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CNN International: U.S. Top Diplomat to meet with both Israeli and Palestinian Officials; Blinken to Urge Calm During Trips to Israel, West Bank; Fierce Battles Underway in Ukraine's East and South; Is Rishi Sunak in Trouble; Vanity License Plates Sell for Millions in Hong Kong. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 30, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello, welcome to CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, America's top diplomat is in the Middle East, urging calm on all sides after a weekend of violence. Serious questions for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who just months into the top job is facing yet another controversy. And the fewer the letters the higher the price and look at Hong Kong's ultra-competitive vanity plates market.

U.S. Secretary of States Antony Blinken has landed in Israel, where he'll work to help restore calm following a shocking weekend of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the region. Israeli authorities say they're taking strict measures to manage escalating unrest after a man they call the terrorists fatally shot seven people near a Jerusalem synagogue on Friday.

That after Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians on Thursday in a raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank City of Jenin. Just after landing Secretary Blinken said everyone has a responsibility to calm tensions, and he condemned the recent violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So Friday's attack was more than an attack on individuals. It was also an attack on the Universal Act of practicing one's faith. We condemn it in the strongest terms. We also condemned the subsequent terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Saturday in which a father and son were wounded. And we condemn all those who celebrate these and any other acts of terrorism that take innocent lives. No matter whom the victim is, or what they believe?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's International Diplomatic Editor, Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem a hugely sensitive time for the Secretary's landing.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It is he's on the ground that is on his way to Jerusalem. He'll meet with the Prime Minister and broader session with some of the Prime Ministers, other officials he meets one on one with Prime Minister Netanyahu. We're expecting them both to make some comments are made also with the Foreign Minister.

The Foreign Minister, who I - was there to greet Secretary Blinken when he arrived in Tel Aviv, but yes, his message is absolutely going to be one of support for Israel in the face of shootings such as was witnessed outside the synagogue in the past couple of days. And the message will also be one to try to find ways to calm tensions.

And on that account, you will probably look to Prime Minister Netanyahu not to rush ahead with some of the things that he is proposing, which is a potential revoking of the citizenship rights of families of Palestinian attackers and also about the comments made by the Prime Minister in the cabinet session over the weekend, that he will be strengthening settlements.

We know his far right coalition the Prime Minister's far right coalition wants him to do that to expand settlements. And potentially these moments of tension are a time when he can move forward with that. And that is something that would bring anger from the Palestinian side.

So potentially there, the Secretary of State looking for the Prime Minister to find different language and a different way through this moment but the coalition of the Prime Minister is strong that this time he may face some international pressure, there may be growing economic pressures.

There are internal pressures as well, from the main from opposition factions here in Israel. But in essence of his leadership and of the coalition that he commands at the moment, Prime Minister Netanyahu is in a relatively strong position.

FOSTER: OK, Nic, thank you. This is Blinken's first trip to Israel since the Israeli government took a sharp and controversial turn to the right. Israel is one of America's staunchest allies, and the Biden administration has worked to avoid publicly criticizing this shift.

But far right elements of the new government have already exacerbated tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Let's bring in Pentagon Correspondent Oren Liebermann, who used to be based in Israel. Oren, how do you think Blinken will be handling you know, the far right elements of this new government?

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: In a word very delicately he won't be meeting with any members of the far right parties that are within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. But that influence and the power they have over Netanyahu, because of the simple nature of Israeli politics will be very evident.

According to statements put out in advance of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he used to say a two state solution is the only possible outcome to avoid spiraling violence. And that may sound nice on paper. But that seems like a very out of touch, almost pointless statement coming at this time.

More immediate steps you might try to accomplish or to restore any security coordination between the Israelis and Palestinians. After Thursday's Israeli raid in the West Bank City of Jenin, the Palestinians threatened to cancel or stop coordinating with Israel. And that's one of those elements that are important for both sides on the security side, and it's unpopular with each of the governments and with the people so tends to be done quietly.

And we've seen the Palestinians threatened to cancel it. It's unclear to what extent they have pulled back from the coordination, but that might be the smaller sort of step he tries to take to move this process forward and to see if there really is any possibility of de- escalation.

The West Bank has been boiling for quite some time. Now, it might not have made the news on a daily basis. But there were Israeli experts and some of the strategic thinkers there who clearly saw what were happening in the West Bank.

