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The Situation Room

At least 40 killed in Swiss Ski Resort Bar; U.S.-Iran Tensions Grows; Russia Claims 24 Killed in Ukrainian Drone Attack. Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired January 02, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, we're getting a new photo from that fire that raced through a crowded bar on New Year's Day. In this picture, you can see sparklers and bottles and a fire starting up in the ceiling. Officials believe this is what caused the massive blaze that killed at least 40 people and injured more than 100.

Joining us now from London is Stephen Mackenzie. He's an independent fire and emergency planning consultant. Stephen, thanks for joining us. When you look at the videos, the pictures from inside that bar in Switzerland, what stands out to you?

STEPHEN MACKENZIE, INDEPENDENT FIRE AND EMERGENCY PLANNING CONSULTANT: There's a number of things, but I think we need to start off with giving an advisory to our viewers. There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation circulating this major life loss and fire incident now. We are trying to triangulate and prove all source material.

We are relatively confident that the fire was initiated by champagne promotion people, with sparklers which set fire to the acoustic tiles and then it spread across the ceiling level and it rained down flaming molten droplets on the partygoers and the revelers in the club.

[10:35:00]

And then when the final exit was opened from the basement level into a very narrow constrained vertical stair, it just allowed additional oxygen to feed the fire and then created a chimney effect which actually brought the flames, the smoke, and the dropping embers down onto the partygoers. That's why we've seen some horrific burn injuries and over 100 injured, 40 dead confirmed, and we are seeing an international relief effort to aid the Swiss hospitals with major burn and trauma care. There are some very deeply wounded youngsters here and it's just an absolute tragedy.

BLITZER: Terrible situation. Officials are now describing this horrible fire as what they call, and I'm quoting now, "a flashover." Can you explain what that means?

MACKENZIE: Yes, from the time of ignition, the fire starts developing as it consumes oxygen and fuel. Flashover is a particular fire dynamics term that we use where it's transitioning from the developing stage into the fully developed stage and flashover is where everything in the area is burning and untenable conditions has been achieved and no one survives flashover without grave or mortal injuries or succumbs to the fire effects.

BLITZER: And now, investigators say they believe the sparklers in these champagne bottles caused this fire, and we're getting a new image coming in right now that shows those sparklers very close to the ceiling covered in those foam acoustic tiles. Here's what the Italian foreign minister just said about that. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO TAJANI, ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The use of fireworks, even though small caliber ones in a place like this, seems to be an irresponsible choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you agree and what do you think about this assessment that it was these sparklers in the champagne bottles that caused it?

MACKENZIE: I think there's a very strong indication from the social media posts, from the video images and from the digital stills. However, I have seen over the past 24 hours at least a dozen variations of the promotion staff with the bottles, with the fireworks. Some are just walking at floor level. Some are carried aloft. And I can't get line of sight of the one that actually started this fire. We need some additional forensic detail and eyewitness accounts for that.

However, I will agree with the Italian politician. We know ever since the 2003 station nightclub fire in Rhode Island, America, the stage- based sprinklers and sparklers and fireworks pyrotechnics, as we call them, actually set fire to ceiling acoustic tiling and it led to a very rapid-fire development that sadly resulted in 100 killed and 230 injured. We can go further back to the 1981 fire in Dublin and Ireland, slightly different ignition sources, but the wall coverings and the ceiling coverings contributed to 48 dead and 214 injured.

So, we've got a rich case study within the fire community that says do not use pyrotechnics within these large, high occupancy areas and certainly be very careful -- and do not use things that are essentially hydrocarbon derivatives and plastic petrol. They will run off with molten droplets, flaming droplets and adhere to the skin-like napalm. Very difficult to remove. And that's why we're seeing these children in use with third, fourth-degree burns and life-altering injuries.

BLITZER: Yes, it's heartbreaking to even think about it. Got to learn the lessons from this disaster and make sure that people down the road pay attention to what has happened so they avoid these kinds of disasters. Stephen Mackenzie, thanks so much for joining us.

MACKENZIE: Thank you.

BLITZER: And happening now, there are new concerns about U.S. tensions with Iran after President Trump vowed to intervene if that country kills protesters demonstrating against the deteriorating economic conditions in the country. The president posted on Truth Social overnight, and I'm quoting President Trump, "We are locked and loaded and ready to go," end quote.

