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Durst May Face Local Charges; Kerry Says We Have To Negotiate With Assad; President Obama Denounces GOP Letter To Iran; Chances Of Iran Pact Are 50-50; Election Eve In Israel; Tomorrow's Vote Affects More Than Politics; Israeli Politics. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 16, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much for being with us. Wolf starts right now.

<13:00:18> WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 5:00 p.m. in London, 7:00 p.m. in Jerusalem, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, high stakes talks underway right now to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. Those talks entering a crucial phase as a deadline looms. The secretary of state, John Kerry, met Iran's foreign minister in Switzerland earlier today for several hours. The U.S. and five other countries, they're negotiating with Iran. They're under intense pressure to get a deal done before a self-imposed deadline of March 31st. Both the United States and Iran also face obstacles from hard liners within their own countries.

Let's begin our coverage this hour with CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson. He's joining us from London. So, Nic, what do we know? Where do the talks stand right now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, you have the Iranian foreign minister, Zurif, in Brussels briefing the French, the British and the German foreign ministers. But he is expected to go back to Switzerland later today. He had a five-hour meeting there in Switzerland this morning with secretary of state, John Kerry. Both sides sort of set -- you know, recognize that they only have two weeks to get this deal done.

If you listen to what Zurif and Kerry said going into these talks when they arrived in Switzerland over the weekend, slightly different narrative. You have from Zurif saying there are technical issues to accomplish here. You have from Secretary Kerry saying, yes, there were some technical issues but there are -- this is a time for political judgment on the Iranian side.

And Secretary Kerry expected, along with others from the State Department, to be in Switzerland for talks. Both sides recognizing the clock is ticking on this 31st of March deadline -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And another related matter, the secretary of state, John Kerry, he spoke about a willingness to sit down with Syria's president, Bashar Al Assad. I want to play a clip from the interview he granted to CBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Everybody agrees there is no military solution. There is only a political solution. I am convinced that with the efforts of our allies and others, there will be increased pressure on Assad.

REENE FLORES, CORRESPONDENT, CBS NEWS: And you'd be willing to negotiate with him?

KERRY: We have to negotiate --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. So, there's been a little bit of an uproar over those words, we have to negotiate with him. The criticism being this is the president of Syria who's, what, under his watch, some 200,000 Syrians, fellow Syrians, have been killed in that civil war over the past several years. And now, the secretary of state is saying we have to -- the U.S. has to negotiate with him. Give us a little perspective here.

ROBERTSON: You know, the state deport -- the State Department is saying, OK, step back and look at this in the context of the Geneva talks 2013 which also recognized that the opposition, the rebels if you will, would get into talks, at some point, with the Syrian government. This -- what Secretary Kerry is saying is in that context, I think what is different here -- and if we listen as well to the response we've heard from President Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian President, today, the sort of language that's being used compared to the language that the -- that was being used perhaps a couple of years ago, you know, from the U.S. side, you know, the language was that Assad must go. He is no longer a legitimate leader. It seems that the rhetoric on both sides is toned down a little bit. That's what we're picking up here.

You know, look at -- the way that this is being looked at right now. If Assad is forced from power, if the Syrian leadership collapses, you get a failed state, potentially, in Syria. ISIS will take advantage of that. A more practical and reality based look at how to -- how to close this situation down. But what Secretary Kerry also said in that interview was, you know, we need our partners to put more pressure on Assad. I was at the talks in Switzerland in January of last year. Again, those talks, the expectation was Russia would put pressure on Assad to make compromise in the talks. That didn't happen. And when you look at it today, Wolf, the United States and Russia are not the closest of allies, further apart than they were a year ago.

BLITZER: They certainly are. All right, Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson reporting for us.

Meanwhile, President Obama is weighing in on the controversial letter sent by 47 Republican senators to the Iranian leadership last week. That letter warning that any nuclear deal reached now may not necessarily exist past the current presidency. President Obama spoke to Vice News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the ayatollah who they claim is our mortal enemy. And their basic argument to them is, don't deal with our president because you can't trust him to follow through on an agreement. It's close to unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

<13:05:03> BLITZER: Just a few hours ago, we heard from one of the senators who signed that GOP letter. Senator Ted Cruz says, any potential White House candidate who doesn't reject the Iran deal is not fit to serve as president of the United States. Senator Cruz spoke to a crowd in New Hampshire earlier this morning.