So it was possible to see maybe not these specific incidents, but the rise in violence come in quite ways away, that doesn't make it any easier to stop. And now that it's begun to spin up, the question is, how do you get off that cycle? We've seen calls from Egypt, were Blinken just came from to de-escalate as well as from some other Gulf countries. So those are important statements, what impact they have in the ground is far from clear.

FOSTER: OK, Oren, thank you. So far, no one claims responsibility for a deadly attack on a mosque in Pakistan. The suspected suicide attack claimed at least 34 lives and left more than 100 people wounded. That happened inside the mosque in the Northwestern City of Peshawar.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the blasts, saying targeting the house of Allah is proof that the attackers have nothing to do with Islam. Let's give an update now from Sophia Saifi in Islamabad, Pakistan, who were they targeting do you think Sophia?

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Max, this mosque where the blast happened, it happened during Friday, during afternoon prayers, this Monday. And it is in the police compound area of the City of Peshawar. So the majority of the worshippers in that mosque are actually law enforcement officials.

And it's almost like there's a sense of deja vu for the people of Peshawar, because just last year, there was a similar attack, a similar blast at a mosque in the City of Peshawar, where more than 60 people died. We've been told that there are still people stuck in the rubble of this mosque because the entire roof fell in.

So their rescue efforts still underway it's dark now in Pakistan, and this happened in the afternoon. So it's been many hours since the last itself took place. There's an investigation underway. The Prime Minister in a statement said that it's a suicide blast. We're being told by police officials that it's probably a suicide blast. But like you said, there hasn't been a claim of responsibility. But there has been in the past couple of months and at least since the fall of Kabul in 2021. In the summer of 2021, there has been an increase in militant attacks in Pakistan.

Especially in the north of Pakistan, Islamabad the capital where I am, has been on at in a state of high alert. For the past couple of weeks, there was an attempted suicide attack in the heart of the capital city just at the end of December, just a couple of weeks ago. So there is this heightened sense of fear.

In Pakistan there is this understanding that the situation which in the past couple of years, the security situation in Pakistan, which had considerably improved is not the same anymore. And like I said earlier, it's a sense of deja vu for the people of Peshawar, who have already suffered many, many such attacks in this city, Max.

FOSTER: Sophia in Islamabad, thank you bear with you. As you get more we're going to turn now to the war in Ukraine where fierce fighting is taking place along the Eastern front and Russia is claiming incremental gains.

The Ukrainian military says Moscow's army is trying to break through defensive lines in the Donetsk region. To the Southwest both Ukrainian and Russian forces are claiming hits on the town of Vuhledar, a major logistical hub. CNN's Sam Kiley joins me now with more from Kyiv, Sam?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Max, Vuhledar has become the focus of Russian violence in the last week or so. But then this is because it represents for the Russians the opportunity too.

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KILEY: First of all, spread the battle out from Bakhmut which has been their focus of attention now for two or three months or longer in their attempts to try to break through into capturing more of Donetsk province. So, first of all, they want to draw fighters away from that battle. And secondly, of course they want to punch through if they can, through that city itself, possibly as part of an encirclement operation against Bakhmut.

Now, in the last 24 hours, according to Russian Military bloggers, they have published a letter of complaint from Russian troops. They're saying that they feel that they were thrown into a hopeless fight in which they claim and it's all alleged we've got no independent verification for this for some 300 dead in one series of operations.

The Ukrainians are equally saying that the Russians are suffering heavy losses there; they would be making that claim. Of course, they are the enemy of the Russians in this fight. But it does definitely show that this is becoming another part of the Eastern cauldron of combat, which is costing enormous numbers of lives, probably on both sides, Max.

FOSTER: OK, Sam, thank you for joining from Kyiv. Boris Johnson says that the Russian President Vladimir Putin wants personally threatened him with a missile and Former British Prime Minister says it happened during a phone call. Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, the exchange was released as a preview to the BBC documentary Putin versus the West. Here's how Johnson described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: You know, he sorts of threatened me at one point and said, you know, Boris, I don't want to hurt you. But with a missile, it would only take a minute or something like that. But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have. He was just planning along with my attempts to get into negotiate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the Kremlin is responding to that accusation. CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me now. I mean, the point I think Boris Johnson is making is it wasn't a direct threat of assassination. It was a power play, right?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what he's saying. The Kremlin flatly denying it today they say that Boris Johnson is lying that there were no missile threats. They say that this is, according to the Spokesman Dmitry Peskov that the only mention of missiles came in the context that Putin expressed his concern that if Ukraine were to join NATO.

