Return to Transcripts main page
Connect the World
Hariri Says He Will Return To Lebanon Very Soon; Just Spent $15 Billion? Whoops; Inside Louvre Abu Dhabi. Aired at 10-11a ET
Aired November 13, 2017 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:14] BECKY ANDERSON, CONNECT THE WORLD, CNN: The deadliest earthquake this year. 400 people dead after tremors along the Iran, Iraq
border. Ahead this hour the search for survivors amongst the destruction and an awkward handshake why what President Trump and the controversial
resident of the Philippines talk about his up for debate, we will refrain a little later in the show. Plus speaking out for the first time after the
shocking resignation. We are hearing from Lebanon's Prime Minister in a live TV interview. Coming up what he said and what it means in his
country. This hour we are connecting your world.
Hello and welcome, you are watching Connect the World, I am Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi where it is just past 7:00 in the evening. We are beginning
to get a clearer sense of the devastation cause by an earthquake between Iran and Iraq. Authorities say more than 400 people had died making it the
deadliest quake this year. Around 4,000 are injured but those numbers could very well rise. The epicenter was near the Iraqi city of Halabja
about 350 kilometers north of Baghdad and it was so powerful, it was felt as far away at Turkey and Pakistan. Nick Paton Walsh with more.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We compare its power and see the panic. A 7.3 wreak the scale of earthquake cause here in Kurdish Iraq.
With a bright light of a shopping mall help guide shoppers outside to safety. And shook this studio live on air as the quake struck, just after
9:00.
But it was just across the border in Iran more remote northwest that darkness amplified the fear and chaos. Hundred killed. Thousands injured.
Tremors felt in Turkey and Pakistan. I was under the rubble of a destroyed wall. It collapse on my head. Daylight as ever made the extendable lost
clearer Iran cursed to sit on the fault between Eurasia and Arabian plates seen this before. This quake place 40 miles below the surface was
relatively shallow, yet the suffering acute. Iran declared three days of mourning. Many of the dead in just this the scale of the task ahead
massive, urgent, yet here they have blanket, not stretchers. Again and complicate yet further the search for those stuck under rubble of their
former homes. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEO)
ANDERSON: After a major earthquake such as this one, there is always, of course, the fear of equally as catastrophic and that is aftershock.
Meteorologist Chad Myers monitoring developments from the CNN weather center for you. Chad, what is your assessment at this point?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We've already seen some significant aftershocks. They could be earthquakes on their own. A 5.5 is considered
an aftershock of it. It is right on the border of Iraq Iran. This is the area that is the clashing zone of what we know as the Eurasia and the
Arabia plates that is where this happened. We have seen earthquakes like this for years and years, hundreds of years and thousands of years in the
same place. But the expected aftershock should be a 6.3. There should one of them. And then a 5.3, there may be ten of them. Then we get down as we
get lower and lower, there will be hundreds of thousands of small quakes. The problem is that the buildings are already damaged. And you have
rescuers inside building trying to get people out and all of sudden the building begins to shake again. Already a 5.3, a 4.8 and a 4.9 since this
earthquake already occurred. Now the earthquakes will taper off, but we're still feeling from and years later.
[10:05:03] The earth has been here a long time and shakes have happened a long time. So this area will continue to quake for a little while before
it finally does calm down. This is not the Fukushima plate. This is not the 9 something out there that we had in the 11, this is a 7, significantly
smaller, but because we have people living right above the epicenter, right above the quake zone that is why it had such damage going on here. You
want the quakes to be very deep. Here is the Arabia plate crashing into the Eurasia plate. When you get a quake 200 kilometers deep, that means it
is already 200 kilometers away from the closes person, when you get a quake 23 kilometers deep, if you're right above that quake zone that is where you
have a very violent shake, because you're less than 25 kilometers away.
