video emerged of far-right extremist minister, Ben Gvir, humiliating activists from Spain and around the world after intercepting their Gaza-bound flotilla, which was in international waters.

So is Spain an outlier or a harbinger of a widening split between the United States and Europe? I asked foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Foreign minister Albares, welcome to the program.

Let's just get to the heart of this issue of the intercepted flotilla. All those who are on it have now been deported back to their home countries, according to the Israeli government.

But you were very angry. You called Minister Ben-Gvir's actions really humiliating, all those -- monstrous, undignified and humiliating. Did you ever get an apology from the Israeli government?

JOSE MANUEL ALBARES, SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER: No, not directly. I asked for one, because I think that a country that says that it's a democracy doesn't behave in this way.

You don't assault in international waters, and you don't make illegal detentions, and in addition, you don't inflict such an inhumane and humiliating treatment to citizens.

Democracies, we don't act like that. That's why I asked for those apologies. I haven't got them. And that's why Spain, with other European countries, we are asking for a ban of this particular minister into the European Union, as Spain has enforced since many months ago.

AMANPOUR: That's interesting. Of course, you saw that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his foreign minister did post that this was not, you know, action by Ben-Gvir in accordance with the norms and laws and sort of, you know, things of Israel.

Are you convinced by their sort of rapping him over the knuckles?

ALBARES: No, I think that is better than saying nothing. But if in any democracy a minister could act and behave in that way, the next minute he wouldn't be a minister anymore.

And that's a common responsibility of the Israeli government. And these actions must stop. It's not the first time that we see this sort of assault in international waters, where no Israeli agent has jurisdiction on any of our citizens.

[11:04:52]

ALBARES: And of course, I find this appalling, outrageous, and I cannot accept, and I will never accept that my citizens are treated in this way by anyone in the world.

AMANPOUR: Now, you know that you've become sort of, you know, a bullseye target for the Israeli government. And their foreign minister basically accuses you all in Spain of leading a hostile anti-Israel line. They call it, you know, trying to divert from, quote, "your severe corruption" scandals through anti-Israel, anti-Semitic attacks. How do you respond to that?

ALBARES: It's absurd. That is ridiculous. Spain and its foreign policy is above all pro-peace, pro-peaceful coexistence, anti-war.

We will never accept that the only way that Israel has to relate with its neighbor is through war and through violence. There must be a way of peaceful coexistence, and that is called the two-state solution.

Of course, we support the existence of the State of Israel. We have condemned the horrible terrorist attack of Hamas on October the 7th. We have condemned and voted for every package of sanctions to Hamas in E.U. Hamas has nothing to do with the future of Palestine.

AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister, you know the president of the United States has threatened NATO. He's already announced the Pentagon will pull back, you know, thousands of troops from Germany and who knows where else in NATO.

You're at a meeting in Sweden to prepare for the future NATO summit with world leaders. He complains a lot about the leads Spain takes, whether it's on NATO, defense spending, on climate policy, immigration.

You've really made it your business to challenge President Trump on these issues.

ALBARES: We really believe in the transatlantic relation. We at the government have done the largest and the fastest increase in our defense expenditure. It's 2.1 right now, more than some of the countries in NATO. And we have delivered all the capacities that have been requested. Not all the countries in NATO have done it.

We want that transatlantic relation to be as strong as possible within the framework of our common values and the respect of international law.

AMANPOUR: What do you think of the consequences of the U.S. indictment of Raul Castro, former president and former defense minister of Cuba, sending in an aircraft carrier, the Nimitz, and basically increasing the

pressure?

You are going to be meeting Marco Rubio. I don't know whether you're going to ask him about this. But what is the plan and do you support the indictment? Because it does revolve around an issue where the Cubans did shoot down civilian little planes, basically in cold blood, with MiGs all those decades ago.

ALBARES: We are very worried for the humanitarian situation of the Cuban people. Cuban people are brothers and sisters of Spain, as all the people in Latin America. We see the humanitarian situation. We try to help them with that, with food, with medical staff, with solar panels.