Let's dig a little bit deeper on all of these issues and what's at stake. Jamie Rubin is joining us. He served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of state during the Clinton administration. Jamie's joining us from London. What's your take on what's going on? Those letter -- that letter from 47 senators. And now, Senator Cruz saying any candidate who supports this deal, we don't know if there's going to be a deal, would not necessarily be fit to be president?

JAMES RUBIN, FORMER U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, I think it's really tragic. I've never seen -- in all of the years of following arms control agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union, similar agreements that have taken place with other countries around the world, I've never seen the entire opposition party unite and basically embarrass the country. America's reputation in the world has suffered under Bush, a little bit under Obama. But a lot of that is due to the perception that we can't work together, the Republicans and Democrats.

And Republicans have just really harmed the country by showing this level of dysfunction to, in this case, our adversary, let alone our friend. So, I've never seen it like that and, obviously, there's a reason that both Obama and the Republicans think this agreement, if it happens, is a really, really big deal. And that's what's so unique about it.

BLITZER: Well, by the way, seven Republican senators, including the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Corker, refused to sign that letter. So, they weren't completely united. The Republicans senators, 54 Republicans in the Senate, 47 of them did sign it. Do you think there's going to be a deal in the text two weeks?

RUBIN: No, I don't think there will be a final deal. And what I think is going on right now, this is called in the parlance of negotiation, the end game. And by that, I mean that both sides have in their heads what they expect the other side to do at the end. They've been holding certain issues back, whether it's the question of how fast sanctions will be suspended or a question about whether inspectors can go anywhere anytime. And they have hoped that as the pressure builds towards the end of the negotiation, something they care a lot about, the other side will bend on.

And so, I don't think either side is in a bending mood right now. And so, I think it's going to be very, very difficult to really complete this agreement in the next couple weeks. It's possible, however, that they can reach a stage where they have so much agreement on so many pieces of this complicated puzzle that they could announce a partial agreement. I would consider that possible.

BLITZER: And what do you make of the secretary of state, John Kerry's, words over the weekend saying that he's ready, the United States is ready to resume negotiations with Syrian president Bashar Al Assad to end the conflict there?

RUBIN: Well, I guess the truth is that John Kerry has had a lot more success in the Iran talks, in terms of the potential for an agreement, than in the Syria talks. He took on the Syria issue when he was first secretary of state, flying off to Moscow, promising to put new pressure on Assad, saying he was illegitimate and thinking that he would negotiate some grand bargain with the Russians and get this problem solved. And the truth is that Syria has gone from bad to worse in the last year or two. We've now gone over 200,000 dead.

And as your correspondent was indicating earlier, America seems more worried about the Islamic state and what it could do or not do under a Syrian leadership of Assad than they are about getting rid of Assad. So, I think the Syria issue the administration is flailing around a little bit. And I think the confusion, over the last 24 hours, is demonstrative of that.

BLITZER: Jamie Ruben, the former secretary of state. Jamie, thanks very much for joining us.

RUBIN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Still ahead, one day to go before Israelis head to the polls and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lots of reason to worry. We're going live to Jerusalem for a look at what's at state stake.

And later, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, finally appearing in public today. But his absence over the last 10 days still not fully explained. We're heading to Moscow. We'll go live there to talk about what happened. Stay with us.

13:09:45

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's election eve in Israel and the outcome has serious implications way beyond Israeli politics. Among the major issues, repairing ties with the United States. They hit a pretty low point during the strained relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama. The election also affects the nuclear talks with Iran and rising tensions with the Palestinians since the breakdown of those peace talks.

The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for political survival in tomorrow's election. The final round of polling showed the labor party leader, Isaac Herzog, and his Zionist Union ahead of Netanyahu's Likud party.

Let's bring in David Horovitz. He's the editor of "The Times of Israel," the online newspaper. He's joining us from Jerusalem here with me in Washington. The former U.S. ambassador, Martin Indyk, he was the ambassador to Israel, former special envoy for the Israeli Palestinian negotiations in the current Obama administration as well. David, very quickly, this -- these reports we're getting that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been saying to interviewers in Israel that, quote, "foreign powers" -- he didn't say who, "foreign powers are spending millions of dollars to try to force him out of office." What's going on over there?

