Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Begins Final Day of Middle East Tour in the UAE; Expectations are Low for the Direct Talks Between Russia and Ukraine; Controversial U.S.-Backed Group Plans To Deliver Aid To Gaza; European Union Trade Ministers Met In Brussels Thursday. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired May 16, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber, this is "CNN Newsroom."

The U.S. President is wrapping up his Middle East tour after signing some big deals with the UAE.

As Russia and Ukraine plan to finally hold direct talks, Donald Trump now says nothing will happen with the ceasefire until he and Vladimir Putin meet.

And a look at some of the children facing starvation in Gaza, the youngest victims of the Israeli blockade.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: This hour, U.S. President Donald Trump begins the final day of his Middle East tour, the first international trip of his second term. He's expected to attend a roundtable discussion with business leaders in Abu Dhabi.

Later, he's scheduled to tour the Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex featuring a mosque, synagogue and church. Then he'll head back to Washington with billions of dollars in deals for investments in the U.S. economy, potentially reshaping American foreign policy in the region.

Throughout the trip, he met with business leaders and secured what the White House calls transformative deals with regional allies. Earlier in Qatar, he expressed hope for a nuclear deal with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's very simple. It's not like I have to give you 30 pages worth of details. There's only one sentence, they can't have a nuclear weapon.

And I think we're getting close to maybe doing a deal. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Becky Anderson is in Abu Dhabi covering the president's visit. Becky?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, Kim, thank you.

President Trump arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the third and final. Stop on what is this whirlwind four-day trip through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Like the earlier stops, this country gave him a warm welcome, less pomp and ceremony, more understated with Emirati kids as part of the lineup and not to the importance this country -- this future facing country puts on its younger generation.

I think the UAE made the rare move to close the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi to give President Trump a private tour of the site. The President said that the gesture was, quote, "a great tribute."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It is so beautiful, very proud of my friends. This is an incredible culture that I can say very proud of my friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The U.S. and the UAE signed a partnership to build a massive data center complex in Abu Dhabi to advance its very ambitious A.I. vision here on the -- and once again, Donald Trump talked about the prospect of the U.S. taking over Gaza after the war.

Well, joining me now is Mina Al-Oraibi, the editor in chief of "The National," that's a daily English-language regional newspaper based here in Abu Dhabi.

The paper of note, I want to show you the front page, folks, of "The National" today. "The UAE honors Trump on milestone visit to this country."

You've had some seriously good front pages. I have to say of late, it's good to have you.

What are your key take outs from this trip? Not just here. We can talk about what's been going on here, but this wider trip to the Arabian Gulf.

MINA AL-ORAIBI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "THE NATIONAL": It's been both in its detail and in the bigger picture. A real moment to see the relationship between the Gulf and the U.S. long term.

So I know we give a lot of importance to the nitty gritty and the headlines and everything. But when you step back, really important to see that this is almost like a reset because it's rooted in projects together. These investments are not just about the Gulf going and putting money in the U.S., these are joint investments. And in a way, how you mark the relationship now, how you mark the partnerships will be based on the depth and the strength of these relationships that are also with the private sector. And in the U.S., as we know, it's not just about the government. It's the private sector.

And the fact that the private sector has come on this trip, there has been a Saudi-U.S. business forum. And today there is a UAE-U.S. business forum also to talk about this. So these projects are long term.

[02:05:06]

It doesn't matter who gets elected in the next elections. These projects will last. And so it's to bridge that bipartisan moment.

ANDERSON: And I think we heard from both sides, both from the U.S. and from these Gulf nations ahead of this trip, to your point, the fact that this was a pivotal opportunity to reimagine U.S.-Gulf relations in a new era. And as you rightly point out, investment sits at the heart of this. This is a sort of -- part of -- the kind of central strategy.

But when we talk about investment, we often think about a blank check from this part of the world. Loads of money, energy rich, a blank, that is not what we are seeing here.

This is investment, as you point out. These are co-partnerships, these are long term investments.

