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U.S. And Israel Attack Iran; Interview With Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN). Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired February 28, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:19]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news: The United States and Israel launching a massive and ongoing military campaign against Iran. Tehran swiftly retaliated launching strikes against Israel as well as several countries in the Middle East and U.S. targets in the region.
President Trump calling for regime change in Iran with attacks across the region still underway right now. We'll have all the latest developments from the front lines. That's coming up.
We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
We start the hour with the major breaking news. Combat operations now underway in Iran. The U.S. and Israel launching coordinated strikes across the country. Tehran now retaliating as President Trump calls for the Iranian people to overthrow their government.
And as we follow news of the damage inside Iran, a word of caution, the images we're about to show you are disturbing. Iranian state media is reporting that this is a girls' school hit by a strike in southern Iran. According to a regional governor, at least 63 students were killed, 92 injured, with more trapped under the rubble. CNN has not independently verified that report.
And just in to CNN, the Israeli military says it has launched another set of strikes targeting Iran's missile launchers in the capital of Tehran.
Satellite imagery shows black smoke billowing from the compound of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an Israeli military official now says several, repeat several, senior Iranian officials were killed in the strikes. But Iran's foreign minister tells NBC News that Khamenei is still alive as far as he knows.
Explosions have also been heard in other Iranian cities, several in cities, in fact. The full scope and scale of the damage not yet clear.
Also, just in, video of smoke rising near the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building in Dubai. It appears to be part of Iran's retaliatory strikes against other Middle Eastern countries where the U.S. has bases.
And this video from Bahrain showing a Shahed drone making impact near a U.S. Navy base that was struck earlier. Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.
President Trump, announcing the strikes overnight while most Americans were sleeping, calling the operation in his words, "massive and ongoing", warning that American lives may be lost and calling on Iranians to take over their government.
Here is part of what the president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity. Or in the alternative, face certain death.
So lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: I want to go live right now to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's in Tel Aviv for us. Jeremy, I know we're not -- there you are right there. Sirens have just been going off there where you are. Is that right?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes that's right. Well, if you can hear them overhead, we're actually inside due to the threat of the Iranian ballistic missiles. Make sure my cameraman doesn't trip up there.
We're going to move inside because these sirens are going off. And we've been seeing this happen, you know, more and more frequently over the course of the day.
The cadence of these strikes has really been picking up. In fact, we just were able, as night is now falling, it's a lot easier to be able to see some of these missile interceptors that are happening in the sky as night has fallen.
[11:04:48]
DIAMOND: And we were able to see as sirens were sounding in northern Israel as well as in Jerusalem, we were able to get a clearer picture of some of those ballistic missile interceptions and indeed we have been seeing more of them over the course of the day, signaling that Iran still has a lot more capabilities, a lot more firepower that they haven't deployed yet.
Of course, we've seen the most significant impacts of those Iranian missile strikes right now appear to have been in the Gulf countries, as we've been witnessing these strikes in Doha, in Dubai as well.
In Israel so far, it appears that most of these ballistic missiles have been intercepted. We've received only two reports so far of individuals with moderate injuries nothing all that severe as of yet.
But again, we are still really in the early hours of a conflict that very much could continue to spiral even further out of control.
And of course, we're also reporting on the scope of those Israeli strikes inside of Iran. As we've been reporting in the last hour, the Israeli military saying that Israel struck three simultaneous gatherings of Iranian senior officials. And they are now confirming to us that several senior Iranian officials were killed in those strikes, although they have not yet named them.
We know, of course that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, was one of those targets, as well as Iran's president, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. So all of this points to a very significant set of strikes.
And again, Israeli officials very optimistic about how that opening foray of strikes in Iran actually went. And now of course, they are bearing the consequences of those strikes with Iran's retaliation seeming to kind of ratchet up over the course of the day, Wolf.
BLITZER: And I just want to point out that that when the Iranians launched those strikes against an area like where you are in Tel Aviv with all those huge buildings in Tel Aviv and a lot of people in Tel Aviv, the Israelis have that Iron Dome to deal with those strikes. But that doesn't always work.
And even if one of the Israeli counter missiles destroys an incoming Iranian missile, the damage to the ground could be really intense with all that metal and that shrapnel just going all over the place. That's why everyone is told to go into the bunkers, go into the shelters, and that's where you are right now. Is that -- is that right?
DIAMOND: Yes, that's exactly right, Wolf. And Israel has this kind of multi-layered defense system. Iron Dome is traditionally used for the kind of shorter-range missiles, the types that you might see from Hamas or Hezbollah.
