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CNN International: Iran Launches Major Missile Attack on Israel; Harris Speaks After Iranian Missile Attack on Israel; U.S. Navy Destroyers in Mediterranean Sea Intercepted Missiles. Aired 4:20- 5p ET

Aired October 01, 2024 - 16:20   ET

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

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[16:21:40]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Welcome to our continuing coverage of an Iranian missile barrage on Israel. I'm Jim Sciutto, live in Tel Aviv.

The IDF says that Iran fired some 180 missiles at Israel. CNN, my team and I witnessed the barrage as it rained down on Tel Aviv.

Iran says the attack was its response to last week's strike in Beirut, which killed Hezbollah's leader as well as an Iranian commander. It also cited the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran weeks before.

The IDF now says that Iran's attack tonight will face serious consequences. Our Nic Robertson is in Haifa in northern Israel. And Nic, one of the nightmare scenarios for Israel has been a multi-front attack at once. I wonder, in the midst of these missiles coming from Iran, did you witness fire coming from the north as well, coming from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Jim, if there was fire from Hezbollah, it didn't appear to us from where we are here in Haifa or over in the west of the northern front, it didn't appear to be significant or strong. And of course, this will have been part of Iran's calculus for why it wanted to strike Israel, because it recognizes Hezbollah's weakness and wanted to show support for Hezbollah, but not just because it wanted to show support, because it was always, as you know, understood in this region that Hezbollah was a deterrence force, an Iranian proxy deterrence against Israel targeting Iran. And suddenly that deterrence through Israel's strikes on the Hezbollah leadership, its command and control, its weapon systems, had suddenly been weakened.

And I think we can judge by what we saw this evening that there weren't big barrages of Hezbollah rockets coming in support of Iran, that Hezbollah is, in fact, in a very, very weak position. So as Israel considers its response and its deterrence, it will understand it doesn't have to worry in the short term as much about Hezbollah responding. So I think what we may see tonight could be very significant, Jim. SCIUTTO: No question. And of course, you still have going on an Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon, which was, until a few hours ago, right, the big escalatorious step of the last several days.

ROBERTSON: Huge and very significant. And that may well have been the red line that made Iran realize that it actually did need to step in and make its mark on the conflict at the moment. We were up along the border today, literally very, very close to the border. You could see the border. We were visiting a lady who's refused to leave her home very close to the border. Her veranda overlooks the border in several areas.

We stepped out there to take a look at it and talk to her. And there were heavy explosions, and she sort of shrugged them off. She said she was very pleased to see that troops were going across the border, but she was very worried for them, she said, because of the potential for booby traps.

[16:25:06]

She's very happy to see the Air Force taking on the lead on the strike. So we don't really know how many troops have gone across, how far they've gone across. Targeted is what the IDF has said. Targeted, localized raids. And for the most part, the area we were in was pretty quiet.

The news did come through while we were up there about the possibility of Iran's strike, the one that it launched tonight. And I talked to some of the soldiers there about it, and I asked them what they thought about the fact Iran was threatening to strike them this evening. And I think their attitude perhaps won't surprise anyone who knows soldiers, but their answer was, bring it on. And I think that is the feeling of some, certainly in the defense establishment here, who really feel that they have got what it takes to combat Iran should Iran escalate.

And we have witnessed part of that this evening by the accounts of Jake Sullivan, by the accounts of Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Iran's attack was largely blunted by a combination of U.S., Israel, and allies' efforts to thwart those incoming missiles. So Iran fell short of its aims is the first assessment, at least, Jim.

SCIUTTO: It's a good point, right? With April and this most recent one, the fact that most missiles were shot down, is that an indicator that the Iranian capability is lesser than imagined? I suppose we'll see in the coming days and weeks.

Nic Robertson in Haifa, thanks so much.