And what I want for the Cuban people is exactly the same that I want for the Spanish people -- freedom, democracy, social justice, equality.

But everything must be done in full compliance with international law and also guaranteeing the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Cuba. So, that's where Spain is standing right now.

AMANPOUR: But just briefly, do you think they're headed towards extracting Castro?

ALBARES: I cannot answer that question. That's a question that only the government of the United States could answer.

AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister Albares, thank you so much for joining us.

ALBARES: Thank you. My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Coming up later on the show, an exclusive interview with Egypt's foreign minister, projecting hope for negotiations with Iran.

But first, a true Spanish hero. My candid conversation with tennis legend Rafael Nadal.

It wasn't all glory and joy. No, pain and suffering were constant companions along his record-breaking journey.

[11:09:03]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program.

What more can you say about a tennis champion called Rafa? Well, surprisingly a lot.

Rafael Nadal, the tennis star, won two Olympic gold medals and 22 Grand Slams, a record 14 of them on his favorite red clay at Roland Garros, the French Open. But now, a new Netflix documentary that followed him on his final

season in 2024 reveals all that success came at a huge cost.

Injuries and chronic pain meant that for decades, success walked hand in hand with suffering and doubt and anxiety and a superhuman will to compete, never knowing how long his career would last.

Here's some of the trailer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With Rafa, you know that every match is live or die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just made you feel that you need to play superhuman to beat him.

NADAL: I need to push my body to the limit. And if something happens, something happens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are we going to continue like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he wants to continue, how can we stop him?

[11:14:50]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We understand that time is running out. But on the other hand, he's Rafa Nadal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: The documentary premiered in Spain this week, and I was there. I spoke to the great champion in Madrid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Rafael Nadal, welcome to the program.

NADAL: Thank you.

AMANPOUR: It's been about two years that you haven't been competing. How is retirement treating you?

NADAL: Very good. Two years now.

AMANPOUR: You liked it?

NADAL: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

NADAL: I never was afraid of that. And --

AMANPOUR: Really?

NADAL: Yes, honestly. AMANPOUR: This is a documentary, I thought, about pain and suffering.

I mean, I really felt the pain halfway through. It was incredible.

Why did you decide to reveal this part to the world?

NADAL: What I wanted to show in the documentary was my real life. And real life is not only about playing Sundays, holding trophies on your hands, and good things. That, you know, there's another part of real life in the professional athlete world. And that's my story.

AMANPOUR: And it really is, and it's shown in excruciating detail. I mean, in 2005, when you were playing the match, and you felt a crunch in your foot --

NADAL: Yes.

AMANPOUR: -- and it turned out you had broken something, and it turned out that you had this very rare -- is it called Mueller-Weiss?

NADAL: Yes.

AMANPOUR: You said, I'm devastated, I'm destroyed -- this is in a car scene. You then had to wear an insole that, I don't know whether people knew about that. But you tried to do everything you could to make it work.

Tell me about that. What was it like having to play with that pain? Did you think you'd be able to have a long career after that? That was 2005.

NADAL: Probably that was the toughest part in my tennis career, because that was just the beginning. 2005 was the first year that I won my first Grand Slam. I finished my year like a world number two.

So, that was one of the last tournaments of the year. So, after that, it was just the beginning of my success.

So, in some way, when you receive all this news that maybe you will not be able to keep doing the same things as you are used to do it, wow.

In some way, you are projecting your future, being a professional tennis player, thinking that you're going to have at least, I mean, 7, 8, 10 years of being on the professional tour. That's why you have been practicing almost all your life.

And in one second, it looks like, ok, now maybe you will not be able to keep doing what you are doing. So --

AMANPOUR: Is it scary?

NADAL: Yes, because at 19 years old, of course, you feel everything in a different way.

AMANPOUR: You do express throughout the documentary anxiety and stress about all of this, which is presumably understandable. Your wife talks about it. You know, you went to see a psychiatrist at

some point or a therapist to try to get through it. This is going to resonate with people all over the world, particularly men, young men.