In this case, we're talking about a system known as the Arrow system. David Sling is another system that can be used at times. That's because these ballistic missiles, they go so high up outside of the atmosphere, they're actually intercepted most of the time outside of the atmosphere in space.
But the debris from that can sometimes fall. Last time we saw a man in the West Bank who was killed as a result of falling shrapnel from an interceptor missile. So this is why the Israeli authorities tell people to remain in the shelters for about ten minutes after the initial siren actually goes off, not always an instruction that's necessarily followed by folks, but we have seen the risks that that can present.
It's also important to note that Israel's traditional air defense systems is being supplemented right now very powerfully by the United States, which has deployed its own air defense systems in the region, but also has an aircraft carrier strike group off Israel's northern coast, which is also capable of shooting down some of these missiles.
BLITZER: And we've been showing our viewers these live pictures coming in with these Iranian missiles coming towards Tel Aviv and the Israelis launching their anti-ballistic missile system to deal with it. You see a lot of them being blown up in the sky.
But as I said, there's still potential danger because all that material, that metal has to fall to the ground and could potentially hurt someone if it lands near or on top of a person.
We're watching all these live pictures. Brett McGurk is with us as well. Brett, you know a lot about this kind of stuff. What's your reaction? You see these live pictures coming in?
BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think. Well, the two inflection points for where we are very early hours of this -- of this conflict.
Inflection point number one, And Jeremy spoke to this, how successful were these initial waves of strikes into Iran at degrading Iran's missile infrastructure, not just the missiles themselves but the launchers.
There's a limited number of launchers which dictates how many missiles they can get off at a single time, and that affects the air defense equation. So that is a key question I think we'll know a little more here over the coming day or so.
Second inflection point, Wolf, as Jeremy said, these targets against Iran's leaders I mean, one of the -- we -- apparently we've tried to actually kill the Supreme Leader of Iran.
[11:09:49]
MCGURK: If that strike was successful, that will be a huge moment because then Iran is in a succession crisis and there will be a lot of uncertainty inside Iran itself. If it was not -- if it was not successful I think the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, will think he was protected by divine intervention and he'll harden down even further.
So those are two immediate things I'm looking at. What are the missile capabilities of Iran as we go forward here, and also how successful were those leadership attacks?
BLITZER: And once again, we're showing our viewers these live pictures, the skies over Tel Aviv right now. And you see the incoming Iranians.
Let's listen in for a second. I just want to hear how this is unfolding.
Every 30 or 40 seconds you hear an explosion over the skies of Tel Aviv.
MCGURK: I'd just point out one thing. We've been tracking the carrier strike group, the USS Ford which is moving through the Mediterranean, anchored off the coast of Lebanon, off the coast of Israel. We have American destroyers in the water firing anti-ship or anti-air missiles now, that's why that carrier strike group's there.
BLITZER: They're protecting Tel Aviv.
MCGURK: This is all very well-coordinated --
BLITZER: Yes.
MCGURK: -- between Israeli Defense Forces and American missile defenses throughout the region. So that is all ongoing now.
Again our troops are the best at this. I think we all have to give -- keep them in our mind. But that's what's happening. This is -- those missiles, I've been in the Situation Room when this is going down -- a missile from Iran to Israel takes about 12 to 13 minutes very fast. And then there's about a 3- to 4- minute window where they're in the area where you can strike them, going Mach 4, Mach 5, two missiles coming at each other, incredibly complex.
But that's what's happening here over the skies of Israel.
BLITZER: So do you think that's why the U.S. aircraft carrier, the Gerald Ford, is off the coast of Tel Aviv right now in the eastern Mediterranean?
MCGURK: Absolutely. It's two things. Number one, the missile defenses, which I'm sure are engaged right now as we speak, and also a deterrent against Hezbollah in Lebanon should they choose to get into the -- into this conflict. Of course, Hezbollah is significantly, significantly weakened.
One thing Iran had going for it over many, many years was this capability of Hezbollah just to Israel's north with tens of thousands of missiles itself.
(CROSSTALKING)
MCGURK: And that has been largely degraded from the Lebanon war in 2024. But yes, that carrier strike group is playing a very important role, both regional deterrence but also missile defense with our destroyers in the water.
