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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Iran Targets Gulf Nations In Overnight Drone, Missile Attacks; Fuel Prices Remain High Amid Ongoing Hormuz Disruptions. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 24, 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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[04:31:07]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson, live from our Middle East programming headquarters. Time here is half past midday. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's claims of talks with Iran, there is no letup in the barrage of projectiles that Tehran is firing at Israel. The country's emergency response service says at least six people have been wounded at four different impacts sites across Tel Aviv.

Police say bomb disposal teams have been detached -- dispatched to deal with fallen explosives. Earlier, Iranian state media vowed -- showed video of missile launches, although it's not entirely clear when that was recorded. Authorities in Tehran denied President Trump's statements that talks aimed at ending the war are underway and are making progress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have points, major points of agreement, I would say almost all points of agreement, perhaps that hasn't been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces. They're unable to talk to each other. We're doing a five-day period. We'll see how that goes.

And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise we just keep bombing our little hearts out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, oil prices dropped sharply after President Trump said he'd postponed strikes on Iran's power plants. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell nearly 11 percent on Monday to just under $100 a barrel. It's crept up back over 100 to about 101 there. CNN's Eleni Giokos joining us from Dubai with the very latest.

What are the markets suggesting to you at this point, Eleni?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, firstly, I think what we saw yesterday, any kind of signal that perhaps there could be a conversation on the go signaling the end to this conflict, it shows how quickly oil prices can, in fact, come down. And I think that's a real signal from the overall industry that if you have some kind of resolution on the table, it could potentially mean lower oil prices. Now there's a lot of skepticism as to the contours of this discussion that might be going on between the United States and Iran, of course, the Iranians denying that they've engaged in any talks. And then you're seeing the oil price ticking up. In fact, this morning it was up three and a half percent, is now slightly softer.

Interesting also, I'm looking at the futures in the United States. They were in negative territory this morning, now shifted to positive territory. I think there's sort of like a recognition that we're not out of the woods just yet. Even though President Trump says he's given sort of five days to make a decision about whether he's going to escalate further and targets critical energy infrastructure in Iran, of course, that would be devastating for the entire region.

And also for what we see in the Strait of Hormuz, nothing has changed there yet. And in fact, to get tanker traffic back up to normal levels, it's going to take quite a lot, Becky. We know that Iran has effective control of the Strait of Hormuz. They're now here -- we're hearing that they're negotiating with countries specifically to try and get some tankers through the strait. But of course, it is just a trickle.

So unless we see something tangible that, you know, the markets can work with, we're going to be sitting with elevated prices. In fact, a lot of the economists and the analysts that I've spoken to say if you take net net, the policy impact. So in other words, releasing of emergency reserves by the International Energy Agency, you take a look at how oil is being, you know, diverted through the east west pipeline in Saudi Arabia. It's not nearly enough to counter what we're seeing in the Strait of Hormuz. Unless that is open, unless there is safe passage, we're still looking at a prognosis of much higher oil prices at around $120 a barrel.

And that's where we stand right now as we try and wait to see what kind of messaging. But the point is any messaging, any positive messaging is having a positive impact in some way.

[04:35:03]

ANDERSON: Good to have you, Eleni. Thank you.

Well, for more on this, I want to bring in Abdulla Banndar Al-Etaibi, live from Lusail in Qatar. He's an assistant professor in international affairs at Qatar University.

Abdulla, good to have you this morning. You're in Qatar, a country which, just like here in the UAE, has felt a barrage of missiles. The LNG sites, your energy production facilities are particularly targeted. I just wonder what the assessment of these Trump talks between the U.N. and Iran are there. What's the assessment there?

ABDULLA BANNDAR AL-ETAIBI, ASST. PROFESSOR IN INTL. AFFAIRS, QATAR UNIVERSITY: Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Becky. Well, the region has been in a turmoil recently with this war and the Iranian attacks to the regional countries you mentioned, some of them, the Rass Laffan, the energy, and Qatar, for example. When it comes to the talks at the moment, I feel there's hope in the region and in the world as well. That is a good indication that there is dialogue between fighting parties. And this is quite important.