And we'll talk about the big announcement and how that fits into this picture momentarily. But yes, no, I think this is really important.

AL-ORAIBI: Security is still hugely important, right? Security is important anywhere in the world, especially in this region.

Still have the Houthis sitting, lobbing missiles in the Red Sea. We still have Israel not only expanding its reach in Syria, potentially destabilizing Lebanon, but also, of course, the terrible tragedies in Gaza ongoing. That still matters.

But what it says is that the security of this region is tied into America's prosperity. And so they're going to have skin in the game, so to speak, to make sure this is no longer, oh, we're just going to leave. You know, we're going to pull our troops out and leave because it's more than that, and that's what these relationships are about.

ANDERSON: So if we were to look at this and suggest that what we are seeing here, what we've seen here is a U.S. President turning the page on U.S.-Middle East policy in this region. What does that look like? Let's start with Syria.

AL-ORAIBI: Syria, potentially the biggest headline long term for the countries outside of the Gulf, because the meeting between Donald Trump and Ahmad Al-Sharra, President of Syria, happening in Riyadh, orchestrated by the Saudis, again, shows the leverage and the diplomacy of the Gulf countries. But also, more importantly, you've pulled Syria firmly into the Arab fold after decades of being not only under the sway of Iran, but in the last 10 years, almost controlled by Iran to some extent. And so this was a huge moment.

Also, the fact that, you know, Donald Trump says things sometimes quite bluntly, but to the point, like, let's give them a chance. You know, he can do great things. There are many concerns about the domestic situation in Syria, and I don't think we should in any way try to paper over that.

But this idea that stability is not just going to magically happen in Syria and then everybody piles in. So the idea is we all need to be in this to try to help lift them. And the sanctions relief was such an important point.

The Gulf countries have been calling for this since December, and it still hadn't come from the Americans. So I think it was something that Trump wanted to do here and say, look, I've listened to you. I'm going to do this because sanctions relief will, of course, allow investments to come into Syria, but also give hope and optimism for Syrians.

And we saw the Syrian Lira jump 25 percent just on the announcement that we're going to lift sanctions. There's you know, there's still a lot to be done. And just the final point on Syria.

I think this idea that it would happen in our world rather than having to fly to Paris or London or elsewhere to make these things happen is a big moment for the region.

ANDERSON: And you and I have been around long enough to know this is you know, this is the fact that it's happening here is a really big moment. And again, it makes it feel as if we're sort of turning a page.

I mean, you talk to people around this region. People are excited, really excited about what you know, what they heard on Syria.

Briefly, before we talk about what's going on here, Iran and Gaza.

AL-ORAIBI: So Iran was really interesting because you heard from President Trump a message to Iran saying you should thank the Emir of Qatar. You should thank what the leaders I've met here because they don't want a war, which is true. You know, you and I hear this publicly, but also privately.

We hear the same, nobody wants a war in this region, nobody wants there to be loggerheads between the U.S. or Israel and Iran. And so this idea and he did allude to this, Trump, he said that, you know, some people want me to go into the military force, but I'm not going to do that. And we know we've heard that, of course, from the Israeli Prime Minister.

So the fact that he's saying I'm going to give peace a chance, diplomacy a chance, and also a lot of it is being orchestrated through different partners. The Iranian Foreign Minister was here in the UAE, previously in Saudi Arabia, went to Qatar. So he clearly gave messages ahead of the Trump visit hugely important.

Now, of course, the Iranians always will try to reintegrate or reenergize their influence, nefarious influence in countries like Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen.

And so nobody's fooled by that. But they also say the Iranians also understand they need diplomacy. So they're pushing for that.

And then finally, on Gaza, I think Gaza was present, even if we weren't hearing it in the headlines. And what we're hearing from officials is there is a real push for, look, we're in for a peace deal in the long term. But currently, the Israeli government and what it's doing in Gaza is making that even more impossible.

