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Iraq Asks FIFA to Delay Playoff Game Amid Travel Issues; Trump Administration Sends Conflicting Messages on Iran Timeline; Oil Experts Warn of Potential Catastrophic Consequences of War; White House Holds Press Briefing With Iran War in 11th Day. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 10, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: -- think they will play in this tournament at all, although we will see.

Meanwhile, they are firing missiles off at other teams who have already qualified, like Qatar and Saudi. If Iran drop out, then Iraq could get in that way because Iraq are the next best Asian team yet to secure their qualification. So there are a number of avenues open to the Iraq team. But at the moment, they don't really know what to do and it's a very complicated situation.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We'll see what FIFA does if they decide to delay it. Don Riddell, thanks so much for that update.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Happening now, we're standing by to hear from the White House as questions grow about President Trump's timeline to end the war with Iran. Earlier, Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth said today will be the "most intense day of strikes" inside Iran yet.

SANCHEZ: Hegseth made that statement just hours after President Trump said the war is "very complete and could soon come to an end." Here's the different ways the administration has characterized the war's timeline since the start.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is not Iraq, this is not endless.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're already substantially ahead of our time projections.

MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't know how long it'll take. We have objectives. We will do this as long as it takes to achieve those objectives.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The achievable objectives of Operation Epic Fury, we expect to last about four to six weeks.

HEGSETH: This is only just the beginning.

TRUMP: We've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough.

As we're achieving Major strides toward completing our military objective and some people could say they're pretty well complete.

Could call it a tremendous success right now, as we leave here, I could call it -- or we could go further and we're going to go further.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: June, you said it would be over soon. Are you thinking this week it will be over? Are you talking about days.

TRUMP: No, but soon. I think so.

HEGSETH: This is not endless nation building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's go to the White House now with CNN's Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what do we expect to be addressed at the briefing?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look there's still an enormous amount of questions about this timeline, in particular and what we heard at the Pentagon today was Pete Hegseth putting this squarely on the president. So obviously, that is going to be something that comes up. One of the things that we had heard from the Secretary of Defense was that this was going to be roughly three weeks to eight weeks.

Well, he completely walked that back during his press conference today, saying they weren't going to give a timeline. And then saying they're going to defeat and make sure that they had all of the objectives done. But also, they were going to have -- be doing it on their own timeline that they control, that President Trump controlled the throttle.

But it is unclear what that means in terms of an actual timeline and President Trump had said he always believed this is going to be anywhere from four to five weeks. He also seems to be kind of walking away from that four to five weeks. It's not something that we've heard him say. Obviously, in an interview yesterday, he said he thought it was very close to complete, the war. Then essentially said that we weren't done winning -- we hadn't done enough winning yet so that this war was going to continue.

So what exactly America is looking for, what the United States is looking for, what the administration is looking for still remains a big question and how will they determine when America will get out of this conflict in Iran. Of course, they have said over and over again, this isn't going to be a forever war. This isn't going to be about nation-building. But yet, we still have no idea how long this is going to last and Americans have a lot of questions about this.

KEILAR: Yeah, they certainly do and we know that there'll be a chance to ask some of those. Kristen, thank you so much We'll be awaiting this briefing which is set to begin here any moment. And we'll bring that to you live as soon as it does.

But let's for the time being discuss with retired Army Colonel, Peter Mansoor. He's a former aide to General David Petraeus. He's also a Professor of Military History at the Ohio State University. Colonel, thanks for being with us. We heard secretary Hague set this morning echoing the president, saying if Iran does anything to oil going through the Persian Gulf, the U.S. is going to hit them 20 times harder than they've been hit so far. And Trump told CBS News on Monday, the administration is thinking of taking over the Strait of Hormuz. Can you give us a sense of what that would require militarily for the U.S. to take over the strait?

