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Michael is back for the first clip of 2009.
Wolf Blitzer speaks with Christiane Amanpour (in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Summit) and Michael (in New York) about the reactions and realities of President Obama's outreach to the Arab world. Michael also touches on tomorrow's election in Iraq.
WOLF
BLITZER: Joining us now, two of CNN's top
international journalists, our chief international
correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, in Davos,
Switzerland, and Michael Ware. He's usually in
Baghdad, but he's in New York right now.
Christiane, how is this decision he made to give
Al-Arabiya this first interview - reaching out to the
Muslim world, the Arab world -- how's it actually
playing out there?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL
CORRESPONDENT: Well, very well. I mean, it's very
significant.
In fact, I asked several of the foreign ministers
from Iran, from the other parts of the Arab world
here what they thought, and they thought it was a
very positive sign. You know, it's never been done
before, and President Obama not only mentioned the
Muslim world in his inauguration president-elect, but
really went out of his way to reach out in that
interview with Al-Arabiya.
BLITZER: And he didn't waste any time, Michael, in
saying that he's going to have a special envoy for
the Middle East, the former Senate Majority Leader
George Mitchell, and he sent him over to the region
right away.
I assume that underscores his commitment to try to
jump-start this Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf.
And I also believe that it shows us the imperative
that the situation in Gaza currently poses, not just
for the region there, but for U.S. policy interests
beyond the Middle East, as far-flung as Pakistan. So
this week we have actually seen a time of sweeping
statements in both word and in deed: obviously the
Al-Arabiya interview that he conducted re-branding
the new American administration to the Muslim world,
as well as the appointment of envoys -- former
Senator George Mitchell to the Middle East, and a new
ambassador for Kabul. So, really up and running.
BLITZER: It's interesting, Christiane, that he
clearly is reaching out to the Iranians as well. And
he wants to have a dialogue.
But, in response, the Iranian president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, says he wants an apology from the United
States for, supposedly, 60 years of crimes against
Iran. What kind of response is that?
AMANPOUR: Well, you know very well, Wolf, that
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also sent congratulatory
letters to President Obama on his election and after
the inauguration.
We spoke to the foreign minister here. And, yes, for
public consumption, they say they want to, you know,
to talk about some of the things that went on over
the last 60 years of U.S. involvement there, for
instance, putting back the shah after the -- in 1952,
after the democratically elected prime minister
there.
But in general, the thing to focus on is what was
said here. And that was, the foreign minister reached
out. He said, we really appreciate this reach-out. He
didn't sort of go overboard in negotiating right here
in public, but he said, yes, we will meet that
extended hand.
And, of course, he also said that, you know, we don't
want just rhetoric about change. We want to see real
change.
But I think it's important to say, we talked to a lot
of world leaders here in Davos. They're all here.
It's a captive audience. There's a genuine sense of a
page being turned, not just by the Islamic leaders
here, but by Russia, by China, by all these world
leaders who we have heard speaking here.
BLITZER: You're one of the great experts on Iraq,
Michael. Normally, as all of our viewers know, you're
in Baghdad.
He's telling the U.S. military brass, start a process
of withdrawing all U.S. combat forces from Iraq over
the next 16 months, and move some of them, at least,
a big chunk of them, to Afghanistan.
There are elections going to be taking place over the
weekend in Iraq right now. What's going to be the
fallout from this?
WARE: Well, this election, it's for the provincial
governments, not for the central government itself.
That comes later in the year. What we're going to
wait and see is, A, whether the elections are
peaceful. And I think most of the indicators are that
it will go through the poll without, hopefully, too
much disruption.
But what we're waiting to see is how the chips fall.
All the parties in Iraq right now are playing the
political game. They have rolled back their military
and paramilitary campaigns, waiting to see what are
they going to get out of this political process. And
this is the first big step.
What we will have to see is who gets what, and those
who feel that they have been underdone, how are they
going to react? That's going to present challenges
for President Obama as he's pulling the troops out --
Wolf.
BLITZER: And, on this developing story we're getting,
Christiane, this phone conversation between President
Obama and Hu Jintao of China, one of the important
items included in this White House statement, "the
two presidents discussed the international financial
crisis and agreed that increased close cooperation
between the U.S. and China is vital."
A lot of people don't understand how intertwined
these two economies are right now.
AMANPOUR: Well, yes, and very interestingly, you
know, there was a bit of a controversy, because
Secretary -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, in his
confirmation, talked about accusing China of
manipulating their currency.
And this, of course, was a bit of a buzz here. So,
you know, probably President Obama, in any event, was
going to be talking about some of those issues. But,
certainly, the Chinese here, Wen Jiabao, the prime
minister, talked about, for instance, their huge
stimulus package, and how, you know, the world is
globalized, and how it has to really react as a
global unit to try to solve this global economic
crisis.
And that also was what Vladimir Putin said here, the
prime minister of Russia. You know, he didn't do the
normal hard-line thing, swiping at America, as he has
been doing in public. Here in Davos, at least in
public, he was talking about trying to work together,
trying to get out of this global crisis together.
So, it was a definite change of tone by both those
leaders.
BLITZER: Interesting.
Michael, can President Obama marginalize al Qaeda and
other extremists out there, as he's clearly trying to
do in reaching out to the Muslim and Arab world?
WARE: Well, that's an extremely tall order, Wolf.
I mean, there's a lot of damage control that has to
be done to recover from America's image from the
previous administration. And even those who -- in the
Muslim world who may not side with or sympathize with
al Qaeda, they still have a very skeptical view of
America.
And, tactically, on the ground, can this new
administration, militarily or otherwise, get at al
Qaeda in its safe havens in the remote Northwest
Frontier areas of Pakistan? That's the big question.
Can President Obama get Pakistan to cooperate? If he
can't, then that's a major stumbling block for his
policies throughout the region -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Michael Ware and Christiane Amanpour, guys,
thanks very much.