BLITZER: Like a big city like Tel Aviv, I can only imagine how the people on the ground, if they look up in the sky and they see these missiles coming in and they see Israel, or the U.S. for that matter, launching anti-missile systems to try to destroy them. And then you see explosions in the sky. That could be pretty frightening. MCGURK: Well, as Israelis have shelters in their -- in their
residences, in their -- in their places of work, you know, we had in April 2024 almost 100 missiles launched at Israel. October 2024, 200 ballistic missiles launched at the same time -- I lived through all that. And then, of course, the June war that you and I helped analyze here at CNN.
So we've seen this before but a key equation we talked about missile math during that June war, how many missiles does Iran have? How many can they get off and how many missile interceptors do the Israelis and the U.S. have?
And I think that was part of the planning and that that initial wave of strikes, I hope, was successful in degrading the missile capabilities.
BLITZER: Yes. A frightening moment right now.
I want to go back to Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, you were outside. You were reporting. All of a sudden you heard the sirens going off. Then you see the explosions over the skies of Tel Aviv.
You're in a shelter right now. You're still there, right?
DIAMOND: Yes. That's right, Wolf. And we've had to do this about a dozen times over the course of the day. But we are noticing kind of an uptick in the cadence of these strikes. And also, it would seem, in the intensity of them in terms of the numbers of missiles that are being fired in each different barrage.
You know, what we haven't seen today is what happened the very first day that Israel launched strikes back in June. You will recall that then -- first of all, it took around a lot longer to actually retaliate against Israel. It was about 18 hours between those first Israeli strikes and when the first Iranian ballistic missiles were fired at Israel.
This time, it only took them about two hours to begin firing those barrages. But they appear to have been much smaller in size. Dozens of missiles throughout the day, although I would suspect that in the last couple of hours we've seen that figure increase considerably.
But last time what we saw was 100 ballistic missiles in that first barrage from Iran. So it seems that these are different tactics from Iran. It's hard to tell right now what exactly that tells us about Iran's capabilities.
But of course, it's also important to note that this time they're not just targeting Israel. They're also going after a series of U.S. military bases in the Middle East.
[11:14:44]
DIAMOND: And also, it would seem, striking several of the civilian cities in those areas, whether it is Doha or Dubai, where we've seen strikes at this stage. So this is a very precarious moment. And I think it's just important
to emphasize that we are really just in the very beginning of this conflict. Israeli and U.S. officials have all signaled that this is going to be an operation far beyond the size and scope of what we saw during the 12-day war back in June.
And Iran has also signaled that it's kind of capacity and willingness to retaliate in a more firm and more serious manner is also something that they're going to bring to bear here.
BLITZER: And the Israeli government is urging all Israelis right now, not just where you are in Tel Aviv, but indeed in other parts of the country, whether Haifa or even Jerusalem, to shelter in place. And if they hear the sirens go off to immediately go to a bunker or a shelter for protection.
These are -- these are -- this is video taken only a few moments ago, and you can see what's going on over Tel Aviv.
DIAMOND: Yes, Wolf. I mean there are millions of people right now in Israel likely inside of bomb shelters, very much sheltering in place in the same way that we are right now.
And that's in part because we have seen these barrages of missiles sometimes be kind of, you know, take time before and, you know, we're just getting right now another -- another siren, another call for people to go into shelters if they hadn't left already.
And so we are seeing the pace of this really begin to pick up from Iran. And so people are once again going into shelters.
I'm just going to check the map here, Wolf and see where this is hitting this time. Right now we have sirens all across central Israel, the Tel Aviv area where we are right now. That is the latest direction of these -- of these ballistic missiles.
Again, so far today, Israel's aerial defense assets, as well as the assets that the United States is providing, have been very successful, it would seem, in shooting down those ballistic missiles.
But one of the things about these systems that you have to understand is that the more strikes, the more missiles there are being fired, the more chances there are that some of them are going to actually get through that air defense system.
It is not foolproof. It is not 100 percent. And that is a message that Israeli authorities have really been trying to telegraph to the Israeli public.
I do think that the Israeli public appreciates much more today the threat of these Iranian ballistic missiles than they did before the 12-day war in June, because you did see a number of civilian residential buildings in Tel Aviv, in the surrounding area, that were struck. 28 people --
(CROSSTALKING) BLITZER: Jeremy, I hear some sirens going --
DIAMOND: -- lost their lives in Israel --
BLITZER: -- off over Tel Aviv right now.
Let's listen for a second.
And, Jeremy, all this is happening as Israel has taken other emergency measures, including closing airspace, shutting down Ben Gurion International Airport to all commercial traffic going in and out, schools are closed. What else is going on in Israel right now?
