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One World with Zain Asher
Trump On Iran: If Anything, I Might have Forced Israel's Hand; Merz: The Iran War Is Hurting Economies; Strikes Escalates In Middle East As War With Iran Intensifies; Israel Bombs Compound Of Group That Chooses New Supreme Leader; Aired 12-1p ET
Aired March 03, 2026 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: What does that mean?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you have to ask Mark Rutte. He said, not as part of NATO, but to be helpful to you in this.
TRUMP: Well, some of the European nations have been helpful and some haven't, and I'm, you know, very surprised. And Germany has been great.
He's been terrific, others have been very good, terrific. I think that the head of NATO Mark is fantastic. Mark Rutte, I think he's fantastic. But
some of the European, like Spain, has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain.
First of all, it started when every, every European nation, at my request, paid 5 percent, which they should be doing and everybody was enthusiastic
about it, Germany, everybody, and Spain didn't do it. And now Spain actually said that we can't use their bases and that's all right. We could
use their base if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody's going to tell us not to use it, but we don't have to, but they were unfriendly.
And so, I told him, we don't want to. Spain has absolutely nothing that we need other than great people. They have great people, but they don't have
great leadership. And as you know, they were the only country that in NATO would not agree to go up to 5 percent. I don't think they would have agreed
to go up to anything. They wanted to keep it at 2 percent, and they don't pay the 2 percent. So, we're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We
don't want anything to do with Spain.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is that the nation --
TRUMP: And I'm not -- by the way, I'm not happy with the U.K. either. That island that you read about the lease. OK. He made it for whatever reason.
He made a lease of the island. Somebody came and took it away from him, and it's taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land there,
would have been much more convenient landing there, as opposed to flying many extra hours. So, we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill
that we're dealing with. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what's your expectations towards Germany? What can Germany do and what should Germany
do (inaudible)?
TRUMP: Well, I think they're doing. I mean, they're letting us land in certain areas, and that's we appreciate it. And they're just making it
comfortable. We're not asking them to put boots on the ground or anything. We're just -- they're a respected country. I have a very good relationship
with the country. We have, in particular now with this leader, with this new leader, I think he's an excellent leader.
And I had my differences with Angela. I said, you're hurting your country with immigration and you're hurting your country with energy. And we have a
man sitting on my right that is, I think, pretty much the opposite of her on energy and the opposite on immigration. And I think he's doing very
well.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible) thousands of Americans were stranded. Why wasn't there an evacuation plan? And will you send claims to get people
out?
TRUMP: Well, because it happened all very quickly. We thought and I thought maybe more so than most I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to
have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others. You're
seeing that right now. And a lot of those missiles that are hitting, and those are stationary, those were aimed there for a long period of time, at
these other countries.
So, I think I was right about that. We attacked first, and if we didn't, it could have been, you know, look, we're really decimating them. They're
being decimated. And if we didn't -- if we didn't -- and by the way, we have massive amounts of ammunition. We have the high end, a lot of it was
given away, stupidly by Biden, very stupidly, for free. And I'm all for Ukraine, but they gave away a lot.
As you know, when I give away ammunition, everybody pays for it. The European Union is paying for it. Then they can do what they want with it,
but they are giving it, let's say, to Ukraine, and it's OK. But we gave away a lot of high-end, but we have plenty. But we have unlimited middle
and upper ammunition, which is really what we're using in this war. And we have an -- really an unlimited supply.
We also have a lot of the very high-end stored in different countries throughout the world. With this, we're literally storing it there, which is
actually something that I insisted on in my first term. I rebuilt the military in my first term. The military is great. A lot of -- a lot,
unbelievable amount of ammunition or munitions, as they say, we given away to. You know, the Wall Street Journal incorrectly covered the story when
they said that it was given away to the Middle East, not to the Middle East was given away to Ukraine. Very little was given to the Middle East.
[12:05:00] Middle East would buy a lot, and some of the nations, because they're rich, they have a lot. But it was given away to Ukraine, and it
just should have been done. Look, it's a war that should have never happened. If I were president, that war would have never happened, but we
have a tremendous amount of munitions, ammunition at the upper level -- middle and upper level, all of which is really powerful stuff.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How worried are you that the rising prices for gas and oil are damaging the American economy and also (inaudible)?
TRUMP: Yeah, Germany, go ahead.
FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: Yeah, sure. This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the
gas prices as well. So that's the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible. And we are hoping that the Israelian
and the American army are doing the right things to bring this to an end and to have really a new government in place who is coming back to peace
and freedom.
