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Trump: "It's Going To Be A Very Hard Thing To Concede"; Africa CDC: COVID Vaccinations May Not Happen Until Mid-2021; Iran Foreign Minister: "Serious" Indication Of "Israeli Role" In Nuclear Scientist Killing; Argentina Football Great Laid To Rest In Buenos Aires; Iran State Media: Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated Outside Tehran. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired November 27, 2020 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking news this hour, the country Iran's top nuclear scientist has been assassinated near Tehran. That is according
to Iran's state media. Oren Liebermann is standing by Jerusalem with reaction. First, let's get the latest from Nick Paton Walsh who is in
London. What do we know at this point, Nick?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Well, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is not a name you'll really be familiar with unless you're a
student of Iran's nuclear program, but he's a very prominent figure within that debate about how active he remained to be?
He's featured in an August 2019 State Department report suggesting his residual reservoir of knowledge was of use to Iran, but what we do know
today is a development act from the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zayed who has tweeted confirming what he refers to as the murder.
Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today he says this cowardice with serious indications of an Israeli role shows desperate
warmongering of perpetrators. He calls upon the European Union's National Community to condemn this particular act.
Confirming the death, confirming potentially the name of this individual, and most importantly they are pointing suspicion towards Israel here. Now,
they do, it seems, have a track record, Israel, of assassinations of high- profile target within sight of Iran and are very keen.
I think it's fair to say, certainly they're hawk inside, to disrupt the possibility at this stage that the new Biden Administration coming in
January in the United States may reverse that of its Trump's predecessor, who pulled out of the nuclear deal slapped sanctions so hard on Iran in a
bid to usually what they refer to as maximum pressure to bring them to an even better deal somehow.
It simply hasn't worked. Tensions are at an all-time high and then an assassination like this although it seems that the fingers are being
pointed towards Israel, it will give Iran's hawks possibly a feeling that now is not a time for further diplomacy but frankly don't be distracted
from the fact that this is an embarrassment, this is a well-known nuclear scientist.
He may not have been at the forefront of his current research because of his prominence but he certainly should have been safe. Looking at those
pictures there it appears that his bodyguards were hit as well in quite a prominent powerful attack right where he should have been the safest on the
outskirts of Tehran an area called - quite pretty it looks there but still a startling moment of frankly in terms of what it shows you the ability for
Iran's enemies to reach inside its secure apparatus. Becky.
ANDERSON: Any further details on exactly what happened on the ground?
WALSH: They are scant. It does appear, if you look at those pictures there, that some sort of blast may well have hit that particular area. And, of
course, as we know in the past some of the assassinations that have occurred have in fact involved gunshots, too, and they do appear to be what
look like to be gunshot holes in the screens of one of the cars shown there.
I'm purely analyzing the images there, but it may well be that his security detail were also targeted in this. We know that it seems, according to some
state media, injured people were taken to hospital, and it may be that the bodyguards or in fact Mr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh himself died in hospital later
on.
But quite how his assassins appear to be confirmed by the Foreign Minister of Iran found him particularly there with such precision, I'm sure that
will be lighting up switchboards across Iran right now. Becky.
ANDERSON: Oren is in Jerusalem, let be quite clear. We do not know how this assassination happened and who is responsible at this point, but what is
the response to the news that we are getting from the Israeli government, Oren?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's no surprise that the prime minister's office said no comment when asked about reports of the
assassination of Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh just a short time ago, but this is not the first time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has heard that
name.
In fact, Netanyahu spoke quite extensively about Fakhrizadeh in April of 2019 that was when Netanyahu presented to the world Iran's nuclear archive
that have been stolen by Israel and he put it on display. It was very much interpreted and seen at that time that that presentation was to an audience
of one, directly to President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu spoke in English at that time, trying to convince Trump to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal and begin imposing sanctions on Iran which
a short time after that is pretty much exactly what happened.
During that speech, if I remember correctly, that went 20 or 25 minutes, Netanyahu spent quite a bit of time what he said was Fakhrizadeh's history
in the nuclear program of Iran. He said Fakhrizadeh was the head of project Hamad which from the late '80s and '90s until the early 2000s was Iran's
attempt according to Netanyahu to build, design and test five nuclear weapons, ten kilo-ton war head each designed to be used in a missile.
When that was shut down according to Netanyahu Fakhrizadeh then went on to - within the Ministry of Defense where Netanyahu says he did the exact same
thing of trying to advance Iran's nuclear program.
So it is worth mentioning that Netanyahu has mentioned his name before. As he was talking begun Fakhrizadeh and when he first mentioned him, he said
remember that name, Fakhrizadeh right in the middle of his speech there. He even had a picture of a much younger Fakhrizadeh as part of the power point
presentation along with that speech.