That would mean the potential for U.S. and NATO missiles to be placed along Russia's border with the potential to of course, hid inside Russia's territory. So they're saying there was no actual missile threat. But of course, missiles were mentioned. Now, in terms of what we do know. There was a call February 2 was the last call between Johnson and Putin before the war.

We don't know for sure that's the one they're referring to, but it seems likely they did mention NATO. President Putin expressed his worry that the alliance was not taking --.

FOSTER: This is according to the official readouts.

SEBASTIAN: Both official readouts - in NATO.

FOSTER: Yes.

SEBASTIAN: The Russian one says that Putin was concerned that they weren't meeting their demands. And Boris Johnson interestingly says that he believed that Ukraine like any European democracy had a right to join under the open door policy. According to what he says in this documentary, it seems that he was perhaps more implicating Russia saying don't worry, Ukraine unlikely to join NATO anytime soon.

I think given that that was one of more than a dozen calls between Putin and other leaders of NATO countries in the month before the war underscores the kind of effort that was going into trying to prevent this war. Obviously, we're now around a year out from the core. FOSTER: --Clare, thank you. Diplomatic tensions are intensifying following a drone attack against a military plant in Iran over the weekend. Tehran, summoned Ukraine's charge to fair on Monday, after a top Ukrainian official appear to make the announcement to Iran's previous supplier of drones to Russia.

Meanwhile, U.S. media outlets are citing unnamed officials who say Israel was behind the attack. Iran hasn't publicly offered any information about who it believes was behind the strike. Still to come U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak firing the Chairman of his conservative party we'll take a look at his recent leadership scandals and whether he's in any trouble?

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FOSTER: Is British Prime Minister in trouble? Rishi Sunak, he is fired Conservative Party Chair Nadhim Zahawi after an independent investigation into Zahawi's personal finance revealed a serious breach of the ministerial code. Now if you think back to his first address as Prime Minister, Sunak made this promise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RISHI SUNAK, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITISH: This government will have integrity, professionalism, and accountability at every level. Trust is earned and I will earn yours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: And yes during the first three months of his premiership, there have been several ministerial scandals. Take Suella Braverman, she was reinstated after multiple breaches of the ministerial code, the Home Secretary there, that was a big headline to begin with. Then there's Dominic Raab, he's undergoing an investigation currently into allegations of bullying and more bullying claims keep coming forward.

Gavin Williamson resigned over accusations of bullying and breaking the ministerial code as well. And Nadhim Zahawi of course fired over those tax concerns he was over looking at the tax system, as those concerns came up when he was Finance Minister. And I speak to Bianca who's been taking a toll of all this over recent months, it's quite extraordinary run of bad luck some would say, and bad leadership others would say.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sunak had a very difficult starting point and that's because the Conservative Party brand had become so fundamentally tarnished with the turbulent years of Boris Johnson, the myriad scandals, the breaches of the ministerial code, that is what the electorate and the media and many are primed to expect from the Conservative government.

Not to mention Liz Truss is ill fated six-week premiership too. Now the polls show that Rishi Sunak is really suffering. He's been plummeting since he became Prime Minister, and any leader no matter how much respect or admiration that they generate within their own MPs.

If they start to trail behind in the polls, or do badly that will make them weak. Now soon, it's not an elected Prime Minister by the public. So he's already weak, and the opposition party has smelt that blood in the political water. They know that if they hit these points on the fact that he's indecisive, he doesn't act on Tory sleaze and breaches and that they press him on not being strong enough. That is a vulnerable point for him and that attack Max, is working.

FOSTER: What happens if he doesn't regain the momentum ahead of next year's election? Who's likely to go in on the attack, which is what normally happens with the New Conservative Party, isn't it?

NOBILO: Well, at the moment, the Conservative Party is on track to lose the next election polls obviously all suggests slightly different numbers, but the opposition Labor Party between 20 and 25 points ahead consistently in the polls. That is a comprehensive, really bewildering lead almost for the Conservative Party to try and wriggle their way out of.

A recent poll also showed that people in Britain, over half of them think there'll be another Conservative Prime Minister by the end of 2023. But now the party is in this very difficult position where it can't shake off the history of the last decade and more all of which policies and decisions that the Conservative Party has made.