[02:10:07]

ANDERSON: Yes, I mean, I think that that underscores what you hear again around this region, and I certainly heard it on my -- on our coverage as we moved around the region. We need a partner for peace in Israel. And at present, you hear time and again that is not Benjamin Netanyahu at this point.

Very briefly, before I go, what can we expect here today?

AL-ORAIBI: So exciting announcements already made. So let's not forget the UAE already committed to $1.4 trillion previously in a visit for Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed to the U.S. However, there was a confirmation from the UAE to that to 1.4 trillion and then an extra $200 billion.

However, interestingly, how does that take shape? Big part of it is, of course, this data center, which is the U.S. -- UAE, kind of a center that will give power that we haven't seen outside of the U.S. when it comes to A.I. So hugely important for the region and the world.

And then also, of course, the Boeing sales and Qatar was and you were there. You interviewed the Prime Minister. That was a big announcement, there was also an important announcement for Boeing here, G.E. Aerospace and others.

So I think the financial returns will be hugely important for societies, both in the U.S. and the region. But also what we're going to hear, I believe, is some important remarks at the Abraham Family House, because to that point, that prosperity, security also link into how we live with one another.

ANDERSON: I think you and I discussed before this show, and we pointed out in the leading to you that that moment at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque yesterday for Donald Trump was also an incredibly important one.

AL-ORAIBI: It was beautiful to see and credit to the Emiratis to have President Trump go to the mosque with Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed. They were there, it was austere, you didn't have all the entourage there.

It was a very personal moment. And it was hopefully a moment to say, actually, there's some great things that can happen in the Muslim world in mosques. And he said, you have a beautiful culture, which I think for many in the U.S., actually, who are Muslims will hear that and say, oh, that's good that that happened during this visit.

ANDERSON: It's always good to have you. Thank you very much.

AL-ORAIBI: Thanks for being with me.

ANDERSON: Mina Al-Oraibi here in the studio in Abu Dhabi.

More coming up as we move through the day. And we do expect, of course, to see Donald Trump at key moments today.

And we will be bringing you that live from Abu Dhabi here. Back to you, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Becky.

Well, for the first time in more than three years, Russia and Ukraine are about to negotiate face to face. The meeting has yet to begin, but some leaders believe it's already a dead end. We'll explain that and more coming up, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Russia and Ukraine will soon begin their first face to face talks in three years, but there's no expectation they'll get much traction. Russian negotiators have arrived in Istanbul, where the meeting is set to get underway in the coming hours.

The Russian President will be a no show, even though the direct talks were his idea. The Ukrainian President, who met his Turkish counterpart on Thursday, has been pressing Vladimir Putin to show up in person.

But Volodymyr Zelenskyy made it clear he won't be at the talks either if President Putin doesn't attend. So the talks will be held by their negotiating teams. Ukraine said it's still hoping to discuss possible first steps towards a ceasefire.

Now, the meeting in Istanbul follows a whirlwind of diplomacy that started last weekend and involved both sides of the Atlantic. Julia Benbrook explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For a while now, European leaders and the U.S. have been putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a month-long ceasefire. In fact, over the weekend, we saw several European leaders meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. It was a strong showing of support and they had a strong message for Putin accept a 30-day ceasefire agreement or face massive new sanctions. The Europeans made this announcement, they said, with the support of the White House.

Putin appeared to ignore that ultimatum, instead calling for direct talks between officials from Ukraine and Russia to take place in Turkey on Thursday.

President Donald Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept the talks even without a ceasefire agreement in place, writing on social media. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible. And if it is not, European leaders and the U.S. will know where everything stands and can proceed accordingly.

Zelenskyy then upped the stakes of the meeting, saying he would only meet directly with Putin. But the Kremlin later confirmed Putin would not take part. At one point, Trump even floated the idea of attending, but kept with his scheduled trip instead, telling reporters this on Air Force One, the day of the proposed talks.

TRUMP: Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK? And obviously he wasn't going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn't going if I wasn't there.

And I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together.