TRUMP: Yeah. Something had to be done. And it's been 47 years they've been killing people all over the world for a long time. They were the kings and
fathers of the roadside bomb, Soleimani. We killed him last term. If we didn't, I think it might be a different story today. They would have been
much stronger and smarter than they are. But they did the roadside bombs.
95 percent of the people lost their legs, arms, had their face wiped out, just wiped out. I've seen some young people that it's so sad to watch. And
that was all -- almost all, 95 percent comes from Iran. And with Soleimani, Soleimani loved his favorite weapon. He loved the roadside bomb.
And when you see people walking around with no legs and no arms and a face that's been blown to hell, these people what they have to go and the way
they have to live, this is -- this is Iran. When you look at the barracks, the famous barracks, when you look at the hostages, when you look at a lot
of hostages, when you look at all of the problems, they were really a purveyor of terror all over the world for many, many years.
And it's something that had to be done, something. And I believe that if we didn't, because I see where Congress, you know, if I didn't do this, guys
like Schumer, who are losers. The Democrats, they're losers. That's why they're not here. Guys like Schumer would say, well, you should have done
this. In other words, if I did it, it's no good. If I didn't do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this.
But most people feel -- I tell you what, I have never had more compliments on something I did. People felt it something that had to be done. So, if we
have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, how many work (inaudible) between E.U. and U.S. --
TRUMP: And U.S. and who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The E.U., European Union.
TRUMP: Well, we won on tariffs, actually. Somebody said, you actually won the case. We won on tariffs. We had a decision that was wrong, which is
very bad decision from certain standpoints, from other standpoints, a very powerful decision, because it reaffirmed all the fact that we have these --
all these various forms of tariffs that we felt right, but it totally reaffirmed.
It said, you can use all of these tariffs. So, we have all these vast menus of tariffs, and tariffs have made our country very rich. We have to charge
tariffs to nations who play with their money. You know, they move their money up and down, like a yo-yo. We have to do. We have to take care of
nations that have been good to us and fair to us and we're going to take care of them. Other nations, they haven't and we haven't let them take
advantage of us.
But the whole thing with tariffs is we had a decision that, as an example, we have a license situation and the license is something that allows us to
immediately stop all business with nobody even knew we had this power, but we do now, because of the decision. We have the right to stop all business
having to do with a certain country, if a certain country is not treating us well.
The president, without going to Congress who has the right to stop. Sort of interesting. I have the right to stop, but under that one law, I didn't
have the right to charge him. So, I have the right to license them, but I don't have the right to charge, which is frankly ridiculous, but the right
was given to us by the Supreme Court.
[12:10:00]
And we have the right as an example we talked about Spain. I could - tomorrow stop, or today even better, stop everything having to do with
Spain, all business having to do with Spain, have the right to stop it, embargoes. Do anything, I want with it, and we may do that with Spain. What
do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, sir, I think we're going to talk about it with you. I know that you have strong power (inaudible). We know you can use it,
and if you need to use it to assure national and economic security, we'll do it.
TRUMP: Scott, you have an opinion?
SCOTT BESSENT, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF TREASURY: Sir, I agree. The Supreme Court reaffirmed your ability to implement an embargo. And they --
as we've talked, from your first term, the Section 301 and the 232 have withheld more than 4000 lawsuits, and USTR and commerce are going to
instigate, are going to begin investigations, and we'll move forward with those.
TRUMP: And we've instituted a 15 percent tariff on everybody, as you know. And just used -- I'll tell you, we had a couple of paragraphs written in
that -- in that opinion that were really incredible, like Justice Kavanaugh wrote a fantastic dissent. But in his dissent, he said what we should do
and we knew that too. We just wanted to simplify it.
And for some reason, I think, you know, very, very foolishly, the courts decided no, but they said you can do it many other ways, and that's what
we're doing. And what we've done is we've gone to a very simple, straight 15 percent tariff. It's taken in -- we've taken in hundreds of billions of
dollars in our country because of tariffs.
So, we've taken in all of this money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and honestly, it's made us very rich as a country. So, it's been doing good.
When will you have the full plan implemented? We have a five- month period, up to five months, where we can go at 15 percent. And while we're doing
that, as you know, we're doing the various studies and things and we'll be coming out with tariffs, different tariffs on different countries. You want
to talk about that please?
