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Eyewitness: Barrel bombs are Syrian regime’s way of saying “I don’t care”
With fears that Syria’s chemical weapons deal brokered by the US and Russia has only “strengthened” Bashar al-Assad’s government, one eyewitness inside Syria tells CNN the regime has stepped up its firepower in his Damascus suburb.
“We have been hit by barrel bombs for more than a month now. Just today twelve barrels were sent to Daraya,” Mohammed Abuyamen tells Christiane Amanpour.
Barrel bombs are metal cylinders filled with shrapnel and fuel, dropped from the sky. The bombs have killed dozens of civilians in the past few days, hitting targets including a mosque and makeshift school.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is the latest to speak out against these air raids: “Each and every day that the barrel-bombing of Aleppo continues the Assad regime reminds the world of its true colors”.
For his part, Abuyamen tells Amanpour he believes there’s a definite motivation behind the use of these bombs, saying “the regime is trying to show off its power while it is negotiating in Geneva, it is trying to get the strongest stand there. This is why he’s destroying the cities inside Syria, just to tell the world ‘I don’t care, I can kill everybody if you don’t accept my terms’”.
Click above to watch the full interview.
Lord Lamont: I believe Rouhani is sincere
It seems Iran is quite the place to be right now judging by the procession of western diplomats and business leaders making their way to Tehran.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt is there meeting with his counterpart Javad Zarif, discussing Iran’s nuclear programme. And more than 100 French business executives are also having meetings inside the country this week, with other European countries planning similar trips.
In the United States though, Congress continues to battle over new sanctions for Iran; and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has even joined the fray, arguing against that move.
Lord Lamont, the Chairman of the British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, has recently returned from Tehran as well. He was part of a UK parliamentary delegation that came back with strong recommendations for engagement with Iran. The former British finance minister told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that members of the government he met with were “positive” about dealing with the west and felt it was “in the interest of both parties”. But despite there being “a lot of goodwill” from the Iranian side, he says they felt negotiations could be “very difficult", that there is "quite a wide gap between the two sides”.
Asked whether President Hassan Rouhani is a man Britain “can do business with”, Lord Lamont told Amanpour he believes Rouhani is “sincere” and that he does want to make changes in Iran, but that he will not be able to make all the changes he wants unless he gets a nuclear deal.
That said, Lord Lamont says everyone he met in Tehran emphasised that any deal has to be approved “not just by the government, not just by ministers, but by other ‘centers of power’”.
Click above to watch the interview.
Journalists call for release of colleagues in Egypt
Journalists worldwide are demanding the release of Al Jazeera staff detained in Egypt for over a month with the campaign #FreeAJStaff.
The White House has also urged Egypt to release imprisoned journalists and academics. "These figures, regardless of affiliation, should be protected and permitted to do their jobs freely in Egypt," White House spokesman told reporters today.
It's a story we have been covering for weeks, and we will continue to do so.
South Africa’s failed political marriage
South African political merger ends
CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks to Agang SA's Mamphela Ramphele about the state of opposition politics on South Africa.
Mazibuko: 'Divorce' leaves DA bruised
Christiane Amanpour speaks to the DA's Lindiwe Mazibuko the likelihood of opposition parties working together again.
The ANC has dominated politics in South Africa since the fall of Apartheid; and now, a bright new future for the South African opposition has come and gone with breath taking speed.
Today was supposed to be the day two opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance and Agang SA embarked on their joint campaign, called ‘Together for Change’. Just last week the two party leaders, Dr Mamphela Ramphele and Helen Zille, announced a merger that sent a shiver of excitement throughout the nation.
But yesterday the excitement turned to dismay as these two old friends announced the deal was off. The move not only raises questions about the health of South African democracy but about the future of these two formidable women who head the parties.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour spoke to the head of Agang SA and to the DA’s parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko. Both parties admit they have made mistakes, and they agree that the only winner right now is the ANC.
Amanpour spoke first to Dr Ramphele, an anti-apartheid activist, successful businesswoman, former World Bank official and partner of the late freedom fighter Steve Biko. Dr Ramphele says she “takes blame” for not coming to an agreement, but that “leaders have to listen to their members” and that she “cannot bind Agang to a merger with the DA without consulting with the national leadership council.”
