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Interview with Israeli Ambassador to the U.N.; Toddler Caught in Lebanon Reunites with Mother

Aired July 24, 2006 - 14:30   ET

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

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, U.S. help is on the way to the Middle East. Here's what we know right now. President Bush today ordered helicopters and ships to the region to provide humanitarian aid including tons of medical equipment. The White House expects deliveries to begin tomorrow.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that Iran and Syria pledged their cooperation in ending this conflict. He warns that force alone will not disarm Hezbollah and calls for political understanding and agreement. Annan will meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and key Mideast players in Rome on Wednesday. Rice has just arrived in Israel earlier today. She paid a surprise visit to Beirut.

And Israeli police say that dozens more rockets were fired at Israel today. Israel struck back targeting Hezbollah rocket launch sites in southern Lebanon.

Now, it's been almost two weeks since a brazen attack that helped spark the Mideast crisis. Hezbollah militants killed three Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. They kidnapped two others and are demanding a prisoner swap for their release. Over the weekend, Lebanon's foreign affairs minister said the soldiers are in good health and safe, but their families are in agony. The brother of one of the men spoke to CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

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BENI REGEV, BROTHER OF KIDNAPPED SOLDIER: So far we are simply in the dark. We don't know anything about the shape of my brother, if he's alive. We ask for all the nations to give us, to help us to get some flight for my brother and the other kidnapped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Regev also said his brother should be allowed to see the Red Cross. He called the visit a basic of international law.

Well we're almost two weeks into the Mideast crisis with no end in sight. How much longer will the fighting last and how far will Israel go? Dan Gillerman is the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. He joins us now live from New York. Mr. Ambassador, thanks for being with us.

DAN GILLERMAN, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: Thank you for having me.

PHILLIPS: I want to ask you about the most recent bit of news that has surfaced and we've been able to show reports of Lebanese casualties, specifically children with severe burns, doctors within these hospitals saying that they smell phosphorus. I guess my first question to you is, are phosphorus bombs part of your conventional weapons inventory?

GILLERMAN: I'm not that well acquainted with our conventional inventory, but what I do know is that Israel uses weapons only according to international law. As far as I know, I don't know whether phosphorus is banned or not. But whatever we use is actually part of international law and we are fighting a very vicious enemy who doesn't regard these things and disregards human life and specifically targets civilians.

PHILLIPS: Go ahead, I'm sorry, sir.

GILLERMAN: No, I'm saying -- I mean, we're very sorry, very, very sorry and we grieve for every civilian and every innocent hurt in Lebanon. But you have to understand that in a country which Hezbollah has taken hostage and has infiltrated to such an extent, sometimes because Hezbollah targets its shelling and its terrorist acts from very heavily, densely populated areas, this sometimes unfortunately is unavoidable.

PHILLIPS: We heard from the Syrian ambassador, Ambassador Ja'afari earlier today talking about the issue of Syria and Iran backing Hezbollah. This is what he had to say, and I want to get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASHAR JA'AFARI, SYRIAN AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The problem is not the Syrian/Iranian access as somebody would like to say. The problem is the American backing of the Israeli aggression against all the areas, since 1967. Providing Israel with 500 laser bomb -- laser- guided bombs would mean that the American administration is agreeable to the destruction of Lebanon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Are you getting that type of support from the U.S.?

GILLERMAN: We're getting a lot of support from the U.S. and we're very grateful for that support and we believe that the U.S. supports Israel because Israel is a democracy that is fighting for its life and for its home unless, unlike Syria, which is a totalitarian dictatorship and a terrorist supporting regime, the Syrian president is actually host to over 10 of the most dangerous terror organizations in the world who are headquartered in Damascus and therefore I think that the Syrian ambassador is the last one to preach either to us or to the U.S. about what is right and what is wrong. PHILLIPS: So would you even believe Syrian leaders, Iranian leaders if, indeed, they came forward and said, OK, let's negotiate, let's talk about this.

GILLERMAN: No, I don't believe them because Iran and Syria are part of the world's most horrible and ominous axis of terror, together with the Hezbollah and the Hamas, which they support and harbor and finance.