DIAMOND: Well, this is a country that's very much back on a war footing, Wolf. As you said, schools have been shut down. Gatherings are being prohibited right now. Basically everything is being reduced to essential activity only.
And Israelis throughout the day, as we've been saying, have been going in and out of these bomb shelters throughout the day. And the expectation is that this is going to continue for some time now. This is something that Israelis have grown accustomed to in a certain sense.
But as I was just saying, you know, the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles is something that far exceeds the kind of damage potential that you would have with rockets from Hamas, for example, and even from Hezbollah, which has a more powerful, you know, missile arsenal.
This is something of a very different magnitude. And if these missiles start getting through and start hitting populated areas, you are going to see casualties.
BLITZER: All right. Jeremy, stay safe over there. And good luck to you. Good luck to all the folks over there who are underneath these missiles that are coming in from Iran over the skies of Tel Aviv right now.
I want to discuss what's going on with the Republican Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us here. I don't know if you've been watching, but a barrage of explosions and sirens going off over Tel Aviv, city of a few million people right now, and everyone is being told to go to bomb shelters.
[11:19:53]
BLITZER: What's your reaction to these developments in the aftermath of this joint U.S.-Israeli strike against Iran?
REP. MARLIN STUTZMAN (R-IN): Yes well, Wolf, great to be with you again. And this is really remarkable. And it's really that moment that I know that the many Iranian people have been waiting for, people that, you know, pay attention to Middle East. Just a time where there's some sort of stability in the Middle East. This is a moment that really needed to happen for a long time. And I
think that the Trump administration is making the right call. Of course, with the joint operation with Israel is one that we know has a great chance of being very successful.
You know, whatever the reports that are coming out soon of who was struck, maybe who was already taken out, you know, we're hopeful that this will be a short encounter.
But at the same time, we have to be ready for the long haul, because this is this time when we really need to be sure that we're successful and that this regime is taken out and the Iranian people have the opportunity to rebuild their country.
BLITZER: Congressman, given that American lives could be at risk right now, and you heard the president say American lives could be in danger, should President Trump have gone to Congress first, and you're a member of Congress, to get permission to authorize war against Iran, as required by Article One of the U.S. Constitution and the war powers legislation, as well?
STUTZMAN: I think the president made the right choice. And he gave them obviously, plenty of notice that there was a timeline you know, whether he should have come to Congress. There's been a lot of conversations, and I'm sure we'll have those conversations again soon.
I don't think that he needed to for this initial action to be taken place. We've seen former presidents make these decisions and move ahead.
But I know that I support President Trump and, of course, want to support our military men and women who are putting, you know, their lives on the line for, American stability.
You know, one of the things that I mentioned about the Iranian people, they've put up with this regime for over 40 years with all of the oppression and the -- just the opportunity not to really rebuild their country. This regime has been a troublemaker for 40-some years.
And this is also about keeping America safe. Iran continues to build their nuclear capabilities. And if they had the chance to build a ballistic missile that could reach the United States. That's why I believe this is America's reason to be involved and engaged.
So I will support the president as it comes to Congress. I'm sure we'll have those discussions next week when we're back. And I would vote to support the president to do the job.
BLITZER: Quick question Congressman, what do you say to Americans across the country particularly a lot of your fellow Republicans who voted for President Trump in 2024 because he vowed to be a pro-peace president and end U.S. involvement in wars in the Middle East and elsewhere? Do you think he's breaking his promise?
STUTZMAN: No, I don't actually. I really think that, you know, this is about peace for the long haul. And, you know, as you mentioned earlier in your programming, talking about how Iran has now struck Bagram. They've struck, you know, the other countries in the Middle East. I believe Saudi was maybe struck, Kuwait and others. I think that that's a signal that Iran has been completely isolated and that Iran is the last -- kind of the bastion of terrorists-supporting governments in the -- in the Middle East.
Now, we've got other issues there. You know, Syria still on the brink and hopefully, you know, rebuilding in a proper way. As I saw an interview earlier, one of the ladies from Iran said that the Middle East is modernizing.
That's what we want. We don't want this -- this jihadist mentality that we have been dealing with for the last several decades.
And so to those who say, well, you know President Trump said that he wasn't going to take us in any wars. He's keeping us out of wars in the long run.
I think it's just pretty amazing, you know, methodically, how he has taken out -- well, you know, he built peace agreements with other countries in the Middle East, then taking out Maduro a couple of months ago. That gives us another kind of a piece off the board. And Iran is the last one standing.
