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Queen Elizabeth Highlights Reconciliation in Christmas Message; 2019 in the UAE. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired December 25, 2019 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The Iranians have adopted the strategy of an eye for an eye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great nations do not fight endless wars.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Is this a new dawn for Israeli politics?
The first Roman Catholic pope to ever visit the Arabian Peninsula.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cyclone Idai slammed into South Africa, devastating entire cities.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Hello and welcome to what is a special edition of CONNECT THE WORLD. I am Becky Anderson.
Let me walk you through some of the biggest moments of the year, where we have witnessed a huge shift around the globe and amid all the talk of
people losing faith in democracy, we've seen an enormous outpouring of political activist, from Hong Kong to Bolivia, on every continent across
our world.
People are taking part in a wave of demonstrations unlike anything we have seen over the last 70 years. And in typical fashion, some of the most
acute examples of that are in many ways right here in the Middle East.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): There is an urgency to address this issue before things blow up.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Thousands of protesters continue to gather in what is the largest wave of anti-government demonstrations.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now they're demanding to be heard.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The economy is failing. There's no reliable electricity. Unemployment is skyrocketing and corruption is a fact of
life.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Internet blackout has succeeded in stemming the flow of (INAUDIBLE) both
within the country and to the outside world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shame on them, shame on them, shame on them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
ANDERSON (voice-over): The president had promised that the current prime minister would resign as long as there was no vacuum.
Should he go?
HAIDER AL-ABADI, PRIME MINISTER OF IRAQ: Well, I hope the prime minister listens to the people in the state and he must do something really quick,
otherwise it would be too late.
DAMON (voice-over): They cry for those they love, for those they never met, for the agony of loss today and that of Iraq's painful past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need all the world to support us to stop crimes against innocent people.
DAMON (voice-over): Those crimes reflected in this living piece of art and along the walls leading to the protest rally.
DAMON: They want to start over. They want a do-over when it comes to Iraq's democracy project. And it really is this generation that is forcing
about this change.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Iraqi authorities, reaction to this revolution effectively could be summed up by the look on
that famous painting by Munch, "The Scream," a completely incredulous misunderstanding, lack of understanding of what to do with a country that
is exploding under their feet.
[11:35:00]
ANDERSON (voice-over): Men and women and young or old, it does not matter what sect, Lebanese demanding revolution, the country currently at a
political crossroads. The people's voice uniting against corruption.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): The people wanted to topple the regime, they chant, and blocking roads and bringing Lebanon to a standstill is how they hope to
achieve it.
RANA KHOURY, LEBANESE ACTIVIST: I think it is very important in the chants that you hear, which is, "All of them, all of them."
I think this is where all the red lines of fear have fallen. The red line of fear of the civil war, it has fallen. We already need to acknowledge
these successes for the revolution. Today I am the red line. My son is the red line. The women closing the roads are the red line.
The students who are rescheduling their studies to be here are the red line. We are the red line. And this is very important. This is what this
chant means. It means you, as a government, as people in power, have crushed us for so many years, it's just time for you to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The street is society and we and the street has been very clear. It is a very simple message.
ANDERSON: You say that you have enough reserves to ensure that this country can stave off economic collapse as long as the political situation
here is sorted out.
Are we talking about days or weeks or months?
RIAD SALAMEH, LEBANESE CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR: It's a matter of days. But in order to save this situation, we need immediately a solution.
SAAD HARIRI, FORMER LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER: I am heading to the presidential palace to offer the government resignation.
ANDERSON: Saad Hariri says he's reached a dead end.
Has Lebanon reached a dead end?
RAYA HAFFAR EL HASSAN, LEBANESE INTERIOR MINISTER: No. I don't think Lebanon has not reached a dead end. Obviously business can't run as usual.
So there has to be a change in the mindset of the politicians.
WEDEMAN: This is an area of deep significance to the Lebanese. It was here in April 1975 that the 15-year civil war broke out.
