Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom Live 20190624 : vimarsana.

3 00 a. M. On the u. S. East coast. The u. S. President says that he is not looking for a war with iran, but senior officials in Donald Trumps administration are refusing to take military action off the table. And that is raising concerns about the u. S. Strategy during a time of heightened tenses. The u. S. Secretary of state mike pompeo has just arrived in saudi arabia. He says he wants to build a Global Coalition against iran. And President Trump, well, he says that he is willing to hold talks with iran without preconditions, but he insists that tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And if there is a conflict, he says that it will be obliterated like youve never seen before. Lets go live to tehran. Our Senior International correspondent Fred Pleitgen is live there. And, fred, look, a lot of mixed messages for sure coming out of washington been but also varied reactions coming out of iran on this. What are you hearing . Reporter yeah. Youre absolutely right, george. And i think mixed messages coming out of washington certainly is one of the main things that the iranians are looking at here. I can tell you that over the weekend on Iranian State tv, one of the things that the iranians were most surprised by was President Trump coming out, i think it was on friday night or saturday night, coming out and saying that he appreciated the fact that the rauniranians wheny shot down that drone didnt also shoot down a manned United States aircraft. That was something that was playing again and again and again over the weekend on Iranian State tv. You saw on the one hand you have President Trump still saying that military action is on the table, but at the same time, of course, calling back that strike. Now, its quite interesting to see because irans foreign minister has now gotten involved in all of this as well. He obviously also says that he believes there are some in the administration and people who are close to President Trump who are trying to box him in to a war with iran. He calls them the b team, referring to National Security adviser john bolton, israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but then also, of course, folks from the place that secretary of state pompeo is visiting right now, like for instance the crown prince of saudi Arabia Mohammed bin salman. He believes that they arerying to box President Trump into a situation where war becomes inevitable, but then he tweeted, and i think this was a really key phrase, that in the end it didnt happen because President Trump essentially pulled back. And thats something where i think javad zarif, the foreign minister of iran, was essentially praising President Trump. He then, though, went on to say economic terrorism builds tensions. Thats essentially the iranians saying that this maximum Pressure Campaign by the United States government is essentially whats holding up what President Trump wants with the iranians, which is talks. So you do have some varied reaction. On the other hand, you have military folks here in iran still talking tough just a couple of minutes ago, and were just getting this in now to our system as well, a top naval commander saying that the shooting down of the drone by the iranians was a crushing response and is something that can be repeated. So some pretty tough talk coming from them as well. But surely economic pressure is taking hold. Has taken hold there in iran. And to hear the framing of economic terrorism, how is that being received there throughout the country . That new framing. Reporter yeah, i mean, its something that the iranians actually have been saying for awhile. They call it Economic Warfare, economic terrorism. Essentially what the iranians are saying is that they believe that the u. S. Is breaching International Law by going into the Nuclear Agreement with iran and, of course, a couple of other countries as well then pulling back from that Nuclear Agreement. But at the same time putting such sanctions on iran that essentially forces other countries to also not do business with iran anymore. The iranians are saying they believe that that is Economic Warfare and obviously its something that they want to see go away as fast as possible, but i think one of the key things that the iranians are essentially telling washington is theyre saying, look, we are not going to negotiate with you under pressure. Make no mistake, george, weve been talking about this, these sanctions are having biting effect on regular iranians. A lot of people are losing their jobs. The currencys in a freefall. Iran barely able to export much of its oil. Yet the iranians are staying straight up to the Trump Administration, as long as this is in place we are not going to talk to you. There have been messages from more moderate forces, for instance the president Hassan Rouhani saying, look, talks might be possible, but youve got to go back to the Nuclear Agreement or at least give iran some sanctions relief if that is to happen. A real disconnect right now between washington and tehran is that essentially the Trump Administration is saying they want to force iran back to the negotiating table through really tough sanctions and the iranians are saying it is exactly those sanctions that are preventing us from going back to the negotiating table, george. All right. 