I think Russia is weakened with its engagement and its attacks on Ukraine. And China, I think is going to sit on the sideline. I don't think that -- you know, I think we're really in a moment here where we can bring peace for the future for the Middle East and for the world in a, in a greater context.
Is it a safe world? No but we are definitely making the right moves by doing this.
BLITZER: Have you seen any evidence, Congressman, to validate President Trump's assessment that Iran has been building missiles that potentially could soon reach the American homeland, not just U.S. targets, whether in the Persian Gulf or in Europe or in Israel or elsewhere, but actually reached the United States?
[11:24:50]
STUTZMAN: I haven't seen any hard evidence, but I have had several conversations with administration officials that have indicated that that that's ultimately their goal.
I mean you know, Wolf, as you know, I mean, Iran is the -- is the supporter of the chants, you know, whether it's death to Israel, death to America. They hate the West.
Their religious beliefs take them down this road of hating anyone who doesn't agree with them. And so therefore, I think that, you know, we have to realize and believe what they say, that that would be their ultimate goal.
If they could send a missile to not only Israel, but to Europe and ultimately to the United States they would do it and to the -- to the point that they're willing to die, it looks like, I thought it was really incredible the timing of this attack, you know, waiting until the group of leadership may have been together once the attack started, that hopefully this keeps death to a very minimum, takes out the leadership of Iran. And, you know gives the Iranian people a chance to rebuild their country and they become our allies.
And I think that's what's exciting to me is that let's build relationships and friendships with people around the world no matter our disagreements on a variety of things but we can at least support one another.
Look at what the UAE is doing. It's becoming a hotbed for the economy. Look at Saudi Arabia, you know. What other opportunities are in the Middle East through the Abraham Accords and what that has done and developed for countries to build relationships with the West.
That's what we ultimately want. We don't want to see this thuggery type of authoritarian government continue to stay in place.
BLITZER: Yes. We're showing our viewers these pictures of the skies over Tel Aviv as rockets and missiles from Iran are coming in, and Israel launching counter missiles to try to deal with the threat here its very significant.
Sirens have been booming throughout central Israel and elsewhere in Israel, up in Haifa and Jerusalem, all over Israel, over the last hour or so. We're watching these pictures unfold.
Your former Republican colleague, former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, is saying some controversial things right now. She's calling out the president, saying it's always America last. Do you agree with her?
STUTZMAN: I don't. And I just think that, you know Marjorie, you know, for whatever her reasons are, I don't understand them. But, you know, I think that this is putting America first.
America is leading. I mean, that's what's incredible to see today that America is leading that countries, especially in the Middle East, want a relationship with the United States.
The speech that Marco Rubio gave over in Europe a couple of weeks ago, I thought it was one of the most remarkable foreign policy speeches we've seen in a long time is that we really love and want a relationship with people.
We don't want to see, you know, like what we see in North Korea that, you know, the people there are starving to death and they have a dictatorship for a government.
And, you know, instead of these types of authoritarians, they oppress their people rather than giving them freedom and opportunity. And so that's why I believe that this does put America first. And Americas first by leading.
And, you know, I also think it's kind of ironic to, you know, we're looking throughout history how, you know, people have led and stood in the gap for people because they love them.
And, you know, we're coming into the weekend where the Jewish holiday Purim is going to be celebrated and how Queen Esther stood in the gap against a vicious Persian King Haman to protect people.
And I just think that the irony that this is happening on the same weekend, really again is representative of the fact that people need to stand up for people and show love by sometimes doing a very difficult job. And that's by taking those out who continue to be evil and kill people and have no regard for life whatsoever.
So I just disagree with her, and I think America is first by leading the way.
BLITZER: All right. Republican Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it very much.
STUTZMAN: Thank you, Wolf. Great to be with you.
BLITZER: I want to bring back CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk.
So we're still seeing the skies over Tel Aviv. The rockets are coming in. The missiles are coming in from Iran, and Israel is dealing with the counterstrikes, and they're blowing up -- the sirens have been going off.
And even our own Jeremy Diamond, who was reporting live from outside he's now in a bunker, like so many other Israelis are right now.
MCGURK: So far watching this, I'm watching Iran's response and kind of trying to read into it. Having been involved in this over a number of years. So far the response is kind of as you might have predicted, I think they're hitting -- trying to hit Israel. The volleys, as Jeremy said, are smaller than what we saw in June.
[11:29:47]
MCGURK: And again, I mentioned, in October of 2024, we had 200 ballistic missiles in the air at the same time. That is really about Iran's missile launcher capability.
