President Obama Addresses Iran Deal Critics; El Chapo's Escape Documented
MAX FOSTER, CNNI HOST: U.S. president responds to critics of the Iran nuclear deal.</s>ZAIN ASHER, CNNI HOST: Also ahead, tracking El Chapo's escape. We will take you inside the tunnel this drug lord used for his prison break.</s>FOSTER: First ever new images of Pluto reveals surprises about the</s>ASHER: And a warm welcome to our viewers in the United States and all over the world. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Zain Asher.</s>FOSTER: I'm Max Foster. This is CNN NEWSROOM. We are going to begin though with some breaking news out of the U.S. because former president George H.W. Bush is in a hospital in Maine at this hour after falling down, breaking a bone in his neck.</s>ASHER: Yes. And his spokesperson tells CNN that the 91-year-old is in, quote, "very stable condition." George H.W. Bush was, of course, the 41st president of the United States. He fell ill Wednesday morning while at his summer home in Kennebunkport. The injury is not considered life-threatening and Mr. Bush is not expected to stay long in the hospital.</s>FOSTER: Now, the White House is brushing aside opposition and is then practically defending the Iran nuclear deal. President Barack Obama answered the objections to the agreement point by point in a news conference that lasted more than an hour on Wednesday. He insisted that the plan was never designed to address every problem with Tehran but instead had one goal.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It achieves our top priority, making sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon. But we have always recognized that even if Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon Iran still poses challenges to our interests and our values both in the region and around the world. I challenge those who are objecting to this agreement, number one to read the agreement before they comment on it. Number two, to explain specifically where it is they think this agreement does not prevent Iran reason from getting a nuclear weapon. And why they are right and people like Ernie Moniz who is an MIT nuclear physicist and an expert in these issues is wrong, why the rest of the world is wrong and then present an alternative.</s>FOSTER: Well, the U.S. defense secretary will head to the Middle East next week to reassure allies. And Reuters reports, the trip includes Saudi Arabia crucially. The Sunni kingdom is an arch rival of Shia Iran. The Saudi ambassador to the U.N. expressed his concerns about the deal.</s>ABDALLAH AL-MOUALLIMI, SAUDI ARABIA AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: We take assurances that have been given to us by all parties at face value. And we accept them for the time being as being sufficient grounds to believe that this is a reasonable agreement. What is more important in our view is what is going to be the behavior of Iran following the agreement. It would be odd if Iran reaches a modest preventive and normalization of relations with the international community but continues to have difficulties in its relations with its own neighbors.</s>ASHER: That was the Saudi ambassador to the U.N. Now, the Arab world is certainly divided over this deal. Now, some countries believe that it will ease tension while others doubt it will stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Nick Paton Walsh examines the reaction and the agreement potential impact across the region.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It gone away with a key phone call nearly two years ago between President Obama and Rouhani. But now that deal is done, it is Obama who has hit the phones comforting distraught Middle East and allies who see him warming to their nemesis, Tehran. In a mostly Sunni Gulf, he told the Saudis they will quote "committed as ever to counter Iran's destabilizing activities in the region." He said similar to the United Arab Emirates adding the U.S. would quote "support our partners in building their defense capabilities." Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has been un-consolably critical of a deal, but was told it would not diminish our concerns regarding Iran's support for terrorism and threat s toward Israel. His counterpart in Tehran didn't have to sell it. Allies in Damascus or Baghdad on the dropping of sanctions and unfrozen billions being a god idea. Instead the sales job was to hard liners who see the U.S. the great Satan.</s>HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It shows at the technical level we are the level of the world. We can talk at the legal level we are the level of the world. At the political level we are at the global levels this in and by itself means victory.</s>WALSH: Here in the Middle East torn apart by Sunni-Shia sectarian bloodshed, undergoing some of the worst violence in chain as seen decades. This deal has always been about far more than the already massive issue of nuclear weapons. It risks tipping the scales. America has had long-term alliances with Sunni powers here but there is a perception that this deal marks them throwing their lot in with the Shia side of the fight. It isn't that yet but the potential breathing room it buys Tehran has many fearing deeper change. The deal was welcome in Damascus and Baghdad by any released Iran funds could help boost Shia-militia. In Iraq, there the awkward ground allies of U.S. warplanes fighting ISIS. In Lebanon it could help Iranian back and beleaguered Hezbollah, sworn enemies of Israel. In Yemen it could help the Shia Houthi rebels also backed by Iran who are fighting a government in exile supported by U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. It's a deal that might take one issue off a table, a nuclear bomb for Iran but oddly might raise the temperature in the shat erred region even more. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.</s>FOSTER: Now, the agreement makes no mention of the four Americans who have been detained in Iran against their will for years now. Critics insist the deal should have included their freedom.</s>ASHER: And when CBS correspondent Major Garett asked the president about these four, listen to the response he got.</s>MAJOR GARETT, CBS CORRESPONDENT: As you well know, there are four Americans in Iran, three held on trumped up charges according to your administration, one whereabouts unknown. Can you tell the country, sir, why you are content with all the fanfare around this deal to leave the conscience of this nation and strength of the nation unaccounted for in relation to this four Americans? And last week, the chairman of the joint chief of staff said under no circumstances should there be relief for Iran in terms of ballistic missiles or conventional weapons. It is perceived that was a last minute capitulation in the negotiations. Many in the Pentagon fear you have left the chairman joint chiefs of staff hang out to dry. Could you comment?