ANDERSON: All right Chad, thank you for that rescuers crews from both Iran and Iraq are working around the clock to find survivors. They're being
joined by support from international agencies, aid agencies, and in the past few hours European commission issued this statement saying at this
stage our humanitarian partners in the region have immediately started to provide emergency assistance. We are in touch with the authorities in Iran
and Iraq and our 24/7 emergency response coordination center is closely monitoring developments in this area. For more indirectly what I ground
and what rescue workers are facing, let's speak to Mansouri Banyeri who is the Iranian Red Cross presence Director of international operations. She
is in Tehran. What is - what are the immediate challenges and concerns for you at this point?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, as you have heard, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits part of Iran along the border of Iraq on Sunday, November 12th. So
far, killed at least 407 in injured 6700. Our teams from the society from relief and rescue operation dispatched to the areas and 16 response team to
emergency teams and emergency treatment teams has been deployed to the areas. And immediately after the earthquake they started their operation
there and the assessment team also together with these teams dispatch the area to collect the data and analyzed the data for the assistant.
Immediately their first prior or rescuing the people. Started this and so far they have finished almost the rescue operation and they hope to finish
this until midnight tonight. The relief operation also run in the areas.
ANDERSON: I believe the worst of the damage wasn't a relatively large rural areas but this two cities also damaged. Where is the worst of the
damage and what happens next? What do you need, next?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't say that there is two main cities that have a lot of damages, and casualties and more than 500 villagers are actually are
at the rescue is going to finish by midnight.
ANDERSON: You work for the Iranian red press. Is this a cross border collaboration at this point as you understand it? Operation being aided by
organizations like yours and others on the Iraqi side of the border? How are you collaborating?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually it is the mainly we focus on the cities inside of Iran and it is under border and more like in the cities that the
province, that mainly affected. So there are seems dispatch there.
ANDERSON: With that we're going to leave it there. We thank you very much indeed for joining us with the very latest on what is a huge earthquake.
At least 402 killed as we understand it in an area that is on the Iraq-Iran border.
[10:10:12] Up next, Donald Trump called it a red carpet welcome that perhaps nobody before has ever received he said. The U.S. President all
smiles as he wraps up the trip in Asia, but did he press the Philippines President on his abysmal human rights record behind the scenes? That after
this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: It is just before quarter past 7:00. This is "Connect the World." And I am Becky Anderson in your Middle East programming in Abu
Dhabi and they really hit it off, that is how an aid to Rodrigo Duterte describes the Philippine's President meeting with Donald Trump today.
Their talks on the sidelines of a regional summit was one of the most anticipated parts of Mr. Trump's Asia tour. Critics of the Philippine
President wanted to hear a firm rebuke to his abysmal human rights record but we don't even know for sure if the subject came up. CNN's Jeff Zeleny
has more from Manila.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Rodrigo, President Trump meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Not dwelling on today
on a controversial leader's bloody human rights record. What else Press Secretary Sarah Sanders telling reporters that human rights briefly came up
in the context of the Philippine's fight against illegal drugs. A spokesman for Duterte saying otherwise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRY ROQUE, SPOKESPERSON FOR PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT DUTERTE: That issue was not raised. However, the President explained his war against drugs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: As reporters questioned Mr. Trump, Duterte's aids stood and block the view of cameras. At another point Duterte made clear he wanted to meet
behind closed doors even channeling Trump by calling out the media referring to them as spies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RODRIGO DUTERTE, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES: I would like to refer this media to leave us alone. You may leave the room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: White House aide initially were anxious about visiting the Philippines, but Mr. Trump came to amplify his message on trade in North
Korea. He stood alongside Duterte during a moment of handshake diplomacy grimacing while trying to grasp the hands of leaders during a ritual
photograph. The president today basking in the globe this travels through five Asian capitals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[10:15:09] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Red carpet like nobody I think is probably you ever received and that really is a sign of
respect. Perhaps to me a little bit that is really for our country and I am very proud of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Yet outside the economic summit, a reality check. Protestors filled the streets. Water cannons deployed to demonstrators from the U.S.