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ANDERSON: Well, the climate crisis was a theme that dominated much of our program this year. It is an issue that is defining our time. We have seen
countless science reports, warning that we are on the precipice of catastrophe and the tipping point of a temperature meltdown that'll forever
remake our planet.
And our political leaders are not doing nearly enough. It is an uneasy and frankly terrifying paradox as we witness climate change making our natural
world more violent than ever. Typhoons and wildfires and hurricanes are all getting stronger. Many of those disasters impacting those who can
afford to weather them least, like people in Mozambique.
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MCKENZIE (voice-over): Beirut (ph), city of half a million in Mozambique in the epicenter of the storm and evidence say 90 percent of it is
underwater. The cyclone slammed into the city with winds of up to 175 kilometers or 110 miles per hour, destroying hospitals and homes and
killing untold numbers.
ANDERSON (voice-over): This is not an ocean. This is biblical flooding. Until a couple of days ago, vast tracts of land in this low-lying coastal
area, almost completely submerged.
Below me, the muddy brown waters have started receding but homes and in some cases entire villages that have been washed away. It's only now that
the sheer scale of this disaster is becoming clear.
The water is upwards of eight meters high. So it would have been up toward the tops of these trees.
CELSO CORREIA, MOZAMBIQUE ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: The last two weeks we have been with one focus, saving lives. We have made surveillance around the
affected area and critical people are receiving life-saving kits.
ANDERSON: We are 25 kilometers from the coastal port city of Beira and this is the WFP's distribution center. This is the lifeline for the 10,000
people or so who live here. They have been absorbing people from the outlying areas who have lost, they are telling us, absolutely everything.
They are hungry.
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ANDERSON: They need food and water and shelter. Their crops and homes have gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The harvest is totally gone. All the food is totally wet. But they need more food. They are suffering. The children are very
weak. And they are really suffering. This is the main harvest, it all gone. They have nothing, all taken by the water.
ANDERSON (voice-over): More than empty stomachs, many still don't have a roof over their heads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Now they're sleeping in huts outside.
ANDERSON: Just to see the damage.
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ANDERSON: The Middle East often defies understanding. It is an extraordinarily complex part of the world with ethnic, religious, national
and political differences, many of which stretch back generations. As well as the protests across the region that we've seen this year, we have also
witnessed the war against ISIS, the ongoing conflict in Syria and in Yemen, a cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran threatening to turn hot.
What happens here does not stay here. It echoes around the globe. So these are just some of the stories that rocked this region and so our
world.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): Shimmering on the heat-soaked horizon behind me, massive tankers like these becoming huge floating chess pieces in a
dangerous geostrategic game of you hit me, I'll sneak up and hit you right back, that's raging between Iran and the Western world.
KILEY: This hull just over my shoulder, the Americans say, was caused with an Iranian built limpet mine. They can't say however with any total
certainty that it was put there by the Iranians.
Nonetheless, it blew through both the outer hull and the inner hull of the ship, penetrating the fuel tank area. Some experts saying it was
deliberate and a sign that whoever planted this mine knew what they were doing, that they wanted to send a signal but not cause a disaster.
KILEY (voice-over): The signal is hands off Iran. The disaster would be all-out war.
TRUMP: This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters.
ANDERSON: A brazen display of aggression by Iran in the Persian Gulf region as it seizes the British flagged Stena Impero pictured here.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Iranian state media broadcast these dramatic images, what seems to have been a carefully
planned military operation, naval patrol boats surrounding the British flagged Stena Impero before it's boarded by masked troops from a helicopter
hovering above its deck.
Iran says the tanker violated navigation rules.
[11:45:00]
CHANCE (voice-over): But there are British suspicions the real reason was this: a tanker carrying Iranian oil seized by British forces of the coast
of Gibraltar earlier this month.
ALI VAEZ, IRAN PROJECT DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: The Iranians have adopted a strategy of an eye for an eye If the Brits seize an Iranian
tanker, the Iranians would retaliate.
