Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with Rahel Solomon

White House Says Iran Talks Proceeding, Iran FM Denies Negotiations; Sources: Iran Preparing For Possible U.S. Attack On Kharg Island; Senate Fails Another Attempt To Advance DHS Funding Bill; Meta, YouTube Found Liable In Social Media Addiction Case. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:27]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon, live this morning in New York.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Becky Anderson, live from our Gulf and Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE.

We are tracking new attacks across the Middle East on day 27 of this war with Iran.

Here in Abu Dhabi, authorities say two people have been killed overnight by falling debris from an intercepted ballistic missile. Damage as well, in Israel, where the IDF says an emergency crew responded to an area east of Tel Aviv after it was hit by debris from an Iranian missile.

The renewed attacks just hours after President Trump claimed Iran makes -- wants to make a deal so badly to end the war. The White House says talks with Iran are proceeding, but Iran's foreign minister denies any negotiations, saying there's only been, quote, "an exchange of messages".

Meantime, two sources tell CNN that the Trump administration officials are working to arrange a meeting in Pakistan this weekend to discuss an off ramp to this war. The current plan has Vice President J.D. Vance traveling to the country, but officials caution the details are still being worked out.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now from here in Abu Dhabi.

And as you monitor what we have seen over the overnight hours, Paula, and into this Thursday, day 27, what's the latest?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, we are hearing more about the diplomacy that the Trump administration is pushing, but we're not seeing any difference to what is happening on the ground. We have had here in the UAE three waves of incoming projectiles. As you say, two people have been killed by falling debris from interceptions there in Israel as well, in central Israel, there has been damage from, again, from shrapnel, from interceptions. There have been a number of waves of Iranian missiles and drones hitting Israel at this point.

So, there doesn't appear to have changed anything on the ground. At the same time, as we are hearing positive words from the Trump administration, the White House press secretary, for example, saying that talks continue. They are productive.

However, what we're hearing from Israel is skepticism that this will actually lead anywhere. We've certainly heard from the Israeli prime minister that they are continuing to fight, they say, against Iran and Hezbollah. And what we are hearing from Iran is questions as to whether or not these talks are even happening.

Let's listen to the Iranian foreign minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): I will explain that there is no negotiations, but the fact that the enemy who sought our unconditional surrender now talks about negotiations, requests talks and mobilizes its highest officials to negotiate with the Islamic republic. This means accepting defeat.

So far, the people of Iran, our armed forces and all segments of the nation are truly the winners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: So Araghchi saying that even attempting to have negotiations shows an acknowledgment of failure by the United States.

What we have heard, though, from sources familiar with what is going on, is that there is a push to try and have some kind of meetings in Pakistan as early as this weekend. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to lead those talks. As we have heard from Iranian sources, that they do not want to be dealing with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the two who were in charge of the previous negotiations, which fell and collapsed 27 days ago when this war started. They say there is a -- there is no level of trust between those interlocutors.

We'll see from the White House, though, who they will send. They said the talks are fluid, the timing is fluid, the location is fluid. It could potentially be Turkey as well if security issues are not in place in Pakistan.

Now also, we are hearing a lot more about Kharg Island. This is the key island when it comes to oil exports for Iran, a small island just off the southwest coast of Iran. That speculation has been surrounding a possible invasion by U.S. troops.

We're hearing now from sources that Iran is building up its defensive, its defenses along the shoreline, anti-tank missiles -- excuse me, anti-tank mines and also the air defense systems to try and make that as difficult as possible for the U.S. military to try and take over should they decide to do so -- Becky. [05:05:19]

ANDERSON: Good to have you, Paula. Thank you very much indeed.

All right. Well, off for a foreign policy adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke to CNN earlier. He told my colleague Jim Sciutto that President Trump and Netanyahu are on the same page when it comes to defining victory in this war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPHIR FALK, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER TO ISRAELI PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: First of all, I think we've been very successful to date, and I have not seen any daylight between the president and the prime minister. I have 2020 vision. I have seen zero daylight between the president of the United States and our prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu. I've never seen cooperation coordination between two world leaders like we have in this war.

