Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Qatari Prime Minister Dismisses Controversy Surrounding Trump Plan To Accept Gifted Jet; At Least 70 Killed As Israel Steps Up Gaza Bombing; President Trump Visits Al Udeid Air Base In Qatar; Cassie To Face Cross-Examination In Sean "Diddy" Combs Sex Trafficking Trial; Mexican Influencer Valeria Marquez Killed On TikTok Livestream. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired May 15, 2025 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:31:58]
RAHELO SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon and here are some of the stories we are watching for you this morning. Economists and shipping experts are predicting a surge in U.S. imports in the coming weeks. It follows Monday's announcement of a 90-day lowering of tariff rates with China. Expect retailers to stockpile goods, fearing more unexpected changes in tariff policy this year.
Today, Ukraine and Russia are expected to hold their first direct talks in more than three years, but it's still unclear when exactly. Ukraine says no time has been set. The Russian president will not be attending, even though he's the one who proposed the meeting in Istanbul. And Ukraine's president has said that he won't speak with any other Russian official other than Vladimir Putin.
President Donald Trump is set to address U.S. troops soon at a rally like event at a military base in Qatar. Earlier he met with business leaders and discussed a wide range of issues. Trump has to the UAE later today. It's the third and final visit of his Middle East trip.
And the Qatari prime minister is dismissing the controversy surrounding President Trump's plan to accept the gift of a Boeing jet from Qatar to be used initially as Air Force One. CNN's Becky Anderson spoke to him on Wednesday about that and some of the key developments during President Trump's Middle East tour. Here's part of that interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Can we take a moment to get to the bottom of this offer by Qatar of a multimillion dollar Boeing 747-8 to President Trump? When did your government first start talking to the U.S. about this aircraft and who broached the subject first? Was it the U.S. or was it Qatar?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN BIN JASSIM AL-THANI, QATARI PRIME MINISTER: Well, actually it's, you know, I know that there were a lot of speculations about this topic. I don't know what is the reason that instigated this. This is a very simple government to government dealing when Ministry of Defense and Department of Defense are still exchanging the possibility of transferring one of our 747-8 to be used as Air Force One.
And it's still under the legal review. So there is nothing really -- I don't know what was like, why it became like so big as a news that this is something that, you know, considered, you know, very -- in a very strange way. It's -- we have done a lot together with the US. For example, the airlifting that happened during Afghanistan evacuation, 80 percent of that being taken care of from Qatar.
ANDERSON: I think the point is that this people are confused as to whether this is a personal offer to President Trump from the Emir, certainly President Donald Trump suggesting in an interview on Tuesday that Qatar approached him claiming that one Qatari official said if I can help you, let me do that. Is that true?
[04:35:00]
SHEIKH MOHAMMED: Well, it is a government to government transaction. It has nothing to do with personnel, whether it's on the U.S. side or on the Qatari side. It's Ministry of Defense, Department of Defense. So I don't see anything in that.
ANDERSON: It's, you know, you're alluding to the fact that this has created huge controversy in the States and this is sort of bipartisan criticism, Republicans and Democrats accusing the president of graft and Qatar of buying influence. Are you?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED: Why would we buy an influence in the United States? If you look just, you know, in the last 10 years of the U.S.-Qatar relationship, Qatar has been always there for the U.S. when it's needed, whether it's on the war against terror, whether it's in the evacuation of Afghanistan, whether it's on releasing hostages from different countries around the world.
And Qatar has been always a reliable partner for the U.S. has been always stepping up to help and to support the U.S. because we believe that this friendship needs to be mutually beneficial for both countries. Cannot be a one way relationship.
ANDERSON: Can we talk about Syria?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED: Sure.
ANDERSON: You're a strong backer of this new government and you've been lobbying for sanctions release for some time now to unlock aid into the country. Now Donald Trump in Riyadh announced that he is lifting sanctions. This news is making huge waves across this region. What do you now believe that you can accomplish for Syria?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED: Well, I think first of all, the Syrian people deserve to live a dignified life. And basically the sanctions were imposed on Assad regime, given his behavior against his own people. And now if the sanctions remained as they were, how we will be able to help the Syrian people to change their situation and to get out of the consequences of the civil war that they had and they've been through in the last 12 years, maybe.
So lifting the sanction, we believe it is the right step moving forward.
Now, there are a lot of questions being raised about, OK, how do you -- how do we know the current government? What's about their background? Everyone has these questions and these are legitimate questions since it's a new government and given background --
ANDERSON: Can you share this.
SHEIKH MOHAMMED: Of course. We have no knowledge about this government until they became power. So basically what we've been -- what we decided to do is to start engaging with them, to start to see if they are saying and doing the right things, then we should support them. We should support the stability of Syria. We should support that Syria shouldn't fail and shouldn't turn into a chaos.
And basically what we've been hearing and what we've been seeing until now, we've been hearing the right things. Of course, there will be downsides from time to time. There will be some mistakes happening here and there. And this is a country which is getting out of civil war after a long time.
So, we believe disengaging is going to be the biggest mistake will leave us with just one option. The chaos. But engaging and engaging in a constructive manner, trying to help to alleviate the situation over there in Syria and making sure that we are working together with them step by step. That's the only way for us where we will have a chance to have a better Syria and stabilize Syria.
