tonight on "nightline," world exclusive. christiane amanpour set upon by an angry mob as she drives through chaos to the presidential palace for the first one on one interview with egyptian president mubarak. the last pharoah. all the details of the encounter with one man, and a defiant message to his people, the world and president obama. war zone. on a day when journalists themselves became the targets and abc news teams were threatened with beheadings, we bring you a special one-hour edition of "nightline," crisis in egypt, starting right now. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city,

this is "nightline," february 3rd, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. and we begin tonight's special with an extraordinary exclusive interview from inside egypt's presidential palace. there, president hosni mubarak, the strong man whose 30-year grip on power is loosening, waits and watches. outside those fortified walls, chaos. another day of bloody clashes. what is he thinking? and when will he step down? christiane amanpour brings us the first interview with hosni mubarak. christiane? >> reporter: terry, good evening. it has been the most extraordinary 24 hours. right now, we're broadcasting to you from inside our hotel room, rather than looking over the nile, looking over the protests as we have been doing. and that is because the targeting of journalists has gotten so bad over the last 24

hours that either vigilantes of whoever, mobs have been coming into hotels, snatching the satellites and broadcast equipment and basically shutting down the journalists, any journalist who they can find. and so we've had to move inside to try to keep broadcasting and tell you the story. the story this day was the clashes, some of them still continue. the protesters, anti-mubarak, remain in control of liberation square. and we got an exclusive interview with the vice president of egypt. as we went to the presidential palace, we got mobbed in these ad hoc check points where huge groups, hundreds of pro-mubarak supporters surrounded our cars, separated us, banged on the doors and really, really made a very, very tense situation. we were very fortunate that after long, long talking and trying to get out of there, we managed to, and we headed to the presidential palace.

and there, as we were setting up for our interview, i wondered whether president mubarak was there and i asked, could i see him? i knew him, i'd interviewed him before. i'd been to that palace before, and do you know what? they took me to see him, and there, we chatted and we'll have that story in a moment. but our day began with liberation square. after a day and night of pitched battles that broke up only as the sun rose, we went back to tahrir square this morning. inside the barricades, again, the protesters are lining up their own civil defense here, prepared for what might happen this afternoon. we were shooting on a cell phone-sized camera, because pro-mubarak mobs had been attacking journalists. though the gun fire had stopped, the atmosphere in the square was tense. all over the square, we saw the weary and the wounded.

>> cut just above my eye bro. >> reporter: their faces bandaged and bloody. after a battle that lasted the day yesterday and culminated overnight when gangs of pro-government mobs opened fire with automatic weapons on the anti-government demonstrators there. by morning, they remained in control of liberation square. their resolve only stiffened. and they were manning new barricades. reinforcements were pouring in. people came with new supplies, bottled water and bread, blankets, digging in for the long haul. this is fruit juice and this is -- cotton and sutures and surgical gloves. around the barricade, there were peoples of rocks from last night to use as weapons if they were attacked again. exhausted from last night's battle, many were sleeping in

the grass, resting for another day on the front line. they say they won't leave until mubarak does. in an extraordinary move today, the prime minister apologized for the violence of yesterday and promised an investigation. and already there have been reports of a few small clashes at one end of the square. as we left the square, we heard that our request for an interview with vice president omar suleiman had been granted. as we headed out, we were apprehensive. just yesterday, we had an unsettling experience on a bridge leading into the square. when we were surrounded by a group of mubarak supporters and had to make a quick getaway in our car. the group attacked our vehicle and shattered the windshield. and now, as we drove to the palace, something even more unsettling happened. we were stopped by a mob that

grew after a check point, a sort of self-declared check point on one of the roads in the neighborhood. and all our cars were surrounded by angry people. and it took all the powers of diplomacy that we had to stay cool, to stay calm and to talk our way out of it. as, some military came up to us and once we told them that we had an appointment with the vice president, because that's who we thought we were going to see when we started this day, we slowly, slowly were able to get ourselves out of there. we reached the palace, which is surrounded at this point by tanks, under military escort. and, as our cameramen were setting up for our exclusive interview with the vice president, i asked if i could see president mubarak. within minutes, i was whisked into a reception room to see him. when i walked in, i asked him how he was, he said, i feel strong, he said, i am not the kind of person to run and he said, i will die on egyptian soil.