I've never seen such cooperation between two armed forces like the Israeli armed forces and the American armed forces. I think it's an epic tag team. I haven't seen anything like this in the history of warfare, and we can only thank that.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, but tell me then, what would for the prime minister or for you, what would you need to see to say, we've done our job, we won this war. What would you need to see? Would you need to see regime change?

Would you need to see zero missiles getting fired? Because as you know, I was in the shelter three times today. They maintained some ability to fire missiles.

What is the definition of victory from Israel's perspective?

FALK: Again, our objective is to remove the existential threat posed by this ayatollah regime, both their nuclear capabilities and their ballistic missile capabilities. If they can still fire ballistic missiles on civilians, which is what they're doing, they're trying to murder civilians round the clock. That's what they do.

If they have that capability, then that's not enough. But we're hitting them like they've never been hit before, and were going to continue to hit them until we reach our objectives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, that's the Israeli position then. The UAE minister of state, Lana Nusseibeh, says that the Gulf has tried diplomacy with Iran for years through sustained engagement and repeated diplomatic channels. Her comments come as the UAE was once again targeted overnight. Let's have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANA NUSSEIBEH, UAE MINISTER OF STATE: We've always tried the diplomatic channel with Iran. We've tried it for decades. And I was in Tehran in early February. We have been working with the United States for months to try and de-escalate tensions in the region. We were supportive of direct negotiations between the United States and Iran.

We did not ask for a war in our region. We did not start a war in our region. But as a result of these operations, we have now seen Iran take the irresponsible decision instead of negotiating with the United States over really well understood concerns over its nuclear program, over its ballistic missiles program, over its support of state or non- state terrorist actors in the region.

Instead of negotiating over those issues, they chose instead to fire over 2,200 missiles and drones at the United Arab Emirates, a peacemaker in the region, a country that signed the Abraham Accords five years ago, a country that has tried to extend the hand of peace to Iran, a country that has tried to push for negotiations and dialogue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The message I see here seems to be stay the course, get the Strait of Hormuz open. That is a global issue and then negotiate a lasting solution with Iran that takes into consideration the interests of Iran's neighbors.

I have to just underscore the message from the UAE's foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the past couple of days, Abdullah Bin Zayed, who says the UAE will not be blackmailed by terrorists.

My next guest writes what is being targeted in the war unfolding in the gulf is not merely energy markets or national capabilities, but the development project itself. What is under attack today is the accumulation of years of investment in people, in infrastructure and long-term stability. It's a vision, effectively.

Joining me now from Doha is Mohamed al-Hashimi. He's the director of strategy, performance and partnerships at Qatar leadership center.

It's good to have you today. I mean, this this vision to a degree that's being built around the gulf and sort of leads to a road that is sort of navigating a new Middle East, a different Middle East, a Middle East of peace and prosperity certainly seems to be in the crosshairs of this Iranian regime.

Qatar is now calling for a role in rewriting the regional security system. That's according to Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson.

[05:10:05]

I wonder, from your perspective, what kind of system is Doha? Perhaps alongside other states, although we see some sort of differing positions at present, but what's actually being built in the aftermath of this war? Is it clear at this point?

MOHAMMED AL-HASHEMI, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY: Good morning, Becky. Thank you very much for having me. I think, you know, as the spokesperson put it a few weeks ago, the state of Qatar was always communicating to its partners that if things haven't been solved, utilizing the correct way since October 7th, this is exactly what we'll be reaching. And as he nicely put it, he said this was the biggest I told you so in the history of I told you so.

However, I think it's very important to understand how we in the Gulf region are seeing the events here. As I noted in my article, we see it as two things. First, we see it as an attack against the doctrine that we have, the ontology that we have, the belief in that -- in development and the importance of reaching prosperity through developmental projects that included those LNG trains that have been attacked and included the infrastructure that have been attacked, which was even, proved statistically as the -- as the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs noted a few weeks ago, 40 percent of the attacks were against energy targets, 25 percent of them were against civilian targets.

And it's very clear that were dealing with something that started in late '70s. Then this school of thought, or at least an ontology that believes in arsenal rather than believing in, in, you know, building -- building the infrastructure and achieving prosperity for people. We don't achieve that by throwing missiles against each other because at the end of the day, we're not going to change the geography.

