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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Iran Claims Firing 700 Missiles, 3,600 Drones Since War Began; Ukraine Worries About "Losing The Americans" As Global Attention Shifts To The War In The Middle East; Michigan Synagogue Attacker's Brother Was Hezbollah Commander, IDF Says; 4 Iranian Soccer Team Members Withdraw Asylum Requests; Oscars Honor This Year's Biggest Films And Top Talents. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 16, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: President Trump is ramping up pressure on NATO allies as his administration calls on other countries to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president's push to get naval escorts for oil tankers in the region comes as the war enters its third week. President Trump says the U.S. is not yet prepared to make a deal with Tehran to end the war.

U.S. and Israeli officials are now indicating that the conflict may keep going for at least several more weeks. Iran's foreign minister also signaled that the regime is prepared to keep fighting.

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ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: No, we never asked for a cease fire and we have never asked even for negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes. And this is what we have done so far. And we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory.

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ANDERSON: Well, CNN's Nada Bashir filed this report.

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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Tehran, morning traffic moves under banners of Iranian missiles. Two weeks of bombardment and life keeps going. On Saturday, thousands turned out for a rally in support of the country's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, a leader rallying his people from the shadows. He has not been seen publicly since taking power. President Donald Trump questions whether he is even alive.

But the strikes keep coming, too. Isfahan hit on Sunday, smoke rising over one of Iran's oldest cities. The bombardment is relentless. And for now, there is no indication Washington wants to slow down.

Trump posted on Truth Social this week, his words, the United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran. But the countries of the world that receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage.

Israel's foreign minister said the war would end when the U.S. and Israel decide it's appropriate to do so. Interceptors lighting up the sky above Tel Aviv. Most brought down. But the message is clear. Whatever Washington and Jerusalem say about timetables, Iran is still in this fight.

Tehran has a counter move. Iran vows to keep fighting and is squeezing the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off one of the world's most important supply routes for crude oil and natural gas.

MOHSEN REZAEI, IRANIAN EXPEDIENCY COUNCIL (through translator): The Strait of Hormuz will not be open to shipping. Not a single American Navy vessel will be allowed to enter the Persian Gulf. How this war ends is in our control.

BASHIR (voice-over): Prices are jumping. Insurers pulling back. Shipping companies finding longer routes. And so the new target for US strikes. Kharge Island, Iran's main crude export hub, handling about 90 percent of its oil exports.

Up close, a vast industrial complex built to pump Iran's lifeblood to the global economy, now in the crosshairs.

Another country in the crosshairs is Lebanon. For a moment, the sky above Beirut's southern suburbs holds something other than smoke. But on the ground, there is no such reprieve. Nearly a million people in Lebanon are on the move, fleeing strikes across the country.

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In Sidon, the aftermath. Shattered buildings, emptied streets in Beirut's suburbs, entire blocks reduced to rubble. Families camped out on Beirut's beloved Corniche, escaping Israeli military moves through southern Lebanon.

Each advance pulls this country deeper into a war it has no capacity to absorb. Two weeks of bombardment and Iran's government is still standing. That is the point. Tehran is not trying to win militarily. It is trying to make this war too expensive to continue.

With Hormuz under pressure, Gulf terminals threatened and Lebanon now bearing the human cost, that pressure is coming from every direction. Nada Bashir, CNN in London.

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ANDERSON: Well, the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran forcing the rest of the international community to confront the latest global conflict and try to help restore some orders. In the last hour, ministers from the European Union met to discuss the situation in the Middle East. The EU's foreign policy chief just told reporters it's, quote, in our interest to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Also on the agenda, of course, the ongoing war in Ukraine. This is Kiev. Worries about, quote, losing the Americans as the world's attention shifts to the war in Iran. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressing his concerns to CNN's Fareed Zakaria and also spoke about Russia's involvement in the war with Iran.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We saw intelligence shared with us some details and it was Russian details in these Iranian drones. This is the first and the second point is my intelligence told me next that they think that -- they share information, intelligence with Iranian regime. They help them.

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ANDERSON: Well, that intelligence revelation has caused blowback for the White House, especially in light of its recent decision to temporarily ease sanctions on Russian oil to fight surging oil prices. One Republican lawmaker called the move a reward to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Let's bring in Jill Dougherty, who is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, former colleague of mine, former CNN Moscow bureau chief. It's good to have you. Thank you, Jill.

We just heard there President Zelenskyy saying Russia has effectively helped enable the Iranian drone program now being used against U.S. interests in the Middle East.

What does that suggest to you about how the Kremlin is leveraging the Ukraine war to expand its influence in other conflicts?

JILL DOUGHERTY, ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Well, you know, I think you'd have to say that this conflict, the war that's ongoing in Iran is connected to what is happening in Ukraine. And they're, you know, diplomatically and militarily, if you start just with the drones, yes, Iran in the beginning of the full scale invasion four years ago into Ukraine was providing weapons, actually drones, as we all know, to Russia and then Russia began to produce those. Their own drones were based on the Iranian plans for drones. So that's one part of it.

Then you have another connection, which is the concern that the Ukrainians certainly have, that the weapons that now are needed to defend in this Iran war, especially Patriot missiles, could be taken away, not available for protecting Ukraine in the Ukraine war.

And then I think it's really important to look at the diplomatic side of this, because just look at the recent. We can talk more about this, but the very recent comments by President Trump saying that NATO would have a very bad future if it does not help him with reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

I mean, any threat against NATO by an American president, of course, is something that the Kremlin would welcome, and I'm sure Putin and his staff are looking at that very carefully. And then also you have the comment that President Trump made right, during that encounter with the media, where he said he was asked, is Putin interfering, providing intelligence and targeting information to Iran?

