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Missiles Fired from Iran Toward U.S. Base in Qatar Intercepted; Oil Plunges 7 Percent on Relief Over Limited Iranian Response. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 23, 2025 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And welcome back to our continuing coverage. I want to go straight to Iran, to our Fred Pleitgen, who is in Tehran for us. Fred, talk about what you have been seeing there in the skies above Tehran and also what state media has been saying about their version of what just happened.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Anderson. Yes, well, throughout this evening and the past couple of hours, it has been dark. There has been a lot of anti-aircraft fire going out here over especially, I would say, the eastern part of Tehran.

We could see those bursts of anti-aircraft fire in the skies really for the past couple of, I would say, 45 maybe almost minutes, almost an hour. It's quieted down a little bit now. There were also some thuds that we heard as well.

It's unclear whether or not that was from some sort of larger possibly Israeli aerial attack or whether or not something else might be going on, whether they were shooting at drones or something else. But as far as Iran's response, as they put it, to the U.S. bombing those nuclear installations is concerned, the Iranians continuing to say that that was a successful and robust response, as they put it, to what they call U.S. aggression.

The latest that we have from state media, and this is the state broadcaster IRIB claiming that six missiles hit the Al Udeid airbase. There's also some semi-official news agencies coming out and saying that apparently a base in Iraq, a U.S.-held base in Iraq, was also targeted by Iranian missiles. But the key thing that we're getting from them is they're saying that the amount of missiles that were fired at the Al Udeid base matches the amount of bombs that the U.S. threw on Iranian nuclear installations here in Iran a couple of days ago, obviously trying to sort of say that this was somewhat of a tit- for-tat response by the Iranians.

They also make very clear, and I think this was very important to them, that this was not an attack, as they put it, on Qatar, that this base is far away from any urban centers that they respect, as they put it, the people of Qatar, but that this was in direct response to the Trump administration's bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, Anderson. COOPER: And Fred, the video that we are seeing, I assume that is from Iranian television, or that's from the Iranian government? That's of the missiles that they fired.

PLEITGEN: It could very well be. There was a video on Iranian television of missiles going out. It's obviously impossible to verify whether or not those were the actual missiles that were used.

We obviously know from the U.S. that they say that these were intermediate and short-range missiles that were fired towards that base in Qatar. One of the things, of course, that we have to point out to our viewers, that the distance between Qatar and Iran is not very big at all. In fact, I was at the Persian Gulf a couple of years ago at an Iranian oil and gas installation where you could almost see Qatar on the other side.

There's a gas field, one of the largest gas fields in the world, the Pars gas field, that Iran and Qatar actually share. So the distance is not very big. So even short-range missiles would be able to reach Qatari territory.

Of course, we know that air traffic, civilian air traffic into Qatar has been cut off for a couple of hours now. But the Iranians are saying that these were several missiles that were fired. It was a barrage of missiles. They said that these missiles were precision missiles that were fired. And they are also saying that some of these missiles hit their target. Obviously, also some news outlets saying that areas in Iraq were targeted as well.

That also not a very big distance from Iranian territory, depending on from where in Iran, of course, all of this was fired. Iran, of course, a very big country. But if it was fired from some of the more westerly regions of Iran, then the distance certainly is one that could be bridged by those intermediate and short-range missiles, which the Iranians, of course, have a pretty large stockpile, because those were really the earlier generations of missiles that they've been producing.

[14:35:00]

They've gone into producing those longer-range missiles over the past years as well. And those have become more proficient and better, as far as the Iranians say is concerned. But those short- and medium- range missiles is something they've had in their arsenal for a very long time, and also which they say they have a lot of -- Anderson.

COOPER: Fred -- Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much. I want to go -- we'll check back in with you from Tehran.

I want to go to the White House now, CNN's Alayna Treene, she joins us. Alayna, what are you hearing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, so some of the reporting we have, Anderson, just in light of all of this, is we have heard now that the president's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has remained in contact, in touch with Iranian officials ever since the strikes, the U.S. first launched those strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday. And this is a big deal, of course, because it was unclear at this point who in the Trump administration, who among the president's top advisors, if any, were talking to the Iranians. We now know, according to two sources familiar with some of these conversations, that Witkoff has remained in contact with some of them.

But one interesting part of all of this is we've learned, actually, that the Iranians are finding it exceedingly difficult to get messages to the supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, essentially having believed that he is in hiding, is what U.S. officials here and Trump administration officials are telling us.