[10:40:00]

Dozens of protesters took to the streets across Iran's provinces this week, and some of those clashes with law enforcement turned deadly. Iranian officials issued a stern warning against U.S. involvement.

Joining us now to discuss this and more is Aaron David Miller. He's a former State Department Middle East negotiator and currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace here in Washington. Aaron, thanks for joining us. What do you expect comes next between the U.S. and Iran after President Trump's post and his warning to Iran?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR AND SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Thanks for having me, Wolf, and happy healthy new year to you and the family.

You know, locked and loaded isn't a policy. And I think that almost all of Trump's predecessors, Republican or Democratic, have not found a way, there may not be a way, to strike a balance between owning these protests, thereby giving the regime additional information to identify external intervention and to demonize the United States, on one hand, and support the protests on the other.

Iran is extraordinarily, exceptionally weak. Its ring of fire has been basically extinguished. Hamas, Hezbollah, maybe not the Houthis. The Israeli 12-day war, the three strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the drought exacerbated by a chronic, profound water shortage. You've got inflation now running over 40 percent and no good options. I mean, the government can't cut spending anymore and they're not about to crawl to the United States, I suspect, to ask for removal of sanctions if the administration presses them to give up their nuclear program.

I don't know what the president intends here. Could I rule out the possibility that the administration would conduct strikes, airstrikes against IRGC or besieged units, presumably killing a lot of people? I'm not sure that would fundamentally address the situation on the ground. Best I could do, suggest, Wolf, would be to try to expand Iranian access to internet using Starlink and Syphon. Targeted sanctions against IRGC commanders and besieged commanders were trying to repress these protests. And attention to the protests, media attention.

VOA has been basically hollowed out. I don't know whether the Farsi unit is up and running. Maybe it is. But that's a key source, it would seem to me, to reach out to these protesters.

BLITZER: The IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite military unit there. You write in a new article, a very important article, that the Middle East is looking toward a, quote, "grim," your word, grim 2026, as some of these simmering conflicts in the region, quote, "require more attention than can be expected from a mercurial U.S. president," end quote. Explain exactly what you mean and why.

MILLER: I mean, the Middle East, frankly, even though there are bright spots, my co-author and Dan Kurtz are former ambassadors in Egypt. And I argue that the Middle East doesn't reward one-offs and mediators who are looking for quick wins and transactional wins. The problems here are profound. The president did an extraordinary job by bringing an end to the war in Gaza. We watched it. 20 Israelis, hostages or freed. One deceased remains. Palestinian prisoners have been released. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is still miserable, although more humanitarian assistance is getting in.

The plan, however, in Gaza, Wolf, is going to be a very heavy lift. I mean, you know, Julius Caesar said Gaul was divided into three parts. Well, Gaza right now is divided into two. The 50-plus percent the Israelis control, the remainder Hamas controls. I see very little way to assemble an international stabilization force to deal with security there. And as you know, Wolf, you've been following these issues as long as I have, prospects for a broader resolution, conflict-ending solution between Israelis and Palestinians are probably right now slim to none.

Syria, though, does represent, as we point out, a bright spot. You've got the Ahmed al-Sharaa government, some argue a jihadi in a suit. Nonetheless, showing a degree of pragmatism and willingness to cooperate and engaging under American mediation with senior Israeli officials on some sort of security arrangement or agreement, I would suggest that paradoxically an Israeli-Syrian opening might appear in 2026.

[10:45:00]

Hovering all over this, though, Wolf, as you know, we started a conversation with Iran, is the reality that this is not one and done? The Iranians are resurging their ballistic missile capacity. The Israelis are now talking about serious threat as a consequence of that. And we don't know the status of Iran's for weaponization.

So, I'd like to believe, I think one missing ingredient, Wolf, just to close, is the absence of leadership. We don't see it in Israel. We don't see it among Palestinians. You need key Arab states to step up and a president in Washington to prepare to devote the time and the attention and the focus.

BLITZER: Very quickly, before I let you go, Aaron, is it at all possible, as some have been speculating, that this new regime in Syria that removed Bashar al-Assad's regime, this new regime, potentially, potentially could emerge as an Arab state that joins what's called the Abraham Accords and makes peace with Israel?

MILLER: I mean, I think that's down the road, down the road at this point, Wolf. A security agreement, a functional relationship with the Israelis, perhaps, but I don't think the Syrians or the Lebanese are in any position right now to make a commitment to full peace, no militia, with the Israelis.