BENBROOK: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is working to manage expectations for any upcoming talks, echoing Trump's comments, saying that he believes the only way that there is a breakthrough is if there is a meeting between Trump and Putin.

Reporting at the White House, I'm Julia Benbrook.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: -- more on this, I want to bring in Nigel Gould-Davies, who is a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. And he's with us from Tallinn, Estonia.

Thank you so much for being here with us again. So let's start with what we just heard there. Is that right? Nothing gets done without Trump and Putin actually meeting?

[02:20:09]

NIGEL GOULD-DAVIES, SR. FELLOW FOR RUSSIA AND EURASIA, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: It's very interesting that President Trump has responded to the failure of Putin to take part in these talks in this way. Really, what's been happening is a contest between President Zelenskyy and President Putin for the favor of President Trump.

Each seeks to persuade President Trump that the other is responsible for the failure to achieve the rapid peace in Ukraine that President Trump has called for. Now, I think President Zelenskyy's diplomacy here has been rather good. He put Putin in a difficult situation, having to decide whether to go to Turkey or not.

Putin has not done that. But the disappointment in Ukraine and in Europe more broadly will be that Trump has not responded by imposing more severe sanctions, as Trump hinted. Instead, Trump is saying something different, that he now has to meet Putin.

Now, the worry there in Ukraine's eyes is that Putin will once again exert some sort of influence on Trump's thinking and turn the pressure back towards Ukraine. So it's not clear that this really will be a solution to the war if Putin and Trump do meet. It just might mean a further twist in what's a very tangled diplomacy.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, exactly right in terms of the tangle of diplomacy here. So Putin, it seemed, has sidestepped that proposed 30-day ceasefire. There's now relatively low expectations for these talks.

Basically, is Putin getting exactly what he wants here?

GOULD-DAVIES: He is avoiding the consequences that Europe and the United States threatened if he, Putin, did not agree to a 30-day ceasefire.

BRUNHUBER: But he's also, just to cut in, he's also sort of giving the appearance of going along with ceasefire talks while making them essentially ineffective and not directly sort of crossing Trump.

GOULD-DAVIES: In a sense, it's worse than that. It's not even ceasefire talks. These are talks now, at least as the Kremlin presents them, to bring about an end to the war rather than agree an immediate ceasefire.

This was Putin sidestepping the unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposal from the West, and Putin has in effect said, we're not interested in that.

We simply want to resume the peace talks that briefly took place in March 2022, going right back to the immediate aftermath of Russia's invasion. And this is very clearly how the Kremlin is presenting them. This is a resumption of those talks.

And the substance of those talks in the first weeks after Russia's full scale invasion was essentially to seek a form of Ukrainian surrender, to force Ukraine to agree to the demilitarization of its state in a way that would leave it fundamentally vulnerable to Russian power in the longer term. And that's clearly unacceptable to Ukraine and should be unacceptable to the West.

BRUNHUBER: So the fact that all of this has been all sort of out in the open, negotiated on social media with all this posturing and head fakes, it doesn't seem like the way one should conduct high stakes international diplomacy if the real aim is to actually end the war.

GOULD-DAVIES: That's right. This is a moment of great diplomatic fluidity. And again, the central actor in this story is President Trump, and both sides are vying for his favor.

Now, it looked as if things were moving in a Ukrainian direction recently. Recall, in particular, the minerals deal that was signed just a couple of weeks ago. This was Ukraine and not Russia deal making with the United States.

So things seem to be tilting towards Ukraine. And we got notes of frustration from the White House with the difficulties it faced in engaging with Russia. And now Putin, while avoiding making any concessions whatsoever, is hoping to sow more chaff and confusion, I would say, in the diplomatic atmosphere.

[02:25:07]

He would very -- Putin would very much welcome a bilateral meeting with Trump. So to that extent, things may be sort of swinging back. But again, as you say, high stakes, enormous uncertainty.

The people on the ground in Ukraine in Turkey are Ukrainians and Russians are at the low level Russian delegation, I have to say. But the central actor remains President Trump.