Tell me about the level of anxiety and stress, having to go out, for instance, at one point with a bottle of water the whole time, you know, and how you worked through that.

NADAL: Yes. I mean, probably because I went through a lot of injuries, a lot of pressure. And I always thought that I need to fix things for myself in terms of mental strength.

But arrived a moment that when I was -- my feeling was, ok, I cannot go out on the street without a bottle of water on my hand. So yes, that's a big deal. So, I need to find help. And that's what I did.

I went to a psychologist first. But then I went to the psychiatrist --

AMANPOUR: Yes. Psychiatrist.

NADAL: -- psychiatrist. And then after that I started with some -- yes, some medication for a while. And I was able to start feeling improvements after a couple of months.

And then, of course, that was for around a year. And then, of course, I recovered and I am again.

AMANPOUR: Your rituals, I once asked you about it. You know, a lot of people say it's OCD, whatever. And I asked you about your rituals when you won in Australia a few years ago.

And you said, do you think I do this kind of stuff off the court? No, it's for me to feel in control and safe on the court.

Tell me a little bit more about that, because you really do talk about it a lot in the documentary. You explain it.

NADAL: Yes, because I think was -- I mean, people approach that a little bit like superstition, or that I need to do that.

[11:19:49]

NADAL: I mean, probably people, when they watch me do all of this on the court, they think that I am doing all these things in my real life too. And it's completely the opposite.

You know, I was very organized on a tennis court because probably all these issues helped me to stay focused and to don't think much on other stuff, no, just stay a little bit on my bubble.

To be honest, outside of the tennis court, I mean, you can talk with my people, I am not that organized. I don't have all these rituals.

But that really helped me --

AMANPOUR: It did. NADAL: -- to stay focused on what I needed to be.

AMANPOUR: Yes, well, it worked. I mean, you know, obviously, the record stands.

Carlos Alcaraz is not playing. Even he's pulled out of Wimbledon. He had caused some controversy or debate in the tennis world when he gave an interview that said, yes, I actually like to go to Ibiza. I want to go dance. I want to take time off, you know, from the grueling schedule of the -- you know, of the off season. Do you think that's good?

NADAL: Everyone has a different personality, you know. I did too, you know. I was not a guy that was -- my life was not only tennis, tennis, and tennis.

AMANPOUR: Did you dance?

NADAL: I did. I went to Ibiza every single year with my friends.

AMANPOUR: Did you?

NADAL: Yes, that's true.

AMANPOUR: I didn't know that.

NADAL: But, I mean, everyone needs to find their own space.

I mean, he decided to make that public. I respect that. It seems like it's working very well for him, too, you know.

AMANPOUR: It does. He's doing unbelievably. But, of course, this is not a great year for him health-wise. He's injured.

What advice? I know you're doing --

NADAL: No, I think you will have injuries. The professional athletes always will have issues. Some players have more, like me. Some players have less, like Novak, for example.

AMANPOUR: We're in Spain. You're Spanish. Did you feel the weight and the burden of your nation's hopes and dreams on you, or did it power you in a different way?

NADAL: For me, I always take that as a motivation. And I always felt very well supported and loved and respected, especially, of course, here in Spain, but around the world.

So, for me, it was not an extra weight on my shoulders. No, for me, I enjoyed all that support, all that love. And I feel a very privileged person to be able to lift all of that.

AMANPOUR: Well, that's great. Rafael Nadal, thank you so much.

NADAL: Thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: The extraordinary documentary series "Rafa" will drop on Netflix next week, May 29th.

Coming up, dodging drones on a deadly road to Ukraine's front line, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh braves that journey himself for a special report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Nobody drives cars on this road unless you have to be. Nobody drives tanks -- that's outgoing artillery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:22:49]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

The Ukraine war is becoming deadlier by the day. That was the warning from a U.N. official this week after a series of Russian strikes across the country killed dozens and injured many more.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has carried out one of its largest drone assaults deep inside Russia, with casualties reported in and around the capital, Moscow. It's a sign of how this war is evolving. Under skies filled with Russian drones, soldiers on the front lines move on foot while robots deliver food and ammunition.