And at the same time, we, we and also the United States tried that before in different countries. And we reached, you know, catastrophes. And I completely also disagree with, with the comments that Ambassador Nusseibeh noted earlier, because, you know, through diplomacy, we have achieved a lot of things and avoided a lot of turmoil. And what we achieved right now was actually a direct result of using missiles and drones rather than dialogue and civilized communication between -- I know -- I know that might be very hard of the day. This is what diplomacy is for.

ANDERSON: Yeah, I guess the sort of counterargument, if you could call it that, would be that the important point here is looking at a lasting solution that will avoid these sort of cycles of escalation and de-escalation. And that comprehensive agreement that this region has sought for years. And I take, you know, our viewers back to 2015, when the JCPOA was signed, the original Iran deal, it didn't include sufficient ballistic missile capability agreement. It didn't -- it didn't -- it didn't speak to the maligned behavior of proxies around this region where you and I are.

So, I think perhaps the point being, you know, it's the comprehensive solution rather than the sort of ceasefire and stop now and all will be well, that perhaps people in this region are trying to avoid the joint statement from Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and I note the omission of Oman. There is unusually strong in condemning Iranian attacks and invoking Article 51 of the U.N. charter, the right to self-defense. As I say, Oman, notably absent from that statement.

Does this reflect a more unified and assertive Gulf security position taking shape, or do you see divisions at this point? AL-HASHEMI: I completely see that there is a unified -- unified

position against those attacks. No, we all are suffering from things that doesn't make sense at all. That was practiced before by Israel and currently by Iran by attacking civilian targets across the Gulf region and disrupting the development and literally disrupting the powerhouse of the world through Hormuz or through also the LNG trains.

It's also very important to keep in mind something Becky that -- for the past two years, we've been, mediators and we were able to achieve things that, you know, reaching consensus regarding very important things, which allowed the gulf regions.

The problem is that we're currently having is that we are noticing that some actors in the region are trying to push us to this war in order to collect the low hanging fruits. And from the Qatar experience, I can assure you that what we've been doing with the United States over the past 30 years wasn't something to target or aim at low hanging fruits.

We were targeting long-term partnerships. We were targeting economic and investment opportunities. And we achieved so many things. And as I said earlier, what we achieved here internally in Qatar wasn't by, you know, planning attacks against other countries or utilizing our political, you know, will to manipulate other countries and exploit those partnerships.

It was actually started in late '70s to build infrastructure, to build schools, to build universities. And this is, by the way what we've been collaborating with the United States by taking the best practices from our American partners, especially in the energy sector and by building things that are -- that yielded today's Qatar, that make Qatar from a bankrupt country in early 1990s to today.

And this wasn't done through war.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

AL-HASHEMI: I think we can see other examples, including Afghanistan, including other places where those revenues and those economic partnerships, that what he, what he did wasn't utilized to build prosperous countries. And I hope that we are not learning from the -- I hope that we're learning the correct lesson from history, especially when it comes to this.

My issue is that I do believe that what we are witnessing is grounded in delusion and shaped by, you know, political will. And I hope that we can learn good lessons from the history.

ANDERSON: The context you provide is so important. Mohammed, thank you very much indeed for joining us.

Mohamed al-Hashemi is in Doha for you this morning.

We will do more on the us-Israeli war with Iran and its impact in this region and around the world as we move through these hours.

I do want to get you back to Rahel Solomon, who is in New York with some other news.

SOLOMON: All right. Becky, we'll see you shortly. Thank you.

The U.S. Senate failed once again to agree on funding for the Department of Homeland Security and end a partial government shutdown. Republican lawmakers thought that Democrats had accepted their offer to fund the DHS, except for certain operations handled under immigration and customs enforcement.

But Senate Democrats sent a counteroffer, sticking to the demands that they've been wanting since the start of the shutdown. The White House had already agreed to some concessions last week as part of broader talks. The counteroffer was dismissed by top Republicans as, quote, rehashing old ground. DHS officials say that at least 480 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began, and more than 3,000 TSA employees didn't show up to work on Tuesday. Some are working alongside ICE agents who do continue to get paid.