JAMIESON GREER, UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, Sir. By the time the five-month period has elapsed, we'll have completed investigations
under Section 301. Secretary Bessent talked about. We know there are countries out there with deals who are very interested in keeping the
deals. We need to go through and investigate all these unfair trading practices, the kinds of things you talked about, and make sure that we're
protecting U.S. economic security. We know their country --
TRUMP: How well we're going to treat Germany? I think you should hit them very, very hard.
GREER: You know, he was right there. They want to -- they have expressed an interest, Germany, been quite constructive and wanting to move forward and
be helpful. You know, the rest of you will talk to them as well, but obviously, well --
TRUMP: I will say every country, every single country, wants to make the deal they already have. In other words, a deal that we have using the other
authority. They want to make the same deal and we'd like to see -- actually, we're going to adjust it somewhat upward, actually, but they
would like -- they all want to stay in the deal. And so, we'll probably be able to do that pretty easily.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After all, Iran won't be able to deliver drones to Russia anymore. So, what does it more mean to Ukraine and (inaudible) next
to you. Who would you call if you want to talk to Europe? And Chancellor, has you just been in China (inaudible) -- TRUMP: Who you -- what country
are you from?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (inaudible).
TRUMP: OK. I thought so, I could say
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, Mr. Chancellor, you have been in China --
TRUMP: She likes you.
MERZ: I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you be talking about China --
TRUMP: We'll be talking about China, yes. I'll be going to China in a little while. Every time you meet, you talk about China. We respect China.
I do. We both do, I think, but it's always a topic of conversation. We've had a very good relationship with China. We used to lose a tremendous
amount of money with China, and that's no longer the case. We have a very, very good relationship with China, and we have a very good relationship
with Germany. All right.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, we've seen countries around the world, many of whom don't usually work together, working with the United States on
Iran, whether it's, you know, Saudi Arabia work right the United States, Israel. Qatari shooting down Iranian aircraft. And we've also seen European
countries step up. Why are we seeing, you know, such unity around the world against Iran.
[12:15:00]
TRUMP: It's a great point. Look, they're just evil. They're not the politics. It's their whole philosophy. It's their whole where they come
from. It's terrible. Where they kill 35,000, I thought it was 32, now it turns out much more than 35,000 people. And in some cases, using machine
guns with people that have no -- that have no weapon. They have no weapon, and they're being machine gun. They're being sniper from buildings. They're
hitting the people with snipers right through the eyes. It's just a very evil ideology, and nobody's really seen anything like it.
As I said, even the fact that they've attacked all of their neighbors, and the neighbors weren't attacking. They thought they'd maybe send it out, or
what -- they've drawn. They've hit Qatar, they've hit U.A.E., they've hit Saudi Arabia, they've hit Oman. They were helping this negotiate. They got
hit. Everybody got hit because they're evil and they're bad. It's a bad seed and somebody had to do it.
And it should have been done sometime during a 47-year period, because so much death has been caused by them. So much unbelievable death, from
Germany too. I mean, Germany has been hit. Everybody's been hit by them. It's an evil ideology. And I've never been -- look, I've done a lot of good
things. So many people saying, thank you, thank you, thank you. You see it in the streets of Los Angeles. They have thousands of people.
I saw it the other day, pictures of Donald Trump. And I'm looking, I'm on the phone, probably talking to you. And I'm looking, and I see my picture.
Say, oh no, it's another, you know, protest. I see my -- and then I started saying, boy, they were very friendly people. And then I saw a woman hugging
the picture of me. I say, what's going on? And it turned out to be these are Iranian people that live in the United States, thousands and thousands.
You saw the rallies. And in New York too, they had a big rally by pictures all over the place. The fact is that people are happy what we did. And you
could never -- and I've always said it, you could never have had true peace in the Middle East if Iran was allowed to go even beyond the nuclear. If
Iran was allowed to have all the -- look at all the missiles they built. Lot have been now taken out by us, and a lot have been expended, but they
have thousands of missiles in a fairly short period of time.
And I'll go, two things. The attack that we did, known as midnight hammer. Had we not done that, Iran would have had a very powerful nuclear weapon
within one month. We did. It was great timing, but, you know, and you've been able to see that too. The other thing was Barack Hussein Obama made
maybe the worst deal I've ever seen because he gave all power in the Middle East to Iran. He went the exact opposite way, and I terminated that.
If I didn't terminate that deal, they would be sitting with a massive nuclear weapon three years ago, which would have been used already on
Israel at least and other countries also. And we wouldn't be talking about it right now. But if I didn't terminate the deal that Obama made, giving
them everything, including plane loads of cash.
