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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Israel And U.S. Launch Attack On Iran; Rep. Cory Mills, (R-FL), Is Interviewed About U.S.-Israel Attack In Iran. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired February 28, 2026 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: -- those attacks have been aimed near the offices of the supreme leader of Iran. According to Jeremy Diamond's reporting right there, the attacks from the United States are not expected to be small. We do not know exactly what they're targeting or what is being hit. We do know that those attacks are underway.
And because of those attacks, Israel is in a state of emergency. People are being sent to bomb shelters in preparation for potential retaliation from Iran.
So it is now the top of the hour. Thank you very much for watching this special breaking news coverage here on CNN. I'm Elex Michaelson and we will be with you throughout the night as we all experience this together. We say the night here on the west coast of the United States, but in Israel and in Iran, it is now Saturday morning. And it is a Saturday morning that we will never forget.
Jeremy Diamond, as we go back to you, as we look at a live picture right now from Haifa and we sort of reset for people who may be joining us at the top of the hour, talk to us again about what you just said. Your source telling you that the United States strike likely not going to be small. What do you -- what do you read into that? What could that possibly mean?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Elex. Well, the United States and Israel are now both conducting strikes against Iran. We do not yet know the details of those strikes, but we now can confirm, according to two U.S. officials, that the United States is carrying out strikes against Iran. That's significant because this morning as air raid sirens sounded across Israel warning Israelis that a state of emergency has been declared, we know that Israel announced itself that it was carrying out preemptive strikes against Iran. It was not immediately clear whether those strikes were coordinated with the United States or carried out jointly with the United States.
But we can now indeed confirm that the U.S. and Israel are jointly carrying out strikes against Iran. And these are believed to be major strikes with one U.S. official telling me that this is not a small strike. That official specifying that because there had been some speculation in recent days that the United States might initially carry out a kind of small targeted strike in order to send a message to the Iranians to try and use that as a leverage point in diplomatic negotiations. But instead, it seems like what is taking place is the other scenario that had been considered and that was one of the United States bringing its overwhelming air and naval firepower to bear over the Iranians.
Now the question is, what are the targets right now? Is the United States going for an all-out regime decapitation operation to try and kill the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei? Is the United States and Israel, are they focusing on the nuclear sites? Are they focusing on the ballistic missiles? Are they focusing on the internal Iranian security forces who killed thousands of Iranian protesters last month?
We simply do not know the answer. And keep in mind, it could very well be all of the above as well. So this is an enormously significant moment in the Middle East right now, likely signaling the breakout of a very significant conflict the likes of which we have not seen in the Middle East in quite some time. And we expect, as the Israelis have now warned the public here, that Iran will retaliate against the state of Israel with attacks, including drones and also including those very powerful ballistic missiles. Keep in mind that the Iranians expected that Israel and the United States were preparing this attack.
They appear to be more prepared than they were when Israel launched strikes against Iran back in June. And so the window of time that it will take Iran to retaliate could be shorter than it was last time back in June. And we also expect that Iran could carry out more significant strikes, not just against Israel, but also against U.S. military assets in the region, of which there are a large number of U.S. military personnel and assets at various bases in the Middle East, both within striking range of those ballistic missiles, but also within striking range of some of those shorter range missiles which Iranian -- which Iran has in much larger supply.
MICHAELSON: Jeremy Diamond, thank you for that. We will go back to you in a moment.
We now want to bring in Cedric Leighton.
And Cedric, I want to get your reaction to the reporting of Jeremy Diamond right there. This idea of a major attack that -- I mean, we talked about an hour ago and we didn't know that this attack was happening, that you don't bring in this kind of firepower and spend $500 million, potentially a day to stage it as a bluff. And it appears like the United States and Israel not bluffing.