As for the DA, Mazibuko told Amanpour her party is “very bruised” by the fall out, and that they will “not pursue negotiations with Agang again”.
Click above to watch both interviews.
Angelique Kidjo on a mission
Grammy-winning singer Angelique Kidjo is on a mission.
“African women have to be seen through the true lenses of it,” she told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday. “The false lens is always showing the women being abused, being in refugee camp, and walking around with their breasts naked looking like zombies that have no brain.”
“I’m not a cliché. I’m a human being. I have a brain; I can use it. I have a mouth; I can speak for myself. And that’s what I want people to hear – the beauty, that resilience through the voice.”
Kidjo, from the West African nation of Benin, has just released a bold new album, Eve, and has written a revealing autobiography.
On the eve of a new tour around the United States and the world, Kidjo sat down with Amanpour in New York.
Click above to watch their interview.
U.S. has ‘failed’ narcotics fight in Afghanistan, says inspector general
By Mick Krever, CNN
Despite spending $10 billion in reconstruction money fighting narcotics in Afghanistan, the U.S. has “failed,” the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, John Sopko, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“If you look at production, if you look at cultivation, if you look at breaking the tie between the drug culture, the drug production, and the insurgency – if you look at all three of those indicators, we failed.”
Sopko is behind a damning new report alleging that corruption and incompetence in Afghanistan is putting a billion dollars in government assistance at risk.
Of the 16 Afghan ministries that the Inspector General examined, not a single one could be counted on to properly secure funds, the report says.
He alleged that of the litany of fixes to the aid program that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) proposed, 90% were ignored.
Indeed, he said, in Afghanistan’s case USAID waved most of its normal good governance requirements for aid.
“Our fear is that this money is at risk because of the waiver of their requirements.”
Abdullah Abdullah, leading contender to replace Karzai in Afghanistan, vows to sign troop agreement with U.S. if elected
By Mick Krever, CNN
Leading Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday that he would sign an agreement to keep international forces in Afghanistan, and aid dollars flowing, if he were elected to succeed President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai has thus far demurred signing such a deal – a so-called Status of Forces Agreement – to the frustration of the United States and its allies.
U.S. forces are currently scheduled to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
“When we are asking President Karzai to sign it, and when we say that it is in the interest of Afghanistan that that agreement is signed sooner rather than later, that means that we will be ready to sign it when time comes,” he said.
Angelique Kidjo on African anti-gay laws
Christiane Amanpour speaks with Grammy award-winning, Beninoise singer Angelique Kidjo about homophobia in Africa, and the large number of anti-gay laws enacted by African countries.
"What baffles me, and what makes angry, is when people on the name of god, on the name of religion, stir hate," Kidjo said.
Click above to see their exchange.
Amanpour's full interview with Kidjo will be available on Amanpour.com tomorrow, Tuesday February 3.
Playing for time with human lives
By Christiane Amanpour and Lucky Gold, CNN
In his state of the union address on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke of diplomatic pressure that has forced Syria to surrender its stockpile of chemical weapons.
Now imagine a world where dictatorship, terror and fear – and 95% of those chemical weapons – remain in place.
The United Nations-backed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize and charged with locating and destroying those caches of sarin and mustard gas – now says "only a small portion" of the stockpile has been shipped out; perhaps only 5%
As cargo ships wait to transport these weapons to their eventual destruction, the Assad regime is dragging its feet and failing to deliver. It is now eight weeks behind schedule.
Viktor Yushchenko: Ukraine opposition does not control streets
By Mick Krever, CNN
The Ukrainian opposition does not control the street protests that have raged for months in the country’s capital, Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
“I don’t think that the political opposition of Ukraine has the control of the entire situation on Maidan,” or Independence Square, Yushchenko said through a translator.
The opposition, he said, has not provided a “comprehensive pact” that would satisfy the demands of the protestors.
The opposition is concerned with “the fight for power,” but less with “the strategic course of the country.”
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