You remember the airplane flew over there. It was a Boeing 757. It was two of them, loaded. They took out all the seats. It was loaded with green
cash, so much cash that you could -- it was in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. They got all the cash from all the banks. They put it and
they flew it to Iran. I never knew a president had that power. I'm going to maybe try it sometime, if it's OK.
I think I'm going to do it. They'll fly it somewhere. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Two planes loaded from floor to ceiling, big planes,
Boeing 757, taken over there and given cash. In addition to that he was giving them billions of dollars, but worse, he was giving them the right to
have the path to a nuclear weapon. And that deal expired. A lot of people said, oh, you terminated. Well, it was going to be terminated anyway
because it expired.
It gave them the right to have top of the line nuclear weapon. If they had because they're crazy, they're crazy, just like the people on my right
during the State of the Union. I looked at him, I said, you're crazy. These people are crazy. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used
it. All right, how about one or two more?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Go ahead, please. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talking about NATO that say, you just heard that the president is thinking about punishing Spain. And
what I thought spontaneously on this and what changes will you do?
MERZ: Well, the answer on that is quite simple. We are trying to convince Spain to catch up with the 3 percent or 3.5 percent, which we agreed on in
NATO. And as the president said, it's correct, Spain is the only one who is not willing to accept that. And we have trying to convince them that this
is part of our common security, that we all have to comply with these numbers, and this is 3.5 for military and another 1.5 for our military
infrastructure. So, Spain has to comply with that.
[12:20:00]
TRUMP: They've been very Spain has been very, very uncooperative, and so has U.K. Now the second one is shocking, but this is not the age of
Churchill. I will say the U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away and took 100- year lease,
having to do with, perhaps indigenous people claiming the island that never even saw the island before.
What's that all about? And they ruin relationships. It's a shame. It's -- and that country, U.K., and I love that country. I love it. My mother was
born there. I love it. My mother was born there. My father was born -- he knows all about my father. My father was born there. So, you know, great
places that you sort of automatically very, very feel warmly about. But the U.K., what they're doing with energy and what they're doing with
immigration is horrible.
You have the North Sea. Somebody said yesterday, what would you do if you were the U.K.? Open up the North Sea. They got windmills all over the place
that are ruining the country, ruining the landscapes, ruining the beautiful fields. Open up the North Sea. It's one of the greatest, think of it. They
buy their energy from Norway, which gets the energy, the oil, from the North Sea.
So, Norway drills in the North Sea and sells it to U.K., and U.K. has a better part of the North Sea. Open up that. And number two, illegal
immigration. They got to solve that problem. And I must say, that's not only U.K., that's other parts of the European Union. They have the same
problem, immigration and energy. The energy is through the roof, the highest in the world. And the immigration was, I mean, you know, look, you
have -- you have places where, in the U.K., you have a terrible mayor of London, terrible, he's an incompetent guy.
But you have Sharia courts. You don't have Sharia courts. You don't want Sharia courts. You have Sharia courts adjudicating law. So, it's very
simple, immigration -- very importantly, immigration and energy. And you bring it back, otherwise you're not going to bring it back. OK.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: One more. Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Question for the chancellor.
TRUMP: Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To the Chancellor, Chancellor Merz, you've called for unity and joint force in this moment against Iran. What does that look like
to you? And then, Mr. President, where is getting a deal with Russia and Ukraine on your priority list right now?
TRUMP: Chancellor, you go ahead.
MERZ: So, as I said, in Germany, the last two days, we are supporting the United States and Israel to get rid of this terrible terrorist regime. And
we are looking forward to a day after and we have to talk about the strategy, what is -- what is following. After this, regime is away, and we
have to strategize on this entire region, and we are having a high interest in common approach and common work and what we can do. And this is -- this
is important, not just for the Americans. This is extremely important for Europe, and extremely important for Israel and their security. So, we are
really looking forward to find ways how to deal about the day after.
TRUMP: And as far as Russia, Ukraine, where is it on my priority list? Very high. We thought that -- I thought it was going to be one of the easier
ones. I've settled eight wars, and actually maybe one more than that, but minimum, eight wars, big ones, potential, India, Pakistan, big, big wars,
it's very important, big ones.
I thought this was going to be much easier than it is. It's very -- this tremendous hatred between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,
tremendous hatred. I've seen a lot of hatred in my life, but I think this is about top scale. I believe it's going to happen. Sometimes I blame one,
sometimes I blame the other. I think it's going to happen, but it's high on my list, not in that it affects the United States so much because it's very
far away.