Well, President Biden, he spoke about the Iranian attack just moments ago, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: At my direction, the United States military actively supported the defense of Israel, and we're still assessing the impact. But based on what we know now, the attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective, and this is testament to Israeli military capability and the U.S. military. It's also a testament to intensive planning between the United States and Israel to anticipate and defend against the brazen attack we expected. Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Our Oren Liebermann is at the Pentagon. And, Oren, as I listen to Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, in that press availability a short time ago, he was pressed repeatedly as to whether the U.S. would participate in any potential Israeli response to this Iranian attack. My reading of his answer was no. I wonder if you had the same sense.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I certainly wouldn't disagree with that, Jim, but you're right to point out that he refused to put a specific answer on it. We did hear from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as well as from the State Department that there would be consequences facing Iran and that effectively this can't go unanswered and that the U.S. wants to have discussions with Israel in the coming days over what that response looks like. If that's the case, first it implies the response will not be immediate, or at least the U.S. is urging Israel not to carry out an immediate response so that the U.S. can have time to weigh in, so that there can be consultations and discussions.

Of course, this, as Israel promises, that response is very much coming. But we repeatedly pressed Major General Pat Ryder on whether the U.S. was taking -- was putting on or off the table the possibility of the U.S. striking Iran directly. It certainly seems very unlikely, especially because the U.S. has been pushing and continues to push for de-escalation. So it just doesn't seem like something that's going to be in the U.S. move in the coming days. I think we very much expect it coming from the Israelis sometime soon here. The question is the timing and what are the targets here.

Does Israel go after Iran's nuclear program? Does it go after its oil and natural gas, one of its major profit and revenue centers that basically allows the entire country to keep on running? Does it go after weapons, weapons that it uses against Israel or others, or weapons it supplies to Russia?

All that, I suspect, is what the U.S. will want to discuss with Israel before Israel carries out that attack. The question, will Israel wait for those conversations, and will Israel even be listening to those conversations?

SCIUTTO: It's a great question. There have certainly been instances where it doesn't appear that Israeli leaders have been listening to U.S. pressure or advice.

Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon, thanks so much.

Well, our Jeremy Diamond, he's in Gadara, Israel. Jeremy, I understand you found your way to one of the impact sites. Tell us what you're seeing there, and I'm curious, is the belief that this was one of the Iranian missiles or a fragment of the missile or an interceptor missile or perhaps some combination?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the Israeli military won't confirm to us officially exactly what caused this blast, whether it was indeed an Iranian missile, but you can see behind me, there is a very significant crater, and I do want to set the scene here, because we are on the grounds of an elementary school in central Israel, and you can see the enormous crater that appears to be some, you know, 8 feet deep at its deepest portion.

[16:30:23]

There was a worker here who was inside of it. He was fully submerged. You can see on the side here, they've been picking apart the pieces of shrapnel that landed in that crater, and they are working to identify exactly what type of missile it was that landed here. But there's no question that some type of missile landed in this school as Iran was firing this barrage of some 180 ballistic missiles directed at central and southern Israel.

And I want to show you a little bit of the impact that we're seeing here, because this is an elementary school. I'm told that this is a second-grade classroom here, and you can see that it has broken apart part of the wall. A lot of this was glass covering it, and just absolute destruction inside this second-grade classroom in central Israel following this barrage of 180 Iranian ballistic missiles.

Now, the Israeli government, the Israeli military, have made very clear that there will be a decisive response to this latest attack from Iran. It's not clear exactly how quickly that response will come, but we are expecting the Israeli Security Cabinet to be convening tonight to discuss what the scale of that response will be as we wait to see where this story goes, what the next chapter of this escalating regional conflict between Israel and Iran and its proxies, where it will go.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: You know, it's important to show this now and to have you close there on the site, because though this attack was ineffective, as Jake Sullivan described it, successfully defended against, however you want to describe it, there were certainly impacts. I mean, we saw a number of them in and around Tel Aviv. Again, not clear, similar to where you are, as to whether they were a missile strike as intended or a piece of a missile after it was intercepted or perhaps one of the interceptors, but still there were impacts, and some of those impacts caused damage.

It's remarkable, I think, when you look at that, that there were no casualties, at least in Israel, although I understand there are reports of a Palestinian killed in Jericho in the West Bank.