DAVID HOROVITZ, EDITOR, "THE TIMES OF ISRAEL": Well, he feels that, you know, although this is an election that he initiated more than two years early, the campaign is not going well. And one of the reasons that he claims is that there's a big effort with a lot of money coming in from abroad, a lot of activism. He's to try to get out the votes of all of the people, you know, who are seeking to oust Netanyahu. On the other hand, you've got to -- you've got to say there's a free newspaper here funded by a great supporter of his, Sheldon Adelson, which is very supportive of Netanyahu. So, there's -- you know, there are allegations in both directions there.

BLITZER: And there have been a lot of American political consultants over many years that have come to Israel, David, as you well know, to help the Likud and help the labor party to get involved. These are paid political consultants, right?

HOROVITZ: Yes, there's been -- I mean, there was an effort to try and assert that some of this activism was illegal. You know, that it could -- Netanyahu's could try to take this complaint to the courts. But they realized they had no case. They actually withdrew their case. So, they're disgruntled and they're unhappy. But they've been unable to assert, credibly, that there's any kind of legal breach here.

<13:15:11> BLITZER: Ambassador Indyk, as you know, the prime minister is now trying to get more support for some of those real right wing parties to come back to the Likud as well and he's saying some stuff about opposing a Palestinian state now. He says, "anyone who's going to establish a Palestinian state, anyone who's going to evacuate territories today is simply giving up base for attacks to the radical Islam against Israel." Based on - and you watch this closely, obviously, does he now oppose what's called a two-state solution, Israel alongside a new state of Palestine?

MARTIN INDYK, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: That's what he's saying and it's in direct contradiction to the position that he adopted as prime minister and the negotiations that I was involved in, Secretary Kerry led, were based on was a two-state solution and he was - he was an important partner in that process. So he's changed his position now and he's made it categorical that he opposes a Palestinian state. And the problem with that is well it's short-term useful in terms of trying to attract right wing votes if he gets elected as prime minister.

BLITZER: Some have said it's an act of desperation -

INDYK: (INAUDIBLE) -

BLITZER: It's an act of desperation given that he's losing, at least in these polls that have come out.

INDYK: Well, it certainly looks like that. It looks like panic. But if he's elected prime minister, then he's going to have a mandate to oppose a Palestinian state and that's going to get him into another problem with President Obama, who supports a Palestinian state.

BLITZER: David Horovitz, the other leader, the Labor party leader, Isaac Herzog, he's on record as strongly supporting what's called that two-state solution, right?

HOROVITZ: Yes, absolutely. I just want to warn you all, I mean he - Netanyahu is losing to Herzog in terms of the support for their particular parties. But in the last polls, you still have to say Netanyahu seemed to have the better chance of building a coalition. This is an election that is going to be incredibly hard to call, even when we know the results, however complicated and ridiculous that may sound.

BLITZER: Do you agree with that, ambassador?

INDYK: Yes, indeed. The right wing block is larger than the center left block and a lot of things are going to come down to the numbers. And the king maker it seems is this center party led by Moshe Kahlon, who's left the Likud to set that up and he may prefer to join with the Likud rather than Labor. Nobody really knows what it is that he's going to do. So -

BLITZER: Well, David, what do you think he's going to do, this - this Moshe Kahlon?

HOROVITZ: Well, he - he won't want to oppose sort of the perceived consensus in Israel. So if it - you know, if the - if the - the trend is sort of still with Netanyahu, Kahlon will go with them. If it's clear that really Netanyahu has been quite marginalized, Kahlon hasn't put himself into any corners. But, again, I want to stress, they've raised the threshold here. The Arab parties united. We don't know what the turnout's going to be. There are so many variables here that my bet is that, you know, you'll get these exit polls tomorrow. It might be, you know, a fair while afterwards before we really know who's going to be building the coalition.

BLITZER: It's going to be -- it's clear to me - let me just get your sense - that the speech that Netanyahu delivered before Congress may have given him a slight bump in the day or two that followed but he's really gone downhill since then. And the big issue is not necessarily Iran, national security, Palestinian issues, it's housing and the economy, right?

INDYK: Right. So it turns out that the speech was a strategic miscalculation on his part. He would have been much better off staying at home and addressing precisely those social issues, in particular the housing crisis, which is boosting Kahlon, the center candidate we were talking about. And instead he caused a huge problem for Democrats, caused a huge problem in his relationship with President Obama and it didn't help him at all at home.

BLITZER: Martin Indyk, thanks very much. David Horovitz, thanks to both of you. We'll check back tomorrow. Those exit polls in Israel come out at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 10: 00 p.m. Israel time. We'll, of course, have coverage of the elections in Israel.