[12:25:00]
But last week, I just see last week, and for the last four weeks, actually, 32,000 soldiers died, 32,000 and it's been averaging 25 to 30,000 soldiers
a month have been dying in that stupid war. And I'd love to see it ended. It's the worst that there has been since World War II.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you can't get a deal. What will that mean for you?
TRUMP: All you can do is do your best. You know, takes two to tango, and they have to get along. They have to be able to talk to each other. They
hate each other a lot. That has an impact, you know. It really has an impact. It's bad for both. The sadness is that if the election weren't
rigged, my election, that war would have never taken place. And you know what else wouldn't have taken place, allowing 25 million people to port
through an open border. That wouldn't have taken place. A lot of things would have been different. But we're doing very well. And I think a big,
big factor in this world and future factor is what we're doing right now with Iran. If we don't stop them, or if we didn't stop them, or if we
didn't start, they've been decimated. But if we didn't do what we're doing right now, you would have had a nuclear war, and they would have taken out
many countries, because, you know what, they're sick people, they're mentally ill, sick people. They're angry, they're crazy, they're sick.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, press. Thank you. Thank you, guys.
[12:25:38]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You've been listening to an Oval Office press briefing between President Trump as he welcomed German
Chancellor Friedrich Merz there. A lot to get to, a lot of headlines out of this meeting, the German Chancellor, offering his support to both Israel
and the United States for what he describes as a terrible, terrible regime, saying the focus now is going to be on the day after. They also got into a
number of other issues related to the war in Ukraine and tariffs.
But on European support overall, you heard the president of the United States saying that he is happy with that kind of language from Friedrich
Merz who is in line, standing in line in support of the United States' actions and attacking Iran, expressing his anger and frustration with
countries like Spain and even the United Kingdom. He said he was surprised by the United Kingdom, initially not allowing to use the Diego Garcia for
U.S. bases.
But other notable headlines, the president saying that the worst-case scenario for Iran now that the ayatollah has been killed would be
leadership as bad as the previous one.
And then, of course, the bigger issue now, did he do enough damage control in response to that statement yesterday for Marco Rubio? Secretary of
State, suggesting that the United States entered this war to strike Iran ahead of Israel, doing so because he said if that had been the case, then
U.S. assets would have been struck. The president said, no, no, I was the one who may have forced Israel's hand.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: Right. And essentially also saying that he believed that Iran was going to attack the U.S. first. So, the president offering a
completely different language compared to what we saw from Marco Rubio yesterday. Again, as you mentioned, doing damage control over that.
Let's bring in CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak for more on this. So, Kevin, I mean, that is the big question. Does the president now
close this debate and potential controversy over the war of words between what actually led the United States to take the action that they did?
The president saying that it wasn't Israel that led the United States to attack. It was perhaps the United States that forced Israel's response.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. I mean, he completely contradicted Marco Rubio, who said yesterday that it was Israel that was
planning to attack, that the U.S. felt that they needed to go in.
He also, I should note, contradicted what administration officials have been telling staffers in Congress when it comes to this question of whether
or not Iran was planning to attack preemptively.
That is something we had heard from administration officials over the weekend. But in briefings to Congress, what figures in the national
security community have said is that there was no actual intelligence that suggested Iran was preparing for this preemptive attack.
And so what the president there seems to contradict American intelligence, in addition to the Secretary of State. And I think it is only going to
aggravate these questions about what, in fact, prompted the U.S. to go to war now.
[12:30:07]
Now, the other sort of factor that the president added to this was Iran's long record of sponsoring terrorism in the region. He cited events from
almost 50 years ago. You know, the Iranian hostage taking -- taking from 1979, the bombing of the Beirut Marine Barracks in 1983. All of these
events that occurred many, many decades ago trying to use those to sort of bolster his case for conflict.
And I think it all still leads to some questions about what exactly was the motivating factor that required the United States to go to war at this very
moment. And I'm not sure the president did much to clarify in there what exactly that is.
You know, his answer about what the worst-case scenario would be was interesting. He was asked about whether he thought the Crown Prince
Pahlavi, you know, the oldest son of the shah, might be a successor inside Iran.
And it was interesting, he really downplayed the prospect that that could be workable. He said he thought that, quote, somebody from within might be
more appropriate to take over the leadership of that country.
So, I think underscoring the fact that the U.S. does not, at this point, have an idea of who they think should be in charge of Iran now that its
senior figures have been assassinated.