You know, this region is very important, Becky. This is a region that's not only about fueling the world, it's actually about feeding the world as well. We talk about LNG and oil, for example, but also we talk about petrochemical products such as the helium. That's very important for MRIs. Also we mentioned the fertilizers.

Like, Becky, according to Bloomberg recently, that 5 billion -- in the past five years, 5 billion fertilizers has been imported by the U.S. from only Qatar here. And this means our dear American farmers will also be affected by the conflict that's taking place in the Middle East. So soon we will have to find out that while we're dining, we will be actually influenced by this as a world, not only as a region, because this conflict cannot be contained within the region. This is actually a war and a threat to the global interests. And I think all of us are suffering at the moment.

So these talks are --

ANDERSON: Yes.

AL-ETAIBI: -- our hope. Let's wait. Let's see how things go. We believe in Turkish, Pakistani, Egyptian and all other countries that are mediating in between. They are trying to push parties for dialogue. And this is a good sign.

ANDERSON: I spoke to one Qatari diplomat yesterday who said they aren't specifically directly involved in these mediation talks. The focus and effort is, of course, on the Qatar economy at this point and very specifically on the energy assets. But you're absolutely right to point out that this is a bigger story than just energy. This is a story about food security, sort of medical supplies security and the like. I wonder from your perspective, do you believe we're seeing alignment across the Gulf in terms of strategy or defense coordination or do you see a slight split?

And where does -- where does Doha stand in its approach compared to its neighbors?

AL-ETAIBI: Well, for sure, we see all the regional countries are sticking together. There are lots of coordination that has been taking place since day one. We saw so many -- so many calls. His Highness had so many calls with regional countries and also other partners, also His Excellency the Prime Minister as well. It's very important for Qatar in particular and also for the GCC countries to work as a bloc and also to work shoulder to shoulder with other blocs as well, such as the European Union, the Arab League and also the important meeting of the Muslim foreign ministers last week in Riyadh.

That's was -- that was big -- an important in person meeting during this difficult time. So I believe all regional countries trying to work within a solid strategy, that's number one, defending the sovereignty against attacks, secondly, not be dragged into this war, and thirdly, trying to push for dialogue because this is not helping anybody.

ANDERSON: Right. According to the Financial Times reporting, the flow of liquefied natural gas from the Gulf is expected to come to an abrupt end in the next 10 days. Qatar, of course, one of the world's largest LNG exporters, accounting for nearly 20 percent global supply. I wonder how close you see us to a global gas supply squeeze, what that means for a burgeoning LNG industry in the United States and indeed what this means going forward for prices and energy security.

[04:40:18]

AL-ETAIBI: Well, that's a global, Becky, actually. We talk about 20 percent. I don't think the world grow without the 20 percent they need that Qatar is contributing to the market. It's a significant number. And now we're seeing Qatar activating the force majeure.

And there is damage has been done to the facilities here in Qatar. And this is actually will take time because according to Qatar Energy, they need time to fix the damage first, then they need time to resume the production. And then we will see Qatar's actually fueling the world with that 20 percent they need. And this will take time because as then, what we really need to focus on now is to stop this war and to go for a dialogue for regional countries, including Qatar here, to be able to resume their plans when it comes to LNG. It's a big major.

We talk about 30 percent of the U.K. electricity comes from Qatar, LNG, for example. This is just a number. People will be affected by that whether they imported it from Qatar or not, because this is a matter of, first of all, a shock to the market. So this will affect the price and supply in the market. And according to Financial Times, as you mentioned, Becky, within 10 days, then it's going to be a problem because the last shipment of the LNG will be delivered.

Then what's next? That's the question for the market. That's a question for so many countries in the importing. So I think that's a big question mark now.

ANDERSON: And not least, you know, it's a big question mark for Qatar itself and kind of citizens. I mean, Qatar Energy is the sort of bedrock of the -- of the sort of financial society there. And as the CEO was pointing out, you know, a strike on Qatar Energy taking the LNG supplies out of the market is a significant impact on Qatar's economy.