when i asked him about whether he would step down now, he said to me, you know, christiane, i've been in public service for 62 years and now i'm fed up and i want to retire. but if i resign now, he said, there will be chaos and i'm afraid the muslim brotherhood will take over. i asked him whether he felt betrayed, he sold of did the hand movement. but he said that he thought president obama, quote, was a very good man. he said that he had not been asked to step down. but he also said that he had told president obama, quote, that you don't understand the egyptian culture and you don't understand what would happen if i resign today. he did say once he had made that statement, one he heard the demands of the people, he told me, they were legitimate demands, he made the decision to step aside and said he felt relief after that. i did said, where would he go once he stepped down? and he said, egypt, this is my home. he said he didn't care what

people were saying about him right now. he said that he cared only about his country, about egypt and that when the time comes, he would die in egypt. i visited that palace many times, i've interviewed president mubarak in much less tense times. usually the halls are crowded, there are lots of officials in the halls, walking, bringing tea, bringing coffee. this time, there was a sense that everybody was in their offices, we walked down an empty hall that was not populated and yet people were in their offices, looking out, just by their faces, you could see they were questioning and wondering and looking at us. again, a sense of resignation, tinged by a great deal of tension and edginess. and i got the sense today, though that there was an edge, obviously to what's going on, there was and there is a tension, but also a sense of resignation that whatever happens happens and whatever their fate may be, so be it.

dawn is about to break on friday now, and there are friday prayers. and after that, protesters have called on people to come out. they believe that this is going to be the biggest demonstration against president mubarak yet. and they hope this day will be a game changer. for their part, president mubarak and his people are just hoping that what they've given already is enough and the protesters go home. terry? >> it's an extraordinary moment, christiane, and an extraordinary interview there. this regime, under tremendous pressure, this man, this leader of the country, almost absolute ruler for 30 years under such pressure. what was it like inside the presidential palace? what's that inner circle feel like? >> reporter: well, you could sense the tension. you could sense a sort of end of regime feeling. and we went inside and this is a palace i had been in full, there were press conferences,

interviews, officials running around over the years and everything was geared towards the president. all sorts of activity going on. but on this evening, it was practically deserted, except for the guards, obviously, except for the last remaining faithful there, or that's what it seemed. and as we walked down the corridors, it was really echoey. it was really empty. and i looked left and right into offices that were open and i saw people tense, looking at me, brief glimpses of these people who looked fearful. and who really wonder what their fate was going to be, terry. >> and these kinds of situations, christiane, as you know, end, often, in one of two ways. either with the leader on a jet heading for saudi arabia or somewhere or the leader killed somehow, as happened in romania. it sounds as if hosni mubarak is determined not to leave egypt. he wants to die there, it sounds like.

>> reporter: you know, terry that's absolutely right. and i asked him, again, and this is a very proud man who truly believes that he has done great things for this country and steered it through some very, very difficult times. and, in fact, even some of the protesters on the square told me that, yes, they want him to go now, but they respect his history. in fact, that's exactly what they wrote on cards, they respect his history, but he must go. and he said that when he steps down, he will not flee. he said, that's not in his nature. he's not going to escape, he told me. he's going to stay and die in egypt. terry? >> a proud man, as you say. so, stand by, christiane. when we return, we have another exclusive. christiane sits down with egypt's new vice president and asks, will the government force those protesters off the streets?

