Amanpour: Mark Esper, Massoumeh Ebtekar, Elissa Slotkin and Turki Al-Faisal

Amanpour

CNN

News

4.1 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2020

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mark Esper, U.S. Defense Secretary, joins Christiane Amanpour to defend the decision to carry out a targeted killing of Iran's top military commander, Qasem Soleimani. He explains why he doesn't regret the decision as well as the "imminent threat" that justified such an extreme course of action. Massoumeh Ebtekar, the Iranian Vice President on Women and Family Affairs, gives her counter-viewpoint, arguing that the White House made a serious miscalculation. Elissa Slotkin, U.S. House Democrat for Michigan, weighs in on the debate by giving her expert analysis as a former CIA analyst who served 3 tours in Iraq. She explains the war power resolution that she has been tasked with drawing up, to block the president's path to war in the region. Turki Al-Faisal, former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., discusses concern coming out of the Kingdom and the effort launched to deescalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to Ammanpur. Here's what's coming up.
0:07.0	We will respond but we will respond proportionately.
0:13.0	Not disproportionately.
0:14.0	The US Braces for Iranian retaliation, and I speak to Defence Secretary Mark Esper.
0:20.0	And the message from Iran as millions mourn
0:23.0	Gossa M solemnani for the fourth straight day.
0:26.0	Iranian Vice President Masuma Eptica joins me from Tehran.
0:30.0	Thus, what action will Congress take? We hear from the former CIA analyst who served in Iraq,
0:36.4	Representative Elissa Slotkin. And even the Saudis are calling for restraint. We talk to the
0:42.4	Kingdom's former ambassador to Washington, D.C. Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christina Manpur in London. Allies of the
1:05.2	United States meet and call on both sides to de-escalate the crisis as
1:09.6	emotionally charged scenes flood the streets of Iran for the fourth straight day.
1:14.5	The latest crowds gathered in Kerman, hometown of the slain military commander,
1:19.4	Rassam Solemnani.
1:20.6	Iranian state media says at least 56 people have been killed in a
1:24.3	stampede at his burial. Meantime the United States and the world prepare for
1:29.2	Iran's retaliation. In Tehran the foreign minister Javad Zarif said the response will be proportional.
1:36.0	In Washington, the aftermath has been somewhat confused.
1:39.4	Defense Secretary Mark Esper contradicted the President's comments on the possibility of
1:44.0	targeting cultural sides, vowing to abide by the laws of armed conflict.
1:48.4	He has also denied that US troops are pulling out of Iraq after a letter that was leaked suggested a withdrawal.
1:56.8	And he is joining me now from the Pentagon.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.