[02:05:23]
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I think that's right, Elex. And one of the things to think about is that when you bring this kind of firepower to bear, you also need the targeting list. And so Jeremy was talking about the various possible targets. You know, one of the things that occurred to me was my experiences in the first part of the second Gulf War Operation Iraqi Freedom, where we had over 1800 aircraft that both combat aircraft as well as support aircraft conducting the shock and awe phase of that particular operation. In this particular case, I think we have a -- in terms of the number of aircraft, we have a much smaller number of aircraft, but the efficacy of those aircraft could be quite high, especially if using precision guided munitions, especially if they go after certain specific targets. And, you know, Iran has been in, you know, in the crosshairs, in essence, of our targeting folks for quite some time, and they have a list of different areas that they would go after. So it seems as if what we're looking at here is the possibility, at least, Elex, of a concerted effort to maybe decapitate the regime or at the very least force them to the negotiating table when it comes not only to the nuclear deal, but potentially also to other areas, such as the ballistic missiles that Israel wants to see limited as well as the proxies, the proxy forces such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, and others that have wreaked havoc over a large portion of the Middle East to include hurting American forces quite considerably during the ground phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. So there's a long history there.
We've been watching this country for a very long time, ever since the Iranian revolution. And one of the aspects of that is that as Iran evolves from, you know, one set of original rulers in the -- in that regime, you know, as they had the revolutionary regime after the Shah fell to this set of rulers, it seems as if the basic idea is that they've become entrenched in certain areas. But now what we're doing is we're in essence trying to roll that back and perhaps create conditions in -- you know, for Iran to go into a different direction politically. Perhaps that might be the goal. Now, achieving that goal is going to be a much, much more difficult thing to do.
And that is something that, you know, I don't think we can see this as being something this will be a short conflict or anything like that. And I hate to say that because I think the last thing we want to see is a very long or prolonged conflict. But I think one of the things that could happen here is that we end up with a protracted conflict. And that, of course, could be a very difficult thing to deal with.
MICHAELSON: And that is something that President Trump has argued against for years, talking about the idea of trying to stay out of endless wars in the Middle East. The vice president of United States, J.D. Vance, saying just this week, we are not going to get into an endless war in the Middle East. But this, you know, is much more of an escalation than what we've seen potentially of him. We got to find out what exactly this is, but so far indications are this is more of an escalation than what we've seen in either one of the Trump administrations.
Let's talk more about that with somebody who knows this so well, our White House reporter Kevin Liptak, who joins us live on the phone from Washington, D.C.
What are you hearing from your sources, Kevin?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and as Jeremy has stated and as we've now confirmed from multiple U.S. officials, the U.S. is participating in these strikes that we're seeing now in Iran. And the sense that we're getting from these officials is that the U.S. participation here is far more extensive than what we saw in June, which was that sort of contained bombing run on the Iranian nuclear sites that President Trump has been so proud of that he frequently touts, what we're seeing tonight appears to be a far more extensive operation inside Iran. And you know, it was only several hours ago that President Trump was -- I'm actually in Corpus Christi, Texas, where President Trump told a crowd that he did have a big decision to make.
[02:10:01]
And I think that was such a striking comment because it was, in fact, the first time that we had actually heard from the president acknowledge this massive choice that was in front of him amid this massive military buildup in the Middle East, you know, the largest since the onset of the Iraq war in 2003. The president suggesting that these efforts towards diplomacy that he had been allowing to proceed, led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, suggesting that those had been disappointing, that they had not borne the results that he was hoping for, and that now he was determined to decide whether to carry out an operation. And of course, now we are learning that the U.S. is joining this operation and certainly the president will be monitoring this. He is now in Palm Beach, Florida, at Mar-a-Lago. We noticed that, you know, a number of national security officials were joining him down there.
And of course, this is now, you know, the sixth or seventh operation that he has overseen from his Palm Beach estate.
You know, I think it was evident, you know, going back to early January, when the president first told Iranian protesters that the U.S. would come to their assistance. He said that the U.S. was, quote, "locked and loaded." You know, that was now weeks and weeks ago. I think it was evident to the people around the president that one, he felt obligated to enforce that red line. He felt obligated to carry out some sort of action, but that he wasn't necessarily satisfied with all of the options that were in front of him.
These were imperfect options. None seemed quite as decisive as the operation that he undertook, for example, in Venezuela to take out the leader, Nicolas Maduro. There were a lot of very intensive --
MICHAELSON: Kevin, I'm going to interrupt you for a second, and I'm not sure if you're able to see the screen right now. I just want to let our viewers know what we're looking at. These are the first images is that we have gotten out of Tehran. So we see what looks like the aftermath of a strike on the ground. This was an image posted on X from Tehran.
