U.S. Embassy Opens in Jerusalem; Iran Hopes Europe to Salvage Nuclear Deal
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm George Howell live in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Other stories we're following this hour here on CNN. The roar of lava spewing into the air on Hawaii's Big Island. New fissures opened up, posing a new threat and causing new evacuations. Plus, this is the week Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tie the knot. We'll take you live to Windsor to see how people are marking the occasion with a beer.</s>ANDERSON: We are just a few hours away from what is an historic event here in Jerusalem. For the first time since the country's founding, the U.S. embassy will be located here. U.S. President Donald Trump making that decision late last year to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the embassy from Tel Aviv. Well, a high level U.S. delegation is now in town including the treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and President Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Mr. Trump will appear in a pre-recorded message, but not everybody here is celebrating the move.</s>ANDERSON: Palestinians are planning a day of protests. Jerusalem is a Holy City of course to them as well, and they say recognizing it as Israel's capital undermines their claim. They say the U.S. decision disqualifies Washington as an impartial broker in any Israeli/Palestinian peace talks in the future. And they are getting support from Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, and I quote, "Jerusalem, especially East Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. We know this, he said, in an Islamic world." Well, that is in stark contrast to comments from Israel's prime minister. Have a listen.</s>BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: You can't base peace on a foundation of lies. You base peace on the foundations of truth. And the truth is that not only has Jerusalem been the capital of the Jewish people for millennium and the capital of our state from its inception, the truth is that under any peace agreement you could possibly imagine, Jerusalem will remain Israel's capital.</s>ANDERSON: Well, CNN's Oren Liebermann here with me in Jerusalem at the start of what can only be described as a very, very politically emotive charged week, Oren.</s>OREN LIEBERMANN, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Absolutely. Probably the most sensitive most volatile week in the entire calendar, and that's because of everything that's going on this week. And that begins with Jerusalem day, which was the festivity yesterday where Israelis mark what they consider the reunification of the Holy City. It's marked with a provocative parade of Israeli Jews through the Muslim quarter of the old city. That leads into embassy movement today, which is today. A number of festivity, ceremonies, reception, press conferences around that, and that leads right into Nakba Day where Palestinians mark what they consider the catastrophe of the creation of the state of Israel. On top of that, this week is also the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. That comes with its own tensions. So, all of that gives so many flash points to this week. But one thing is absolutely for certain. This is a week where Israelis will be celebrating.</s>LIEBERMANN: Israel recently marked its 70th birthday with celebrations and speeches. Among the reasons for the Israeli leaders to celebrate was this.</s>NETANYAHU: We are delighted with President Trump's decision to move the embassy here. It says a simple thing. Peace must be based on truth.</s>LIEBERMANN: But why is this such a big deal? Israel has always seen Jerusalem as its capital city. Why not the rest of the world? A bit of history here. Israel was established in 1948. Jerusalem was a split city between Israel and Jordan for nearly two decades after that until 1967 when Israel occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank. When Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1980, countries pulled their embassies out of the city in protest. That's because east Jerusalem is supposed to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. The U.S., meanwhile, had its embassy in Tel Aviv. In 1995, the U.S. passed a law requiring the country to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but every president since then, Republican and Democrat, has waived the move, citing national security concerns. President Donald Trump promised during his campaign to move the embassy, a promise he kept in December.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But today we finally acknowledge the obvious, that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality.</s>LIEBERMANN: So where will the new embassy be located? Right here behind me in what is now the U.S. office for consular services. This is where you would come to renew a passport or apply for a visa. The building itself sits right next to the green line which delineates east from west Jerusalem. It sits firmly in west Jerusalem but an expansion to the building to make it the embassy will require some building in no-man's land which is sort of a buffer zone between east and west Jerusalem. It holds very little practical significance in terms of modern day Jerusalem, and yet that zone contains incredible political importance. The mayor of Jerusalem celebrated the official opening by posting the new road signs.