Clearly, I think the takeaway for the Europeans, though, will be that very angry screed about Spain who has denied U.S. access to the Rota airbase and
another airbase in southern Spain, as well as Keir Starmer, the president, saying that he was no Winston Churchill.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And the president saying that he may have not been surprised by the actions taken in the response to these strikes by Spain,
but was nonetheless surprised by the actions of Keir Starmer initially, because they had spent quite a bit of time cultivating a closer
relationship since Trump has entered office now for a second term.
Kevin Liptak reporting at the White House for us. Thank you so much.
ASHER: Thank you, Kevin.
All right. Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst, Kimberly Dozier, who's also been listening to this. I mean, Kimberly, what do you make of
this idea of the European nations really not sort of singing from the same hymn sheet?
You've got Spain essentially saying, listen, yes, we are in support of the downfall of this regime, however, we don't support the way it went about.
We don't believe that this was actually legal. You've got France with a very interesting response to increase their number of nuclear warheads,
essentially saying, look, we want to make sure that France is in the best possible position going forward. We want to make sure that we are never
going to be attacked just in terms of putting forward as much of a deterrent as possible.
You've got the U.K. with its sort of back and forth, initially not wanting the U.S. to launch strikes from Diego Garcia. And then when Iran began
retaliating, and that's when the U.K. began sort of changing its mind.
And then obviously you have Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor there, who is very much, it appears, to be certainly in support of -- of what the
Americans are doing here.
The fact that there is no sort of consensus among European leaders as to the right approach here, your thoughts on that, Kimberly.
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, they're caught between Trump and their own legal systems and their own populations.
In Spain with a more liberal government there, if they took part in what many consider to be an illegally launched war of aggression on Iran, they
might get voted out the next time.
In the U.K., as you mentioned, they also had legal concerns about the grounds that Israel and the U.S. had to launch this. And that's one of the
reasons they said no to using their basis for aggressive strikes.
And that still holds. They're now only allowing their basis to be used for strikes against missile sites in order to defend the some quarter million
Brits who live across the Gulf.
So, you know, weaving a fine line there. But I think the -- you're no Winston Churchill line is really going to hit Prime Minister Keir Starmer
at a time where he's already under fire with one member of his government being investigated for being in the Epstein files, et cetera.
Germany, the chancellor has been careful to say that the Iranian government is a terrorist regime, but he is also in other remarks said that he doesn't
explicitly back this invasion. He wants -- or this attack, and he's trying to look for an off-ramp.
So, you can see what he's doing in the Oval Office. He's saying the things that he knows will make Trump happy without also rubbing in his face that
he hasn't completely endorsed this action.
[12:35:03]
ASHER: All right. Kimberly Dozier, live for us there. Thank you. Thank you so much.
And we are --
DOZIER: Thanks.
ASHER: -- just hours away from U.S. lawmakers being briefed on Iran.
Joining us live now is Republican Representative Cory Mills.
Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. I mean, I know that you've been very vocal about the fact that --
REP. CORY MILLS (R-FL): Thank you.
ASHER: -- you do back the downfall of -- of this regime. But just in terms of whether or not Congress should have a say in how this war is conducted.
Obviously, some of your colleagues are going to be -- your colleagues rather are going to be voting on war powers on Iran and -- and just that
aspect of it.
Do you think that Congress should be the ones to actually decide how the U.S. approaches war in a situation like this?
MILLS: Well, I think that it's really easy if you look at the Constitution, that Article 1, Section 8 does designate war power authorities to Congress.
But also, there are executive war power authorities under Article 2 that president has, which is unique to him.
The issue with Congress, however, and this is prior to my actually coming into Congress, is that in 1957, 1991, 2001, and 2002, Congress voted on
something called an authorized use of military force.
And in the 2002 authorized use of military force, it talks about the global war on terrorism, thereby giving the president a little bit more leeway
when it comes to his ability to go after terrorist organization.
Obviously, IRGC and the Quds force, which is what Qasem Soleimani formerly ran, is actually part of that terrorist designation.
So, it does give the president the necessary purview to be able to constitutionally launch these types of strikes. Now, when it comes to a
prolonged war, then that is something that he would have to come to Congress for.
And so I think that we're really kind of -- we are threading the needle here, but there is a differentiation between military strategic strikes on
a terrorist group or an idea of declarations of war.
GOLODRYGA: Congressman, were you satisfied by the president's answer to the question of what a worst-case scenario would look like for Iran when he
said that the worst-case scenario would be leadership that looks like the former, now leadership, following the assassination of the Ayatollah?
And I'm asking you this specifically because you have said multiple times what the United States would want to avoid in leadership post, an
Ayatollah, an IRGC-run Iran, would be a power vacuum and then leading to some sort of leadership that would once again align itself with China, with
Russia.