They actually are today one of the greatest threats towards stability and to engage them would be a horrible mistake. Terrorists and terrorist states should be isolated and dealt with, rather than engaged and appeased. To bring Iran and Syria on board, I mean, people who bring up these ideas may as well invite bin Laden to the conference as well, and then we'll have the whole club in attendance.

PHILLIPS: Mr. Ambassador, do you think the U.S. military should get involved in this fight?

GILLERMAN: No, I don't think the military, the U.S. military or the U.S. should get involved in this fight. We can take very good care of ourselves. We do fight very brutal and cynical enemy, but because we're fighting for our homes, because we are actually reacting as any democracy would to a very blatant act of war, we will take care of it and we will prevail.

PHILLIPS: Have you been able to have any communication with the kidnapped Israeli soldiers and if, indeed, those soldiers are returned to you, does this end or it does it come down dismantling Hezbollah no matter what happens with those Israeli soldiers?

GILLERMAN: We have unfortunately not had any contact with the soldiers. We have no information about that, which is part of the very cruel and cynical tactics of their captors. They've always done that. They've kept the families in the dark.

And we want our soldiers back and we hopefully will get our boys back home. But I don't think this will be the end of it, because after the huge arsenal and the magnitude of the lethal arsenal which Hezbollah has amassed, we're to take care of that, so that they cannot, at will and at whim at any time, attack and shell and hurt Israeli citizens and Israeli civilians and attack our cities and our villages.

So we will have to take care of it. Hezbollah will have to be disarmed and dismantled and eliminated before any kind of solution can actually be...

PHILLIPS: Mr. Ambassador, I've got to ask you this. Will Israel attack Syria, and will Israel attack Iran?

GILLERMAN: Israel has no plans to attack Syria or Iran. Syria and Iran are no longer just a threat to Israel. Syria and Iran a threat to the whole world, and it is up to the world to tackle them. At the moment, we're taking care of a monster, of a cancerous growth which has infiltrated the whole of Lebanon. That is our mission, and we will complete it.

PHILLIPS: But if Syria and Iran are the countries that are supplying weapons and support to Hezbollah, then why aren't you addressing Iran and Syria?

GILLERMAN: Because we believe that both Iran and Syria, which, as I said, are part of the access of terror and part of the war against terror, are no longer a threat just to Israel. They're no longer just a local problem, just as terror is no longer just a local problem. They are a threat to the rest of the world and it is up to the international community to deal with those two terrorist regimes. And I don't think that Israel should be at the forefront of that battle.

PHILLIPS: Should Condoleezza Rice be in the region, and how will she affect this?

GILLERMAN: Well, I think she should be. I think the United States should be involved, and I totally trust the judgment of this administration and of Condoleezza Rice in visiting the region. I think she can be very effective in bringing about a solution, and I'm sure that in the next few days we will see signs of that.

PHILLIPS: Dan Gillerman, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Appreciate your time, sir.

GILLERMAN: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Well, she says her knees buckled when she heard the Middle East fighting had begun. Meet a New Jersey mom whose toddler was stuck in Lebanon for days while the fighting begun. They're both joining us live. The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM, coming up next.

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PHILLIPS: Well, a mother, her 2-year-old daughter, separated by war half a world away. The mother considered going to Lebanon to rescue the toddler, then a relative risked his life to get her out.

CNN's Daryn Kagan has the story.

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MEHLIKA OZDEMIR, REUNITED WITH DAUGHTER: It's just now amazing just to have my daughter in my arms.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A mother and child reunion. Mehlika holds little Serena like she'll never let her go. She did let her leave with her dad to visit family in Lebanon. The father came home, and then the bombs fell.

OZDEMIR: I wanted my daughter next to me. I wanted her -- I wanted to smell her. I wanted to see her smile. And I couldn't do none of that. I know she was safe, close to my husband's family. They were taking care of her, but it just -- that when the war happened, we just didn't know how to get her here.

KAGAN: Serena's uncle had an idea. The family lived in the Bekaa Valley, Hezbollah heartland, the site of Israeli bombing; too far from Beirut, where Americans were being evacuated. So Serena's uncle scouted out a land route, first making a test run himself, then returning to get Serena.

In the middle of the night, they took a dangerous crossing into Syria, then travelled onto Jordan, finally making it to Amman's airport and a flight to New York. Now with Serena home, her mom is thinking of other children trapped by the war. She's raising supplies, calling her cause "Operation Serena."