But President Trump suggested that even more reinforcements may be on the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And if we have to, we're going to send in the National Guard if we need to, because we only, you know, we have 6,000 ICE agents that we have 40,000 of the other people that they're helping out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Houston, Texas, with more on the massive security lines affecting some airports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The nightmare travel scenario will continue here in the coming days at Houston's George Bush intercontinental airport. Officials tell us that even though on Wednesday we saw some of the lowest travel volume of the week and the lines were significantly shorter, they expect traffic at this airport to continue increasing going into the weekend. Heavy travel days like Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday, and those lines of four plus hours long could very much be in the cards once again. The area where you're seeing behind me, even though today is a lower volume day, there's still a great deal of waiting having to be done by these passengers who are simply trying to navigate all of this situation here, and they will have to continue to do so.

We're -- we're told by -- according to TSA officials, that there was a call out rate of about 43 percent here at this airport on Tuesday. We don't have Wednesday numbers until the day after the next day. So those are the latest numbers. But those significant number of call outs at this particular airport that happened on Tuesday, which are the latest figures. And they have been close to 40 percent throughout much of the week. And that is the reason why at the airport, like here at George Bush

Intercontinental, you're seeing only two of the terminals open to security screening, and that is expected to continue as TSA officials are trying to make the most of where they have their manpower and how many lanes they can keep open at any given time.

[05:20:04]

But here, the bottom line, though, is that in officials here at this airport are really urging people to plan ahead, that to expect incredibly long lines once again come Thursday and Friday here at this airport.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And still ahead for us. A jury finds Meta and YouTube liable in a social media addiction trial. Why critics hope that this could be a crucial moment for social media and accountability.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:00]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

And now to a bombshell ruling in California against two social media giants. A jury Wednesday found YouTube and Meta knew that their platforms were dangerous and failed to warn users of the risk. This case involves a 20-year-old who claims that the company's intentionally got her addicted and harmed her mental health. Both YouTube and meta are planning to appeal, but CNN contributor Kara Swisher says this could be a turning point for social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It just takes a drop in the ocean for these kind of things to sort of shift. And I do think people are shifting regular citizens because our regulators and our political class has not done anything about this, because our legislation, our regulation has not stepped in. Our liability has to step in. And I'm glad to see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, Snap and TikTok were also sued, but they settled before trial.

Here's Sherrell Hubbard with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK LANIER, PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEY: We've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable. SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A historic setback

for Meta's Facebook and Google's YouTube after a California jury found the social media giants were negligent in the design of their platforms knew their designs were dangerous and failed to warn users of those risks.

DOMENIC ROMANO, FOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER, ROMANO LAW: Infinite scroll algorithmic recommendations, autoplay videos, the lawyers were successful in persuading the jury that those features enticed young users to compulsively engage with the platforms.

HUBBARD (voice-over): The companies were found to have caused substantial harm to the plaintiff. Now, 20-year-old Kaley, who said she developed anxiety, body dysmorphia and suicidal thoughts after being hooked by the platforms as a child, the companies were ordered to pay $3 million in compensatory damages. Jurors also recommended additional punitive damages.

JULIANNA ARNOLD, ONLINE SAFETY ADVOCATE: We now know that they were manipulating our children for profits while we were watching and trying to keep our families safe.

HUBBARD: Both companies say they will appeal, with Meta adding teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app, "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online."

JUDGE: Did Meta act willfully by engaging in an unfair or deceptive trade practice?

HUBBARD: The verdict comes a day after a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for violating that state's consumer protection laws and failing to protect children from sexual predators.

I'm Sherrell Hubbard, reporting

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Venezuela's ousted president is expected back in court in the coming hours. Nicolas Maduro's attorneys are expected to push for a dismissal of the case at a courtroom here in New York. They say that the Treasury Department has revoked the license that allows Venezuela to pay for the legal costs, and in their view, they say that that violates Maduro's constitutional right to defend himself.

Prosecutors say that Maduro and his wife, whose lawyer has joined the motion, can cover the fees with their own money. Maduro has pleaded not guilty to charges related to drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption.

And still ahead for us, we are getting new details on potential talks between the U.S. and Iran. But both sides sending mixed messages. We'll have the latest developments after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:30:00]