ANDERSON: And let's talk about Gaza. You've been deeply involved in mediating between Israel and Hamas for more than 19 months. I've been in and out of this country and watch the efforts that have been put into that mediation. And there's a high level Israeli delegation here today.
Steve Witkoff is here, Donald Trump's Middle East envoy and his hostage, chief hostage negotiator, Adam Boehler. What can you tell us about any progress in those talks, the indirect talks, of course, with Hamas here?
SHEIKH MOHAMMED: Well, the progress that we have achieved by releasing Edan Alexander, the Israeli American citizen, the day before yesterday, from our perspective, we were seeing it as a breakthrough that will help bring back the talks on track and bring us a ceasefire and opening up a humanitarian corridor for the humanitarian assistance to come to the people of Gaza.
[04:40:00]
Unfortunately, Israel's reaction to this was a mass bombing the next day while sending the delegation and statements coming out of the Israeli government that this delegation is coming to negotiate a hostage deal without ending the war, which is basically sending the signal that we are not interested in negotiations. This was a bad signal.
And we have highlighted this concern to the Israelis and we told them that we need to engage in a meaningful negotiations that making sure that returns all the hostages safely and ending the war in Gaza and making sure that the humanitarian suffering is lifted from Gaza.
Right now, our teams are engaging with both parties. We hope to see some progress. I'm not sure if this progress will be something seen very soon with this continuing behavior.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: OK, our thanks to Becky Anderson there. Gaza is taking more fire from Israel despite ongoing ceasefire talks in Qatar. Palestinians say close to seven people have been killed in new strikes across the territory overnight. And a warning that. The video you're about to see is graphic.
This footage shows the moment Israel hit a hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday. Palestinian officials say that dozens of people have been killed in a wave of similar strikes this week. Multiple sources say that the hospital attack targeted Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, his fate still unclear. This morning, Israel says that it went after a Hamas command center which was located below the hospital.
All right. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:46:20]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. President Trump is wrapping up his visit to Qatar with a meeting with. U.S. troops at a military base there. You are looking live at the Al Udeid Air Base just outside of the capital of Doha. That's where the President is expected to arrive. Really any moment now. Of course, we'll take you there once it happens. But happens.
He's expected to hold a campaign style rally once he gets there before heading to his third and final stop of his Middle East tour, the United Arab Emirates. Let's go live now to our Jeff Zeleny who was also at that base. Jeff, long time my friend. It's not often that I get to see you at this hour. It's a pleasure to have you. Give us a sense of what we can expect to hear from the President when he speaks momentarily.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Rahel, it's great to be with you. As you can see, there are a few thousand troops who are waiting here in the largest U.S. Air base in the Middle East. Of course, this air base has some significant history, really going back over the last two decades or so with the Iraq war and the Afghanistan War as well.
But President Trump is scheduled to arrive here shortly, as you said, to rally these troops and deliver a campaign style rally already. The comedian turned podcaster Theo Von, very popular among young men popular on the campaign trail, was warming up this crowd, but also serious business being conducted here as well. President Trump, before making his way here earlier in Doha, was talking about Iran and talking about his hopes for progress in nuclear talks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think we're getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this. There's two steps. There's a very nice step and there's a violent step. The violence like people haven't seen before. And I don't -- I hope we're not going to have to do this. I don't want to do the second step. Some people do. Many people do. I don't want to do that step. So we'll see what happens. But we're in very serious negotiations with Iran for long term peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: President Trump has mentioned Iran on every stop of his Middle East tour this week. And some of his comments have been met with some fairly sharp criticism from Iran, whose leaders have called his comments naive and they are warning against any threats from the US. So that is certainly one of the issues here.
The president also talking about Gaza this morning as he is making his way here again, renewing his call to develop portions of Gaza. Of course, those comments were controversial months ago, saying he would like to make Gaza a beautiful place and talking about developing it in a real estate fashion.
Of course, the Israel unresolved conflict with Gaza has been a centerpiece of this trip. But as we await President Trump's arrival here, certainly American troops are excited to see their commander in chief. This will be his first visit to this base. Rahel.
SOLOMON: All right. Our Jeff Zeleny there reporting in Qatar. Jeff, thank you. Appreciate you being here this morning. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:54:00]
SOLOMON: Defense attorneys will get their chance today to question the former girlfriend of Sean "Diddy" Combs in his racketeering and sex trafficking trial in New York. During her second day of testimony on Wednesday, Cassie Ventura described how she suffered injuries and other medical issues from Combs' assaults and from his drug fueled sex parties or so called freak offs.
Ventura told the jury, quote, I feared for my family, I feared for my career. It's horrible. It's disgusting, adding no one should do that to anyone. The jury was also shown sexually explicit images from videos of the freak offs that the music mogul allegedly kept as blackmail. Combs has plead not guilty to the charges.
Mexican authorities are investigating the murder of a TikTok beauty influencer killed as she was live streaming.
Valeria Marquez was talking to followers when someone arrived at her salon to deliver a parcel. Moments later the 23-year-old was shot dead on camera. The livestream ended when someone picked up her phone.
[04:55:04]
Police are investigating the case as the suspected femicide, the killing of a woman or girl because of their gender. Amnesty International says that one quarter of female killings in Mexico in 2020 were investigated as femicides.
All right. That's going to do it for us here this hour. Thanks for joining us here on Early Start. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. We're going to take a short break. We'll have more of today's headlines coming up just after this short break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:00:00]