Embassy and elsewhere the President's head burning on a swastika. Some also protesting Mr. Trump embrace of Duterte. Blasted by human rights
groups for sanctioning the extra judicial killings of thousands. The violent scenes were the most visible turbulence yet on Mr. Trump's 13 day
trip to Asia. And for carefully measuring his words for days, the President also engaged in a weekend fight with the North Korean leader
saying in a tweet why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me old, while I would never call him short and fat. Yet it was Russia and President
Vladimir Putin that is still hanging over the trip. After telling reporters aboard air force one that he believed Putin's denial of meddling
in 2016 U.S. election, Mr. Trump backtracked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I believe he feels they did, he and Russia did not meddle in the election. As to whether I believe it or not, I'm with our agencies,
especially as currently constituted with their leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEO)
ANDERSON: Jeff Zeleny on the story for you. Human rights activities hoping to hear a tough stand on Myanmar on the Manila summit were also
disappointed. Asian leaders skirted around Myanmar's crack down on Rohingya Muslims. Myanmar leader is attending the summit. You can see her
talking with the U.S. President Donald Trump here as leaders gathered for a class photo. Critics say she should be stripped of her Nobel peace prize
for failing to end the crackdown. Human rights says all leaders must drop their do nothing approach to atrocities and take a stand.
We're learning more about the horror of Rohingya are facing, more than 600,000 have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since August. Survivors
shared stories of mass murder, rapes and children being burned alive. Well, now in what is an exclusive report, CNN's Clarissa Ward gives us a
rare look into the lives of these persecuted people.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's just a few hundred yards to safety. But it doesn't take long to see that something has gone very wrong. A
woman's wimp body is rushed through the no man's land between Bangladesh and Myanmar as anxious families wait to see what has happened. On this day
it is a husband and wife. The crowd sys they were shot dead as they tried to leave Myanmar. They are among more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims who
have fled this border to escape what the United Nations has called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. Each it seems has a tale more
harrowing than the next. He says he fled a brutal massacre in his village. My sons and daughters we shot on Thursday. I can't find them, he says.
There's no one left. He claims local official told residents it was safe to remain in the village. But the days later the Myanmar military poured
in and carried out a blood bath.
Please someone kill me, he cries. This is god's will. Others who escaped tell a similar story. She says the soldiers rounded them up on the river
bank and separated the men from the women. We couldn't escape, many children were shot and they fell on their faces, she recalls. Those lying
on the ground were picked up, chopped, and later they were thrown into the river. Cell phone footage given to CNN by some residents appears to show
the bodies of three children washed up on the shore. As witnesses cried to god for mercy.
CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the video or verify the many accounts. Access to the state is heavily restricted. But we want to find
out more about what happened. So we traveled to a sprawling refugee camp along the border and met this 30-year-old. She said Burmese soldiers raped
her before setting the house a light with her inside, but the burns that cover her body only hint at the horror she survived.
[10:20:13] Describe to me what happened to you. What did you see with your own eyes exactly?
(TRANSLATOR): My boy was just behind me and they hit him with a wooden stick and he collapsed to the ground dead. His head was split open, she
says. Then they took my other son from lap and threw him into the fire. She something managed to escape with her 7-year-old daughter. All three of
her sons were killed. Oh god, she cries, why didn't you take me? But for the survivors, there is no justice in this world. Clarissa Ward CNN the
Bangladesh Myanmar border.
(END VIDEO)
ANDERSON: Horrific images there from international outcry. Today the British Prime Minister Spokesman said these scenes out of Myanmar look
like, and I quote, ethnic cleansing.
An enormous nervous feeling about Brexit business leaders from across Europe just wrap up a meeting with the British Prime Minister Theresa May,
their main concern the slow pace of negotiations. But the Prime Minister has other concerns. The British pound falling against the dollar, she
herself under pressure after two cabinet ministers resigned last week and one report says as many as 40 members of parliament have agreed to sign a
letter of no conference which means what? CNN Diana Magnay joining us now from London, Diana.