Nick Paton Walsh takes us along one key road, a vital artery for Ukrainian forces, where every step carries serious risk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: They call this the road of life, but it's about survival, not living.

It is safest on foot, undisguised, ruled by tiny killer drones targeting any vehicle. The nets trying to block the horror from above.

If you can, make the robot your friend, your porter though machines are normally the enemy here.

WALSH: This now -- pretty much all over the front lines. Tiny bits of fiber optic cable used to connect drones to their controller can go on for tens of kilometers, stopping the jamming before.

A Russian drone above. The Ukrainians open fire.

Stay in the doorway.

They hit it.

That's the impact. And you have to split out, because the drone will try and target groups of individuals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via graphic): One, two, or three.

WALSH: Sometimes one, two, three, you find.

[11:29:50]

WALSH: We're doing Sasha and Bogdan's usual walk along this road between two Ukrainian positions. But it takes five hours, and we are buzzed by attack drones 14 times.

The battlefield has completely changed in a matter of a year. Nobody drives cars on this road unless you have to be. Nobody drives in tanks -- that's an outgoing artillery.

These robots used for resupply. Up ahead, we can see people repairing the nets, a kind of key protection. But these used to resupply food, ammunition all around the front line.

The next one is right on top of us. They hit it.

That gray streak, and it falls, whirring down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via graphic): What a good hit.

WALSH: But it hasn't detonated.

Debris drifts. There's been no blast. So, we are alive. It may have been a recon drone but flew like a Russian attacker.

Down the road is the Konstantinovka front, where the Kremlin's advance has been slowed to a crawl at the enormous cost across the front, of 35,000 Russian dead and wounded a month, says Ukraine.

We arrive at the bunker to rest a moment and see the drone trophies, but we have to get back. As soon as we emerge, they are above us again.

This is the new warfare -- hide, shoot at the sky, run. Fire drones back.

Have to walk in but also walk out.

The buzz stays with you, ringing in your ears for hours later. No respite.

The gray smoke. Perhaps it hit the net.

That was close. Loud. You could hear the shrapnel landing on the tarmac, clearly targeting that armored vehicle.

It is hard to see how this grind is a win, but it is. Ukraine on foot, robots in support. Automation replacing scarce troops; holding ground.

The drones never stop, but neither does Ukraine: adapting, learning, engineering this new warfare and hoping any edge sustains long enough to put Russia in reverse.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN -- Druzhkivka, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Still, military analysts insist Ukraine is doing better, while Russia is finding it very hard to increase its territory grabs inside Ukraine.

Now coming up inside Egypt's diplomatic efforts to end the war with Iran and boost Palestinian rights. My exclusive interview with foreign minister Badr Abdelatty is next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELATTY: Two years of bombardment, killing more than 75,000 innocent Palestinians and injuring 170,000. And nobody give a damn to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:33:23]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Another week of dizzying brinkmanship over the war on Iran. First, Trump again threatens overwhelming force before calling it off by the end of that same day, amid threats from Tehran to spread the war beyond the Middle East. As the global fallout and mass poverty increases, Egypt has positioned itself as a key mediator.

I tried to get a readout on whether there really is any chance of a negotiated end to this war from foreign minister Badr Abdelatty right here in London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister, welcome to our program.

You, Egypt, are right in the middle of attempting to mediate an end to the Iran-U.S.-Israel war. President Trump's latest is that he is responding, he says, to appeals from his Gulf state allies, to not launch another hot war right now. But who knows what in the future?

Where do you stand on that? What do you think is going on in the state of mediation?

ABDELATTY: Well, first of all, we commend President Trump wise policies and decisions in order to give more time for dialogue for the de-escalation. That's highly appreciated.

And it's indeed very, very important to exert our maximum efforts to push for dialogue and for de-escalation. And I believe that things are moving in the right direction, maybe slowly but steadily. And that could lead the way for setting the parameters, the principles. And that would be subject to negotiations later on for a specific period of time and to tackle the different files (ph) including, of course, the nuclear file.