[11:05:00]
LIEBERMANN: So this is somebody who has been on Israeli's intelligence profile or has been known to Israel's intelligence community for quite some
time and it looks like that profile was elevated after the revealing of the Iranian nuclear archive as Israel began to go through that archive.
Again, no comment from Israel at the time from the government's office but it is worth noting that this is a name that is known to Netanyahu and,
therefore, certainly known to Israel's intelligence community.
ANDERSON: The Foreign Minister Javad Zarif suggesting there is a serious indication of Israel's role, Oren.
LIEBERMANN: Israel won't take that seriously. It's not the first time Zarif or other Iranian officials have accused Israel of being involved in attacks
on Iranian sites either in Iran or I believe more often in Syria. That's not going to shake or worry Israel's government in any way. It is what
Zarif says.
Whether Israel was involved or not, Israel has always essentially kept no comment on certainly actions of this magnitude the idea being that there's
no reason to poke the bear, essentially. There is no reason to sort of brag about what you may have just done and further escalate the possibility of
some sort of retaliation and a further escalation beyond that.
Israel is generally very, very quiet when it comes to its actions against Iran. The occasional exception is when it views those as retaliatory,
something that happened perhaps along the Golan Heights's border and they'll acknowledge their action.
But most of the time when Israel moves against Iran, whether it will be something of this magnitude or something like a strike in Syria and what
they believe are Iranian - advanced Iranian technological parts for weapons being moved towards Lebanon, they are very quiet about those sorts of
actions.
ANDERSON: To both of you, thank you. I'll let you go. I know you need to do some digging and work the sources and explore what else we can determine
about exactly what has happened just outside of Tehran today?
I want to bring in David Gergen at this point who is Senior Political Analyst for CNN and Former Adviser to four different presidents. It's good
to have you, David. What do you make of the news that we are just breaking?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think we ought to be very cautious at the moment, Becky, by trying to attach blame to any one party
or nation. We just don't know enough because it just happened.
But we are already seeing speculation from authoritative sources, and we've had some of this chatter over the last three or four weeks in the states
about whether some effort might be made to throw a roadblock into any renewal of relationship between the U.S. and Iran, especially with the new
Biden, incoming Biden Administration.
Nobody knows how hard a line they are going to take yet, but clearly, they want to revisit this issue and protect possibly this assassination is tied
to the international questions, the geopolitical questions those arise with that resumption of relationships of some sort.
ANDERSON: What are the risks at this point, David?
GERGEN: I'm sorry?
ANDERSON: What are the risks at this point?
GERGEN: Well, the risks are that other nations that the Iranians and others begin retaliating in ways that have not been sort of, you know, carefully -
hasn't been figured out or carefully prepared, and you could have a flare- up of relationships.
But I do think that the Europeans want the United States to get back into a negotiation of some sort with Iran. It wouldn't be - it wouldn't be the
same deal probably, but it would - negotiations would have parallels to the past deal, and we don't know quite yet how much energy and effort Joe Biden
wants to place as a new president, and he's got other priorities.
I'm not sure Iran has anywhere near close to the top of his list as say climate change is, but there is - in this kind of environment when there's
been an assassination, nobody knows quite who did it. There's a lot of speculation. It pays for everybody to calm down, catch a breath for a
moment before figuring out what to do next, you know. Try to pin down more facts.
ANDERSON: And David, and I appreciate that, and we don't want to sort of perpetuate any sort of conspiracy theories here or any sort of sense of
speculation. We do have some facts on the ground, and that is what we have and that is what we will speak to at this point.
I do though want to get your thoughts, your experience and your sense of what a Joe Biden Administration will do with regard to the Iran file. We've
been discussing this with a lot of foreign policy advisers, those who have been advising the Biden campaign and others in the past week or so.
[11:10:00]
ANDERSON: I just wonder given the last four years of a Trump Administration and their maximum pressure campaign on Iran, does Joe Biden and his
colleagues, do they take over this file from a position of strength or weakness with regard any future negotiations with Iran.
GERGEN: They are in a position of relative weakness in one sense and that is that the U.S. has gone a step further away from European friends of
longstanding. And I think the first thing in order to restore America's strength at the bargaining table, to give America more leverage; the first
thing we have to do is to compose the differences among the western alliance members.
You know Biden will want to do that just how quickly he can take it on given many other things that are happening given the importance of working
on other nations with the pandemic and trying to rejoin as the Biden Administration know what to do to rejoin the Paris Accords.