11 35 in the morning there. Fred pleitgen on the story. Thank you, fred. Iran will top the agenda in jerusalem when u. S. National security adviser john bolton sits down with his russian counterpart as well as israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On sunday, bolton and mr. Netanyahu spoke to reporters about the tensions playing out in the region and bolton warned iran, dont mistake our prudence, he said, u. S. Prudence for weakness. Cnns Oren Liebermann will be covering this meeting in jerusalem. Interesting now that russia is also a part of this in the mix. Reporter well, this meeting was always supposed to be a threeway meeting between the russian, israeli and essentially american National Security advisers. Its taken on added significance with the events of the last few days. National security adviser john bolton has already met with israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Its no secret these are two hardline hawks when it comes to iran and that was evident in the statements they made, essentially listing what they see as a long list of irans aggressive acts in the region and then came that openended threat from bolton, essentially saying, look, we may not have used force this time or carried out a retaliatory strike, but that does not mean that such a strike is off the table. The most interesting part of this threeway mix is russia. Russia far closer to iran than the u. S. Or israel and may look out for irans back essentially in this situation. Well see what comes out of these meetings. Tomorrow is the threeway meeting between all of these countries, russia, israel and the u. S. Today its bilateral meetings. First netanyahu will meet with the russian counterpart and then bolton will meet with his russian counterpart. So well see what comes out of those meetings and what definitive steps are taken. It was supposed to be a meeting specifically about iran and iranian proxies in syria. It of course has taken on added significance with the added developments in the region and the hawkish language from bolton when it comes to iran. That certainly is not surprise given his positions. Well, oren, we know that european allies want to get to the table with iran. President trump says he wants to go to the table with iran with no preconditions. Whats israels take on that . Reporter well, netanyahu will be very careful not to criticize in any way trump. When he made his Opening Statements with bolton, he didnt mention at all trumps decision to call back a retaliatory strike against iran. Neither did anyone else in the israeli government, really, and thats because israel and specifically this government never want to be seen as criticizing trump. They havent in the past 2 1 2 years now and theyre not about to start at this point, especially when it comes to trumps iran policy. They will always praise trumps sanctions and encourge other countries to levy their own sanctions against iran, even if those efforts to try to get other country to sanction iran are in the end fruitless. When it comes to trump openly talking to iran or at least saying hes willing to talk with no preconditions, israel, instead of criticizing, instead of pointing out what should come from those talks, i suspect would simply say, look, our condition is that iran stop spreading terror across the region, top pursuing nuclear weapons, essentially the red lines israel has always tried to enforce when it comes to iran. But, ill emphasize this, natalie, israel will never criticize trump when it comes to his policy, whether thats iran or something else, at least not in the current environment. Right. Understood with their relationship. Oren lieberman will be covering those talks that include russia. Thank you, oren. President trump admits some members of his team take a hardline approach on iran, but he says that he listens to opposing views. Do you feel like you were being pushed into military action against iran by any of your advisers . I have two groups of people, i have doves and hawks. You have some serious hawks. I have some hawks. John bolton is absolutely a hawk. If it was up to him, he would absolutely take on the world on one time. But that doesnt matter. Because i want both sides. Here it is. Look, you cant have nuclear weapons. If you want to talk about it, good. Otherwise, you can live in a shattered economy for a long time to come. Lets talk about all of this now with natasha lind ststaedt professor of government ethics joining us from england. Thanks for having me. Lets start by talking about this thing that really stands out to me at the very least, stands out for sure with regard to iran, the nations foreign minister javad zarif praising President Trump for his restraint. Were you surprised by any positive signaling about the Trump Administration from iran . Well, if you look at zarif, he is one of he wouldnt be one of the hardliners in iran and he is a very skilled diplomat. You know, as you can tell, he speaks perfect english, he understands the u. S. Very, very well and he may understand trump very well, that trump responds well to flattery. So he may be trying to communicate with trump that they were pleased that he did not strike, did not agree to strike and is holiding back a little bt and exercising some restraint. Its really Uncharted Waters for iran dealing with trump because hes so incredibly unpredictable. One moment hes threatening iran, claiming hes going to destroy the country. The next day saying he wants to make iran great again. So there may be some opportunity there that iran hasnt really had with any other administration, but what i think the Trump Administration needs to remember is iran hasnt really wavered