</s>NIR BARKAT, MAYOR, JERUSALEM: It sends a very, very clear message to the Jerusalemites and others the intention and the back and the support Israel has in the sovereignty of the city of Jerusalem.</s>LIEBERMANN: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more countries were looking at moving their embassies to Jerusalem as well. So far only Guatemala and Paraguay have committed to taking that step.</s>ANDERSON: John Bolton, the new U.S. National security adviser echoing many in the Trump administration when he says recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital makes peace easier. Not as far as the Palestinians are concerned. What are we hearing from them?</s>LIEBERMANN: Not at all. That is also a line we've heard from Benjamin Netanyahu himself, but it's a recognition of reality. When Trump said that he tried to frame it by saying this is where foreign leaders meet with Israeli leaders. This is where the Knesset sits, the Supreme Court, this is where the government is held and yet that's not how it was taken at all. Palestinians are furious about this. Jerusalem's final status was supposed to come at the end of negotiations. And this anger hasn't abated at all. In fact, we just got a statement a short time ago from Palestinian secretary general -- PLO Secretary General, Saeb Erekat and I'll read you a part of that statement. It reads, "This infamous hostile act against international law and against the people of Palestinian places the U.S. on the occupying power of Israel which continues to oppress the Palestinian people and colonize their lands towards destroying the possibility of region of just, comprehensive, and lasting peace." The anger hasn't abated, hasn't dissipated at all from the Palestinians and that's why they consider the U.S. no longer able to act as a mediator and arbiter of peace negotiations, which they have done for so many decades.</s>ANDERSON: We have no details on what the next plan is, of course, for the U.S. vis-a-vis peace negotiations. We await to hear this seemingly intractable conflict continues. Thank you for the time being. That's the latest from Jerusalem. A lot more to come in the hours ahead, though. George, back to you in Atlanta.</s>HOWELL: Becky, certainly we know that security has been raised there in Jerusalem ahead of what could be a volatile week. We'll be back in touch with you later in the hour for more of your reporting from Jerusalem. Now to the Iran nuclear deal. Iran's president says that Europe has a limited amount of time to preserve the nuclear agreement. Hassan Rouhani says that Iran will remain committed to the accord just so long as its interests are ensured, but there is opposition to that from hard liners. In the meantime, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif continues his international tour trying to convince other signatories to keep the agreement despite the U.S. backing out of it. He is now in Moscow, following his first stop in Beijing. The U.S. president, Donald Trump reinforced his opposition on Twitter, saying this. "Remember how badly Iran was behaving with the Iran deal in place? They were trying to take over the Middle East by whatever means necessary. Now that will not happen." And the U.S. national security adviser John Bolton telling my colleague Jake Tapper European firms that do business with Iran could face possible sanctions. Listen.</s>JAKE TAPPER, HOST, CNN: So President Trump said this week, quote, any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States. Is the United States going to sanction European companies that do business with Iran?</s>JOHN BOLTON, UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think the issue here is what the Europeans are going to do. If they're going to see that it's not in their interest to stay in the deal, we're going to have to watch what the Iranians do. They'd love to say in the deal. Why shouldn't they? They got everything they wanted from the Obama administration. But I think the Europeans will see that it's in their interests ultimately to come along with us.</s>HOWELL: And CNN covering this story with our correspondents around the world. Our Fred Pleitgen standing by in Tehran, Iran. But first our Matthew Chance, following the story live this hour in Moscow. Matthew, first to you, of course with Javad Zarif's visit to Moscow there, it again puts Russia again in a unique position here to be a power broker in the Middle East, working even closer with European nations that are at odds with this U.S. decision to back out of this deal.