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Trump: Projected 4-5 Weeks for War with Iran, But We Can Go Longer; Israel and Hezbollah Trade Attacks as Conflict Widens; Trump: Iran War was Our "Last Best Chance" to "Eliminate" Threat; Trump Lays Out Objectives for Military Strikes on Iran; Iran: Enemies Will Not Be Safe "Even in Their Own Homes." Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 02, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... getting critical, and the police chief here also says a third person could very well be taken off of life support later today. This as questions are still swirling around the motivation behind this attack. The -- the suspect is a 53-year-old from Senegal who became a permanent resident back in 2006. So, the questions about whether or not there's a connection to terrorism is something investigators are still looking at. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Ed Lavandera live for us in Austin, Texas. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SANCHEZ: We begin this hour with a breaking news, a growing war in the Middle East. Right now, the region bracing itself as the U.S. and Israeli operation against Iran heats up for a third day. And President Trump says the big wave of U.S. strikes has not yet even happened. Over the past 24 hours, multiple eyewitness videos have shown explosions throughout Iran, as well as Iranian retaliatory strikes in neighboring Gulf countries.

Look at these new satellite images revealing new damage to an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. It apparently caught fire after being hit by shrapnel from the interception of two Iranian drones.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Earlier, President Trump made his first live public remarks since the war began, and he vowed not to let up until his goals are met.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always -- and we have from -- right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks. But we have capability to go far longer than that. We'll do it. Whatever somebody said today, they said, oh, well, if the President wants to do it really quickly after that, he'll get bored. I don't get bored.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, let's go now to CNN anchor Erin Burnett in Tel Aviv. What's the latest there, Erin?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, "OUTFRONT": All right, well, you have a widening war and we've seen explosions, joint operations, U.S. and Israeli fighter jets in the skies of Tehran. They say they've achieved air superiority, but we've seen explosions across the Tehran skyline and -- and big black acrid smoke, you know, indicating some sort of potential fuel explosions or munitions explosions. They haven't said, but obviously that is -- is ongoing as they're continuing on their target list.

The outgoing from Iran, though, also continues here in Israel, of course, sirens. There have been multiple missiles coming in today, as well as across the Gulf region where we've seen that as well. You know, a couple of things I'll say, Boris and Brianna, you know, talking to senior -- senior government official in one of the Gulf countries telling me that right now they are completely focused on missile defense and that that's the most they can do.

Now, obviously, at the same time, you have countries like the UAE and Qatar that are dealing with tens of thousands of essential -- essentially refugees, people there for business or travel or who are transiting through, in the case of Dubai, the world's busiest airport that are all there. And so, they're housing all of these people in these countries right now with closed airports that's been causing a -- a black hole of disruption and air travel around this entire world. But you also have that they are focused on missile defense right now and that that's the main focus.

So, this is escalating. That's what it means for them on the ground. We -- we talk about the Strait of Hormuz and the situation there for 20 percent of the world's oil. We've seen explosions on ships there. I was talking to a CEO currently who currently has three Suezmax tankers that are right now along the -- the -- the strait. And, you know, his -- his comment was right now they're just trying to deal with basic crew safety, because they cannot even -- as companies operating some of the largest tanker companies in the world, they don't even know if the straits open from hour to hour.

So, that's the situation that we're in right now. And I want to go to our chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, who's also here in the Middle East with me, just north of where I am, actually, at Haifa, Israel, where the USS Ford is -- is obviously docked off the coast, providing missile defense.

So, what is the latest that you're learning, Nick, there and also on the widening front of the war just north of where you are?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, one key thing here, Erin, is ultimately while Israel began with the United States, the key task of decapitation strikes that's now rolling into this days long, potentially weeks long war, according to President Trump, one potentially anticipatable element here was that a key Iranian proxy ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, might join the fight.

Now, many analysts have felt it was so weakened by its conflict with Israel in late 2024, in which so much of its military and command power was decimated by Israeli strikes that it would be foolhardy to get involved again. Well, they put a statement out yesterday saying they would avenge the death of Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei and then hours later fired projectiles, missiles and drones into Israel.