And President Trump said, I don't know, but we have done the same thing, roughly. He didn't mention exactly in Ukraine, but that is what he meant. So this is, in other words, drawing a moral equivalence between what Putin is doing and the United States. That is not the first time that he has done that.

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If you remember in 2017, he said he was asked is Putin a killer? And he said, the United States, we have a lot of killers, too. So there are a lot of connections. No question about that.

ANDERSON: He also said President Donald Trump, well, he certainly said before that it is, quote, inconsequential if Russia is sharing intelligence with Iran to help it target U.S. assets. I mean, what do you make of that assessment?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I don't think it's inconsequential, certainly. I mean, providing targeting, some of the worst destruction has been carried out by targeting. And if it is coming from Russia, that should be concerning to the Americans.

I think, you know, that moral equivalence, they the Russians will simply say that we do the same thing in Ukraine is really conceding giving up a debate that you can have about American power. And it's helping or not in Ukraine. And don't forget stepping back.

The negotiations over the hope by President Trump to end the war in Ukraine are being carried out by the same team, Mr. Witkoff and Jared Kushner, that are dealing with the war in Iran and the connections with the Middle East.

So I think you have a lot of crosshairs in this. And I'd have to mention just a couple of days ago, President Trump directly said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, is more difficult to work with than Putin and that Putin wants an end to the war and apparently Zelenskyy does not. That's the opinion of Mr. Trump.

So again, these cross currents between the two wars ongoing are very notable. And I think it complicates where we are going to end either of them.

ANDERSON: Yes. And as Zelenskyy frames this as direct cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, it isn't clear whether from the Kremlin's perspective. This is sort of ideological alignment or simply sort of transactional wartime pragmatism. We will continue to follow all of these developments. Jill, always good to have you. I know you're in, as I understand it, Budapest this morning. So thank you very much indeed for joining us.

And I will be back with more news. Thank you from the region next hour. For now, let's get you back to Rahel Solomon, who is in New York. Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Becky, we'll see you then. Thank you. Still ahead for us, officials are looking into the family of the suspect who rammed a truck into a synagogue in Michigan. Coming up next, what Israeli officials are now telling CNN about the brother of Ayman Ghazali. We'll be right back.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. We are learning new details about the suspect in Thursday's attack on a Michigan synagogue, the Israeli military now saying that Ayman Ghazali's brother was a Hezbollah commander in charge of managing weapons operations for one of the group's units.

The IDF says that Ibrahim Ghazali was killed on March 5 in an attack on a Hezbollah military building used to store weapons. U.S. authorities say that Ayman Ghazali drove a vehicle into Temple Israel near Detroit before exchanging fire with security officers. A security guard was hurt. Ayman Ghazali died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Four more members of Iran's women's national soccer team have apparently withdrawn their request for asylum in Australia. A source close to the team says that the women changed their minds after facing pressure from Tehran.

In all, seven members of the team, known as the Lionesses, were granted refugee visas by Australia earlier this month after competing at the Women's Asian Cup. The team had refused to sing Iran's national anthem in their opening match, which drew backlash from Iranian hardliners, including some on state media who called the women traitors.

Australian officials have repeated their offers of asylum, but acknowledge the difficult circumstances that the women are facing.

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SOLOMON: We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. The Academy has spoken and celebrations are underway for this year's Oscar winners, the newly crowned best and brightest of the film industry. CNN and Espanol anchor and film critic Juan Carlos Arciniegas shares his analysis on Hollywood's biggest night of the year.

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JUAN CARLOS ARCINIEGAS, CNN EN ESPANOL ANCHOR AND FILM CRITIC: Justice was done. As a film critic who has expressed total admiration for Paul Thomas Anderson for more than 20 years, today I celebrate that at last, after 11 failed attempts, the American filmmaker took home the three Oscars for which he was nominated as a screenwriter, director and producer.

His film "One Battle After Another" also triumphed in three other categories, bringing the total to six statues for this production, which turned out to be the most awarded of the night. All my predictions when it comes to the acting categories hit the mark.

Jessie Buckley for "Hamnet" and Michael B. Jordan for "Sinners" won as actors in leading roles. Amy Madigan from "Weapons" and Sean Penn from "One Battle After Another" won in the category for best supporting roles.

This time there was an extensive tribute to the artists who died within the last special mentions for Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton, Katherine O'Hara and Robert Redford, for whom Barbra Streisand performed the musical theme "From the Way Were," the film she and Redford starred in 1973.

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For the second consecutive time, the host for this year's award show was comedian Conan O'Brien, and although among his jokes he referenced to Timothee Chalamet's controversial comments about opera and ballet, the one who did use humor very well to denounce bigger geopolitical issues was Jimmy Kimmel as he announced the winners of the two documentary categories, incidentally with socio political themes.

Another who joined the political criticism was Javier Bardem. The Spanish actor said no to war and free Palestine from the stage as well as on the red carpet wearing two pins with the same slogans. Not everyone made a political statement in their acceptance speeches, but one way or another, this gala was marked by the moment of uncertainty the world is currently living. Juan Carlos Arciniegas, CNN Hollywood.

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SOLOMON: All right, and that'll do it for this hour. Thanks for joining us. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. I'll be back with Becky Anderson for more coverage of the war with Iran right after this break.

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