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, I mean, and it's true that Russia does occupy this unique position between those European signatories of the Iran nuclear deal and with Iran itself. It's got really good relations with Iran because it's fighting side by side with Iran to support their joint ally in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. They've got a long-standing nuclear relationship with Iran as well. They're kind of building or have been planning to build a network of nuclear reactors for some decades now in Iran. And of course diplomatically, they've always supported that country when it came to the negotiations to forge that nuclear deal. So yes, Russia is in this unique position to try and encourage the Iranians to stay within the framework of the nuclear deal, despite the fact that the United States has pulled out. And that means Russia is increasingly essential to the efforts of the European signatories as well. Because without Russia encouraging Iran, Iran is much more likely to leave the framework of the deal. Of course, Russia is acting in its own interests as well, because it sees this deal as important. That's why it signed it. It sees it first of all, as the best way of preventing Iran developing nuclear weapons, which is why it was such an integral part in forging that deal. But it's also concerned, Moscow that is, also concerned about what comes next, what the plan B is as it's called of the United States. And the concern in Moscow is that it's regime change. And of course Moscow is fundamentally opposed to any kind of action to change a regime in the Middle East and elsewhere that is sympathetic towards itself. And so, yes, that's what is driving the Russians. They want Iran to stay in this deal as much as all the European partners do as well.</s>HOWELL: Matthew Chance, thank you for the reporting. Let's cross over to Fred Pleitgen live in Tehran. Fred, again, as we heard from the Iranian president, the pressure is on Europe. Iran wants this deal. It does mean investment but is there just as much concern there that these U.S. sanctions will bite and keep business away regardless of how this deal is tried, they try to salvage it?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Yes, there certainly is a lot of concern about this country's economy here in Tehran. Of course, and the rest of the country as well. I think right now as far as Iran's position is concerned, there is really three main factors. On the one hand, you have the economic impact that you were just talking about. That's been severe even before the United States pulled out of the agreement. I mean, even in a run-up when it start to became clear that the Trump administration was not going to go forward with the U.S. inside the nuclear agreement, the currency here in this country essentially tanked. There was lot of economic concern. Right now, there is restrictions on how much money can be exchanged. So, yes, there is a lot of concern going forward about that. Then of course the question is, what is the reaction here inside the country? There is a lot of people who said that there would be a lot of turmoil between the hard liners and the moderates. That's only happened to a certain extent. I think one of the things that's really interesting is that Iran's supreme leader who in the end has to sign off on any anything that happens in this country, he said look, we don't trust the Europeans to try and salvage this deal, to try and maintain Iran's interest but at the same time they are going to give these negotiations a chance. They're going give the moderate government under Hassan Rouhani and especially the foreign minister right now Javad Zarif who, of course, worked exceptionally hard to get this deal going in the first place under the last U.S. administration, we're going to give them a chance and see if all this works out. But they're also saying Iran's interest needs to be maintained, which of course means direct investment in this country, especially by European companies. And that's what then brings us to Javad Zarif's trip that he is doing to China, Russia, and then Europe next. And that is of course absolutely essential. And I think really, the trip to Europe, the one that he is doing tomorrow in Brussels where he is meeting representatives of the European Union, and then also those key European countries, Germany, France and Britain, that is going to be really a pivotal moment for the future of the nuclear agreement, because that's where the Europeans, as far as the Iranians are concerned, are going to have to decide what they're going to do. Are they going to push back against the United States and try and protect and insulate their companies that want to do business, or are they going to feel that that's not in their interest or they're not capable of doing that. The Iranians are saying it has to be clear that European companies who invest in Iran cannot be stopped by the United States, can't feel pressure or fear by the United States. That's a pretty tall order considering obviously these European companies are long-term and very strong allies of the United States. Notwithstanding the fact that all of them are pretty angry at the United States for pulling out of this agreement, especially after you have the French president and the German chancellor go to Washington and try to speak to President Trump. A lot of them really feel like the U.S. really has not really sold them out, but certainly has not acted in Europe's interests. So it's going to be a pivotal meeting tomorrow, but certainly there is a lot of concern here in Tehran, George.</s>HOWELL: You took the words right out of my mouth, pivotal indeed, especaily with these long-time allies, you know. Where does this go from here? Fred Pleitgen live for us in Tehran, thank you. Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, the latest on a wave of deadly terror attacks in Indonesia. Some shocking details to tell you about given Sunday's suicide blasts. Stay with us.