If the U.S. is trying to drive the Iranian economy into the ground and basically cut off Iran's oil exports, the Iranians would endanger all oil
shipments and all shipping from the Persian Gulf region.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a hugely important strategic spot for the Iranians because if Iran can stop the flow
of crude oil here in the Strait of Hormuz, that has massive consequences for the world's oil crisis and that is felt across the globe.
That potentially gives Iran leverage at the negotiating table as this country continues to chafe under the weight of U.S. sanctions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
ANDERSON: Within the past hour, Turkey started its long expected military offensive into northeastern Syria.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It appears to have been sparked by a conversation between Donald Trump and President
Erdogan where Turkey felt they had a, quote, "green light."
ANDERSON: Now Turkey says this is aiming to drive the Kurdish forces it regards as terrorists back from its border and to bring peace to the
region.
DAMON (voice-over): Streets, roads just choked full of cars, filled with families, desperate to get out of here. None of them understanding exactly
what is going on, what has happened and what the intention of this Turkish military strike. And these people are now fleeing to try to get to safety.
But they don't know exactly where safety might be.
WALSH: U.S. troops went to Syria to help defeat ISIS and make sure the group does not make a comeback. But President Trump has repeatedly said he
wants the U.S. out of Syria altogether.
TRUMP: It is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home.
ANDERSON: I want you to explain if you will exactly what Ankara's strategy is from here on in.
IBRAHIM KALIN, TURKISH PRESIDENCY SPOKESPERSON: To clear our border from all terrorist elements, whether it's YPG or ISIS. We will continue to
fight against ISIS. We do not want ISIS to come back in any form or shape, militarily, ideologically. Because they've done more harm to Islam and
Muslims than any other terrorist network.
DAMON: To effectively have all of the key factors in place that would lend themselves for an ISIS resurgence. And as one U.S. official said, this
entire bloody fiasco that has unfolded has basically given ISIS a second lease on life.
KILEY (voice-over): Mostly captured on the battlefield, allegedly fighting for the so-called Islamic State, they're malnourished and weakened but
these men still pose a potent threat.
The guards are from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces and they are all to stand between these men and freedom to rebuild the terrorist
army.
DAMON (voice-over): It's called al-Hol, a camp that sprung from nowhere, now the size of a small town. To step into this camp is to witness a
strange mutation of the caliphate, kept alive by the widows and wives of ISIS.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There are cells here, they are organized.
DAMON: A spirit of vengeance seeps into the next generation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I tell them your father was killed by the infidels.
DAMON: Hatred and enmity is magnified by the wretched conditions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think it's a camp --
DAMON (on camera): Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- but it's a prison.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Turkey certainly emerged on top, despite all the pressure they came under from the international community.
They stood their ground and they got what they wanted if not more.
TRUMP: I've instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to lift all sanctions on October 14th. In response to Turkey's original offensive, moves against
the Kurds in Syria, northeast and border region.
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ANDERSON: You can talk like a prime minister, you can walk like a prime minister. But in Israel, you don't get to be the prime minister. Voters
getting a do over because the people they voted for could not work out a deal.
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ANDERSON: The rising sun painting Jerusalem with fresh light anew. But today, doing so over one like no other as millions of Israelis vote on the
fundamental shape of their country.
ANDERSON: We're in Israel, driving the divide. Route 2 slicing through Israeli society. Our first stop, Jisr az-Zarqa. This is the only
remaining Arab town on Israel's coast. It's one of the poorest and most densely populated in the country.
This is a village which is ridden with crime, densely populated. Life here feels hemmed in.
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ANDERSON: For many of the Arab men here, fishing is their main livelihood. I want to go down and talk to some of the fishermen here down on the coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): No, Netanyahu never gave us our rights and will never do.
ANDERSON: Who are you going to vote for?
You're not going to vote?
Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I never voted and will never vote. It's helpless. No one will help us. Not Jews and not Arabs.