DIAMOND: Yeah, that's right. There is that report of one Palestinian who was killed in the West Bank from what appears to be a piece of a missile that was intercepted, falling to the ground on top of that man, unfortunately. There are also two lightly or moderately wounded individuals in and around Tel Aviv, as reported by Israeli health authorities.

Here, luckily, there were no casualties, but it is important to note that just a couple of hours before whatever missile it was that landed here hit, there were children in this school. This was a school day, an elementary school day, and as I said, these are 2nd grade classrooms, 3rd grade classrooms in this building right behind me, and clearly you can see the power of the impact that this missile had.

When you look at the size of the crater, as these workers here, including, we've seen several folks from the Israeli military, the Home Front Command here, as they continue to pick through the debris, identify the pieces of shrapnel and make a formal determination about exactly what kind of missile actually made impact in this, on these school grounds.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, given the number of pieces that they picked up there and laid out to your left, they're going to know soon whose missile it was if they don't know already.

Jeremy Diamond, good to have you there. Thanks so much.

When we do come back, we're going to have more on this Iranian missile attack on Israel and consideration now as to how Israel is going to respond. Please do stick with CNN.

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[16:37:15]

SCIUTTO: Israel says Iran's missile attack was serious and will have serious consequences. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it was attempting with these missiles to hit military and security sites. It says it targeted three bases around Tel Aviv. Israel says that in total, Iran fired some 180 missiles.

Also in Israel today, police say six civilians were killed in a stabbing and shooting attack in Jaffa in Tel Aviv. At least 12 other people were wounded. Police say two attackers were neutralized at the scene. They are investigating it as a terrorist attack.

Joining us now is Cedric Leighton, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN Military Analyst.

Good to have you on. As Israel contemplates its response to this strike, and it's been quite public about saying it will have a military response, I want to ask you a specific question about one of those options that's apparently on the table, and that is the possibility of striking Iranian nuclear sites.

There's been some public commentary for years that Israel could not do so without U.S. help, whether help to get out Iranian surface-to-air missile sites or refueling help. Is that still true, that Israel would need U.S. help to do so, or could it strike them on its own?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (Ret.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Jim, I think they could strike those installations on its own, and the reason I say that is looking at what the Israelis were able to do with the strike on Hudaydah in Yemen just the other day. That is about the same distance from Israel to Hudaydah as you have from Israel to some of the Iranian targets or potential Iranian targets, and the Iranians do have an aerial refueling capability.

Where it's a bit more difficult to go after Iranian targets in that kind of scenario is the fact that they would have to overfly some possibly hostile countries, or at least countries that would not want them to fly over their airspace for that purpose. So that might make a bit of a difference, or they could circumvent the Arabian Peninsula and go down, you know, via the Red Sea, then the Arabian Sea, and then up through the Persian Gulf. That would be another way of doing it. If they did something like that, the Israelis would have to refuel probably several times if they used the F-35 to do such -- to conduct such a strike, but it is technically possible for them to do it, yes.

SCIUTTO: There is some speculation now, just speculation or analysis now, similar to what we heard in April following Iran's other major ballistic missile, and in that case drone attack on Israel, that there was some calibration involved, that by communicating some in advance, as it did in April, and there are some indications that it did so now as well, that it intended for most or some of the missiles to be shot down. And I ask that as a question without conclusion, based on what you saw today.

[16:40:33]

And by the way, this attack was twice as big as that one in April, and missile defenses, while very good, are not foolproof. They can miss things, and as I witnessed here with my team, some pieces of missiles seemed to at least get through and strike the ground here with damaging effect. What's your sense of that? Is that a plausible explanation of how Iran carried this out, or did Iran want to do great damage here?

LEIGHTON: I think Iran wanted to do some damage. Now, you know, you do have to caveat it a little bit by looking at, you know, what happened in April, as you pointed out, Jim. There are, you know, certainly indications from April that there was signaling involved and that they were, in essence, sending some missiles up in order to about 300 of them, plus -- you know, including the drones, that is, to, you know, create at least a wave effect.

So in some ways, they -- I think in April they were actually testing the Israeli missile defense systems with kind of an en masse attack. Now, this time around, it seems like something similar occurred and that they were targeting several specific areas. They actually announced that they were going after the Israeli intelligence headquarters and three bases.