The key question here in the early hours -- were these initial waves into Iran effective at degrading those launchers. The fewer missiles in the air, the easier for the air defenses to take them out. So that is all ongoing.
Iran --
BLITZER: I think it's fair to say the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system and the Patriot air defense missile system and the other systems that they have work against these missiles.
But what about the Iranian drones that are on the verge of coming in in huge numbers?
MCGURK: Yes. So drones are much slower. So for example, a drone launched from Iran to Israel, Wolf, takes about three hours to get there. And usually we have ways to pick it up and take them down.
The ballistic missiles take about 12 to 13 minutes. It's a completely different threat. And you have different layered air defenses that can take down those missiles really at the edge of outer space. Incredibly complex and our military personnel are in the Mediterranean right now working those air defenses in coordination with the Israelis.
But you know, the Iranians also -- these are the medium range missiles that reach Israel. The Iranians also have a huge supply of short-range missiles, which they have used in these early hours against sites in the Gulf countries. It's been reported at Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
This is a little --
(CROSSTALK)
MCGURK: this is a little surprising because one -- strategically, what the Iranians would want to try to do is separate the Arab states from this U.S. military -- U.S.-Israeli operation to try to have the Arab states stay on the sidelines, stay a little distant.
Attacking the Gulf states so soon, and not just U.S. military bases. They're attacking Dubai from what we've seen reporting. That is going to really unite the Gulf states together. And there have been divisions between the Gulf states in recent months, including Saudi Arabia.
Now they're all talking to each other today publicly and uniting against these Iranian attacks. I think -- so Iran seems to be miscalculating. There might be a sign that these early strikes against the leadership have been effective about who's actually making decisions and directing this.
We just don't know. I mentioned about a half hour ago, Wolf, one key inflection point here is how successful those leadership strikes were in the early hours.
And the one thing I know for certain in being involved in some of these things is we do not know. So there are reports they were highly successful. There were reports that the Supreme Leader is about to give a speech on Iranian TV. That's been going on for the last hour.
Nobody knows. I suspect we'll get some confirmation over the coming days.
BLITZER: And a key question, these drones that Iran launches from inside Iran towards Israel, they have to go over, let's say Jordan, to get to Israel.
In the past, there's occasionally been moments when Jordanian anti- drone systems went up and destroyed the drones heading towards Israel from inside Jordan. Is that likely to happen again?
MCGURK: You know, Wolf, in April of 2024, we had 300 projectiles fired from Iran -- drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. We had a coalition of Jordanian, U.K., France, U.S., Israel defensively supporting each other with intelligence and kinetic assets to take down all those threats. I think we took down every single drone.
BLITZER: Yes.
MCGURK: I am sure there is a lot of that coordination going on now.
Again the drones, because they are so slow moving --
BLITZER: They're easier to get.
MCGURK: -- they're easier to get to if the target is Israel. Now drones against, say some of our U.S. military positions in the region obviously can be much more effective because they can be fired in closer range. So that is also a threat.
So this is just unfolding. I'm trying to just analyze what Iran is doing in response. Again, we have the response against Israel. Not surprising. What I'm looking for are these huge barrages of missiles in the hundreds, which would show they really have capability with those launchers to get them off. Or are they smaller barrages?
And then these attacks in the Gulf? That is a little surprising, because if you attack the civilian city of Dubai, if you attack the Kuwaiti airport, which has been reported that -- the Gulf states are really going to unite here, I think behind the Americans and against the Iranians.
So still unfolding, but a lot of unknowns, Wolf.
BLITZER: And let's not forget there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of U.S. troops, whether in the United Arab Emirates or Qatar or Bahrain the home of the U.S. Navy's fifth fleet. And they're potentially very, very vulnerable right now.
MCGURK: My first thought when this broke overnight was about our personnel in the region carrying out this operation over Iran and deployed throughout the region. Our thoughts have to be with them.
BLITZER: Sensitive moment right now. All right, Brett, don't go too far away. We're staying on top of the story.
Sirens blaring over all of central Israel, including Tel Aviv. Rockets coming in, Israel dealing with that. Most Israelis now heading towards bomb shelters.
We'll be right back.
[11:34:31]
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BLITZER: All right. Welcome back to our breaking news.
I want to bring in my colleague and the host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS". Fareed, thanks very much for joining us. Just hours before the U.S. and Israel launched their coordinated strikes on Iran, Oman -- Oman's foreign minister, said a breakthrough in the U.S.-Iran talks had brought a peace deal, in his words, within our reach. That's the Oman foreign minister.