COL. PETER MANSOOR, ARMY (RET.): Well, I'd like to point out that Iran has already done something to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. There are no oil tankers going through there because the insurance companies won't cover there the risk. And so, the administration if it wants oil to flow through the strait needs to do something now. Now to control that strait militarily is a very difficult task.

The waters can be cleared of mines. The Iranian Navy is a non-factor. The real problem here are Iranian drones. They're getting intelligence from Russia. That means they'll know when any sort of ships or convoys are moving through the area and they can target those with drones, which then have to be defended against. So, this is not an easy task militarily, at least not until the Iranian drone capability is significantly reduced, allowing whatever air defense assets are arrayed around the oil tankers to shoot down the remainder.

[14:05:00]

KEILAR: Yeah, this is the big way that Americans and people around the world are feeling this conflict. The Secretary of Energy posted online that the Navy had escorted a tanker through the Persian Gulf. Turned out actually no, the Navy did not according to a source. But General Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said today the military is looking at options for escorting ships through the strait. What would that require?

MANSOOR: Well, historically, the way to get ships through a danger zone in wartime is to convoy them, group them into a units of up to a hundred or two hundred ships, surround them with naval vessels and air defense assets, have air cover overhead, and then move them at one time through the area.

Again, this would be tipped off to Iran which is receiving intelligence from Russia. And so, there would be a battle as they go through and it may be that we're waiting to do that until the Iranian missile and drone capabilities is further attrited by the ongoing airstrikes in Iran. But that's how you do it. Now, we know how to do it. There's plenty of historical evidence on how to do it. The question is the will and the capability.

KEILAR: And Peter this morning the Defense Secretary accused Iran and it was notable because I think he did it a couple times. He accused Iran of firing missiles from basically civilian sites including schools. And this is coming as the U.S. is under major scrutiny because of this strike at an Iran girls school that has killed more than 160 children. Hegseth has said the Pentagon is investigating that strike. A CNN analysis suggests the U.S. was likely responsible for it.

When you're considering a situation like that, even if Iran is firing from schools, if Iran is firing from hospitals, what is the responsibility of the U.S. in a situation like that?

MANSOOR: So the United States is bound by the law of war which says that any damage to civilian infrastructure and to civilians must be commensurate with the military advantage gained by hitting that target. I believe that the strike on the girl school was bad intelligence or outdated intelligence, that we thought it was a military facility and it turned out it was not because it was adjacent to one.

I don't think that we deliberately targeted a school. It is a tragedy that this occurred and I know the administration is looking into it, and they should make public what they find at the appropriate time. But striking military facilities that are embedded in schools and hospitals and other civilian facilities is a very, very tough judgment call and you had better be sure that it's absolutely necessary to take out that target because you know you're going to kill civilians in the process.

KEILAR: Peter Mansoor, Colonel, thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

MANSOOR: Thanks.

KEILAR: We're waiting for the White House briefing. You see these live pictures coming into our program from the briefing room there and we're going to bring this to you live as soon as Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt begins to take questions from reporters. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:13:30]

SANCHEZ: This is a live look right now at the press room at the White House where at any moment, we're anticipating the press secretary will emerge and take questions from reporters We'll of course bring that to you live as it happens. No doubt she's going to face questions about oil markets as the conflict with Iran essentially strangles activity in the Strait of Hormuz, this area where about 20 percent of the world's oil flows.

Let's actually bring in Patrick De Haan. He's the Head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy to get some more perspective. Patrick, notably President Trump promised to potentially provide government-backed insurance and even naval escorts to keep tankers in the Strait of Hormuz safe if the conflict continues and perhaps gets worse. I wonder what your reaction to that is, how the oil industry is reading that offer.

PATRICK DE HAAN, HEAD OF PETROLEUM ANALYSIS, GASBUDDY: Well, I think there's a lot of risk still associated with even getting an escort from the military. In fact, that could increase risk by putting a warship nearby and potentially provoking an attack from Iran after all the U.S. attacks on Iran. In addition, looking at shipping insurance rates, that is telling you that the market is backing away and recalculating the risk.