Iran is not an issue that they have to get right away but they do need and I think one of the big difference is you'll find in a Biden Administration
versus the Trump Administration is that the Trump Administration wanted to go it alone on almost all issue cast our allies aside.
The Biden Administration is very much the opposite. There is much more traditional. Strength come from working with other nations like us and
let's approach the Iranians together, so I think that's the preliminary sets of steps, and, again, you know, I think you're absolutely right. Let's
not speculate too much until we know more of what happened.
ANDERSON: Yes, and you rightly point out that Joe Biden may not have necessarily wanted to take on the Iran file immediately. He may be forced
to given what may, and, again, may be the result of what we see.
There are sort of eight weeks left of a Donald Trump Administration. We had heard reports I think firstly in "The New York Times" that Donald Trump had
asked about his options in Iran or on Iran, and we understand that his advisers had actually sort of pushed him away from any sort of direct
action in these final weeks.
GERGEN: Right.
ANDERSON: Look, weeks after losing this U.S. election, Donald Trump has finally said he will leave office if - if, David, the Electoral College
votes for Joe Biden. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: If the Electoral College does elect President-Elect Joe Biden, are you not going to leave this building?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just so - certainly I will. Certainly, I will, and you know that. But I think that there will be a lot
of things happening between now and the 20th of January, a lot of things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, as you might expect, Mr. Trump won't go out without a fight and is not prepared to concede. In fact, he's off to Georgia, the State of
Georgia, to campaign for Republican Senators, hugely influential in terms of how politics is made in a state where votes at this point largely
symbolic. Are those still being counted?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Speaking of Georgia, I'll be going there.
REPORTER: When?
TRUMP: I spoke with the two great Senators. They are great Senators. We're looking for a site. We'll have a tremendous turnout and maybe I go twice.
It's very important that we win those races. These are two great people and I just want to tell my people, don't be disappointed yet because this race
is far from over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: My people, he says Georgia very much back in play of course, there are two Senate seats available January the 5th and that could really
tip the balance as far as how government runs in the U.S?
There is though even - he hasn't conceded, but even though he's conceded that should the Electoral College vote for Biden, which it will, that he
will be leaving the White House. These last eight weeks and again I'm talking about this within the spirit of what we've just been learning out
of Iran without speculating who is responsible for this?
These last eight weeks though have worried many, many people, not just in the states but around the world, about what Donald Trump might do in his
sort of - the dying embers of this administration, David?
GERGEN: Absolutely, and we're already seeing the impact he's had just in the last few months. The Supreme Court of the United States made a decision
over the last couple of days, a midnight decision that basically reverses the decision that the court made earlier just a few months ago.
And it went down because of the new conservative majority with a 5-4 decision so we're going to be seeing that play out probably for years to
come. But beyond that I - I do think it's worthwhile to go back to that "The New York Times" report that Donald Trump did ask whether he ought to
do anything more or whether there's something more that could be done with Iran as it is he might want to take action.
[11:15:00]
GERGEN: But that he was talked out of it. That's a very important - that's going to give the world some sense of relief but there's no questions that
there are other areas where Donald Trump can make a big, big difference.
Just take the overall issue of how many - how Republican voters feel about this election? You know, Trump didn't lose this by much. He lost by 6
million votes, that's a big healthy majority for Biden and you've got to give him a lot of credit for that, but concern has been that three-quarters
of Republicans, about three-quarters of Republicans have--
ANDERSON: And we've lost David Gergen which is a shame because nobody makes more sense than Mr. Gergen. He's extremely valuable to have on the show,
and we'll get him back at a later date. But you've heard his thoughts on not just the breaking news this hour that being that the country Iran's top
nuclear scientist has been assassinated near Tehran that is according to Iran's state media.
Iran's Foreign Minister suggests Israel may have played a part in the attack. The Israeli Prime Minister's office had no comment to make to CNN
on that. David Gergen, of course, also is talking about the last weeks of a Trump Administration. I'm going to leave this story just for the time
being, but we will continue to cover it with any additional information that we can bring you. You can rely on CNN for that.
Meantime, I do want to take a look at the Coronavirus situation in America. President Trump refusing to let Joe Biden take any credit for what he
believes had his and only his accomplishments that include vaccines. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Don't let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines. If Joe Biden - you know, Joe Biden failed with the swine flu, H1N1, totally failed with the
swine flu. Don't let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they have ever been pushed before,
and we got that approved and through and nobody has ever seen anything like it, and you've got a big resistance in the FDA from years and years of
people working there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, a vaccine is still months away for a lot of people, and right now a record number of Americans are battling the virus, not in the
comfort of their own homes surrounded by family but in hospital and oft times alone.