So was the U.S. genuinely engaged in those talks. What do you think?
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: I don't think so. The purpose of those talks was a nuclear deal of some kind.
[11:39:46]
ZAKARIA: President Trump had (AUDIO GAP) arguably accurately that the United States and Israel had obliterated Iran's (AUDIO GAP) in June.
So the idea that Iran had been able to substantially rebuild its nuclear program after that massive, massive series of attacks, the 12- day war, is highly unlikely.
So this does not seem to me to be fundamentally about the nuclear deal. It is about regime change. And that was very clear that President Trump, you know, placed an enormous amount of emphasis on regime change in his speech.
He called on the Iranian people to overturn the government. This is a war to change the regime in Tehran. It will be judged by whether it succeeds or fails at that -- at that objective.
The, you know, further degrading Iran's military capacity, of course, the United States can do that. Of course Israel can do that. Iran has no air defenses. It is already incredibly weak given that June attack.
So the key issue is going to be will the objective of this -- of this military attack, which is regime change, achieve its goal?
BLITZER: Two Israeli sources, Fareed, familiar with the operation, tell CNN that the strikes targeted senior Iranian figures, and that includes Iran's Supreme Leader, Iran's president and its armed forces chief. Does that align with the goal of taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities, or even its missile capabilities?
ZAKARIA: No. Clearly it is -- again it is about regime change. In fact, you know, the emphasis if you look at the series of attacks is very clearly on very senior leadership. It's a very extensive set of attacks.
One would have to assume that the Iranians have prepared for this. Probably the only wild card here is, is the Supreme Leader dead? And if that's the case, has there been a, you know, some kind of a replacement already named or will there be an emergency meeting of the council that is meant to appoint the next person?
That's the part, I think. we'd have to see. But I doubt very much that these attacks on the leadership will substantially change the course of the war because the Iranians -- I mean, it's a country of 90 million people, and it's a very large regime. They have replacements. BLITZER: I want to play, Fareed, some of the new comments from Iran's
foreign minister, who denies any significant damage to his country's leadership. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Almost all officials are safe and sound and alive. We may have lost 1 or 2 commanders but that is not a big problem. And you know, we are actually managing it.
My colleagues in the Persian Gulf and I explained for them that, you know, we have no intention to attack them, but we are actually attacking the American bases in the -- in the act of self-defense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So what's your reaction to those comments, Fareed?
ZAKARIA: Well, the Iranian regime is not particularly truthful. So we can't be sure that he's right about the minimal damage to the leadership. I think it was interesting that he talked about the effort to reach out to the Gulf states and tell them that they were -- that Iran was simply attacking American bases.
I think this was a very foolish mistake by Iran. Iran makes these mistakes all the time, in its negotiations, in its dealings with its neighbors. I have often found that -- and surprised at how clumsy they are.
They should never have attacked the Gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia. The Gulf states had made clear they did not want any part of this military operation. They had said bases couldn't be used. Some of them had said airspace can't be used. They have privately counseled President Trump not to do this attack.
What the Iranians should have done was driven a wedge between the United States and the Gulf states. And you know, made clear that they did not view the Gulf states as responsible for this.
Instead, by foolishly attacking the Gulf states they have joined together those states you've seen, the UAE has made very strong statements. The Saudis, very importantly made a very strong statement saying, you know, that they regarded the attack as outrageous. And they were going to in some way or the other, retaliate or they, you know, they supported any retaliation.
So the Iranians have already misplayed this. Sometimes the United States gets lucky with its -- you know, in who its enemies are. And this certainly seems one of those occasions.
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BLITZER: Certainly does, Fareed. I just want to remind our viewers, six Arab countries right near Iran have been targeted by Iran -- the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait and now Saudi Arabia. It's really an amazing moment right there. Fareed Zakaria, thank you very, very much.
We'll take another quick break.
Coming up, President Trump calls the operation against Iran, in his words, "massive and ongoing", as Tehran promises a fierce response. What does this mean for U.S. forces in the Middle East? How endangered potentially are they?
General David Petraeus standing by to join us live as our special coverage continues.
[11:45:25]
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BLITZER: We're back with our breaking news. The United States and Israel launching joint coordinated strikes against Iran and Iran retaliating with strikes of its own all across the region.
These are live pictures of the skyline over Tel Aviv right now, where Iranian missiles and Israeli sirens have been sounding for some time now.
Retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus is joining us. He's a former commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, which is in charge of the Middle East area. And he was also the CIA director.
General Petraeus, as always, thanks so much for joining us.
What do you make, first of all, of Iran's response so far to these joint U.S.-Israeli strikes?
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS (RET), FORMER CENTCOM COMMANDER, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, I think what's different from the last time is that they were clearly ready to launch attacks and intended to launch them against countries in which we have forces or any kind of base. That's very different.
As you'll recall, the last time there was a very well telegraphed, warned attack against the air base outside Doha, Qatar. That was it and they were done.
I think they anticipated that this would happen, although I'm not sure they anticipated the actual hour that it would happen because unlike most previous operations, which start in the early -- the early hours of the morning, in this case, it started in daylight and presumably because the Israelis thought we could get them -- the leaders at that time.
BLITZER: An Israeli military official, General Petraeus is now telling CNN that several, quote "several" senior figures in Iran were killed in a set of targeted strikes in the opening salvo of the joint U.S.- Israeli strike attack. How might that impact, you think -- that development impact how Iran reacts or its ability to react to these U.S.-Israeli strikes? PETRAEUS: Well, it obviously disrupts it if the leaders are taken out.
Obviously, there's going to be a succession plan. That individual has to be plugged in. And of course, they have a real problem because they can't use electronic devices unless they're really deeply underground, because that's probably one of the sources of intelligence that is used to pinpoint the individuals that the Israelis are going after.
Remember last time they took out over 12 individual nuclear scientists of Iran, many of the top leaders in the military and Revolutionary Guards Corps and so forth.
But there will be succession plans and they will continue their operations. I think the really big focus right now is what Brett McGurk identified earlier, which is the so-called missile math.
This is about constantly trying to figure out how many launchers do they have left, where are they? How many missiles can they launch from those launchers? And then how many interceptors do we have? Where are they? How are they positioned? And the rest of that.
Because this is an integrated air-and-ballistic missile defense effort with our partners in the region, our ships, our onshore Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Patriot systems, and so forth. It's all together integrated with Israel as well. And that's what they're really watching at this stage.
Then the question is what kind of real impact can you have in terms of not just decapitating the leadership of Iran, but taking down the regime? And as some of your earlier guests have noted, it's pretty tough to take down a regime with air power.
I'm delighted to see us go after their missile stocks, finish off anything that was left over in the nuclear program and so forth. But if this is regime change, that is a very tall order indeed.
BLITZER: What do you think, General Petraeus, regime change in Iran potentially could look like? Do you see a clear path to who might take over and how that would play out?
PETRAEUS: Well, this is a challenge, Wolf, because the demonstrations, although enormous, and I think eventually we're going to find out that the regime forces killed probably well over 15,000 Iranians, the official number's not there yet, but I suspect it will be.
They detained tens of thousands, and they've been picking up others since then. The problem is there is really no organization to this. There's no leaders, the communications have been challenging because Iran once again, in fact, today has blocked the Internet.
There are some limited capabilities for getting out, including reportedly some Starlink capabilities that were put into the country -- quite considerable numbers.
But again who is going to lead this operation? Could there perhaps be a fragmentation of the security forces? That would be the most likely possible? It's not likely I don't think, but that might be the one that could
actually bring about a regime change. And we have seen no signs of that. This is a regime that is very, very unified. There might be some squabbling over who takes what job if their leader is taken out.
[11:54:44]
PETRAEUS: But that may not be enough to fracture it in the way that would be necessary for an element to truly get rid of this regime, replace it and then begin to deal with the world in a different way.
BLITZER: Do you see a scenario, General Petraeus, where regime change happens in Iran without U.S. military boots on the ground?
PETRAEUS: Well, I don't think we're going to put boots on the ground. Certainly we might have some sneakers on the ground or some other assets or something like that but it would be very, very limited. And in areas that would be, quote, "safe".
I don't see, again, any kind of major operation such as we launched and I was part of, of course to topple the regime in Baghdad.
And keep in mind that that didn't come about because of airstrikes although there were very substantial airstrikes. It came about because our ground forces threatened Baghdad, eventually took the airport and then took the entire city and the regime fled.
BLITZER: General David Petraeus, thanks so much for joining us. Always good to have you here in THE SITUATION ROOM with us.
PETRAEUS: Good to be with you, Wolf. Thank you.
BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. This note: I'll be back tomorrow starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern with the very latest from the Middle East.
Our breaking news will continue shortly with Kaitlan Collins. She's standing by.
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