In life, you know when you and I have issues, we don't look forward to dealing with insurance. We don't want to risk limb and life and then the value of our cargo, the value of our ship, only to deal with insurance. Still a lot of risk and I think nobody is really taking this very seriously that military escorts may be promised. It's another thing to execute.

[14:15:00]

We're talking about hundreds of ships. But a lot of this doesn't really change the risk calculation for a lot of the shippers and oil producers, who are at stake here and that's why we haven't seen much movement on this development. It's not necessarily reducing risk to the amount needed to safely be able to navigate or desire to navigate through the Strait of Hormuz.

SANCHEZ: The concern is what that lack of activity and tankers being able to egress and get in is going to do to not only the supply of oil globally, but also prices and specifically prices domestically here in the United States. There has been talk of potentially G7 countries releasing oil from their stockpiles. Would that make a significant difference on prices?

DE HAAN: I think it's certainly lip service to a market that needs to be more rooted in fundamentals. Now, those fundamentals do not look good and that's why this is being considered, but it's really like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound here to suggest a finite amount of crude oil whether it's from the G7 or the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's still a finite amount that can't replace the most vital waterway in the world when it comes to oil shipments. I mean, 20 million barrels a day would amount to about 21 days of the U.S. SPR.

So, in the end, it's all about reopening the Strait of Hormuz, not replacing it with strategic reserves. That's the choke point here. Now, keep in mind it's not just oil, but refined products flows through the Strait of Hormuz and a lot of other issues are starting to bend or break. Fertilizers getting stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. Certainly petrochemicals, there's a lot more here and just oil is the tip of the iceberg. And that's why oil markets and gasoline and diesel prices, along with jet fuel, are all reacting significantly.

And it's not just the strait. It's a tax this morning on a new refinery in the UAE and Abu Dhabi, a 900,000 barrel a day refinery. The Saudi refinery that's been attacked by drones and that still highlights that a drone attack on the Strait of Hormuz is also still a possibility and still a lot of really bad things in this market. Oil prices may be cooling today, but the risk calculus hasn't necessarily shifted yet.

SANCHEZ: I'm also curious about the global impact when it comes to Asian markets. They receive most of the oil that transits Hormuz. China about 40 percent, India close to 15. I wonder if pressure on those nations potentially makes them exert pressure elsewhere to even potentially get more involved in the conflict as we've seen China, in the past, send weapons to Iran. Is that something you think could potentially lead Beijing to do more?

DE HAAN: Well, I think indirectly to your point, the pressure is building not necessarily directly from the Chinese on the Americans or India, but the lack of refining capacity. Now, China pulling off its --

SANCHEZ: Hey, Patrick, I'm sorry. We're going to have to interrupt you and go straight to Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt. Let's listen in.

LEAVITT: Tomorrow, President Trump will travel to the great states of Ohio and Kentucky where he will tout his economic victories in detail, the administration-wide efforts to continuing lowering prices to make everyday life more affordable for working Americans. The president will visit Thermo Fisher Scientific in Ohio and give remarks at versed (ph) logistics in Kentucky.

On Thursday, President Trump and the first lady will host a Women's History Month event in the East Room. And on Friday, the president will sign several executive orders and we will provide more details on those later this week.

As President Trump shared with the American people last night, the United States military is making tremendous strides towards achieving our military objectives for Operation Epic Fury. Ten days in, this campaign has been a resounding success thus far and America's warriors are winning this important fight at an even faster pace than we anticipated. More than 5,000 enemy targets have been struck so far.

Iran's ballistic missile attacks are down more than 90 percent and their drone attacks are down by approximately 85 percent since the start of Operation Epic Fury. The United States is also annihilating the Iranian regime's Navy and we have destroyed more than 50 Iranian naval vessels, including a major drone carrier ship. None of the regime's vessels are operating in major regional waterways and the Iranian Navy has been assessed as combat ineffective.