More than 90,000 patients are fighting for their life, fighting just to breathe. It's the 17th straight day hospitalizations for COVID have hit new
highs. The U.S. death toll now stands at more than 263,000 people. Nearly 60,000 more could die in the next three weeks, according to the U.S. CDC
and with millions ignoring guidelines against holiday travel, the U.S. could see an explosion of cases in the next weeks. As one health expert
said CNN Thanksgiving just may be, "Mother" of all super spreader events.
Well, meanwhile, it is Black Friday in the U.S., a massive shopping day with some of the biggest sales of the year. Amid the pandemic the retailers
moving some of their best sales online or stretching Black Friday into the whole month and while some Americans will be spending a lot of cash, we
must remember that millions are struggling just to pay the bills.
More than 50 million Americans are facing food insecurities, stretching the country's food banks to their limits. That's the COVID news out of the U.S.
We're following more breaking news out of Iran more on that after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:20:00]
ANDERSON: Breaking news this hour. The country's top nuclear scientist in Iran has been assassinated near Tehran. That is according to Iran's state
media. Iran's Foreign Minister suggests Israel may have played a part in the attack, but the Israeli Prime Minister's office at this point has no
comment to CNN. We are working our sources, and we will get you more on this as we get it into CNN, this image from the scene of that reported
assassination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, SAUDI CROWN PRINCE: In light of the outbreak of COVID- 19 and its health, economic and social repercussions, our cooperation has been important more than ever. Together we have addressed this challenge
with seriousness necessitated by the responsibility to preserve human life, protect livelihoods, mitigate the ensuing damage of this pandemic and raise
readiness to face any future crisis God forbid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, that's Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaking at G-20 summit last weekend. Most world leaders made it clear there that when
a vaccine is available, it should be available to everyone around the world.
This is where the most promising vaccines stand right now. Let's just go through them for you. Pfizer has applied for Emergency Use Authorization in
the United States and the FDA there could make a decision at a meeting December 10th.
Moderna is expected to follow suit in the coming weeks, and as we told you earlier Britain has just announced that it made its first step towards
approving AstraZeneca's vaccine. In Africa though some officials are taking the G-20 announcement with a grain of salt, the Head of Africa's CDC says
he's not sure if the vaccine will be available for continent in a timely fashion.
Well, every way you look at it be it morally, financially, practically, there is a reason to get this vaccine out to people everywhere as Melinda
Gates told me a few weeks back. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELINDA GATES, CO-CHAIR, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: Around the globe you need to get vaccine out first to health care workers because they
are keeping us alive. Secondly, you have to get it out to the most vulnerable populations in country by country. There have been forecasts
done that say if you take the first 2 billion doses of vaccines and they only get out to the high-income countries, you're going to get twice as
much death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, even as Europe and the U.S. promised to roll out vaccines then in the come year, the wait for a widespread vaccination program could
be a lot farther along as the Chief Scientist for the W.H.O. told me earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SOUMYA SWAMINATHAN, CHIEF SCIENTIST, WHO: Now whatever the circumstance is, it's going to take a year to even begin to cover 15 to 20 percent of
the world's population if you take the entire world, and we believe that 20 percent should be the people at highest risk of either getting the
infection or dying. They should be prioritized. It's only in 2022 that we can begin to see a much wider vaccination program.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Let's bring in CNN's David McKenzie who is reporting on this from Johannesburg, and an interesting line by the Head of Africa's CDC today
saying he's not sure the vaccine will be available for continent in what he calls a timely fashion. What more do we know at this point? How well is
Africa positioned for this new COVID vaccine when it rolls out?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's a very interesting point he makes, and it's a worrying one, Becky, because he said maybe by
only mid next year, 2021, they will have a widely available vaccine on the continent.
I think a couple of things are at play here. One is cost. W.H.O. is estimating that more than $5 billion it will cost to get the vaccine out to
a meaningful amount of people across the African continent. That's a huge amount of money.
Now, they are already working on securing that funding for countries unlike says South Africa who would perhaps afford it on its own. But there's also
the issue with competition.
[11:25:00]
MCKENZIE: And as you had in that interview you did with Melinda Gate, the issue is unless it's a widespread and global rollout of the vaccine it has
limited use for humanity in the long term. This is what the Regional Head of the W.H.O. said about competition versus cooperation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MATSHIDISO MOETI, WHO REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR AFRICA: Many countries are keen and determined to get the vaccine on time. We do know that African
countries are concerned in hoping that pre-ordering of millions of dose disease of vaccine by wealthy countries will not disadvantage their
accessing supplies. I think that this is very much the issue of today that's being discussed all over especially in the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKENZIE: Well, the African countries through the CDC here are working together and that kind of combined voice may help him in getting access to
these vaccines, but then it's a case of actually getting them out to the people. Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes, absolutely. Look David, sadly parts of the African continent no stranger to outbreaks of deadly viruses. What lessons have been learned,
and what might help going forward?
