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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Iran's Parliament Speaker Denies Negotiating With U.S.; Fuel Prices Remain High Amid Ongoing Hormuz Disruptions; Saudi Arabian Port Preparing For Influx Of Shipping Traffic. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: What do you make of these conflicting signals and is there any real diplomatic track underway -- and if at all, how is Saudi involved?

FAISAL ABBAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ARAB NEWS: Well, thanks again for having me, Becky.

As we all very well know the first casualty of war is always the truth and I think all the parties involved are very much concerned with saving face, particularly the Iranians. As you rightly pointed out there was a significant drop in attacks -- almost 90 percent, I believe, over the past week.

I don't think they'll be jumping to the conclusion that we are eager to negotiate. But the reports that I've read and everything I hear do appoint that there are active attempts by the Pakistanis to hold talks in Pakistan with the Iranians. This makes a lot of sense because as you know Pakistan is a neighboring country of Iran and it enjoys the trust of Saudi Arabia and the United States. In fact, I don't think there has been ever a better time in terms of bilateral relationships between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

This particular prime minister, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, seems to be one of the few leaders as well in the world that enjoys close relationships with President Trump. And, of course, their Army chief --

ANDERSON: Yeah.

ABBAS: -- commands wide respect in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the United States, and as such I wouldn't be surprised if Pakistan plays a major role in such negotiations.

ANDERSON: And I think your analysis is spot on there. Pakistan, of course, has got its own reasons for wanting to find an end to this conflict. It shares a border, of course, with Iran and will be very disinclined to see chaos in that country spilling over into Pakistan.

What do you make of The Wall Street Journal reporting, Faisal, that says in part it is only a matter of time before the kingdom enters the war? ABBAS: Look, I'm not sure about the accuracy of their sources but I

can tell you with absolute confidence that Saudi Arabia has given clear signals, certainly in the last statement by our foreign minister Prince Faisal, who clearly said that our patience is not bottomless. And that is a very clear indicator that we are locked and loaded and ready to enter the war if needed.

However, I do not anticipate at all Saudi Arabia doing or the Gulf, indeed, doing anything that will jeopardize any attempt for a negotiation or a negotiation attempt because the best outcome, of course, is a certain outcome and you only get a certain outcome if you go through the diplomatic route in negotiations.

Don't forget the Iranian ambassador, despite everything that has been going on, is still in Saudi Arabia and there is still a diplomatic channel open.

ANDERSON: Yeah. No, you make a good point.

Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president, criticizing Arab and Muslim countries for failing to support Gulf Arab countries in what he describes as "times of hardship." There is clearly some real anger contrary to what some are suggesting. This conflict seems to have pushed the U.S. and its Gulf allies closer whilst alienating erstwhile Arab and Islamic partners or friends.

Do you believe Saudi shares the UAE's position on this? And I wonder what you think the long-term consequences are.

ABBAS: Well Becky, as you know, Mr. Gargash is a veteran and a very well-experienced Emirate diplomat and, you know, commands a lot of respect across the range. However, the Emirates can speak for themselves. Personally, I don't think beyond lip service there's anything really needed from the Arab League.

You know very well there's a joint Arab defense pact that has been signed in 1950 -- as back as 1950. It's really not even worth the ink that it's written in. So apart from lip service I don't think we need anything from the Arab League. The minimum they can do is offer support.

However, what has been interesting to watch, and as a Saudi and a citizen of the Gulf, I'm very proud to see how quickly we managed to put our internal differences in the GCC aside and unite in front of the common threat. Indeed, this proves that the GCC stands for the Gulf Cooperation Council and not the Gulf competitiveness council.

[05:35:08]

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Faisal. Thank you. And I know you're busy in London there, traveling from Saudi, and thanks for making the time this morning. It's important. Faisal Abbas for you.

Let's get you back to Rahel Solomon who is in New York.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Becky. Thank you. Still ahead for us we continue to track some movements across global markets as President Trump signals new talks between Washington and Tehran. We'll have an update on those numbers after the break.

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[05:40:15]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

The stock market rallied after President Trump said that he'd postponed strikes on Iran's power plants. Let's take a look and see where U.S. futures are now ahead of Tuesday's opening bell, and it is lower across the board. Let's call it two-tenths of a percent, rounding up for the Nasdaq, to almost three-tenths of a percent for Dow futures.