[11:39:52]

AMANPOUR: So to be fair, we've heard this before. A one-page document, maybe figure out the hard things a bit later, open the Strait of Hormuz first, et cetera. And it never goes anywhere.

ABDELATTY: Well, again, we are pushing for dialogue. And there is no military solution, and always Egypt as with Arab Gulf countries, you know, preferring dialogue and de-escalation.

Also, we have to talk about the future of the security regional --

AMANPOUR: Right.

ABDELATTY: -- regime in -- in the region. And, of course, we must restore confidence between Iran and the Gulf countries after the attacks and the aggressions on the Gulf countries.

You know, there is missing confidence between the two sides. So we need to restore it. We need the confidence-building measures based on non-aggressions. And, of course, let's focus on a sort of security regime.

AMANPOUR: Let me hard pivot to Israel again, because you are one of only two Arab countries that actually has a peace accord with Israel.

A senior Egyptian source recently told the national newspaper that the number one enemy in the Egyptian military doctrine is Israel. Is Israel your number one enemy according to military doctrine?

ABDELATTY: Of course, this relationship is being affected with the Israeli aggressive policies, especially in the West Bank and in Gaza, in Lebanon, in attacking the different Arab countries.

But again, we have peace treaty and we are abiding by our commitments as long as the Israeli side is abiding by their commitments in order to allow the accessibility of sufficient humanitarian and the medical assistance.

AMANPOUR: But it's not.

ABDELATTY: It's not. And that's why we have not to allow the focus on Iran to divert our attention from what's happening in the West Bank and the Gaza.

And that's why we have to push for completing the implementation of the first phase, as well as moving ahead with the implementation of the second phase, which include the decommissioning of weapons as well as Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

AMANPOUR: Ok. But the person who's in charge of the so-called Peace Board, Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov from --

ABDELATTY: Mladenov.

AMANPOUR: -- yes. He has basically said, just this month, that the entire ceasefire accord might be quote, "null and void" if Hamas doesn't accept disarmament. Israel's obligations under the ceasefire would be null and void. So they're putting the onus on Hamas.

And do you not agree that Hamas needs to decommission, disarm or whatever?

ABDELATTY: They have to.

AMANPOUR: I mean, you are the Arab state. I mean, Egypt has been the leader of the Arab world for so, so long.

And by and large, most of the analysis suggests that Israel is winning and doing what it wants. It's doing it in Lebanon. It's doing it Syria. It's doing it on the West Bank. And it's doing it in Gaza and it's doing it in Iran.

When does the Arab world, Egypt, use its voice and its might and its peace treaty to say, enough already?

ABDELATTY: We are, of course, using our voice, our influence day by night to push for Israel to abide by its commitments. And again, it's all about the policies of the whole international regime.

And look to what happened in Gaza, two years of bombardment killing more than 75,000 innocent Palestinians and injuring 170,000. And nobody gave a damn to that.

And so again, we are doing our best efforts, but it takes two to tango. We need the international community, the European Union, the United States and others.

And unfortunately, this escalation with Iran diverted the attention from focusing on the Palestinian issue.

AMANPOUR: Or maybe not, because it's clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu, and he's stated over and again, and it's part of the new election campaign, no Palestinian state.

Where does this end and what leverage do you have?

ABDELATTY: It will -- I mean, it will -- I can assure you it will not bring peace and stability and security for Israel.

Mighty power will not bring full security and stability. So, we have to give back the legitimate rights to the people in Gaza, in the West Bank, to have their own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

[11:44:53]

ABDELATTY: Apart of that, there is no peace and stability in the region without addressing the hardcore of the conflict in the region.

AMANPOUR: Foreign Minister Abdelatty, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

ABDELATTY: Thank you so much, Christiane, for hosting me.

AMANPOUR: Thank you.

ABDELATTY: It's a great pleasure. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: And that is a commonly held view amongst serious analysts.