Now, we're also hearing that, essentially, they believe that any diplomatic, you know, decisions that need to be made would ultimately need to be signed off on by the supreme leader. So that is throwing an extra complicating factor into all of this.

But the reason this is so important is because we have now heard from the president himself, but also many of his top advisors, that they do still want to see if there is some way to get the Iranians back to the negotiating table here at some point.

Now of course, all of that could be up in the air after what we're seeing, how the Iranians retaliated to those U.S. strikes, but they are continuing to have these conversations. And Steve Witkoff is one of the people who is continuing to be in contact with Iranian officials -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Thanks very much. Appreciate that.

I want to bring in Colonel Cedric Leighton and Commander Kirk Lippold joining us. Commander Lippold, you know, President Trump has said that the, you know, the immediate report was that these had been completely obliterated, the Iranian nuclear sites, the targets that the U.S. hit the other day. We heard from military officials that bomb damage assessments are ongoing.

Do you have any sense of how long it might take to fully comprehend the scale and the scope of the damage? I mean, obviously, it looks like, and from the munitions that were dropped, I mean, it's an extraordinary amount of munitions. You're talking about, you know, more than, I think it was 12 of those bunker buster bombs dropped. You know, the tonnage of it is extraordinary.

How long might it take to really understand what's happening, what's happened deep underground? And I assume some of that has got to come from not just satellite imagery, but also any human intelligence or signals intelligence.

COMDR. KIRK LIPPOLD, FORMER USS COLE COMMANDER, US NAVY (RET.): Absolutely. I think Iran, Anderson, one of the things you have to remember is there's the statement for the American people that we obliterated those sites. The reality is the military is going to take a very apolitical and neutral stance. And it could take days to weeks before we get true assessments on the extent of damage that was done. Did we destroy the facilities? Did we damage them to the point where they are no longer even operational? Or are there some certain parts of it that were left operational that we may need to look at for future strikes?

But that takes time. And as you mentioned, it's not only going to be what we get from overhead imagery and satellites or any airborne assets that may be available, but it is actually going to take human intelligence, people on the ground trying to get near the sites.

And they're learning what are the Iranians learning. What are they getting from their intel sources and the people that they actually send out there? Even though the Israelis have supposedly impacted the ingress and egress route going into Fordow, we are going to have to wait and see and use that all-source intelligence to be able to determine what was the battle damage, how severe was it, and will we need to do any kind of follow-up on attack if the Iranians don't come to the negotiating table in fairly short order here.

COOPER: The other question, Colonel Leighton, is was any enriched plutonium, was it moved prior to these strikes? And if so, where might that be? And is there a mechanism in place for accounting for that, whether it's IAEA inspectors or some other framework that can be, I guess, negotiated in order to account for all of that and, you know, pieces of centrifuges that may have been moved as well?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): Yes, that's right, Anderson.

[14:40:00]

One of the key elements here that will affect any battle damage assessment is where is that missing material? Where are the 400 or so kilograms of enriched uranium?

There are reports that they may have -- the Iranians may have moved that. And if they did move that, then it has to be traced. So you would need both, I would say, an IAEA team going in there, but it has to be backed up by really strong intelligence and that, you know, as the commander was mentioning with the initial BDA or battle damage assessment, that has to be done in concert with any operation to really find these kinds of things because it's kind of like a loose nukes problem. We used to worry about that with the breakup of the Soviet Union when there were all kinds of nuclear materials running around the old former Soviet Union.

This is somewhat similar. It's not quite as severe as that, but that is one, you know, one way of looking at this problem because that kind of enriched uranium could definitely be used to make a, you know, a weapon. And that is something that would have to be really taken care of at this point.

COOPER: Yes, Colonel Cedric Leighton, appreciate it. Commander Lippold as well.

Stay with CNN. Our breaking news coverage continues right after this break.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back to our breaking news coverage.

Iran has begun its response, firing several missiles toward a U.S. base in Qatar. The impacts of it are unclear. We have no reports of any injuries at all.

CNN Global Affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier joins us now. I know you've been talking to Qatari officials. Do you have a sense of how much warning they had or knowledge they had? What are you hearing?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, they had enough warning to move U.S. and Qatari troops out of harm's way. They didn't tell me when they did it or where they moved them, but it seems they wanted to allow the Iranians to go through this almost -- it's like theater.

They knew the Iranians needed to strike back and have this fireworks display but didn't want to hurt anybody because that would trigger a U.S. response. So rather than defending this physical property, they moved people out.