We see there is still traffic in the streets, but the aftermath of an explosion. This is in the middle of the city of Tehran. This is not on some outskirt area. And so that is significant. Our first images.
I didn't mean to interrupt you, but since I did, I'll bring up another point that's interesting. We saw a tweet from Thomas Massie, who of course is a Republican, who is often a foe of President Trump, saying this is yet another example of an unauthorized attack by Congress. We had Steve Lynch, congressman, on -- about an hour and a half ago who said that there had not been any congressional briefing on this. Do we know anything about the Trump administration reaching out to Congress to give them any authorization or at least a heads up on this?
LIPTAK: Well, you know, we do know that the Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as the CIA Director John Ratcliffe did brief senior members of Congress about the Iran situation broadly on Tuesday, you know, in the hours ahead of President Trump's state of the union. But there has not been an attempt to gain formal authorization from Congress. And we know that had been a point of contention, in fact, with a number of lawmakers. Democrats had been planning to force a vote on war powers resolution on Iran next week. You know, the president did not seek buy in from members of Congress.
He also didn't necessarily seek buy in from the American public generally. You know --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
LIPTAK: -- when we have heard from the President about Iran, it has been mostly in sort of brief offhand remarks. You know, he had a passage about Iran during his state of the union address on Tuesday talking about the imperative that Iran not be able to gain a nuclear weapon and suggesting that Iran was developing a ballistic missile that could reach the United States. Although our sources have said that American intelligence doesn't necessarily say that that was, you know, an imminent step that the Iranians were planning to take. And so the president seems to have ordered this joint attack, that's what we understand at the moment, a joint U.S.-Israel attack. He seems to have ordered this up without necessarily, you know, explaining in any great detail to either Congress or the American public the objectives were or what the risks may be.
And that (inaudible) to be --
MICHAELSON: Well, and he certainly had -- and he certainly had it --
LIPTAK: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Yes. And he certainly had an opportunity, Kevin, on Tuesday with the state of the union. And he spoke some, but it was not sort of an extended address. And we have not seen -- we will see if we see him later on today or tonight making an Oval Office address or some sort of statement to the American public. Right now the attack is underway.
[02:15:12]
And do we know the president's whereabouts? Is he in the Situation Room? Do we know where he is right now?
LIPTAK: Well, he's in Florida. He's in Palm Beach, Florida.
MICHAELSON: Palm Beach, Florida, sorry. I'm sorry.
LIPTAK: Yes. MICHAELSON: yes.
LIPTAK: He arrived -- no worries. He arrived there around, you know, 10 -- nine -- 10 p.m. last evening. He flew there from Texas where he was speaking in Corpus Christi. Obviously, Mar-a-Lago is now very well equipped to handle these sensitive military operations. That is where he oversaw the raid that ousted Nicolas Maduro.
He oversaw bombing raids on Nigeria from Mar-a-Lago. In fact, Mar-a- Lago is also where he oversaw the assassination of Qasem Soleimani during his first term. And so, you know, the facility there is well equipped with sensitive rooms, communications technology. And so that has now become something of a familiar step for the president.
MICHAELSON: Kevin Liptak, thank you. We will go back to you.
I'm seeing a post on X from the ambassador of the United States to Israel, Mike Huckabee, saying that he's encouraging all embassy team and families and U.S. citizens in Israel to be prepared for home front command alerts and sirens. Stay near shelters, take immediate action at the sound of alerts or sirens.
And if you are just joining us, it is after 11:00 here on the West Coast. It is after 2:00 in the morning on the east coast, but it is after 10:00 in the morning in Tehran where there is an active military campaign underway right now. The United States and Israel working together, both countries now attacking Tehran. These are some of our first images of some of those -- the aftermath of those explosions. It is now after 9:00 in the morning in Israel where a state of emergency has been declared.
There have been sirens warning people to seek shelter as there are fears of a Iranian retaliation, which so far we do not know of any of that coming. But we are in the early hours of this and this is all fluid. We're following this situation together.
Want to bring into the conversation for the first time CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas.
Alex, thank you for being with us. Your reaction to what you're seeing, your first thoughts?
ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, I just got back from the region a couple of weeks ago after speaking to officials and kind of characterizing how, you know, something would take place and what the reactions would be. And this is absolutely on the more, you know, extreme end of the options for strike packages that were being considered and potential red lines for retaliation.