Now, coming up, a secret mission that went awry as "The New York Times" reveals the surprising figure Netanyahu and Trump had eyed to lead Iran. Ahmadinejad? one of my early conversations with the former hardline president after the break.

[11:45:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back.

Now, when President Trump and Israel's prime minister launched their war against Iran, it quickly became clear that it hadn't been properly war-gamed and there was no fixed roadmap for what would follow.

With that in mind, imagine the shock among Iran watchers when a "New York Times" exclusive this week revealed that Israel and the U.S. did apparently focus on one Iranian as a future partner.

Let's call him their local Delcy Rodriguez.

Anyone remember the name Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? In 2009, his disputed reelection sparked the first major mass protests in Iran, dubbed the Green Revolution, and a brutal crackdown.

Take a listen to part of one of my interviews with Ahmadinejad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Do you accept at all that the United States, Europe, they are deeply suspicious about your intentions. They just think that you want to build a bomb. Do you understand that? And why do you want to have this crisis?

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): Well, ma'am.

Yes. You see, we understand. We know that their intentions are bad intentions. Their intentions towards us are bad. When have they ever shown or have had clean, clear, pure intentions towards us?

We don't have expectations for anything else coming from them. What rights do they have when they want to talk about such issues to us? They need to proceed according to international laws. They cannot say

that we don't like the intentions. What we think are the intentions of your country. Therefore, we want to prevent you.

AMANPOUR: If you are referred to the Security Council, and if sanctions are imposed on Iran, will you take countermeasures?

Already some of your officials have threatened to provoke a rise in oil prices, have potentially threatened to pull out of the -- of the NPT. What will you do if sanctions are imposed?

AHMADINEJAD: I think any intelligent, healthy, smart human being should use every resource in order to maintain his or her freedom and independence.

AMANPOUR: So you could see interfering with oil prices.

AHMADINEJAD: I doubt that the leaders of the United States and Europe are that far removed from reality. I think they're smarter than denying us this legal right.

It is natural, of course, they will use whatever they have in their hand, which is the U.N. Security Council. And our nation has the means to defend and obtain its own rights. Do not doubt that our people will not lose.

AMANPOUR: It sounds very aggressive, what you're saying. It sounds like we're headed for real confrontation.

AHMADINEJAD: You have come and you are putting -- you are interfering in our internal affairs against international laws. Who is at fault? Who is being aggressive.?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And nearly 21 years later, sure enough, here we are. According to "The New York Times", an Israeli strike on his home on the war's first day was intended to free him from house arrest. Instead, Ahmadinejad was injured and the plan failed.

You can see why no officials are commenting on this scheme.

When we come back, as the U.S. commemorates Memorial Day, some words from a veteran who risked his life to kick Hitler's ass out of Europe -- his words, not mine. That's next.

[11:53:58]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: And finally, it's the unofficial start of summer in America, with most celebrating a long holiday weekend. Memorial Day, though, is also the solemn remembrance of the sacrifices made by everyone who gave their lives fighting for their country.

On Monday, CNN will be airing a special documentary commemorating America's greatest generation and reflections of World War II veterans.

It's called "WHY WE DREAM", and among the voices we hear is Jake Larson's. He was just a teenager when he signed up and ended up among comrades risking it all, fighting fascism in Europe.

We first met at the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, when he was 96 years old. He told us that if he was still alive, he would return for the 80th anniversary. Well, he did, and so did we.

Jake told me why he joined the charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE LARSON, WORLD WAR II VETERAN: Every one of us was prepared to give our life to kick Hitler's ass out of Europe.

AMANPOUR: And you did.

[11:59:46]

LARSON: And we did. We lost quite a few of us. I lost friends. Everybody lost friends. But we -- we were soldiers. We were prepared to give our life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Wow. You can see why they called Jake and the others the greatest generation.

And you can watch our full conversation and the full CNN documentary, "WHY WE DREAM" this Memorial Day on CNN Monday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.

That's all we have time for, though. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you again next week.