So with that in mind, then I would say that they were actually trying to target some of these areas, hoping to get through, and basically if one missile gets through and causes damage, that, in essence, is a victory for them. And this time, it really didn't seem to happen at all.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, because on the flip side, if you have two consecutive failed missile attacks sending some of your best technology, I imagine, this way, that raises questions about your capabilities, and I imagine from an Iranian perspective would weaken their threat or their deterrent -- the deterrent value of these missiles and their military.

LEIGHTON: And I think that's a big concern for them because one of the key things that, you know, has kept Iran kind of in its, if you will, bubble, in essence its military bubble, and by that I mean kind of a protective shield, that protective shield seems to be a bit more penetrable than we thought it was. We thought that their capabilities were a bit more extensive, and in this particular case it looks like it's basically things that were put together in, you know, somewhat of a haphazard fashion.

Not that they don't have a significant capability. They do, but that capability does have limitations, and those limitations might be a bit more severe than we thought.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, you might say the same of Hezbollah in recent days.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, exactly.

SCIUTTO: Cedric Leighton in Washington, thanks so much.

LEIGHTON: You betcha.

SCIUTTO: When we do come back, we will have more of our continuing coverage of this Iranian missile attack on Israel. Please do stay with CNN.

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SCIUTTO: We're going to go to live pictures now. Vice President Kamala Harris speaking and responding to today's Iranian attack on Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: So, today, Iran launched approximately 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in a reckless and brazen attack. I condemn this attack unequivocally.

I'm clear-eyed: Iran is a destabilizing, dangerous force in the Middle East, and today's attack on Israel only further demonstrates that fact.

[16:45:05]

Earlier today, I was in the Situation Room with President Biden and our national security team as we monitored the attack in real time and ensured that the protection of U.S. personnel in the region is paramount. I fully support President Biden's order for the U.S. military to shoot down Iranian missiles targeting Israel, just as we did in April.

We are still assessing the impact, but initial indications are that Israel, with our assistance, was able to defeat this attack. Our joint defenses have been effective, and this operation and successful cooperation saved many innocent lives.

As I have said, I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist militias. My commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering.

And let us be clear, Iran is not only a threat to Israel, Iran is also a threat to American personnel in the region, American interests, and innocent civilians across the region who suffer at the hands of Iran- based and backed terrorist proxies.

We will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend U.S. forces and interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. And we will continue to work with our allies and partners to disrupt Iran's aggressive behavior and hold them accountable.

Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Kamala Harris there saying that she supported President Biden's order to shoot down those Iranian missiles, also saying that the joint defenses between the U.S. and Israel were effective, echoing comments that we heard from Jake Sullivan and Secretary Blinken earlier calling this an unsuccessful attack.

Our Ben Wedeman is in Beirut watching the northern front, as it were, of this expanding war. And right now there are almost too many fronts to count, Ben Wedeman, and it seems that on each one things are getting dicier. I mean, the biggest development prior to this attack tonight was Israeli boots on the ground in southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and this situation seems to be coming increasingly dangerous. And this is really, Jim, the scenario that so many leaders in the Middle East were warning the United States about, that as long as the war in Gaza goes on and the death toll mounts and the violence goes on, the conflict would spread. Now it's spread to Lebanon.

This evening we're seeing clearly Iran and Israel are about to already in a situation where they could be basically at a long-distance war as well. And there really is a sense of exasperation among many leaders in the region, including many U.S. allies in the Arab world, that the United States just simply hasn't done enough over the last year to try to push for some sort of diplomatic solution.

We've seen plenty of trips by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East, I think 10 at this point in the last 12 months. But at the end of the day, there's very little to show for it. So we find ourselves on the brink, if not already in the regional war that so many were afraid of. And there doesn't seem to be any foot on the brakes at the moment.