Speaking to mediators now as we speak, and the comments that are coming back to me now is that, you know, this is treachery that's happening, you know, during Ramadan and on Shabbat, and that this is another major betrayal of diplomacy and mediation efforts. The mediators are quite aggravated, you know, with the situation because they expected that the mediation would continue into this week. What I'm hearing from U.S. officials, though, is that the United States had determined that there was no path forward for negotiations, that the Iranians had dug in their heels on redline policy positions from the president regarding nuclear enrichment and moving their highly enriched uranium over 60 percent out of the country, which they had offered to dilute down to a lower volume. But the options that were on the table that they were trying to present would have allowed them to keep the enrichment technology that could have been, you know, used for weaponization in the future. And the president determined that there was no path forward, is what I'm hearing. If we look at the targets that have been struck now, obviously we're seeing images out of Tehran, but seeing widespread reporting that there are strikes in other cities across Iran. This is not small or limited.
If we look at what the options were, the president's made clear his priority was the nuclear program. The Israelis priority is the ballistic missile program, because for them, that's a more existential threat at the moment. And actually for regional countries, it's the proxies or the, you know, the -- some of the terrorist groups that operate in the region, whether it be Hezbollah or others. So nobody was really on the same page going into this as to what the priority was.
So -- but if you look at the targets in Tehran, it's none of those. Those are government buildings downtown. And it is suggestive of strikes on government leadership, which -- because we don't know who has been killed yet, if anyone, I'll refrain from calling it decapitation strikes until we know. But it is apparent that they're going after government targets. And so we did see statements recently from Hezbollah that was released in response to Israeli statements to Lebanon letting them know that if Hezbollah got involved, they would strike heavily.
Hezbollah responded, said their red line position was if the supreme leader was targeted. Seeing some reports that are being put out to wire services from officials that the Ayatollah Khamenei was moved out of his facilities out of Tehran to a safe location. We don't have confirmation of that other than statements to the wire services that are out there. So it looks like the attacks are widespread. The Israelis are said to be preparing for days of attacks.
[02:20:07]
And then just really quickly, I'll hit potential for counter strikes. So the biggest fear would be saturation ballistic missile attacks against U.S. facilities or Israeli facilities in the region. The Iranians are said to possess something between 2,000 and 3,000 medium range ballistic missiles, although Israeli intelligence officials tell me they have about a third as many launchers for those missiles as they did prior to the 12-Day War and somewhere between six to 8,000 short range ballistic missiles. U.S. troops are said to have been dispersed out of most of our bases in the region, but those are expected for potential counterstrikes.
And last, as we look at, you know, what are the Iranians going to do? They're often mischaracterized as, you know, irrational. They are very much rational actors. If you look at what's happened after the strike on Qasem Soleimani, it took them five days to respond, to figure out how they wanted to do so. During the 12-Day War, the Israelis initially created what I call strategic paralysis in the chain of command.
They took out all of the military leadership and command and control responsible for the elements of a counterstrike, whether that be missiles or drones, basically to get the junior officers to freeze because you don't delegate ballistic missile launch authority to a junior officer against a country like Israel with nuclear missile -- or nuclear weapons. So in this case, it's unclear if Iran has delegated authority, but so far we're not seeing retaliatory strikes. If this follows a similar pattern, Iran will attempt to determine what's been struck, what they have left in their inventory to strike back with, make sure that they've got a chain of command that's intact before they counterstrike. And it appears that they're following that pattern right now.
MICHAELSON: Yes, because one of the questions would be who's making the call if --
PLITSAS: Yes,
MICHAELSON: -- you know, we don't know who's in charge really right now in Iran, right?
PLITSAS: That's a good point. So Ali Larijani, who's widely expected to be the next president, first of all, the current president is, you know, Iranian officials described me recently as a reluctant president. A guy who was forced into the job, largely focused on domestic matters and international stuff, was really left to the foreign minister. But really Ali Larijani, in charge of the National Security Council --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
PLITSAS: -- and he's been traveling throughout the region. He was in Oman, passing messages back and forth through the Omanis to the United States and that he was really tasked with regime survival if there had been attacks on the Iranian government. So it's unclear about his status or the status of the other leaders. But to your point, you know, this was a potential that was known that the real difference between this and the 12-Day War, and speaking to Iranian officials recently is that they're calling this day 13 of the 12-Day War. They felt like it never really ended.