BRUNHUBER: All right, expectations are low. We'll have to see if anything comes from it, even if it's just an agreement for more talks. We shall see.

Nigel Gould-Davies in Tallinn, Estonia. Thank you so much for speaking with us. I appreciate it.

GOULD-DAVIES: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Humanitarian aid could soon start flowing back into Gaza, but some say a U.S.-backed initiative won't be enough. Why a U.N. official calls it a cynical sideshow. That and more coming up, please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:33]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: A controversial U.S. backed organization says it will soon start delivering aid to Gaza more than two months into Israel's blockade. But critics fear the initiative would be conditional on Israel's military aims and won't be enough to meet the needs of civilians.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the crush of bodies clamoring for food, children are being put to an unthinkable test. Who will manage to fill their family pot? And who will have to wait another day to eat?

This is how Gaza's children are being forced to live as Israel continues to block the entry of food. A total siege that is now in its 11th week. A boy burnt by the small prize of lentil soup he has managed to win. A girl scooping what remains with her bare hands.

But before it all, a search for food for them and their families with no guarantee of success.

I wake up every day. Then we go find a kitchen. If we don't find food, then we go to another kitchen and another kitchen, Mohammed explains. If we don't find anything, we go all day without food.

Nearly all of Gaza's population now experiencing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, with 56 percent at the emergency or catastrophic level, meaning very high rates of acute malnutrition and large gaps in food consumption.

Unless aid gets in, more than three quarters of the population are projected to fall to those emergency levels.

TOM FLETCHER, U.N. UNDER-SECRETARY GENERAL FOR HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS: Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine, one in five face starvation.

DIAMOND: As this manmade crisis worsens, Israel and the United States approving a new, tightly controlled mechanism to get aid into some parts of Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it plans to launch its operations within two weeks. Until then, it called on Israel to allow aid in through existing mechanisms. Israel has yet to publicly agree.

A person involved in the planning said Israel has agreed to allow some aid into Gaza in the coming days, but Israel has yet to say so publicly. The U.N. says it won't participate, saying the new plan will make things worse, facilitating forced displacement and putting civilians at risk.

In Gaza, people are running out of time as charity kitchens like this one run out of food.

Fourteen pots were not enough, the manager of this kitchen says. Those who didn't get food will not eat anything today, and will come back tomorrow and might not get anything again.

Cases of acute malnutrition are spiking and people are being pushed to the brink, like Reda Ahmed (ph), who fainted yesterday from a lack of food.

I swear I can't walk anymore. There is nothing to eat, she says.

As for the children who stand waiting for a chance to be fed, too many are now learning what it means to go hungry.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:38:43]

BRUNHUBER: Europe is carefully optimistic about trade talks with the U.S. That's according to a Polish official who says the European Union remains open and committed to international trade. But, quote, we are also not naive. Trade ministers met in Brussels on Thursday as the Trump administration appears to be softening its trade war.

The U.S. reached a temporary agreement with China earlier this week and announced a deal is in the works with the U.K.

Well, the Magna Carta is one of the most important documents in history, regarded as the earliest declaration of human rights dating back to the 1300s, which is why a recent discovery made by a British historian is such a surprise.

Kings College professor David Carpenter was searching for a copy of the document in the archives of Harvard University's law school, when he realized he'd stumbled upon one of seven known originals under King Edward I.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CARPENTER, PROFESSOR, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: I work through the Harvard text, word for word, back breaking, eye breaking work, comparing it to the authorized version. Jolly nerve wracking, actually, because I kept thinking, oh God, it's going to fail. But actually, no, it didn't. It was flying colors, and its text is virtually identical to that found in these six other originals.

[02:40:01]

And that persuaded me more than anything else, that this was absolutely genuine and authentic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Among other things, the great charter enshrined the principle that the king was not above the law. Harvard bought it for just $27 80 years ago.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. "WORLD SPORT" is next, and I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)