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American Morning
Quake in Iran
Aired December 31, 2003 - 09:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now to Iran, where the president is vowing to rebuild the city of Bam, which was all but destroyed last week by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake. The Iranian government says the death toll now stands at 30,000, says that number could go as high as 50,000. Ryan Chilcote is live for us by videophone in Bam, Iran.
Ryan, good morning.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, 30,000 is truly an astonishing number. That is the number of bodies that rescue teams here have recovered from underneath the rubble so far. Most of those people have been buried. We have some aerial pictures of the city of Bam. This is what the destruction looks like from that earthquake on Friday. The city was literally leveled, and today, it is now day six of the relief effort, and sadly, the relief officials that we've been talking to say it is extremely unlikely at this point that anyone will be rescued from underneath the rubble alive.
Now, there are some 1,000 aid workers from outside of Iran here right now, including a team from the United States, which arrived yesterday. They're setting up their camp today. And by tomorrow, they hope to have a field hospital set up, and they hope to treat a lot of the injured people here in the city of Bam.
Now they've been greeted quite enthusiastically so far. In fact, we witnessed a soldier from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard coming up to these U.S. representatives and giving them flowers. This is a watershed moment, perhaps, in U.S./Iranian relations. This is the first time that a delegation has come from the United States to Iran, at least openly, in more than two decades.
Now, President Mohammed Khatemi said that just because the U.S. has sent a delegation to this country doesn't mean that relations will improve overnight. You will remember, of course, that Iran is on the list of countries of the countries of the "Axis of Evil" that President George W. Bush announced. So relations have a ways to go here. President Khatemi also said, very sadly, that the number of dead in this city could rise to 50,000 -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: And, Ryan, certainly people are hoping, some people are hoping that the tragedy could spur some kind of detente between the two nations, of course.
Ryan Chilcote for us this morning. Appreciate it, Ryan. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 31, 2003 - 09:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now to Iran, where the president is vowing to rebuild the city of Bam, which was all but destroyed last week by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake. The Iranian government says the death toll now stands at 30,000, says that number could go as high as 50,000. Ryan Chilcote is live for us by videophone in Bam, Iran.
Ryan, good morning.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, 30,000 is truly an astonishing number. That is the number of bodies that rescue teams here have recovered from underneath the rubble so far. Most of those people have been buried. We have some aerial pictures of the city of Bam. This is what the destruction looks like from that earthquake on Friday. The city was literally leveled, and today, it is now day six of the relief effort, and sadly, the relief officials that we've been talking to say it is extremely unlikely at this point that anyone will be rescued from underneath the rubble alive.
Now, there are some 1,000 aid workers from outside of Iran here right now, including a team from the United States, which arrived yesterday. They're setting up their camp today. And by tomorrow, they hope to have a field hospital set up, and they hope to treat a lot of the injured people here in the city of Bam.
Now they've been greeted quite enthusiastically so far. In fact, we witnessed a soldier from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard coming up to these U.S. representatives and giving them flowers. This is a watershed moment, perhaps, in U.S./Iranian relations. This is the first time that a delegation has come from the United States to Iran, at least openly, in more than two decades.
Now, President Mohammed Khatemi said that just because the U.S. has sent a delegation to this country doesn't mean that relations will improve overnight. You will remember, of course, that Iran is on the list of countries of the countries of the "Axis of Evil" that President George W. Bush announced. So relations have a ways to go here. President Khatemi also said, very sadly, that the number of dead in this city could rise to 50,000 -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: And, Ryan, certainly people are hoping, some people are hoping that the tragedy could spur some kind of detente between the two nations, of course.
Ryan Chilcote for us this morning. Appreciate it, Ryan. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