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Becky that is single report in the Sunday times that there are 40 rebel MP's who are prepared to go against
the Prime Minister. You need 48 to muster up those no confidence and bring that to the 1922 committee. It's quite lot of the MP's. We will have to
see whether that actually comes to anything, she is under an incredible amount of pressure. She met with business leaders today trying to reassure
them the whole process was going somewhere. In their statements when they came out of the meeting they said we need to see urgent progress made,
because we want to see a transition phase agreed by the October -- by the December council meeting which is this very key meeting when they want to
move on to trade an other matters. She also has the E.U. withdrawal bill, the key piece of legislation that the government is trying to push through
the House of Committee goes there tomorrow. There is something like 400 amendments that have been abled that needs to be discussed. And it is
quite possible that she won't have the majority, the backing from her own Party to push that legislation through. So there's a lot of pressure on
Theresa May at the moment. She is got two weeks according to come up with an actual sum for a divorce bill. There' a lot of progress to be made in
very, very precious circumstances.
ANDERSON: You're absolutely right. Meantime, I was intrigued to see that at the beginning of November were talking some ten days or so ago the news
that the electoral commission, the watchdog in the U.K., will investigate claims that Russia used twitter and Facebook to meddle in the UK's Brexit
election or referendum. Should, and this is a hypothetical of course, but this must be something that is being that discussed in London around the
dinner table if not around the ministerial table, should that commission find that there was meddling in this referendum, the U.K. who would like to
see, it run again. Is that a likelihood or a possibility at this point?
MAGNAY: Well, I think that there are various avenues by which a second referendum might come about and if this supposed meddling is proven true,
that is one. I think there are two things that have to happen for a second referendum to come about. That is that there has to be a political will
and there has to be the legal sort of wherewithal found to justify it. At the moment there certainly is not the political will. Who knows what the
election commission will come up with in terms of a British-Russia investigation? It has taken the U.S. as long as it has to get as far as it
has. We would have Brexit by the time they come up with anything if we take an equivalent length of time.
[10:25:07] A second referendum is bandied around a lot. Right now there is not a political will. But certainly one of the key amendments within the
E.U. withdrawal bill is to give parliament much more of a veto power on actual Brexiting. And a vote on what the final deal will be. And so, you
know, if that goes through, it will make Theresa May's 19th of March deadline 2019 slightly more movable, as we say, Becky.
ANDERSON: Very good point. And well put. Diana Magnay outside that door at number 10. A busy door it has been of late. Almost a revolving door
some might call it. Still to come tonight, I will return very soon. Saad Hariri who resigned as Lebanon's Prime Minister just over a week ago gives
his first public interview. We're live for a reaction on that in Beirut.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: We are connecting your world from our Middle Eastern hub here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Beck Anderson. Welcome back, half pass 7:00 in the UAE.
It's been just over a week since Saad Hariri unexpectedly resigned as Lebanon's prime minister sending this region into a spin leading to fears
of conflict. Well now he says he wants to return and that he did what he did to protect this country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAAD HARIRI, FORMER PRIME MINISTER, LEBANON (through a translator): Some facts which I have discovered and I discovered many facts that we are
heading into a direction where I wanted to save the country.
You know, al-Hariri would sacrifice -- sacrifice his life. If I die, it doesn't matter, what matters is the country and Hariri dies when he paid
his life for the country.
If the second al-Hariri dies, it doesn't matter, it is for the country continue and to be in good shape. All I wanted to do is preserve and
protect the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That video of course being conducted in his home in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia. Let's get right to Beirut and Ben Wedeman, who has been
following these extraordinary developments for the past week and a week.
Ben, when it seems we are not that much clearer about when Hariri is likely to return. It certainly sounded he was signaling a return possibly to the
status quo before his resignation in that interview conducted that somehow. What do you that likely come to pieces of what of this are?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the interview that occurred last night in Riyadh did go a certain way to reassure people that perhaps
the worst of this crisis may be over. I walked around Beirut today speaking to people who seem to be generally relieved by what they heard.
However, the fact of the matter is there are others who are not convinced of that Saad al-Hariri despite his first appearance on Lebanese television
in eight days last night, that he is indeed free to speak let alone to move to return to Lebanon.
And he didn't after much pressing by the journalist Paula Yacoubian who works for Hariri's own staff, Future TV network. She really worked up on
him. I have -- we have to give her credit for that.