So, does the president's comment there satisfy those concerns that you had?
MILLS: Well, certainly, and the biggest concern is that we don't want a repeat of this Islamic-style dictatorship. We don't want this radicalized
ideology to continue to exist where they want to have extermination of Israel and continuing to, you know, chant death to America.
We don't want service members in the region to be targets of convenience for these types of regimes. And so looking at getting to what was a pre-47-
year mark, allowing Iran to actually be a free democracy, monarchial parliament, whatever it is that they decide.
And I think this is key, we are there to help liberate the, you know -- and rid itself of this dictatorship then stop the human rights of 40,000 plus
people who've been brutally murdered, tortured, and the barbarism that has gone on against women, especially the subjugation of women when you look at
things like Mahsa Amini.
I think that it's important to allow Iranians to actually decide their own fate. I think the problem, and this is why I always say that this is not
Iraq, this is not Afghanistan, is that we're not looking at nation building. We're not looking at the idea of implementing democracy. We're
looking to rid the nation of a tyrannical dictatorship, and that's exactly what this president and our administration has done.
ASHER: All right. Cory Mills, Representative, live for us there. Thank you. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.
And our breaking news coverage of the war with Iran continues after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:40:43]
ASHER: All right. Israel's ambassador to the United States says that his country is in the war with Iran for the long haul alongside the United
States.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. The ambassador spoke to CNN earlier today describing Israel as the, quote, junior partner in this war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YECHIEL LEITER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: These people are shooting missiles all over the place. And imagine what would have happened if they
achieved enriched uranium.
You know, Steve Witkoff, the special envoy, just announced yesterday what we knew for -- for a long time that they were a week away from 11 bombs.
So, this has to end. And we're willing to sustain the brunt of it as long as possible. I think the president, President Trump, has made a very
important decision, showed incredible leadership on the world stage in prosecuting this war and taking the lead.
The United States of America must take the lead. If it doesn't, then the world goes into chaos. We're the junior partner. And we're going to fight
alongside of our brothers and sisters here in the United States as best we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: And we heard from the president there in the Oval Office just moments ago saying that he may have in fact forced Israel's hand to join
this war.
Joining us now from Tel Aviv is former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. General, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.
And you have described this operation as a culmination of years of joint experience and preparation between the United States and Israel. And
actually, you've said the biggest danger isn't escalation right now. It is stopping too soon.
How aligned are Washington and Jerusalem in the end game of this war, General Gallant? And are you concerned that if we see increased pressure on
the United States on President Trump, he ultimately will pull the United States out of it sooner than Israel would like?
YOAV GALLANT, FORMER ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: Let me start by saying that the coming weeks will shape the coming decades in the Middle East. We must
finish the job, and we do it together.
We are fighting terror targets, terror regime, and we must prevail. The world will be better, the region will be better without the Iranian regime.
The regime is the hostile enemy of the United States, of Israel, of the Gulf States, and of the people of Iran. We must free them and give them
another opportunity. And I believe that this war should be based on performances and not on a timeline. What is required is to achieve the
goals on the ground. And the timeline is secondary to this issue.
ASHER: General, obviously Israel has a very different relationship with the Iranian people, and it does, of course, with the Iranian regime. What is
Israel's obligation to the Iranian people at this point in time?
You have President Trump coming out and saying, look, this is an important window of opportunity for the Iranian people to rise up.
[12:45:01]
But what does that look like in practical terms, especially because either the Americans or the Israelis would have to defang, not just the Ayatollah
and the various sort of top-level officials in Iran, but also the security forces that have had this massive kind of stranglehold on ordinary Iranian
citizens for so long?
You would have to de-arm the security forces, but at the same time try to somehow find a way to arm the fragmented, weakened, and scattered
opposition. What does that actually look like in practical terms, General?
GALLANT: Let me first of all emphasize the differences. The Iranians are shooting civilians, hotel, hospitals, airport terminals in the Middle East,
in the Gulf States, in Israel. We are aiming to military and terror targets. And we are trying to avoid collateral damage.
So, we are with the population. We want to demonstrate to them that our enemy is their enemy, and therefore, we are giving them the room in order
to make a change in the regime and in the control in Iran.
And I would -- I would say that they are getting close to the best chances to have a -- a regime change in the last 47 years. Now the United States
and Israel -- yes.
GOLODRYGA: Go ahead. I'm sorry.