OZDEMIR: I want help. I need whatever you can bring, water, food, clothes, just to send it over, just to send it over to make sure those kids, they have blankets to go to sleep at night, they have water to drink, they have food to eat. I wouldn't want anybody to go through what I went through.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, Mehlika and Serena join us now live from New York. Oh, my gosh. And she -- do you think she has any idea, Mehlika, what happened?

OZDEMIR: You know, what happened, what happened was you know she was in Lebanon, and she was just having the best time of her life there. She was with her father's side of the family, enjoying vacation there. But the war happened, and we did whatever we can just it get her out because it was very tough for us to get her out.

PHILLIPS: Now, how did it end up that you and her father ended up here in the United States and she was still overseas? Where was the disconnect?

OZDEMIR: Well, what happened was is that her father went to Lebanon for vacation and we decided for her to stay over until I go back and meet her there and bring her back on July 15th. That was my reservation to go back to Lebanon and get her back.

PHILLIPS: When those strikes started happening, when you got the news, no doubt your heart just started beating. What did you do? What was the next move?

OZDEMIR: It was -- let me tell you something, it was so hard for me. When I got the news, I just couldn't believe. Now I'm just thinking exactly when I got the news how I reacted, I'm just blindsided. I don't know. When they told me that Beirut Airport was bombed, the first thing came to my mind is that, oh my God, my daughter, how am I going to go and get here? And that that was -- that was my -- probably one of the first thoughts that I had.

PHILLIPS: Tell us about amazing uncle Tony. He came to the rescue. How did you know that this was the best way to get your daughter out of there? Tell us what Tony did. OZDEMIR: We didn't know. We were so confused on how we were going to get her out and, you know, because the U.S. embassy they were sending messages to go.

PHILLIPS: You can put her down, Mehlika. Is there somebody there? It's OK, let her down, she can run around.

OZDEMIR: You know because there is a time difference so she's kind of grouchy a little bit because there's seven-hour time difference and she wants to sleep and she's tired.

PHILLIPS: And she's had a long trip for goodness sake. We have a friendly newsroom there, just let her -- they'll watch her, don't worry.

OZDEMIR: OK, thank you.

PHILLIPS: So you're talking with uncle Tony. What did he tell you? Did he say, "Mehlika, don't worry. This is my plan, this is what I'm going to do."

OZDEMIR: That's exactly what he said. He goes like, "Mehlika, I don't want you to worry. I know you're a mother and I will give you this, I will say this to you, I will promise you, I will send your daughter to you safe." And then it was just so surreal for me. It was very surreal for me.

PHILLIPS: Let's take a look at that moment when you finally reunited with Serena again.

OZDEMIR: Yes. It was amazing. It was one of the, it was a surreal moment for me. I didn't think it was really going to happen, even though a lot of people told me, well don't worry, we're going to get her regardless. And when I saw her, oh my god -- when I saw her, it was like, I don't want to let you go. That's it, you're here and whenever you're going to go, I'll just be stuck to you.

PHILLIPS: And grandma, of course, was holding her the whole way. What did your grandmother tell -- or did her grandmother say to you, how she was and how was grandma feeling? I mean, this, no doubt, must have been tough for her, as well.

OZDEMIR: Yes, to bring her here. She was a trooper. She was a trooper. She didn't have any problem along the way, but the airline that she came with, you know, my mother-in-law, being an elderly person, it was so hard for her to carry her and then put her on her lap and, you know, take care of her.

So, that was kind of a little tough for her and, you know, that was it, that wasn't a big deal, really. Just as long as she got here safe and that's what we cared about, really.

PHILLIPS: And Mehlika, you're all safe and sound with your family now. What about your uncle? What about your other family members in Lebanon. Are they OK? OZDEMIR: Right now, right now they're fine. What we know about them is that they're right now safe and none of the bombs actually going in their direction at this moment. But if they feel that it is going to be unsafe, they are probably going to take the same route to go to Syria, probably.

PHILLIPS: Mehlika Ozdemir, and your little girl Serena, glad your family is back together. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

OZDEMIR: Thank you so much. Thank you for your time.

PHILLIPS: It's our pleasure. We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM straight ahead.

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