But it was only after a lot of pushing that he said, I will come home soon. Now the question is, when is soon and if it's not soon and then we're
basically back to where we started which is in a state of extreme uncertainty about Lebanon's political future. Because there are still many
people in this city, in this country who are not convinced that Saad al- Hariri is a free man. Becky.
ANDERSON: Ben, which can't look at the political situation in Lebanon without looking at the influence of Hezbollah and it was a topic Saad
Hariri brought up in that interview. I want our viewers to just have a listen to this part of the interview, so bare with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARIRI (through a translator): We have to adhere to the fact that the interest of Lebanon is first and foremost. I am not against one party
against another party.
I'm not against Hezbollah in the sense that it is a political party which is what it should be. But that doesn't mean that Hezbollah should ruin
Lebanon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Ben, he may not be against Hezbollah as he says in terms of it being a political party but we certainly know that others in the region
are, and that was certainly not message that Riyadh surely wanted to hear from him when he flew there a week ago, correct?
WEDEMAN: Yes, I think it's important in this instance to point out that you know even though I think the Saudis would like to just as Saad al-
Hariri said for the Lebanese people have a wake-up call about Iran's influence in this country via Hezbollah.
As a result of this rather awkward situation where you have the prime minister of Lebanon resigning on Saudi T.V. from Saudi Arabia, the exact
opposite has occurred.
Many people are talking about Saudi interference in Lebanese affairs, sort of this is really backfired if this was an attempt to expose Iran's
influence in Lebanon because it's going to be the exact opposite. All eyes are on Saudi Arabia. In Tripoli for instance, in the northern part of this
country, they are burning.
[10:35:00] And ripping down posters of Saudi King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old crown prince. It seems to have backfired in a way
which I don't think the Saudi Arabians anticipated. Becky.
ANDERSON: From the Saudi perspective perhaps the message in all of this was Hezbollah needs to get out of as they would see it, Yemen either
physically or their influence with Houthi rebels that Friday ballistic missile at Riyadh of course last week. And is that what this crisis is all
about?
WEDEMAN: I've heard said -- I've heard that for instance this is a way to pressure Hezbollah to get any of its people out of Yemen and therefore
defuse the situation there and provide the Saudis with the ability to pull out of the Yemeni conflict which began two and a half years ago.
And really has been a quagmire for the Saudis, so that is one theory that certainly is being batted around. But I can tell you, here in Beirut they
are not talking about Yemen.
They are talking about being prime minister or ex-prime minister depending upon who you talk to in Saudi Arabia appealingly not being able to come
home. Becky.
ANDERSON: Ben Wedeman in Beirut for you viewers. Ben, thank you. All right, from Beirut to Britain, this hour we're showing you some pretty
messy politics closer to home here, even choosing between this and this, can be seen as master class in geopolitics. Confused? Don't be. We'll
explain after this,
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:00] ANDERSON: All right. You're with Connect the World and watching CNN, as you know, I'm Becky Anderson. Now, when you go shopping,
you know, you promise you won't buy anything and then once you go an accidentally drop $15 billion.
Well don't in the world's biggest airlines ever and doing just what is frankly a huge surprise. Putting it a major order for fourth planes and a
surprise, it wasn't for these airbus planes made in Europe.
Nope, instead stopping up planes from their arch rival, Boeing, made in the good old U.S. of A. That may please one man in particular who stood in
front of a pain just like this to explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is our management by American and higher American and God bless Boeing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: To check in, get it and all this someone who is always flying high, CNN's John Defterios in the house with me. Put an aim this order,
John. And these are clearly please Trump shortly.
So there is some why the Saudi UAE geopolitical narrative here if you would want to (Inaudible). They are backing up and with cash it seems. We'll go
an internal corporate logic fully airline Emirates, correct?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, in fact this is one of those win- win. It's a geopolitical win-win because it will piece the White House and indeed with this Boeing purchase. At the same time, the industrial logic
is or the strategic airline logic is the 787 opens up new markets.
It goes point-to-point. It's a low-cost airline. It's going to be their new work course. They love the 777 in the past. They just took delivery
of the 100 A350 in Germany last week. And in fact, Tim Clark, the president of the Emirates was suggesting that now wants guarantees from
Airbus that the A380 will be along for another decade.