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NOBILO: So Rishi Sunak wants to distance himself from policies which have been unsuccessful or unpopular and he wants to distance himself from Boris Johnson and allegations of Conservative Party sleaze or rule breaking. But he can't because he's been part of so many of those decisions. And also the man himself has two fixed penalty notices now.

One from during the COVID pandemic for breaching COVID-19 guidelines and another one for not wearing a seatbelt when he was filming something for social media earlier in the week he needs some good news and he needs to be able to turn that narrative around. But I think the momentum is fully behind the labor opposition party in the United Kingdom. And Russia still like isn't showing any signs of being able to turn that around for him and his party.

FOSTER: We're seeing pictures there of Boris Johnson, of course. I mean, for many of the party faithful, the party members. They think he's the only chance of winning the next election. So does he make a comeback? I mean, what's his view on this? Do we have any idea?

NOBILO: I think it's difficult to talk about Boris Johnson in a sentence without people speculating on whether or not he'll make a comeback. And that is definitely something he doesn't like to pour cold water on. I think his supporters really loved that idea that he could make some kind of triumphant return that he's alluded to himself, rhetorically in speeches.

This is another issue for Rishi Sunak. The fact that Boris Johnson looms so large, and he's still taking a very sort of powerful role in Britain's support of Ukraine he's just been to the country he's met with Zelenskyy. We know how much Zelenskyy has appreciated Boris Johnson's leadership in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine's defense.

So that's going to continue to be a problem for him. And also, a lot of the electorate needs Sunak to distance himself from Boris Johnson, but the party will resent Sunak if he does try and fully distanced himself which is not really possible to do anyway. So I think he is between a rock and a hard place. I think a Boris Johnson return is very unlikely, especially as he's still being investigated for misleading parliament, but his supporters would never want to completely extinguish that hope.

FOSTER: OK, Bianca will be watching closely, thank you. Now paying millions of dollars sometimes just for a single letter, would you believe. At the luxury trend that Scott Hong Kong's car lovers talking. A report when we come back?

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FOSTER: New trend taking Hong Kong's luxury car market by storm car lovers are paying millions of dollars for vanity license plates sometimes showing just a single letter. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout spoke to a one car fan who is embracing the personalized plates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Stepping into his convertible Rolls Royce for a leisurely drive next to his chauffeur. Hong Kong Tycoon Cecil Chao has the front seat to a life of luxury a palatial home, pricey artworks and a tension for vanity car plates.

CECIL CHAO, HONG KONG TYCOON: I have Cecil and Chao.

STOUT (voice over): Here's his Rolls Royce was Cecil and another Rolls with the number 4.

STOUT (on camera): Why the number 4? Isn't that unlucky?

CHAO: I was born in China Shanghai, being the Chinese number four see is happiness.

[08:25:00]

STOUT (voice over): Since 2006 over 40,000 personalized vehicle registration marks have been sold at auction by the Hong Kong transport department. Car owners can create marks of up to eight characters including spaces, with prices starting at around 640 U.S. dollars.

STOUT (on camera): It's a hot market owners have spent millions for a coveted plate in 2021. One person spent more than 3 million U.S. dollars for a plate with a single letter W.

STOUT (voice over): The phenomenon has sparked social media accounts where hunters share their fines online on Twitter using the handle and hash tag HK number plates spotted in the wild a yellow Lamborghini with sin, a black BMW with dark side and a white Porsche with CNN.

There's also this, the rap is part of the Hong Kong vanities project, an online platform that collects photos of personalized plates, and invites users to string them together into poetry. Like TGIF by Tony TGIF timeouts live to love city life. Hong Kong vanities creator Michele Salati says he has gathered about 2500 images for his platform.

MICHELE SALATI, CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF HKVANITIES: These vanity plates are used by the owners to highlight their status, wealth, humor, desires, many things superstition or even our favorite food. To me it like each plate is like a line of poetry you know, like racing for the street of a city kind of poetry motion.

STOUT (voice over): A creative outlet for some, and for this wealthy property developer.

CHAO: My philosophy of life is you come to this word for only one aim, to be happy.

STOUT (voice over): Happiness came at a good price for Chao. In 2007, he bought Cecil for just over $2,500. Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: CNN there thanks for joining me on CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. "World Sport" with Amanda Davis is up next.

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