GALLANT: The United States and Israel are, of course, using kinetic power, but we are using soft power as well through different ideas because we need
to collaborate with the public in Iran and to make sure that those 90 million people will be responsible for the future.
And I know that this mission is complicated. It demand courage and determination from the public. But it's about time that they will get rid
of this brutal regime that was slaughtering them by the thousands just recently, last January. So, anything that can be done will be done from
outside.
GOLODRYGA: So, is that Israel's ultimate goal here, regime change? I know that the prime minister has talked about the threat from Iran's nuclear
program for years now in the nuclear doctrine, the Begin Doctrine back in 1981, obviously comes to mind. There's been a lot of concern about them
reconstituting their ballistic missile program. And, of course, then the proxies hopefully we can get to Hezbollah entering the war as well.
But when it comes to regime change itself, you have said regime change can't happen from the sky. You've intimated that soft power would be
involved as well.
Does that include potentially having outside boots or covert outside presence on the ground in Iran and what Israel take part in that?
GALLANT: Let me start with the -- the beginning of your question. Speaking about military goals, we need to make sure that we eliminate the chain of
command, command and control from the supreme leader and down to the commanders in the field, including the general staff in both organizations,
the -- the military and the revolutionary guard.
Second, we need to make sure that Iran do not possess serious military capabilities in the future. That means headquarters, missiles from all
kinds, ballistic and others, Navy, Air Force, command and control centers and so on and so on.
And definitely, the ultimate goal is to make sure that they will not possess nuclear weapon in the future, not in the next year and not in the
next generations, because imagine what would have happened if one of those missiles that were shooted (ph) by the Iranians in the last few days
towards five states in the Gulf and other states like Iraq and Jordan and Cyprus and Israel. Imagine that one of these missiles was carrying a
nuclear bomb. The world could have been a disaster. Therefore, these are the goals.
[12:50:00]
Now, by doing that, we give the Iranian people better chances to take over and to be responsible for the future.
And at the same time, we are securing the future of the neighborhood in the Gulf in the -- in the Middle East, in general, including in Israel.
I don't see boots on the ground from the American side or the Israeli side, because I don't think it will be efficient and it will gain any
contribution to what we need. We need the people of Iran to go forward.
And eventually, if you are asking me, what is the inflection point? This one is when a large quantities of the military or military forces is moving
from the regime side to the public side. This will be the change. And I hope it will happen.
GOLODRYGA: Yoav Gallant, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for the time. I hope you'll come back and join us as we continue to cover
developments in the region. Thank you so much.
ASHER: We'll be right back with more after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. Before we go, a reminder of the latest headlines in the U.S. and Israel in terms of the war with Iran.
It is 9:30 in the evening in Tehran. And hours ago, an Israeli source told CNN that the IDF had actually bombed a compound belonging to the group, the
so-called Assembly of Experts that chooses Iran's next supreme leader. It is the latest strike at the heart of the regime on the fourth day of the
U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
GOLODRYGA: The source says the strike was intended to hit the Assembly of Experts' compound in the city of Qom, while members were voting to elect
the country's next leader. But Iranian state media says the building was evacuated before the attack.
ASHER: And the conflict is causing aviation chaos around the region for a fourth day in a row, major Gulf hubs remain closed. This means that
thousands of passengers are left stranded. As far away, by the way, as Thailand. They are forced to search for alternative options or simply stay
where they are.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And some of the world's busiest airports are in the Middle East, but only a limited number of flights are currently taking off, and
those are mostly to evacuate people.
[12:55:02]
Take a listen to some passengers' harrowing journeys as they arrived back in London.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENNY HARRISON, TRAVELER: We stayed in -- in a -- in a hotel in Dubai, and we saw -- we heard explosions. We heard the hotel shake. We could see
columns of black smoke. We saw drone interceptions up ahead.
And while we were having breakfast on Sunday morning, there was black ash falling on the breakfast table greeting outside.
So -- so we knew it was all going on around us. We could -- you know, we could sense -- we can sense what was happening.
ALISON AGER, TRAVELER: I've never had anything like it, never been so scared of my life, you know. You go to the Middle East and you think like
the -- the Emirates are safe, but clearly they're not, so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: On Monday night, Emirates and Flydubai resumed some flights. As we said all of Etihad's commercial flights, to and from Abu Dhabi, remain
suspended until at least Tuesday afternoon as do Qatar Airways' flights until at least Wednesday morning.
GOLODRYGA: All right. That does it for "One World" today. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. Appreciate you watching. And she's going to be back with "Amanpour" after this short break. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:00:00]
END