Let's see how the Asian Pacific markets are doing. Quite a different story. All up between 1.4 percent for the Nikkei to almost three percent for the Hang Seng.

Oil prices, meantime, moving in the opposite direction. They dropped sharply after President Trump's announcement. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell nearly 11 percent on Monday to just under $100 a barrel, but it has now crept back up to around $102 a barrel. As you can see, higher by about 2.3 percent.

Let's get to CNN's Eleni Giokos in Dubai who has been covering all of this. Eleni, how do you read this move back up for oil? I mean, how much are traders feeling perhaps skeptical about an imminent end to hostilities based on what we're seeing?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, exactly. A huge dose of skepticism here as we see oscillating rhetoric coming through from President Trump.

First, you had the ultimatum, 48 hours. Open the Strait of Hormuz or else we target power plants and critical energy infrastructure. Then suddenly, news that Iran and the U.S. are in negotiations, or at least talking in some form or other. The Iranians saying that isn't the case. And, of course, again, a big dose of reality hitting the markets.

It's quite interesting. I was watching the U.S. futures early this morning that moved positive and now moving negative once again. Look, the markets have really been under pressure over the past month since the war started and, you know, speaking to some investors they were saying, you know, there's been a little bit of buying back in the dip, but most have a very -- a very bearish stance and this is why.

The International Energy Agency says the oil shock that we're seeing globally right now exceeds what we saw during the oil crisis in 1973 and 1979, and we don't really know the long-term damage. Apart from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz -- which by the way, we haven't seen anything changing there. Iran still has ultimate control of the straits, allowing some countries to pass through the strait only if they negotiate directly with Iran for secure passage.

And then you have the over 40 pieces of critical energy infrastructure that have been targeted in the Gulf in the last 25 days. The International Energy Agency warning of the long-term damage there.

And I remind you that Qatar has given us just how long it's going to take them to get back to full capacity -- three to five years -- after losing 17 percent of their capacity just during this war -- during the Iranian strikes.

So it's a major concern right now. I mean, the question is just how much of the bad news has been priced in. How much is floating around at sea? You've got, you know, the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil and that getting into the market. You've got the releasing of strategic reserves. But you only have to look at gas prices, for example, in the United States to see that uptick.

I mean, you've also got major concerns about access to jet fuel where some countries are trying to ration jet fuel. And again, we've been told don't take flights if you don't have to. Stay at home. Work from home.

That's called demand destruction, Rahel, any way you look at this. This is a major oil shock. So unless you've got 20 million barrels of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz once again, you've got normal tanker traffic, you know, this kind of shock is going to last for a very long time and it's going to feed through to inflation. It's going to feed through into economic growth down the line.

So I think for President Trump trying to, you know, find a diplomatic off-ramp by giving himself five days to see how the markets respond to this is going to be quite interesting because he can only take so much pressure domestically and frankly, the world cannot handle this kind of pressure on the oil front.

SOLOMON: Yeah. It's such an interesting point Eleni about the demand destruction. I mean, you look at the prices here in the U.S. It's -- average prices --

GIOKOS: Yeah.

SOLOMON: -- are up a dollar on average since the start of this conflict.

I mean, anecdotally I've heard people tell me, look, I'm not driving anywhere unless I need to be there because the shock --

GIOKOS: Yes.

SOLOMON: -- and how quickly it came is being felt.

Eleni Giokos in Dubai. Eleni, thank you.

All right. Still ahead, explosions and flames rattle London's largest Jewish neighborhood. Coming up, we'll have the details on an arson investigation. We'll be right back.

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[05:49:08]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon. And here are some of the stories we are watching for you today.

Israel is responding to the latest wave of missile strikes. An Iranian attack left cars burning and buildings damaged in Tel Aviv this morning. Police say that search and rescue teams and bomb disposal experts are at several of the impact sites. Israel is also striking Iran. The Israeli Air Force says that it has struck more than 50 targets overnight into today.

Federal investigators are on the ground at New York's LaGuardia Airport. They're trying to determine how a landing Air Canada jet collided with a Port Authority fire and rescue truck on a runway. Both of the pilots were killed. The National Transportation Safety Board says that multiple teams are examining the wreckage and reviewing airport operations and air traffic communications.