</s>OBAMA: I have to give you credit, Major, for how you craft those questions. The notion that I'm content as I celebrate with American citizens languishing in Iranian jails -- Major, that's nonsense. And you should know better. I've met with the families of some of those folks. Nobody's content.</s>FOSTER: That told him.</s>ASHER: Yes. He is very open and honest, President Obama, there.</s>FOSTER: Now, we go on to Greece now because there is a step closer to getting a bailout package that will keep it from going bankrupt. The parliament has approved more austerity measures. The pension reforms and the tax increases are unpopular but they pave the way for formal talks to begin with creditors in hopes of bringing billions of dollars in to Greece. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras begrudgingly went forwarded with the plan.</s>ALEXIS TSIPRAS, GREECE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I will admit measures we are tabling are harsh and I don't agree with them. I don't believe they will help the Greek economy and I say so openly. But I also say that I must implement them. That's our difference.</s>ASHER: Now, the result for a heated and dramatic -- look at that, debate in parliament. Dozens of members of the prime minister's own party voted against the plan. And outside the building in Athens, protesters let the anger boil over in the street even before lawmakers began voting. So what you are seeing here is police using teargas on protesters after the police were hit with Molotov cocktails.</s>FOSTER: Much more coming up on the contentious vote in Greece. Later this hour,</s>ASHER: Right. And we are going to talk about Mexico right now. Drug lord Joaquin Guzman, also known as El Chapo picked one of two blind spots on his cell surveillance camera to make a big escape that has got everybody talking.</s>FOSTER: Yes, really. And as has this new footage showing him inside the cell showing Guzman duck behind shower then never resurface. We now know that the hole led to a mile-long tunnel freedom. CNN's Nick Valencia was allowed to go inside.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the closest that we have been allowed to get to El Chapo's tunnel. The tunnel he used in his braze and escape on Saturday night, it is by all accounts, a magnificent fete of engineering. Let's come on in and see exactly what El Chapo here had in store. This is a small little exit, just a couple of feet wide and couple feet long. You see with a ladder, maybe about ten-foot, 15-foot ladder that leads down in to that tunnel. The room here is nothing to brag about. It's empty. Full of cinder blocks. You can see these containers full of dirt here, these wheelbarrows full of dirt. Here we go. OK. Here's another ladder leading down to another part. Deeper part, deeper section of the tunnel. It's a ways down. You can see this is the modified motorcycle that investigators showed us images before. It is on a track. It seems to roll back and forth. There are buckets left behind and look at this, left behind oxygen tanks, as well in order for them to survive down here. It is a very tight space. I can't even stand up. I'm 5'10" and I can't stand up all the way. It is a remarkable fete of engineering. The tunnel stretches for more than a mile, carved out earth here. This modified train track for the mini motorcycle. You see here electricity lines. Difficult to breathe down here. A lot of dirt, dust. This here for the ventilation system. Tight, tight space down here. But for a man known as El Chapo I'm sure he had more than enough room to work with. This motorcycle was on a track here. This is the bike that El Chapo used to ride out of the prison. Still has gas in it. You can still smell the gas. It's overwhelming odor of gas in this tight space. It is really suffocating. Nick Valencia, CNN, outside the Altiplano prison, Mexico.</s>FOSTER: Fascinating to see inside. And earlier I spoke with Phil Jordan who is the former director of the U.S. drug enforcement agency El Paso intelligence center. He says he predicted this escape would happen.</s>PHIL JORDAN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE U.S. DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY EL PASO INTELLIGENCE CENTER: This guy, Chapo Guzman is a multibillionaire, not a millionaire, a billionaire and he can do anything he wants to when he wants to. The only surprise I had was that he stayed in custody, allegedly in custody, for one year. I predicted that he would be out in less than six months unless they had extradited him to the United States which they are not going to do because Mexico -- the politicians, the people in the payroll of Chapo Guzman would have a lot to lose, including high-ranking politicians.</s>FOSTER: But lawyers in Mexico would argue the extradition treaty between the two countries means that he has to serve his sentence in Mexico before they can send him to the U.S. So, it is actually a very simple legal precedent.</s>JORDAN: Well, it's only as legal as they want to make it. I can give you an example where they extradited Juan Garcia, another associate of Chapo Guzman, one of the drug lords out of the cartel. Now, it is the same as it is illegal to terror arms or to have arms in Mexico, but every gang member, every cartel member carries guns, semiautomatic guns, and they use them every day.</s>FOSTER: Well, Mexico's interior minister says he already fired the prison director and other prison officials who may have been involved in the escape. At least 49 people have been questioned.</s>ASHER: In the U.S., search and rescue teams have found the smoldering wreckage of a small private plane that crashed over the weekend in Washington State. Now, the lone survivor, 16-year-old Autumn Veatch, you see here there in a wheelchair, is now at home after hiking out of the rugged north cascade mountains two days after Saturday's crash. She had been flying with her grandparents who are there stand by their small plane. She was flying with them when the plane apparently ran in to trouble. Our Dan Simon has more.</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They said this is a very difficult, steep area. In fact, crews had to use specialized equipment to get it to. When they got, there they said the plane was still smoldering. It was still on fire. In fact, they had to call the U.S. forest service to put out a small brushfire. They did find the bodies. They have been recovered. At this point it seems like it is now up to the federal authorities to determine what in fact happened. It is now in the NTSB's hands. But we can tell you there was some bad weather prior to that plane going down. And that's according to Autumn Veatch. That's what she relayed to the authorities. That there was some cloudy weather and she couldn't see much in front of her.</s>FOSTER: Now, Donald Trump's political campaign has made an important financial disclosure. The candidate apparently is worth far more than people thought. Details coming up. Plus, a day after NASA spacecraft passed by Pluto. Scientists are getting the sharpest images ever of the dwarf planet from its mountains to the largest moon. We will have more in a few moments.