much in the past 30 years. They have been unbelievably committed to their ideology and it doesnt really change much just because theres new developments, new sanctions, and i think that the Trump Administration is going to really need to understand that, and im concerned that the way theyre moving forward is really more of the same old types of response to iran. So, zarif at the same time denounced the b team, who would push for war, the b team who he says are the National Security adviser john bolton, the israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Saudi Crown Prince mohammed bin salman, to name a few. Is there any sense that there would now be an opening, even if narrow, natasha, with the president instead taking a softer tone with iran that seems to override those who would take a harder line approach . I mean, it the possible. Anything is possible because he changes his mind so much. I mean, a lot of this is a crisis of his own making. He decided to back out of the Iran Nuclear Deal without any evidence that iran was not complying to the deal. Then hes had this tendency from watching him in the short period of time hes been president , but this is also sort of his strategy as a businessman, it push things to the brink and assume that others will cave. Then there is all this global attention on him. Of course he loves all the global attention and he loves opportunities. Speaking of trump here, to create some sort of huge photoop where there is some kind of potential for cooperation. The problem is that the iranians arent in interested in some sort of photoop lighting the north koreans under kim jongun are. They want something real. They want the sanctions to be removed, alleviated. They want the u. S. To take a big first step, and im not sure if the Trump Administration, particularly with the hawks that surround him, are willing to take that step. The only thing thats really going to move this forward is some sort of facesaving diplomacy for iran where the u. S. Will have to offer quite a bit, and thats really basically just a return to adhering to the Iran Nuclear Deal. Given, though, that an election is just around the c n corner, do you see that happening . I dont see that happening. I see this sort of playing out in the media with the Trump Administration, trump in particular trying to keep everybody guessing, claiming there is going to be harsher sanctions, but the sanctions is really same old same old. It is not going to change much for the iranians. Theyve faced sanctions before. Theyve faced hard Economic Times before. Hard times to their economy. Huge inflation rates. Incredibly high unemployment rates. They havent wavered. The biggest problem which i think the Trump Administration doesnt understand is that the sanctions are hurting the very groups that would push for reform and benefitting groups like irans revolutionary guards that could take advantage of the black market activity and continue to smuggle petroleum products. If trump can get an understanding that the sanctions probably arent working, they need to do a uturn, then we can start to see a thaw again of u. S. Iran relations, but i dont see anything like that happening ben 2020. And if pressured, if the pressure continues, if iran decides that it has no choice but, you know, to push forward, you know, and respond to any conflicts how could iran play its hand in that region . Along with the aid of nations like russia. But this is a way the iranians have always responded to conflict, to being cornered. They respond by sowing chaos in the region and being more bold, taking on more risks, you know, some of these sabotage activities are going to take place where we dont know who actually did it, but it all seems to point to iran. They never really have caved. And so if you understand the history of iranian action when theyve been cornered, we would predict that iran is going to continue engaging in bad behavior until some sort of huge olive branch is handed out to them. Natalia lindstaedt giving perspective. Natasha, thank you. Thanks for having me. A local election in turkey is having a much broader reach. The projected winner in istanbuls mayoral elections says his victory is a win for democracy. Why the vote is so important. Well have a live report coming up here. The first survivor of alzheimers disease is out there. And the Alzheimers Association is going to make it happen. But we wont get there without you. Visit alz. Org to join the fight. The Main Opposition Party in turkey is claiming a major victory over the ruling party of president recep tayyip erdogan. With more than 99 of the vote counted, Ekrem Imamoglu is said to be the next mayor of istanbul. He addressed crowds of cheering supporters, as you see right there in istanbul, saying that he is willing to meet with president erdogan, who backed his rival. Results for the Runoff Election are not official yet, but theyre poised to deliver a significant blow to the erdogan government. Lets talk more about it with Jomana Karadsheh. Shes been covering this election. Shes live in istanbul. And, yes, this was largely symbolic, jomana. Youve been telling us about that. It wasnt just a vote of a mayor in a city, it was much more. Reporter absolutely. It was really seen as a test for turkeys democracy, natalie, and i think what was really important about the results of this election was the fact that this was a landslide victory for Ekrem Imamoglu, leading with more than 9 of the vote, according to these preliminary results, and that put the rug ak p