Abdulla, thank you very much indeed for joining us. It's good to have you on the show this morning.

Still to come here --

AL-ETAIBI: Thank you for having me, Becky.

ANDERSON: -- immigration agents get deployed to more than a dozen U.S. airports. Why top officials believe they can help the understaffed TSA. That is after this.

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[04:47:25]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. In the coming hours, immigration and customs enforcement agents are expected to return to at least 14 different airports across the U.S. they're supposed to help the understaffed TSA, which is experiencing massive numbers of callouts due to the partial government shutdown. CNN's Karin Caifa has more on the travel nightmare at airports.

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KARIN CAIFA, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): President Donald Trump says it was his idea to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into some of the nation's busiest airports.

TRUMP: ICE was my idea. I called -- first person I called was Tom Homan. I said, what do you think? He said, I think it's great.

CAIFA (voice-over): Ice agents, under the direction of border czar Tom Homan were deployed to more than a dozen U.S. Airports Monday as callouts and resignations by Transportation Security Administration officers climb amid a stalemate over Homeland Security funding that's left them without pay since mid-February.

MIKE GAYZAGIAN, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY OFFICER: I've never seen lines like those before, and those certainly pose security issues for all of those folks involved, and that has to be addressed right away.

CAIFA (voice-over): Homan said agents would help TSA in areas that don't need their specialized expertise, like screening through X-ray machines.

SARAH SALDANA, FORMER ICE DIRECTOR UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: ICE has a specific, very important mission on its own, and to be taking them off their regular jobs for which they're specifically trained, makes very little sense to me.

CAIFA (voice-over): Travelers have faced unpredictable wait times at busy airports like Chicago's O'Hare.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I decided that I should just make sure that in order to catch my flight, I have to get here at, yes, at least three hours beforehand.

CAIFA (voice-over): At Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson, passengers were advised to arrive at least four hours ahead of departure time Monday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know about the news. I knew it would be bad. I came prepared.

CAIFA (voice-over): And at Houston's Bush Intercontinental, passengers were warned wait times could stretch past four hours. Congress is expected to begin a spring recess at the end of this week, potentially leaving the DHS shutdown unresolved until mid-April.

In Washington, I'm Karin Caifa.

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SOLOMON: Top Republicans in the U.S. Senate appear to be coming together in support of a plan to end the partial government shutdown. It calls for restoring all funding for the Homeland Security Department except for a small portion of the immigration enforcement budget. President Trump rejected a similar plan over the weekend. He said that he wants DHS funding tied to his Save America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

And President Trump's pick to lead DHS has been approved by the Senate on a vote of 54 to 45. Markwayne Mullin will now be one of the faces of the contentious immigration enforcement effort and that ongoing shutdown. Mullin is taking over from the embattled Kristi Noem, who was ousted earlier this month.

[04:50:04]

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

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Voting is underway this hour in Denmark's general election. Center left Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is seeking her third term. Her strong backing of Ukraine has helped boost her support and recent opinion surveys. Denmark's defense minister and the leader of the center right opposition party are among federation's main challengers.

Some of the main issues include Denmark's cost of living crisis, inequality and immigration. She is also hoping to capitalize on her handling of the showdown with U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland.

[04:55:05]

A newly released global study from IQAir is sounding the alarm on the global rise in air pollution. The annual report analyzes air pollution data from 9,500 cities and 143 countries, and it has ranked Loni, India, as the most polluted city on the planet. The study notes a significant jump in air pollution there last year by nearly 23 percent that was likely driven by dust storms, seasonal smog, industrial emissions and crop burning. The report says that air quality is declining and many places around the world. Only about 14 percent of cities worldwide met the WHO's air quality guidelines in 2025.

That is down from 17 percent the year before.

OK. Thanks for joining us. Becky Anderson and I will both be back with another hour of Early Start after this break. Stay with us.

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