MCKENZIE: That's a very good point and through the years I've covered vaccine rollouts in many parts of the continent. In Nigeria you had them
combating polio very effectively over time where they went even into conflict-ridden areas of Northern Nigeria and managed to stamp out that
virus through these kinds of vaccine drives.
One of the issues you mentioned those most promising vaccines that could get the early emergency approval from the FDA and others, two of those
three really need very cold temperatures so there's also that logistical question.
A cold chain is needed, a fridge as it were very cold temperatures for one of those vaccines. Getting it to the region is probably relatively
straightforward. I've been on back of motorcycles in the Congo where they literally put it in a little ice box.
It's that final mile, as they call it, to get to the people to vaccinate. That is a critical part of the logistical chain. And as you say with the
Ebola outbreak particularly, they have rolled out very effectively an experimental vaccine that requires that kind of cold chain.
So potentially African countries and their government could teach other parts of the world something about how to get the COVID-19 vaccine out? But
it is going to be on a scale that you've never ever seen before in modern times getting a vaccine out across the globe and, of course, many
continents in Africa and parts of Asia present very real difficulties in doing that. Becky?
ANDERSON: David McKenzie is in Johannesburg for you, folks. Thank you, David. Breaking news this hour Iran's top nuclear scientist has been
assassinated near Tehran. This is according to Iran's state media.
The Foreign Minister, the Iranian Foreign Minister suggesting Israel may have played a part in the attack. As things stand the Israeli Prime
Minister's office have had no comment on that to CNN. I'm going to take a very short break. This is the scene of that reported assassination. We will
be back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:30:00]
ANDERSON: We'll update you on the breaking news that we have been following over the past hour or so. Iran's top nuclear scientist has been
assassinated outside of Tehran earlier on Friday. Iran's Defense Ministry says Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was targeted alongside his security team.
In a tweet the Foreign Minister suggests that Israel may have played a part in the attack. The Israeli Prime Minister's office had no comment in the
past hour to CNN. Barbara Starr is following this stateside from the Pentagon. What have you got, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well Becky, the Trump Administration as well making no official comment on these developments,
but a short time ago a U.S. official indeed told me they are monitoring all of it very carefully.
This is really a three-way chess game right now, Iran, Israel and the United States well know that the clock is ticking down on Trump
Administration, and one of the key questions is does somebody out there want to get business done vis-a-vis the Iranians before Trump leaves the
White House.
No indication at the moment that the U.S. was involved in this. No comment on potential Israeli involvement, but what we do know is the U.S. is
watching all of this very carefully looking for any threats of intelligence about who might have been responsible and the key question about what comes
next.
Does Iran retaliate against Israel? A lot of concern that President Trump may still want to enact some kind of military action against Iran before he
leaves office. Here at the Pentagon the very strong view is you would have to see some kind of direct imminent provocative act from the Iranians
against the U.S. before the U.S. military would get involved.
Striking inside Iran by the U.S. military always very difficult getting to that nuclear plant means flying deep inside Iranian territory. But bottom
line, all of that said, the U.S. believes deterrents for now are working. If the Iranians choose something else, if they choose to attack the U.S.
military says it's always ready, Becky.
ANDERSON: Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon. Appreciate that, Barbara. Thank you. Trita Parsi is the Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute
for Responsible Statecraft. He and I have spoken a number of times on this show with regard Iran. He joins us now from Washington. What do you make of
what we are hearing at this point?
TRITA PARSI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, THE QUINCY INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT: Well, as has been reported it's not clear who has done it, but
there are not that many candidates. At the end of the day the only countries that actually have the intent, the motivation and the capacity,
the capacity is really important, really reduces the number of candidates no more than Israel potentially and the United States.
The Israelis have a clear motivation in this. They don't want to see the Biden Administration revive the nuclear deal and they don't want to see the
United States and Iran end up having less contentious relationships.
And they know that the Biden Administration would not be open to giving a green light or turning a blind eye if the Israelis were to conduct attacks
of this kind. So it is not inconceivable in any way, shape or form that they are doing opportunity to do so now with a Trump Administration in
power that tempts to turn a blind eye or even provide assistance and green light to attacks of this kind.
So, it seems quite likely that it is the Israelis, but we need more evidence before any conclusions can be drawn.