ANDERSON: What matters most to you here today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Security, absolutely. Just making sure everyone is limited to no apparel (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Safety. Before we had to worry about ourselves and now we have two little kids running around, we want to make sure when we
send them to school that things are good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need a change. I am hoping they'll deal with a lot of the social issues that sometimes get ignored.
ANDERSON: You both live in Jerusalem. Yet you can't vote, why?
ADNAN JABER, PALESTINIAN ENTREPRENEUR: Because I'm a resident, I'm not a citizen. I don't have any passport. I have a document. It's red color.
It's called Israel travel document. I need a visa to go anywhere. I can't vote for the Israeli government, for the Knesset.
SHAINDY ORT, ISRAELI STUDENT ACTIVIST: I think the apartheid reality that you're describing, I think this is why people who could vote went out and
voted because I think a lot of people, including myself who -- Israel is not a democracy. There's no democracy here when millions of people who
live under Israeli control can't vote. That's not a democracy.
ANDERSON: Will there be democracy here one day for you, Adnan?
JABER: I don't know how much time will it take to have this.
And who will force the democracy?
Is it going to be Palestine?
Are you going to have the democracy for me in Israel?
So is it going to be Israel that's going to give me democracy in East Jerusalem?
I still don't know.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the third time in 12 months, Israelis will be voting in national elections, trying to lead the country
out of political deadlock. Israel has not had a properly functioning government since Christmas Eve of last year. And there's no promise a
third election will change anything.
Israel remains stuck in political nowhere.
But is this the middle of nowhere or near the end?
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ANDERSON (voice-over): Welcome back.
As fraught, shocking and sometimes scary as our world can be, there is a tremendous amount of good. And to that end, I got a front seat to what was
a defining moment of 2019, with Pope Francis making a historic visit to Abu Dhabi. It was part of this country's year of tolerance.
And so while the UAE is an Islamic country, about a million Catholics live here, who came out in force to see the pope.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): When the papal plane touched down in Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis became the first pontiff in history to visit the Arabian
Peninsula. His message, tolerance, unity and peace, signified a new relationship between the papacy and the Muslim Gulf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It becomes a particularly important time in the region. All of the political and religious turmoil that's been taking place and
truly a statement of principle.
[11:55:00]
ANDERSON (voice-over): Tens of thousands gathered in the Zayed Sports City stadium for a public celebration of mass. Unprecedented, in this, the
cradle of Islam. In a white open-topped motorcade, the pope met with roars from the adulated crowd. Flying banners and Vatican flags, some of the
UAE's estimated 1 million ex-pat Catholics in attendance.
It took more than a millennium but it is finally happening right now, right here behind me in Abu Dhabi, the first Roman Catholic pope to ever visit
the Arabian Peninsula, is about to hold mass here at the Zayed Sports City.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel so grateful and blessed. I never thought this will happen.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The 120-strong choir assembled from churches across the UAE for this historic mass.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: You get the sense from everyone I've spoken to the last four hours, they think it is an
incredibly a strong message from the UAE.
ANDERSON (voice-over): During his visit, the pope walked hand in hand with sheikhs, the grand imam and other Muslim leaders along stretches of land
from which both Christianity and Islam were born.
Alongside the ceremonial displays, the pope delivered a keynote speech, calling for an end to war.
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POPE FRANCIS, PONTIFF, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): I am thinking particularly of Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya. Together, brothers,
in the one human family desired by God, let us commit ourselves against the logic of armed power and against the monetization of relations, the
armaments of borders, the razing of walls, the gagging of the poor.
ANDERSON (voice-over): And so in almost every dimension, a groundbreaking trip of immense importance here in the United Arab Emirates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: What a year it has been. We have seen change on a monumental scale, change on tolerance like with the pope just now; change to our
natural world, like in Mozambique, with the climate emergency and political change across the planet as millions demand the right to a better future.
All of these things for better and worse will likely run through into 2020. So there is a lot to cover and we'll be across all of it, right here on
CONNECT THE WORLD.
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