[15:05:01]

Nobody killed from that, but clearly a green light to Israel to pursue what, frankly, it's been itching to do for months, and that's take out the remnant of what Hezbollah has indeed in Lebanon.

Now, that resulted in airstrikes in the southern suburb of Dahieh in Beirut just in the early hours of this morning and 70 targets, the Israeli Defense Forces say, have been hit in southern Lebanon. Evacuation orders yet again issued to the civilian population there who are desperately trying to move on packed, jammed roads from the south of Lebanon up towards perhaps the safety of Beirut or even away from parts of Beirut to the north as well. So, repeated scenes there, too.

But something also that is quite remarkable, an effort by the Lebanese government to essentially say that their armed forces, for years the subordinate to Hezbollah, would be able now to stop Hezbollah, disarm them, suppress their ability to drag Lebanon into this regional conflict. So, a lot moving fast there. So, far here, though, in northern Israel, less sirens, less anxiety, perhaps because Hezbollah has been so weakened. We'll see in the hours ahead. Erin.

BURNETT: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much in Haifa.

Boris and Brianna, back to you.

SANCHEZ: Erin Burnett live for us in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much.

For much of the day, the White House has tried to clarify not only its objectives for this conflict, but also the justification.

KEILAR: Yes. Different members of the administration have given different reasons. Some are citing regime change, others citing nuclear threats and still others claiming Iran was planning to strike first. CNN's Alayna Treene is with us now.

Alayna, what are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, I think that, you know, what we heard from the President this morning and -- and from the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth and -- and Dan Caine this morning as well. We're starting to see what the administration is doing. You know, they've been spending a lot of this weekend trying to cobble together the message for this and see how they are going to sell it to the American people.

And something that really struck me as notable throughout the weekend was just how inconsistent, as you both said, this messaging has been. But I think from what the President said, what was clear to me was he was trying to lay out the objectives of this. That has been a crucial question that we really haven't had answers to. So, we started to see some of that response this morning.

And he said there essentially is four objectives that they were seeking with these strikes. One was wanting to destroy Iran's missile capabilities, wanting to, in his words, quote, annihilate its Navy and its nuclear ambitions and prevent the Iranian regime from arming terrorists. He did not mention regime change, just like we heard from Hegseth this morning, saying that this war isn't about regime change.

I should note that's despite what we heard from the President actually in just the immediate aftermath of these strikes on Saturday, which is that, you know, effectively calling on the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the government. So, there's still not a lot of clarity there.

But I think another key question is what is the justification for these strikes and why now. And that is something that, you know, unlike many other foreign conflicts, and particularly with wars that the United States has entered, they -- past presidents have spent a lot of time trying to gain American buy-in, buy-in from the public, spending time explaining this. They have not really done this. So, that's a key question.

And what we heard at one point in the President's remarks this morning, he said at -- this was the last and best chance that the United States had to end the Iranian regime. He then went on to try to explain this a bit further. I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We warned Iran not to make any attempt to rebuild at a different location because they were unable to use the ones that we so powerfully blew up. But they ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons. The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases both local and overseas and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.

An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Okay, so one of those lines does not actually line up with what we know of some U.S. intelligence agencies are saying that they weren't any close to actually having a weapon that could reach mainland America. But one thing that has been coming up again and again in my conversations with White House officials and the lead-up to this and through the weekend has been that part of the reason they felt now was the moment to move is because Iran was so weakened at this point in time after, with all of its proxies being weakened over the past year or so. If this deal, which the president was trying to reach through diplomacy, weren't to fall through, they needed to act now in, you know, in order to make sure that they still have all of these options at their fingertips. But still, so many questions that need answers, including what this is going to look like, how long this is going to be carried out, and what regime change it actually looks like and what the United States' role in that will actually be.

SANCHEZ: Alayna Treene, thank you so much for the reporting.

Still to come, Iranian officials rejecting talks with the U.S. for now, despite President Trump saying they want to negotiate.

[15:10:00]

KEILAR: Then later, some new concerns about global oil supplies. Crude prices already reaching an eight-month high after this new attack on Iran. We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:14:32]

SANCHEZ: So, President Trump outlined some of his objectives for this operation in Iran earlier today. He talked about destroying the country's missile capacity, as well as annihilating their navy, ending their nuclear ambitions, and preventing them from funding and arming external terror groups.