ANDERSON: Let's be very clear. The details are scarce at the moment. Certainly, the Foreign Minister in Iran has said that there are serious
indications that this is Israel. Israeli Prime Minister's office has had no comment to make to CNN, but I want to refer you and our viewers to this
speech by the Israeli Prime Minister back in 2018. Have a listen.
[11:35:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: This is how Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Head of Project Hamad put it. Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh.
So his directive is right here, and he says the general aim is to announce the closure of Project Hamad but then he adds special activities, you know
what that is, special activities will be carried out under the title of scientific know-how development/.
And, in fact, this is exactly what Iran proceeded to do. It continued this work in a series of organizations over the years, and today in 2010 or 2018
this work is carried out by SPND, that's an organization inside Iran's Defense Ministry, and you will not be surprised to hear that SPND is led by
the same person who led the Project Hamad, Dr. Fakhrizadeh and also not coincidentally many of SPND's key personnel worked under Fakhrizadeh on
Project Hamad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Benjamin Netanyahu pointing out who this scientist is? And according to Netanyahu what he has effectively been up to. I know that this
will be a region. I'm here in Abu Dhabi here in the UAE this will be a region on edge tonight and over the weekend. What are the risks here,
Trita?
PARSI: Well, if the Iranians decide to retaliate, they can bring the region into a full-scale war. It certainly could bring the United States into that
conflict as well. It appears to me that if the Israelis are behind it, that this is part of what they actually want to achieve.
They want to goad Iran into that war, a war that they have tried to start for quite some time but failed, and this might be some of the last chances
they have to do so because when the Obama Administration was in power, they condemned it when the Israelis were engaging in assassinations in Iran
because they recognized quite clearly those assassinations actually do not set back the Iranian nuclear program.
What they are aimed to do is set back diplomacy and diplomacy is exactly what Benjamin Netanyahu is worried about right now. But even if the
Iranians choose not to retaliate, nevertheless means that the atmosphere for diplomacy will have suffered tremendously and will be much more
difficult for the Biden Administration to be able to re-engage with the Iranians and to revive the JCPOA which, again, is exactly what the
Netanyahu government has been seeking.
This is part of the reason why a lot of eyes right now are turning to Netanyahu because there are not a lot of other countries with the intent,
the motive and the capacity and in the case of Israel the history of having engaged in assassinations of this kind.
ANDERSON: Whoever is behind this attack, and, again, let's be quite clear here, it is not clear at this point. Nobody has held their hands up and
said it's us. This is the second successful assassination in the country of a high-level asset, let's call it that, in the past, what, two or three
months, and that might come as an embarrassment to Tehran leadership who would want the world to believe that they can protect their best.
PARSI: Absolutely. This is without a doubt embarrassing, particularly to the IRGC, that this is happening, and it's happened before, as you
mentioned. The Israelis were behind another assassination according to western reports that took place about three or so months ago.
But even prior to that the assassinations that took place, six or seven of them against scientists of Iran were conducted by the Israelis according to
the United States and all of this raises another question, that Iranian government has been imprisoning environmentalists and academics et cetera
on grounds of security or using them of spy.
Perhaps their focus should be more on the ones that are actually conducting assassinations rather than academics. It raises real question marks about
what the Iranian government really is doing in terms of being able to protect its borders?
ANDERSON: I've got a quote here from the IRNA, during the conflict, the security team producing Iranian - protecting Iranian scientists were also
injured and transferred to hospital Iranian Defense Ministry in a statement condoling with the Supreme Leader and the Iranian nation over the unfair
assassination of a committed manager and an expert, your thoughts.
PARSI: Well, you know, when you take a look at the pattern and the history here, we have seen quite clearly that the Iranian security agencies have
more or less been untouchable in the sense that few inside of Iran has dared to criticize.
[11:40:00]
PARSI: And despite the fact that there's been quite a few successful attacks against Iran, clearly fewer than what otherwise would have been the
case, but you've seen Al Qaeda have terrorist attacks in Southern Iran. ISIS hit the Iranian parliament.
Assassinations against very, very well-protected Iranian scientists, and this is not only embarrassing but hopefully will also spark a conversation
inside of Iran of the negatives for them to allow their security agencies to be completely above any questioning.
ANDERSON: We're going to leave it there, sir. We thank you very much indeed for joining us. CNN continues to work its sources and continues to try and
stand up more information on what is the breaking news this hour the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist just outside of Tehran. We
will be back after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: All right, breaking news this hour. On Friday afternoon at around 4:00 pm Iran time, we first saw the social media reports surfacing of an
assassination attempt on an Iranian at the top Iranian nuclear scientist. Reports now that suggest he has been assassinated. This is him.