Just ahead, the changing face of Israeli politics. Israeli Arabs, they are prepared to flex their political muscle in tomorrow's election. Could they sway the outcome? Elise Labott is in Jerusalem with that part of the story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

<13:22:56> BLITZER: Israeli elections are tomorrow and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, now trails in the final round of polling. The most authoritative polls show Netanyahu behind the rival Labor party, projected to pick up four seats more than Likud. Right now that poll showing the Zionist Union with 26, that's the Labor party, Likud, 22. That, the most recent poll in the 120 member Knesset. There will have to be coalition - a coalition to put together a new government.

When Israelis cast their votes tomorrow, an unlikely group will be flexing its political muscle. Splintered Arab parties have now joined forces for the first time and they could sway the balance of power and give the 1.6 million Israeli Arabs, who are citizens of Israel living in Israel, a voice. The most recent polls show that that party could get as many as 13 seats and they could be decisive in helping form the next government. That is a potential possibility. Our global affairs correspondent Elise Labott has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is a powerful new face in Israeli politics. In a sea of Jewish parties campaigning at Hebrew University, Ayman Odeh is a star attraction. But he is not Jewish. He is an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent, one of 1.6 million living in Israel. And come election day, the bloc he leads, dubbed the joint list, could hold the balance of power in the Knesset, a potential game changer for one-fifth of the country who for decades has complained of being second-class citizens.

"No one can ever ignore us again," he told us. "We want to close the social and economic gaps between Arabs and Jews in this country."

Walking through the Wadinesnas (ph) neighborhood of Haifa, he is welcomed as a local.

"I walk this street every day," he says. "I belong to each shop, even person." Growing up here, he says he identified with Malcom X. Now the 41-year- old lawyer relates to Martin Luther King. Having convinced Israel's tiny splintered Arab parties to team up for the first time, he now wants Arabs to get out and vote to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu, who he says fuels racism and incitement against them in their own country.

<13:25:15> "What makes people vote is the hope of change," he says. "We are 20 percent of the population. Together we can prevent him from forming a government."

There is some skepticism, but many here in Wadinesnas believe their native son can lead them to a better place.

"Many people didn't want to vote before," this man told us. "We asked for our rights, but we never get anything. This is a good step and united we can be strong."

While Odeh's focus is on improving life for Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories, he says he needs Israeli Jews to help.

"Arabs alone cannot make a democracy strong," he says. "It must be Arabs and Jews together."

A message that resonates back at Hebrew University, where some Jewish students are joining the fight against what they call institutional discrimination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not only a struggle of the Palestinian minority within Israel, it's a struggle of the Palestinian minority together with the Mocati (ph) Jews like myself.

LABOTT: It's not a vision shared by most in Israel, but Odeh's message is now is their chance. By finding their voice and using their vote, they can make that vision a reality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Elise Labott is joining us now live from Jerusalem.

Elise, according to the latest polls, this joint Arab list could get maybe 13, 14, 15 seats. Potentially that could be a game changer. Potentially is it possible that Isaac Herzog's Labor party would reach out to the Arab list and bring them into a new government, potentially that could bring them over the 60 - 60 vote margin. They need 61 seats in the 120 member Knesset to have a majority. Are people talking about that?

LABOTT: Well, certainly that's what Herzog and Tzipi Livni, his running mate, hope, Wolf. But what Ayman Odeh told us if (INAUDIBLE) Herzog, let's say, if he were to form a government and they would certainly recommend him to President Rivlin (ph), who talks to all the parties to see who he would task with forming a government.

But they don't want really to join a government. Certainly they want to get rid of Benjamin Netanyahu. They would like to see a left wing government. But they would like to be on the outside and kind of call themselves an umbrella for Herzog. They want to be the leader of the opposition, Wolf.

Now as leader of the opposition, as you know, Ayman Odeh would be brief by the prime minister on security and diplomatic matters. He would be addressing the Knesset. He would have protection from the Shivetz (ph). He would have all the privileges of the leader of the opposition and this could give him an even greater platform. So certainly they want to support the left but not necessarily be part of the government.

BLITZER: All right, we'll see what happens. A fascinating feature of the Israeli election tomorrow. Of course, we'll have special coverage tomorrow night. Elise, thanks very much.

A group of British teens is facing terror related charges. We're going live to London for the latest on where they were headed and how they were caught.

13:28:15

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