BLITZER: All right. Aaron David Miller, as usual, thanks very much for joining us. Have a happy and a healthy new year to you and your family as well.

Coming up, President Trump's other big foreign policy hurdle right now. Ukraine's president, Zelenskyy, says a peace agreement is, quote, "90 percent ready," his words, 90 percent ready, even as Russian attacks continue. But the final goal, as the bloody war with Russia stretches --

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[10:50:00]

BLITZER: Happening now. New Russian claims are threatening to further derail efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Russia says two dozen people were killed after a Ukrainian drone struck a New Year's Eve party in a Russia-held area of southern Ukraine. CNN has not independently verified this claim.

And this comes as Russia remains defiant after U.S. intelligence says Ukraine did not, repeat not target a home used by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yesterday Russia handed over part of what it says is a Ukrainian drone containing data proving Ukraine targeted the Russian home of Putin.

Here with me now is CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel Leighton, thanks so much for joining us. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of actually staging this attack on Putin's own home inside Russia. Russia is vowing it will retaliate against Ukraine. What do you think that response potentially could look like?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST AND U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, this is going to be really interesting, Wolf, because if Russia does retaliate, what they could do is they could launch a mass attack. In fact, Ukrainian intelligence has warned that the Russians are basically preparing to conduct a mass attack where they would have mass civilian casualties on a Ukrainian target.

BLITZER: The Russians have been doing that all the time now.

LEIGHTON: Exactly. And so, this is the thing. You know, the Russians, when it happens, you know, allegedly happens on the Russian side, they raise the issue as an international incident, basically. But when it happens in Ukraine, it becomes so common that you almost become immune to it. You almost become numb to it. And that's basically there's this real dichotomy here where, on the one hand, the Russians are conducting attacks on civilian targets. The Ukrainians try very hard not to do that.

So, there is a different way of waging war by each of them. There are situations where Russian civilians have, in fact, been killed or injured in Ukrainian attacks. But they're fairly rare compared to the attacks that Ukraine is suffering at the hands of the Russians.

BLITZER: Because the Russians have been attacking civilian targets inside Kyiv, the capital, apartment buildings, schools, churches, hospitals. They've been going and just bombing all these various places.

LEIGHTON: That is correct. And in fact, the latest attacks over the New Year's holiday have been an indication in Kyiv of those kinds of attacks. There's video showing apartment buildings that have been decimated, at least in part, where certain floors are uninhabitable. And that really becomes a problem for the Ukrainians.

Plus, of course, we can't forget the infrastructure they're going after. The Russians are going after the Ukrainian heating infrastructure, the electricity grid. So, they're trying to make life really miserable for the Ukrainians in an effort to break their will.

BLITZER: And Ukrainian forces now say they are under what they call intense pressure in the southern part of the country right now, Ukraine. They say they are vastly outnumbered, and the Russians have taken large swaths of territory the past few weeks alone. How do you expect this to affect what are being described as peace talks?

LEIGHTON: Yes. Well, I think peace is -- you know, peace talk is definitely an optimistic term to use in a particular case like this. But it is absolutely true that the Ukrainians are under a lot of pressure, especially in the Zaporizhzhia region. And what that could mean is that the Russians are, in essence, getting ready to do an encirclement move against Ukrainian positions in the Donbas region. That could be one alternative.

The other thing could be that what the Russians are trying to do is make a direct line so that they can go after a place like the city of Dnipro, which is right on the Dnipro River. And that could potentially cut Ukraine in two. And that is something that, of course, the Ukrainians have to guard against very much.

BLITZER: So, do you think it's possible this war could come to an end this year, this new year?

LEIGHTON: It's doubtful, Wolf. I mean, it is -- anything is possible. But given the positions of both sides as far as their diplomatic positions are concerned, as well as the military situation, I think it is a bit premature to predict that the war is going to end this year.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect you're right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, I hope 2026 is a happy and a healthy new year for you.

[10:55:00]

LEIGHTON: Likewise, Wolf. Thank you so much.

BLITZER: Appreciate it very much. And still ahead, new retaliation from the government of Venezuela as the Trump administration tries to force the country's president to step down. We have new information.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BLITZER: Breaking new details emerging this morning about that deadly ski resort fire in Switzerland as officials try to identify dozens --

[11:00:00]