We are working our sources, and we will continue to follow this story for you as we move through the coming hours. I'm going to leave you just with
that image for the moment. As I say, I promise we are continuing to follow this for you.
I just want to move away from this story for a moment because heartache and devotion, fans of football legend Diego Maradona inconsolable it seems
today but he is at peace laid to rest near the graves of his parents at a cemetery outside of Buenos Aires and understandably the tributes keep
coming.
Players of the Italian Football Club Napoli honored the footballing giant by wearing his number 10 jersey in their match against Croatian Club
Rijeka. Napoli won 2-0. Fans line the streets in Buenos Aires in Argentina to say good-bye as Maradona's funeral procession passed by. Officials say
he died of heart failure. He was 60 years old.
Well, there is a reason for the adulation, as I am sure you already know, but just in case you haven't got it, have a look at this.
[11:45:00]
ANDERSON: Well, Asif Kapadia is a BAFTA Award winner and Director of the 2019 documentary film "Diego Maradona." We just showed you the trailer.
He's connecting us to the man behind the legend.
You've probably forgotten more about Diego Maradona that most people know although we all feel as if we know this icon, this footballing legend made
so famous by that "Hand of God" incident against England in the quarterfinals of the World Cup back in 1986.
He is now, as many people have pointed out in their eulogies to him in the "Hands of God" at the age of 60. When the news came through, what were your
first thoughts, Asif?
ASIF KAPADIA, DIRECTOR, DIEGO MARADONA: Hi, Becky. My first thought honestly is that I had friends in Argentina who had been telling me for
quite a few weeks that he was not well. The thing about Diego Maradona you hear he's not well. You hear he's really sick. You hear he may die and then
he gets fine again. And that's kind of being going on for quite few years actually.
So I thought he'd OK. I thought you know actually indestructible. So when I heard the news from Argentina when it broke I was quite surprised and quite
shocked that finally it did happen. But he had been unwell for a while so it was going to happen soon, it felt it was coming.
ANDERSON: Your documentary is fantastic. I enjoyed it immensely, and I just want our viewers to take a little trip inside an Argentinean locker room,
part of the documentary. Let's have a look at this. That is Maradona. What was going on there?
KAPADIA: That was actually when his team Napoli in Italy, when they first win the championship in 1987, and so it's the celebration, and it's an
amazing thing we were able to do with that film. We found footage. This is long before locker room cameras that kind of became norm, so that's the
team celebrating the championship and singing a song that they had seen Maradona.
So you've got the team singing and Maradona singing a song about the amazing feeling of seeing Diego Maradona. So the whole figure was quite
self referential but you see his smile, you see how happy they are? How joyful they are? And that happened essentially the year after he won the
world cup in Mexico in 86. At that point he's the greatest footballer in the world, no doubt.
ANDERSON: Yes. I met him in 2006. I've been reminding myself and our viewers of that it, and he was an absolutely charm. I met him at a bar in
Germany during the World Cup and we had a bit of a knock-around with the ball, as you do.
But he was charm personified, and I now remember the producer I was with at the time a young guy, turned into a fantastic producer for CNN, but he was
very, very young at the time and he was so star struck he literally couldn't move, so I was left playing sort of keeping up with - with
Maradona.
KAPADIA: Wow. I'd do that with him as well.
ANDERSON: And World Sport kid was just left. Your movie is fantastic. The access to - to this video footage is unbelievable. Let's just have another
look at part of the documentary.
[11:50:00]
ANDERSON: We've been talking now for the past 48 hours about why it is that people loved this guy as much as they did, for all his sort of, you know
good, bad and indifferent sides. I was going to say warts and all, as it were.
You know, you've done a lot of work behind the scenes on Diego Maradona. What's your answer to that? Why do people love him? Why is he so loved?
KAPADIA: I just think, you know, he splits people. The reason they love him or they hate him, number one, he was the best footballer of his generation,
perhaps of all time in the most popular sport in the world OK, in football.
So you're already something that everyone in Africa and everyone in Asia, all over Latin America and all over Europe even North America knows who
Diego Maradona is OK. He's a kid who came from the equivalent of - he had child of kind of eight kids in the family.
He had no electricity or no water or running water in his home, no toilet. They lived in a shack his family. No education from that he became this
incredible hero, this God who wins the World Cup and does it in a way where he kind of gets England by scoring the best goal probably ever scored in a
World Cup.
And let's call it the cheekiest goals ever scored which makes him no - hero in Argentina because this is the few years after a war between the two
countries. He wins a championship in Italy, essentially the toughest league in the world, probably it has ever been, Italy in the '80 and he wins with
a team that's never won before and never won since.