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when i was in the presidential palace in cairo earlier today, after that extraordinary and unexpected meeting with the embattled egyptian president hosni mubarak, i then sat down for an on-camera interview with the person i'd come to see. he is the newly named vice president and he has never before talked to a foreign journalist. as protests by anti-government forces got bigger and angrier last weekend, president mubarak

appeared on television to announce that for the first time, he was appointing a vice president. that man, omar suleiman, was suddenly thrust into the limelight. a man who had long been considered the second-most powerful man in egypt. a man trusted and respected by the powerful egyptian military and by egypt's most important ally, the united states. he has long been well-known in national security circles, for his discreet handling of his nation's most sensitive business. the key liaison between president mubarak and israel. and, with the united states, in its effort to grapple with al qaeda militants in the years since 9/11. now, he's the man president mubarak has asked to negotiate with the opposition in egypt. in the days that followed his

appointment, amid mounting tension, the vice president has appeared twice on national television to make official statements. but today, the morning after the most violent night yet, as pro and anti-government demonstrators battled in tahrir square, vice president suleiman agreed to meet with us for a one-on-one interview in the presidential palace. i was just talking to president mubarak and he told me that he did not like what he saw on the streets. have you been watching with the president? >> it's a bad thing to see. and we never have this before. unfortunately, this happened when the people listen to the speech of the president day before yesterday and emotionally they weren't directed to the streets to express their feeling towards our president. and we don't know why they went to tahrir square. >> reporter: your foreign ministry has accused the

protests of being a foreign conspiracy. do you believe that? >> well, what i believe that they are from our society. they are not foreigners. but for sure these people been supported by foreigners. for sure. >> reporter: they are march, though, these people that attacked, with big pictures of president mubarak and shouting for president mubarak. we saw people on horse back, on camels. who are these people? >> the horses and the camels, they are the people who are working in the tourism in the -- >> reporter: in the pyramids? >> yes. and as you know, the tourists left cairo and they are not working. >> reporter: mr. suleiman, there was shooting into the crowds -- >> no. nobody being killed by rifles or by snipers. no way. >> reporter: do you deny that pro-mubarak forces or pro-mubarak loyalists killed protesters in the square --

>> they behave very well. >> reporter: which they say they won't until president mubarak leaves. what will you do? will you give an order? >> we will call them. we will not use any violence against them. but we will ask them to go home. and we will ask their parents to ask them to come home. >> reporter: but mr. suleiman, there are young people and their parents in that square and they -- >> we will call their grandfathers. >> reporter: and what if they don't leave? how long can you accept their presence in the square. >> unfortunately, there's a big pressure on them to stay. >> reporter: just to make it clear, you will not order the

military to evacuate them from the square? >> we will ask them to go home. but we will not push them to go home. >> reporter: never? >> no way. no way. and i hope that they will recognize that they are not doing well for the country. >> reporter: do you believe the young people in the square have legitimate grievances? >> we, of course, looked at their demands and we discuss it here in this palace and we decided that we have to respond. positively. the president after one day, he make a speech and respond positively to most of their demands. >> reporter: do you believe the united states has betrayed president mubarak? >> what i heard from president obama that he is supporting the people.

president mubarak told our president that you are a man and you are brave man and so on. >> reporter: president obama said that? >> yes. >> reporter: we know what the opposition wants. what do you want from the opposition? >> i want from the opposition to understand that in this limited time, we can do what president mubarak have said. and we cannot do more. and when new president will come, you will have more time to make any changes you want. >> reporter: there's all sorts of speculation and suggestions that the president of the united states and other officials want president mubarak to leave earlier than he wants to. and that vice president suleiman would take over, before new elections. i actually asked vice president suleiman whether he would stand in any new elections and he pretty much shot that down. he said, i'm an old man, i'm 74 years old, i'm tired. i don't think i will stand for the next elections. terry? >> change, at least, in the air in egypt.

christiane amanpour, thanks for that extraordinary work tonight. when we return, we'll stay in egypt. the violence escalates. they're culminating in a harrowing day for journalists, including christiane and a mob threatens one of our own producers with beheading. if it can do this, here. and it can do this, here. and it can also do this, here. just imagine what it can do, here.

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