KEILAR: Of course, we've also spoken with members of Congress who say regime change is part of this. So, consider that. That is not what the administration is saying. In fact, they're saying that is not what this is about. But the timetable on this operation remains unclear at this point in time.

[15:15:02]

The President told our colleague Jake Tapper he thought it would be four weeks, but he later said the operation was ahead of schedule, but it could also go on longer. This is while Iran is warning its enemies are not going to be safe in their own homes. Let's talk about this now with CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier and former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush, Jamil Jaffer.

All right, Kim, to you, this sort of like objectives game where it seems like it's choose your own adventure ...

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes.

KEILAR: ... and everyone's choosing their own adventure. What are you making of it?

DOZIER: And depending on the day and the hour, President Trump has moved the goalposts. Look, he has called on the Iranian people to overthrow the regime several times. I mean, he said in his first post on Truth Social over the weekend, you know, wait until the bombs stop falling and then it's up to you. And this is the best chance you're ever going to get. Meanwhile, he's got his Pentagon officials trying to walk it back and

make these clear military objectives which are achievable and give you an exit strategy. Still, if the regime doesn't change after the bombs stop -- getting launched, he's going to be judged by that.

SANCHEZ: I wonder, Jamil, if you think those objectives are achievable with only airstrikes, because for instance, if there's a lot of nuclear material in this very mountainous, huge country, some of it may just be hidden somewhere. How do you secure it without service members on the ground?

JAMIL JAFFER, FORMER COUNSEL TO THE ASSISTANT AG FOR NATIONAL SECURITY, DOJ: Well, Boris, that's exactly it. It's going to be very hard to do that. We saw that from the air. I mean, the Iranians know what the capabilities of our massive ordnance penetrator are. They saw it in Operation Midnight Hammer. They buried their tunnels deeper and they've almost really got covert facilities.

So, there's no doubt in my mind that if not today, the Israelis will have boots on the ground, whether opposition forces are like, they will have to go into those tunnels if they're going to take out that nuclear program. So, that objective is going to be very hard to achieve from the air, if not impossible.

SANCHEZ: And Kim, when it comes to the other aspect of this, which is funding and supplying terror groups, airstrikes don't necessarily take care of that. How do you imagine the U.S. is going to try to prevent Iran from continuing to do that?

DOZIER: Yes, they certainly don't. Look, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is about 190,000 strong, and its job outside of Iran is to teach fledgling rebel groups how to build up an insurgency to frustrate a ruling power from the ground up. So, if they get hit a lot, they know how to reconstitute themselves.

And we're already getting signs of how they planned for this, in that the Iranian foreign minister told Al Jazeera (ph) yesterday that one of the units opened fire on Amman because they're operating independently, without orders from the head office. They're operating on commander's intent, just like a Western armed force would. They planned for this, they prepared and they're going to be really, really hard to unseat.

KEILAR: We do have some breaking news that I want to get your reaction to, which is that Israel is expecting Iran's ability to fire ballistic missiles, that that will be significantly impacted here in the next 24 hours. This is according to two Israeli officials, as the U.S. and Israel intensify their strikes in Iran. What do you think about that, Jamil?

JAFFER: Look, I think that's right. I mean, in part, the Israelis have already taken a significant check out of their ballistic missile engine capacity, right? We knew they did that early on strikes before Operation Midnight Hammer. Now, they're going after the core production facilities and the like. We know they've been getting supplies from China and elsewhere. This was a key operation by the U.S. and Israel to take out.

So, if they're able to do that, that's a huge advantage. Of course, it doesn't say anything about drones. So, we don't know about drones. We've seen those tunnel videos. The Iranians have said that they've got those drones stocked up. We'll see if that's true or not. But at a minimum, taking out the ballistic missile capability will be a huge advantage for America and its allies in the region.

SANCHEZ: And specifically, when it comes to allies that weren't necessarily expecting that kind of bombardment, right, Kim? The Gulf allies.