But it is also just a kind of rebel, a kind of guy who causes trouble who does things. He's the guy that Fidel Castro wants to meet and he's the guy
that a Pope wants to be - he is that guy that all the politicians wanted to be seen with. They all were rock stars.
And it is not just that he was an amazing athlete it's the charisma and the character and the factor that he really didn't care what people thought
about him which made him special. He's bigger than football, he's bigger than anything. He's an icon. You know, he transcends the sports, and I
think that's what makes him so special.
ANDERSON: And you've seen the outpouring, the outpouring of grief and the wonderful things that people have written about him over social and
elsewhere, you know, really, really loved. Cheeky young man, I met him again in 2015. He was still cheeky then when he was living in Dubai towards
the end of his coaching.
KAPADIA: That's where I met.
ANDERSON: Did you. All right, well thank you for that. We're going to leave it there. We've got some breaking news that we're following this hour.
Thank you. And the breaking news this hour is that the Iranian Army Chief of Staff is warning of severe revenge. That after Iranian state media
reports that the nation's top nuclear scientist was killed.
They say it appears to have been an assassination. Images have surfaced from East of Tehran of a vehicle with bullet holes in the windshield and
blood on the ground. The Foreign Minister blaming Israel the Israeli Prime Minister's office has not responded to CNN's request for comment.
This scientist headed the Research Center of New Technology in the elite - in the elite nuclear division. He was considered one of the masterminds
behind Iran's nuclear program. We are continuing to closely monitor this. We're going to take a very short break back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:55:00]
ANDERSON: All right, breaking news that we have been following out of Iran for you Iran warning of retaliation after the assassination of the
country's top nuclear scientist. He and his bodyguards were attacked outside Tehran earlier today.
The Iranian Army Chief of Staff now saying whoever is behind the killing will face, "Severe Revenge". The question now is who is responsible? Iran's
Foreign Minister in a tweet suggests Israel plays a role. The Israeli's Prime Minister's office has not commented on the incident. Let's bring Oren
Liebermann who is standing by in Jerusalem with reaction, Oren.
LIEBERMANN: Well, it's an official no comment from the Prime Minister's office of Benjamin Netanyahu and that's no surprise Israel rarely comments
on its work against Iran, especially something of this magnitude. It certainly isn't hard to look at the scenario and conclude that Israel is
one of the likely countries that may have carried this out and that goes back to Israel's history when it comes to Iran's nuclear scientist.
With Israel reportedly assassinating a number of nuclear scientists in the early part of the 2010s or 2010 to 2012 and it was the Former Defense
Minister Moshe Ya'alon who famously said in 2015 Israel will not be held responsible for the life expectancy of Iranian nuclear scientists.
It's not hard to look at that and think Israel may well have been behind something like this but Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu go
very quiet at times like this. There is simply no need to invite retaliation especially when Iran's top Generals and for example Javad Zarif
make it clear that they view Israel as responsible and may carry out retaliation.
At this point there is no indication that the Israeli military the IDF is going on high alert in the north either along the Lebanese border or in the
occupied Golan Heights along the Syria border. There is no reinforcement of troops that we know of or that have been reported.
But generally, Israel believes that if Iran chooses to retaliate in general it's not quick and knee-neck. It's a plan sort out retaliation or response
that perhaps they just don't expect something like that imminently. But Becky, worth noting the official response is and probably will remain no
comment from Israel.
ANDERSON: Oren, the Israeli Prime Minister back in 2018 pointing his finger very - very clearly at this character as around sort of number one
boogieman when comes to Israel. Just - we're going to take a very short break here in the moment, but just what are the risks here regionally?
LIEBERMANN: Well, the real question in what way does Iran choose to retaliate, and how quickly does that's escalate? If, for example, it's a
response from Hezbollah with rockets coming in from Lebanon it could escalate very quickly.
If this was Israel, it's easy to see situation which Israel wants to draw the U.S. into a conflict. And certainly, any sort of conflict involving
Hezbollah can escalate to that level fairly quickly. If it's a response from Syria it might be lower level, a smaller response that would not
automatically or nearly automatically bring about a much wider conflict.
We've seen back and forth across the Syrian border somewhat often over the course of the past few months and years and perhaps something like that
might stay smaller. Is it Israel? Well, Israel must have looked at the scenarios and if it was Israel, if it wasn't Israel, Israel knows it has a
close in window at end of the Trump Administration to essentially have a free hand when it comes to what happens or what actions it takes against
Iran.
ANDERSON: Oren, stand by. I'm going to get back to you. Taking a short break, and we'll be back at the top of the next hour, folks. Stand by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