Because it has so many of the backorders but this order was a bloat from the blue and if you want the kind of the inside, how it played out of the
air show yesterday...
ANDERSON: You were there, right?
DEFTERIOS: Yes, and in fact before they signed it, I was told he went down to the last 15 minutes. So whether Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler
of Dubai and the prime minister of this country was going to go into the press conference room or not was held for the last 15 minutes.
And they have seven versions of the press release, how deep the plane order was going to be right after he came out from the press conferences, I stood
by the elevator hoping maybe he'll stop and chat with us, and he did. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEFTERIOS: What's the strategy for slower growth period with new lower oil prices? What's the strategy you are using to get it?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MAKTOUM, RULER OF DUBAI: The strategy is to be ahead of anybody and to be past and people wil fly, (Inaudible), not to
fly. So that's why we want to be ahead of them.
DEFTERIOS: The passenger growth is slowing in 2016, a single digit for all the built carriers and there is a lot more competition. So how do you want
to handle the greater competition?
AL MAKTOUM: Maybe you are right but to the Emirates and Dubai, and airport. (Inaudible) and we have a lot of visitors.
DEFTERIOS: Absolutely and they -- the 787 and the A350 aircraft, they fly longer today. Do you need to respond to this idea of Asia and Europe
having its own bridge and the adult carrier can survive the challenge in your view, sir?
AL MAKTOUM: You need long distant aircraft and middle distant aircraft, and Dubai a short distant so you have to come (Inaudible).
DEFTERIOS: But if you feel OK about the growth today with the political uncertainty in the region?
AL MAKTOUM: Yes. This is a challenge. (Inaudible), it is a challenge for us.
DEFTERIOS: You have Emirates now for 30 years. The growth has been phenomenal but other people want to copy your model. What do you say to
them or challenge them?
AL MAKTOUM: Welcome. Thank you, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEFTERIOS: That's classic Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. Who do you think -- yes, you are laughing as well because it's a very interesting history in
the last six or seven years. He likes to buy airplanes during the downturn.
So a real estate crisis in 2008, '09 and '10, remember interviewed him after that and he says, I have a lot of confidence. I'm doubling down, I
get better prices during the crisis. So the 787 is a long-haul, dream liner, they think this could be the next work course for them but I'm sure
you bargain hard.
[10:45:00] Forty planes for this price by the way, it's just over $50 billion. And I was told by those involved in negotiations they didn't pay
anywhere near that. So they did drive a hard bargain for the very last minute.
ANDERSON: You were talking to Sheikh Mohammed about the competition in the region. What for?
DEFTERIOS: Well, this is interesting. You know that label because we live here, right? So you have Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, the great gulf
connectors.
Invitation is the best form of flattery. India has 200 planes on order. Iran, if the sanctions are lifted will get 210, that's 410. Turkish
Airways has over 400. That's 800 planes in the same neighborhood.
So the success, they had double digit passenger growth, Becky, for last five years, all three of those carriers. Well, last Emirate send just two
percent passenger growth. So the competition is there.
If you listen carefully to Sheikh Mohammed, he is very careful with his words the double-digit growth have sustained a Dubai international Airport.
They are adding capacity there. They are adding capacity here.
But the passenger growth for Emirates has slowdown, so they change their model made better than $450 million in the last half year. They're running
up to compete again.
ANDERSON: All right, good stuff. A great view, comfy seats, huge televisions, fine dining, unlimited champagne, luxury -- well, luxury
everything, we're not talking about your apartment. John Defterios, just giving you first class seats on Emirates. Pretty swish, right? But game
changer? Oh, well, let's have a look at this.
DEFTERIOS: Well, I think actually they won the match. Yes, they had.
(CROSSTALK)
DEFTERIOS: They actually win to the space, which is the Abu Dhabi carrier, match Qatar but I think it's a very important signal that are not
backtracking during this slower passenger growth. So they are upgrading their work force I was telling you about, the 777.
ANDERSON: Yes.