The United States obviously coming to the aid of its ally Israel, but there are broader concerns in this part of the world. And certainly things could get dramatically worse at this point we are expecting, of course, perhaps even within the next few hours, an Israeli attack on Iran. And that could set in motion a scenario of back-and-forth attacks between the two countries while there is war raging between Hezbollah and Israel here in Lebanon, while the war goes on in Gaza.

So we're at a very dangerous tipping point, and there doesn't seem to be any countervailing force to try to stop the region and sucking the United States in with it over the brink into the abyss. Jim.

SCIUTTO: One can almost feel the gravity pulling the various players over that abyss in that cycle of attack and retaliation, each one sometimes greater than the other. Ben Wedeman in Beirut, keep yourself safe. Thank you.

When we come back, we're going to have more breaking news coverage of the rising tensions here in the Middle East.

[16:50:04]

Please do stick with CNN.

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SCIUTTO: Iran's president is warning that Iran's missile strike on Israel this evening was, quote, "only a portion of our power." Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it targeted three military bases in and around Tel Aviv. Fact is, we saw things striking the ground far away from military bases.

The Pentagon says this attack against Israel was twice as large in number of missiles as Iran's attack on Israel back in April.

CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier joins me now. Kim, goodness, the escalation that everyone did not want seems to be upon us, or at least the momentum towards such an escalation is here.

And I just wonder what gets us out of this, right? Because Israel is making quite clear it's going to strike Iran tonight, and you're already seeing threats from Iran about how they might strike back. For instance, if Israel were to strike its oil facilities, what's going to stem this tide?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it is an escalation, but it's still not as bad as it could have been. It was 180 or north of that of ballistic missiles last time. In April, Iran fired about 110 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles and various and sundry other armed drones.

So yes, more ballistic missiles this time, which are more expensive, up to $10 million a piece. And faster, they reach Israel from Iran in about 10 minutes. Yet still, this was defeated by combined Israel's Iron Dome plus U.S. interceptors fired from U.S. ships in the Gulf region.

So it failed, but Iran said it was targeting three military bases. Those bases are pretty well defended by the Iron Dome. Iran could have tried to fire at less defended areas, could have targeted populated areas, the Haifa port, the Haifa industrial area. It didn't.

So they're still on the escalation ladder. There's still some steps that you can take. The question next is what will Israel fire at? Because of course, last time Iran fired those 300 ballistic missiles. As you've mentioned on air, Israel responded about a week later by hitting an air defense system near one of Iran's top nuclear facilities.

[16:55:20]

So now Israel has to decide what can it hit that sends the message without making this spiral. Either side risks making it spiral by causing civilian casualties.

SCIUTTO: Are you convinced that's Israel's calculus at this point? Because it strikes me that Israel has had, in its view, quite successful attacks on Hezbollah. It just took a step it hasn't taken in 18 years, which is to send ground forces across into southern Lebanon.

And it seems to be from public commentary from Israeli officials determined to give quite a sharp response now in military terms against Iran. I mean, are you convinced that Israel wants to calibrate as opposed to strike a damaging blow?

DOZIER: OK, I still think Israel wants to calibrate even as it strikes a damaging blow. But I don't know that Israel has the bunker busters it needs to definitively take out some of Iran's nuclear technology. Reports keep emerging about new facilities that are buried deeper underground.

Iran has been working to hide its progress. Israel also risks tipping Iran over the nuclear line. So far, Iran hasn't actually produced a nuclear weapon. It's perhaps weeks away from being able to do one, but it hasn't made the decision to build a weapon. Depending on how hard Israel attacks, it might push Tehran to build that weapon, and then you've got a nuclear arms race potentially across the Middle East. Israel has to contend with that.

So that's why I think you might instead see some sort of calibrated punishment that causes more pain than the last time, but still doesn't cause major civilian casualties or troop casualties, but somehow cripples something that Iran truly values. Maybe they'll hit the oil fields, but I think they would do oil fields through a cyberattack, not something declared.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, we'll be watching closely. And then of course, the danger is that what one side frames as calibrated is not interpreted in the same way, I suppose, by the other side. Kim Dozier, we'll be watching. I know you will as well.

That's it for us for this hour. I'm Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv.

Please do stay with CNN. There's more news to come.

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