DOZIER: Yes, to be on the receiving end. The Gulf countries are going through their interceptors at a very rapid rate. So, Israel and the U.S. do have to stop these falling missiles because once the Gulf countries run out of a way to defend themselves and those missiles start hitting a bunch of targets, then they will be asking the White House, you got to stop this because our populations are now getting hit and we can't go on like this.

KEILAR: Yes. It changes how this war looks.

DOZIER: Yes.

KEILAR: Kim, Jamil, thank you so much to both of you.

And a warning from Iran as its government says Tehran, quote, "will not negotiate" with the U.S. We'll be talking about the war and what the end game may look like after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:24]

SANCHEZ: Iran's top national security official says the country will not negotiate with the U.S. following the deadly airstrikes. The comment is in response to earlier reports suggesting that Tehran contacted the White House wanting to resume talks with the U.S. State- run media is quoting Iran's Revolutionary Guard as saying its enemies, quote, "will no longer be safe, not even inside their own homes." CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen has more on what is actually happening inside Iran.

Fred, what are you hearing?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Boris. Yes, these comments come from Ali Larijani, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who seems to be one of the main figures who has now taken the reins, at least as far as those military operations against the U.S. and Israel are concerned.

[15:25:09]

But in general, also as far as the Islamic Republic is concerned now, after, of course, the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. One of the interesting things that Ali Larijani also said, and he also

tweeted this, by the way, he said that Iran is prepared for a long war, and they believe the United States is not prepared for a long war. He said that Iran is prepared for a long war, and they believe the United States is not prepared for a long war.

So, the Iranians clearly saying right now diplomacy appears to at least be, from some of these comments that we're hearing, out of the question, and they say they are now in full-on combat mode. Unclear, obviously, how long any of this is going to take.

However, I was in touch with some people in Tehran who say that the -- the governing authorities there are gearing up for possibly months of combat operations against the United States. Of course, at the same time, the big question is, what about the stockpiles of missiles and drones that the Iranians have. There was a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who came out and said that so far, the Iranians, while they've launched a lot of missiles, have not launched their most modern missiles, they say, and those are yet to come, and that the stockpiles are still fairly full.

At the same time, we did see some video earlier today coming from the Iranians, apparently showing an underground drone tunnel, as they put it, with a lot of those Shahed drones that, of course, have been wreaking havoc, especially in the Gulf region.

So, the Iranians are saying they are in it for the long haul, they can continue these combat operations for extended period of time. At the same time, of course, we have seen those airstrikes in Tehran and in other cities, of course, also taking a toll on the Iranians as well, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Fred, what are you hearing about the succession in terms of the supreme leader? Who's going to replace the Ayatollah?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think everything that the Iranians are trying to project right now is that they are in control and that the succession is in place, and that the governing authority is very much in command. You, of course, have that council, that interim council that is supposed to essentially lead the country until a new supreme leader is elected. That includes the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the judiciary, and then a legal expert as well.

It's not really clear how long it's going to take to elect a new supreme leader. If it's anything to go by, when Ayatollah Khomeini died, the first supreme leader of the -- and the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it didn't take very long for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to then be elected as the next Supreme Leader. But, of course, that was at a time of peace. There was no active combat operations going on. That is different now.

So, it's unclear how long something like this is going to take. However, what the governing authorities there are saying is they say still the authorities are not going to miss a beat. Everything is going on. Government services are going on. One thing that we've picked up on, speaking also to people on the ground in Tehran, is they say that there are a lot of checkpoints in the streets in Tehran run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Of course, after those comments from President Trump, urging Iranians to, as he put it, take their country back, the authorities there are very much on high alert and apparently have set up a lot of checkpoints there in Tehran where in general, the streets are apparently not as full as they usually are. Of course, people staying inside most of the time with those combat operations going on. Some people apparently also have left the city as well. Although, from what I've been told, and I was in the city, of course, Boris, in last June when that last war was going on with Israel, it seems as though more people have actually stayed in the Iranian capital. Shops are open and gas stations are open around the clock as well, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for that update.

Ahead, more on our breaking news coverage of the U.S. war with Iran as President Trump warns that the big wave has yet to come. Details next.

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