DEFTERIOS: They made a purchase on the 787s but I don't think they want to send a message of retreat as a new trend on the business, Asia to Europe as
low-cost long-haul, and they don't want to compete in that space. So don't think they cannot continue to get the high-end traveler.
ANDERSON: John Defterios in the house.
DEFTERIOS: Thank you.
ANDERSON: Thank you, it's been a busy...
DEFTERIOS: It is, yes.
ANDERSON: John Defterios for you. You are watching Connect the World with John and I, live somewhere else, Abu Dhabi. Up next, we take you under the
dome and into the mind of the man behind the city's spectacular new palace of culture. And that's all right here. Do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: You are watching CNN, this is Connect the World. I'm Becky Anderson, welcome back, about 10 to 8:00 here. Get this all week, we've
got a brilliant series for you, this time last night.
[10:50:00] You saw the first of it as I took you along with me somewhere. Well, quite frankly extreme exciting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where basically works into a new world.
ANDERSON: (Inaudible) passionately shows off some the Louvre Abu Dhabi's 23 galleries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is 6,500 (Inaudible). She is powerful, she is full of energy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Right there in the city. This breathtaking monument to us his people and the beautiful things that we make where else that New Louvre Abu
Dhabi Museum, it truly is all at once, both within and without itself right here.
And yet, also of the world housing art are itself, its intricate design came from the man of one man. Meet the architect, Jean Nouvel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN NOUVEL, ARCHITECT, LOUVRE ABU DHABI: When I arrived, that goes this is not Taiwan, what goes under the sea, the sun and the star. I want you
to create the museum belonging to the civilization, belonging to this country, belonging to history and geographic.
ANDERSON: It's already one of the city's most iconic buildings. A manmade island built of an island, its centerpiece stone visible for miles day or
night.
This is the man behind the Louvre Abu Dhabi's design, award winning French architect Jean Nouvel. His inspiration, the domes and geometrical
patterns, so common in Islamic architecture. Nouvel's original vision he says to reflect the ambitions of the city itself.
NOUVEL: Abu Dhabi is a very powerful city. There is a lot of growth in the last year. It's strong economy and like every art work and
architecture when the city is situational, they read testimonies of this growing art work.
ANDERSON: Construction was no easy feet in the UAE's harsh climate. They had to hoist the massive dome onto full concrete piers all 7,500 tons of
steel. The entire area was water proofed, then flooded to create the island.
And the result, well, see for yourself. It's absolutely spectacular, a museum that feels like a small city. Fifty-five buildings and galleries
built along side the sea and the dome here, shades everything down here making it a lot cooler inside Louvre Abu Dhabi than it is outside.
Nouvel likens it to come front cover in an Oasis, they perforated steel let some sun light though, creating Nouvel's signature rain of light.
NOUVEL: Now it actually it have different layers in the dome and one real light to go through and sometimes of course because of political term, one
spread this up here. but at the same time, another appears.
ANDERSON: Nouvel over saw the design of every gallery from sitting to the displays. Many are calling the project his master piece.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that the Louvre Abu Dhabi will rank as one of his great buildings for sure.
ANDERSON: Not that this 72-year-old thinks about things like that. He's already one architecture's top price. Nouvel calls each project an
adventure, a soulful expression of identity.
NOUVEL: Every project is like writing, with a little friend, you can do a masterpiece.
ANDERSON: Size and scale don't make it art, Nouvel says. It's the concept within. That's for you tomorrow. Moving a masterpiece. We'll bring you
the remarkable story of the woman in this Leonardo da Vinci painting, who just made her first ever the trip to this part of the world.
[10:55:00] That will be the third piece in what is a all week series. The opening week of the Louvre Abu Dhabi here and you will only get it on
Connect the World.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: When we finish up on there, the work goes on. Oh, yes there is no rest for the team CTW or Connect the World. You can keep up with all of
the stories that our team here are now working on by surfing on over here to our piece of our Facebook.com/CNNconnect.
I'm Becky Anderson, that was Connect the World, from the team working with me here and those working us around the world, thank you for watching.
Meet you same time tomorrow.
END