The trend is clear. U.S. combat capabilities are increasing and growing more lethal and dominant by the day, while the Iranian terrorist regime's ability to respond has rapidly declined.

[14:20:00]

Now, the U.S. military is moving to dismantle Iran's missile production infrastructure. Our incredible B-2 bombers recently dropped dozens of 2,000-pound Penetrator bombs on deeply buried missile sites.

Last night, President Trump reiterated his commitment toward keeping oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, so the United States and all of our allies can receive their energy needs. President Trump will not allow rogue Iranian terrorists to stop the freedom of navigation and the free flow of energy. Let me be clear. It is a good thing to wipe out terrorists who indiscriminately target civilians and attempt to hold the global economy hostage.

And President Trump should be commended for doing so. As the president made unequivocally clear to the remaining elements of this terrorist regime in his statement yesterday, if they do anything to stop the flow of oil or goods within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the world's most powerful military 20 times harder than they have been hit thus far.

Moving forward, the stated objectives for Operation Epic Fury remain the same -- destroy the terrorist regime's ballistic missiles, raze their Iranian missile industry to the ground, ensure their terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region, and ensure that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. President Trump remains confident these goals will be accomplished in swift fashion.

As for the oil, President Trump fully expected the rogue Iranian regime to try and disrupt the global markets That's why President Trump and his energy team have been planning for this long before the strike and have moved quickly to address these temporary disruptions. Thus far, the Trump administration has offered political risk insurance to tankers operating in the Gulf. The Treasury temporarily waived certain oil related sanctions. And the commander-in-chief has offered the U.S. Navy to escort tankers when necessary.

The president and his energy team are closely watching the markets, speaking with industry leaders, and the U.S. military is jarring up additional options following the president's directive to continue keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. I will not broadcast what those options look like, but just know the president is not afraid to use them.

Rest assured to the American people, the recent increase in oil and gas prices is temporary and this operation will result in lower gas prices in the long term. Once the national security objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved, Americans will see oil and gas prices drop rapidly, potentially even lower than they were prior to the start of the operation. And we will live in a world where Iran can no longer threaten the United States or our allies with a nuclear bomb.

On another matter here at home, President Trump is urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, one of the most critical pieces of legislation in our nation's history. The SAVE America Act is overwhelmingly popular with all Americans because each provision is rooted in common sense. The SAVE America Act has five simple requirements as requested by the president of the United States.

Number one, voters have to show ID to cast a ballot in an American election, very simple. 90 percent of Americans, including more than 80 percent of Democrat voters, agree with this. Number two, the SAVE America Act will require all voters to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in American elections. Again, this is popular and rooted in common sense. Only American citizens have the right to vote in American elections. But after Joe Biden and the Democrats allowed tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country, it is more important than ever to ensure that only American citizens are registering to vote on our nation's voter rolls, and Congress needs to pass this.

Number three, the SAVE America Act abolishes the incredibly unsecure practice of universal mail-in ballots which throw the door wide open for fraud. Importantly, the SAVE America Act maintains exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots like for illness, disability, military or travel reasons.

The bipartisan 2005 report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform Chaired by, of all people, former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, concluded that "Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud" and it is time for Congress to finally address this.

Number four, the SAVE America Act permanently bans men from competing in women's sports. President Trump signed a landmark executive order upholding the promise of Title IX and ending this dangerous and unfair practice. But now it's time for Congress to codify this into law.

Number five, the SAVE America Act bans transgender mutilation surgery for children.

[14:25:00]

Again, President Trump signed a common-sense executive order to do this and kept his promise to the American people. But now, Congress needs to do the same and codify it. It's well past time for Democrats in Congress to stop perpetuating the radical and false claim that you can somehow change a child's sex. You cannot.