[05:50:00]

And authorities are investigating in London after several ambulances outside a synagogue were set on fire. They belong to a Jewish volunteer rescue group. Police are searching for the three suspects spotted in this surveillance video but say that so far there have been no arrests. British authorities are treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime.

Ports along the Red Sea are seeing an influx of cargo shipments as Iran keeps a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. And Saudi Arabia's largest port is preparing to play its part.

CNN's Nic Robertson reports from Jeddah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voiceover): Saudi Arabi's biggest port Jeddah is gearing up for its busiest times yet. On Saudi's west coast, the Red Sea, it is about to pick up much of the trade Iran has choked off, blockading the Strait of Hormuz. More than 700 miles from the beleaguered Gulf it will be helping keep them alive.

ROBERTSON: Saudi officials are saying that already since the war began cargo traffic through their Red Sea ports is up by one-third and they're predicting that here in Jeddah the traffic is going to go up by 50 percent next month.

ROBERTSON (voiceover): While most of that one-third uptick is Saudi oil exports, millions of extra barrels pumped hundreds of miles across the Arabian desert. It is ports like Jeddah that will carry the bulk of imports. ROBERTSON: All this comes off here and gets stacked up over here, and

then it's going to get on trucks and head eastward across Saudi Arabia to the Gulf.

ROBERTSON (voiceover): Officials here say they are ready with enough docks, workers, cranes, and trucks lined up. But even so, analysts say they won't be able to make up all the Gulf import shortfall.

CHARLES VAN DER STEENE, REGIONAL MANAGING DIRECTOR, MAERSK: Food and medicine are the priority and, of course, we continue to assess this together with our customers. But it's clear that whether it is for the UAE, whether it's for Saudi, whether it's for Bahrain or Kuwait, and any other country within the Gulf, these are the prime priority to make sure that the population can receive what they need as part of their daily life.

ROBERTSON (voiceover): Major haulage contractors, like Maersk, say they and regional governments have been planning a land bridge trucking good from the Red Sea to the Gulf for years, and with good reason. The World Economic Forum says about 85 percent of the Gulf's food is imported.

VAN DER STEENE: It is safe to say that the Saudi government has been extremely involved in making sure that whatever roadblocks that might exist -- roadblocks in terms of the actual capacity in the terminal in Jeddah, roadblocks in terms of potential capacity of available trucks, but also roadblocks in terms of potential customs challenges that you might have so that the flow is to optimized.

ROBERTSON (voiceover): But for all the planning there are no guarantees. Last week, following an attack on its own energy infrastructure, Iran targeted Yanbu oil terminal and a drone hit a nearby refinery.

And then there's Iran's partial proxy, the Houthis, further down the Red Sea in Yemen. Until a few months ago they were attacking international shipping and could restart.

ROBERTSON: So far, the Red Sea has mostly been outside of the bounds of this war. But if the war escalates all this vital lifeline to the rest of the Gulf -- all that could become vulnerable.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: 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 in recent opinion surveys. Denmark's' defense minister and a leader of the center-right opposition party are among her main challengers.

Some of the main issues include Denmark's cost of living crisis and equality and immigration. She's also hoping to capitalize on her handling of the showdown with U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland. And we're going to take a break. We'll be right back.

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[05:58:45]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

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 populated city on the planet. The study notes a significant jump in air pollution there last year by nearly 23 percent, likely driven by dust storms, seasonal smog, industrial emissions, and crop burning.

The report says that air quality is declining in 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.

The Trump administration is spending $1 billion in taxpayer funds to stop the construction of wind farms off the east coast of the U.S. The U.S. Interior Department will return nearly $1 billion to the French energy giant TotalEnergies. The company has agreed to funnel the money into fossil fuel projects. The administration has thrown up roadblocks to stop all offshore wind projects, an energy source that President Trump personally hates.

[06:00:00]

And a survey of largely unexplored limestone caves in northwestern Cambodia has uncovered a new range of new species. They include a turquoise pit viper, a flying snake, several geckos, two micro snails, and two millipedes. The survey took place between November 2023 and July of last year. It explored 64 different caves across 10 hills. Each hill and cave in the rocky landscape is isolated from the others, which means that they all hold their own distinct life forms. That's according to the conservation charity Fauna & Flora.

OK, that's going to do it for us her today. Thanks for joining us. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.