I'm hearing also from other Middle East officials that they were fearing the worst from this attack, that they were braced for an accidental strike that would kill even one U.S. soldier. And they're breathing a sigh of relief and hoping that this is it. Iran telegraphs that it's angry, it fires some missiles, it does this symbolic thing and then goes back to focus on its war with Israel.

COOPER: Which continues. Israel has continued to strike throughout the night in this region, in Iran, our Fred Pleitgen has been reporting that, hearing those strikes and hearing some anti-aircraft fire and the like response from Iran.

Do you have any sense of, I guess in that world, just one of the unknowns is how long does Israel feel the need to continue operations against Iran?

And then what are the next steps? Is direct negotiation between the Iranian regime and the Trump administration, is that in the cards?

DOZIER: Well, I think it's interesting that we saw that the Iranians went and the Iranian foreign minister met with Russian President Vladimir Putin today before these retaliatory strikes. The diplomatic steps, at the very least. As for how long Israel will continue these strikes, some Israeli officials have said publicly that they are hoping for regime change.

But on background, what they're saying is that they're pretty much accomplishing their goals of decimating much of the Iranian military's ballistic missile capability, many of its trigger pullers, and much of the leadership network, both in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Force and the Iranian nuclear program. So at some point, they're going to run out of targets. And I think that's the point when the White House says, OK, enough is enough. But I don't think we'll hear about it publicly.

COOPER: Kim, if this is the full scope of the Iranian response -- to a point that Clarissa Ward made earlier in our coverage -- this would seem to be very similar to the response in the killing of Qasem Soleimani. The decision President Trump took to strike him, to kill him. That was a strike, I think it was five days after the killing. A similar strike at a U.S. air base.

DOZIER: Yes. And there's been a more recent example. Last April, when Israel struck many Iranian targets, when Iran fired back, it telegraphed what it was going to do. And it also carefully only aimed for military bases, areas of Israel that were well defended.

[14:50:00]

And there was only one casualty, as I recall, reported in that attack. So some of this is posturing and messaging to the local population and to the region. But it also buys time, because Iran doesn't want to get in a full conflict with the U.S. right now. It wants time to regroup, rebuild.

The Iranian memory is long, and revenge could come in many different forms. I recall that the Biden Department of Justice said there was an active plot to try to kill President Trump a couple of years back. They could revive something like that. They could go for a cyber attack. It's going to keep U.S. national security teams worrying and wondering and watching for years to come.

COOPER: Yes. Kim Dozier, I appreciate it.

We're going to continue our coverage, talking to all our reporters and others in the region and our breaking news coverage continues after this short break.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back to our breaking news coverage. Iran has fired several missiles toward a U.S. base in Qatar. A U.S. official tells CNN that Iran used short and medium-range ballistic missiles and that there is no, I repeat, no reported damage at the base. We've been monitoring what Iran state media has been saying. They're portraying it quite differently, of course.

Matt Egan is following oil markets. It is down on the news. Matt, what does it look like?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Anderson, investors around the world had been bracing for an intense response from Iran. And now that Iran has responded, financial markets are expressing relief, relief because this response does look limited. It was well-telegraphed. There's no injuries or reports of deaths. And no energy infrastructure in the region have been impacted. And so that's why we're seeing oil prices plunge. Look at this, a 7 percent drop for WTI. That is the U.S. benchmark. That is a massive sell-off. That's one of the worst days for oil in years. And just to give you some more context here, 68.40 is where oil is trading right now. That's about $10 below where oil opened up last night. So this is a dramatic reversal. And this is driving up the stock market.

Look at this. The Dow is 200 points higher, about a half a percentage point, a little bit more for the S&P and the Nasdaq. Again, that is relief because oil prices going down is going to ease those concerns about an oil shock that would drive up prices at the gas station and really hurt the economy.

And, of course, all of this comes after President Trump on True Social this morning, he said that he's watching oil prices and warned that he does not want them to go higher.

I would just note, though, that we don't know exactly what's going to happen next here. The big fear has been that Iran could end up trying to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz. That is the most critical choke point on the planet for oil.

That's how oil comes out of the Persian Gulf into the world's oceans. But I think the message from the market right now is wake us up when there's an actual disruption to oil. Yes, missiles are flying, but so far, oil continues to flow out of the Middle East -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Matt -- Matt Egan appreciate that.

Stay with CNN, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: I'm Anderson Cooper in Tel Aviv. We have been covering the major breaking news now for several hours.

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