Passing the SAVE America Act is the most important thing that Republicans and frankly, Democrats can do to strengthen election integrity and protect our democracy. It's what the American people elected Republicans to do and they must deliver on it as soon as possible. The president is calling on Congress to get the job done and send this historic piece of legislation to his desk immediately for signature.

So with that today, I will take your questions. Benny (ph), thank you for being here and why don't you start us off?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Karoline. So my first question is actually about the SAVE America Act. So, one of the biggest things the Democrats are saying, the claims that they're making is that the SAVE America Act, it would prevent married women from voting in elections or make it harder for them. What do you have to say to those claims? Is there any validity to them? And where do you think they're getting this from?

LEAVITT: There is zero validity to these claims and I'm glad that you brought them up because you have the Democrats who have created this myth and it has been perpetuated, unfortunately, by many in the mainstream media. Let me be very clear, the SAVE America Act does not prohibit anyone from voting with the exception of illegal aliens.

And the greatest way to disenfranchise American citizens from voting in American elections is to allow illegal aliens to vote, which is what Democrats want to do. We see it taking place in Democrat jurisdictions at the state and local level across this country. So, the SAVE America Act corrects that and as far as married women who have changed their name, if they're already registered to vote, they're entirely unaffected by the SAVE Act.

And for the small fraction of individuals who have changed their name or their address, they can still register to vote. Of course, they just have to go through their state processes to update that documentation. And this is something that the American people, married women and minorities and people all across this country who Democrats are insultingly saying cannot do this, they're already doing it every day, going to the Social Security office, going to the DMV.

And I think it's frankly insulting that the Democrats are saying that there are certain groups of people in this country who aren't smart enough to update their documentation to allow them to vote. Again, this is a huge myth and thank you for giving me the opportunity to address it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course. And then just one more question about the HS. The funding issue has been three plus weeks now. I was actually -- I was at the airport this morning in St. Louis, Missouri and it was early in the morning and one of the TSA agents, I saw she was kind of tearing up. She was crying. I asked her, I was like what's wrong?

And she was like, I can't make my phone payment. I can barely make my car payment that's coming up. I want -- what do you -- I think a lot in the beltway, there's so much noise between Democrats, Republicans, it is the Democrats' fault, it's the Republicans' fault, but what is the White House's message to the American people that are struggling because they're not getting that paycheck and it's -- take away the politics. What do you have to say to those people?

LEAVITT: President Trump wants the Department of Homeland Security. He wants TSA. He wants FEMA. He wants the brave men and women of our United States Coast Guard to receive their paychecks. And he wants this department to be fully funded and fully reopened. And so to any American out there, who is struggling without a paycheck, we know there's more than 100,000 of you across the country. To any American out there, who is showing up to an airport and facing incredibly long wait times in lines, call your Democrat member of Congress and tell them to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

That's what President Trump wants to do and it's completely ridiculous that the American people are suffering as a result of these partisan games that are being played by Democrats on Capitol Hill. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said the operation was going faster than anticipated. What is your current timeline for how long the war will last?

LEAVITT: So look, as you know, Steve (ph), the president and the U.S. military's initial timeline was about four to six weeks to achieve the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, again, to destroy their missiles and their ability to make them, destroy their Navy, permanently deny them nuclear weapons forever, and to, of course, weaken their evil terrorist proxies in the region.

We know that the U.S. military and our brave war fighters are quickly and expeditiously executing these objectives well ahead of schedule. But ultimately, the operations will end when the commander-in-chief determines the military objectives have been met, fully realized, and that Iran is in a position of complete and unconditional surrender, whether they say it or not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And does the President Trump still want Iran's unconditional surrender?

LEAVITT: Well, when President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, he's not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves. What the president means is that Iran's threats will no longer be backed by a ballistic missile arsenal that protects them from building a nuclear bomb in their country. I could make an empty threat, but if I have no actions to back it up, then it's an empty threat --