And so they were prepared and they were waiting for strikes. And you know, they made it clear that the Israelis got the element of surprise the last time. They wouldn't have it this time. It appears the Israelis were at least able to strike without the Iranians realizing it because they didn't launch a preemptive strike. But the Iranians were also trying to determine what the target set would be. If we go back and look at the prior strikes, Iran launched 19 missiles in response to the U.S. strike on the nuclear facilities.
They targeted our CENTCOM forward headquarters outside of Doha at Al Udeid Air Force Base, which were subsequently shot down. And they also launched ballistic missiles at our bases in Iraq after we killed Qasem Soleimani. But in both cases, no U.S. troops were physically wounded. There were traumatic brain injuries. I believe that took place afterwards. But as a result of that was considered sort of politically absorbable for President Trump and he didn't strike back afterwards.
The fear here is that if there is a large scale retaliation and U.S. troops are wounded or injured, that it could spark this into an even bigger, you know, conflict. You know, we do have about --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
PLITSAS: -- 250 strike aircraft that are based in the region or on the two aircraft carriers. You have the USS Abraham Lincoln that is off the coast of Oman. And then you have the USS Gerald Ford and its strike group which was approaching the Israeli coast after undocking from Souda Bay Crete Naval Base the other day. So between those platforms is about 250 strike aircraft estimated probably seven to 10 days worth of total, you know, potential strikes if they're not replenished. And hundreds of sorties could be launched as a result of that.
So there is significant firepower. We haven't seen the movement of any strategic bomber aircraft, B1s, B2s or B52s. But it's clear now from these strikes that U.S. and Israeli officials at least determined that they wouldn't be required on opening ground. If you're looking at the target sets well, we haven't, you know, really got clarification what's been hit outside of Tehran. What you would want to do in this case is you'd want to hit the following targets most likely, you'd want to get any remaining air defense sites.
So those are the radar dishes, the missiles that are used to shoot down aircraft, because you want to make sure the pilots are safe. You would also want to limit their ability to retaliate against U.S. forces or the Israelis in the region. So you'd want to hit ballistic missiles, the ballistic missile launchers and drones, as many as you could, to try to prevent a counterattack. And that's just the initial target set before you want to go after anything else, which could include nuclear sites, could include people who are responsible for killing protesters. The U.S. alleges that there were 32,000 protesters killed.
The Iranians will tell you it's one tenth of that. And then lastly, you know, do you go after regime targets, which it looks like they did. So if they were successful in that, that's a red line for Hezbollah. That was a red line for the Iranians in terms of how they would respond, because they said they would see that as an existential threat against the state and their response would be different if that was crossed. So it is unclear who was actually killed in these -- in these strikes on government buildings that were there.
[02:25:13]
That is very much going to determine what the response looks like afterwards.
MICHAELSON: Alex Plitsas, it seems like it's an all of the above potential attack.
PLITSAS: Yes.
MICHAELSON: We will see. You have so much great information. Stay with us throughout the evening and morning. I don't know, depending on what time it is where you're watching. Thank you for all that valuable information.
We want to bring into the conversation now Republican Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, who is a member of the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, himself a military veteran.
Congressman, welcome back. We spoke about an hour and a half ago about this possibility and now it is happening. What is your first reaction to what we're seeing and hearing?
REP. CORY MILLS (R-FL): Well, again, as we talked about with battle assessments, we'll have to see exactly what the success rate was on each one of these strike targets, as previous guests had talked about. You know, the biggest thing right now if we continue on with further strikes. And I think at this point it's necessary to go ahead and see this through, that we need to make sure that we've eliminated the necessary air defense capabilities, that we've eliminated all the new targeting platforms and radars that are there, that we need to be looking at the runways where the Iranians or the IRGC could actually launch potential aircraft so we can go ahead and crater the runways potentially or go ahead and strike certain areas that are hosting a lot of those sorties.
Another thing that we're going to look at, obviously, is missile launch sites so that we can limit that counter assault or that counter strike group that will be going after Israel and those in the region. And then again, we're going to continue to go ahead and look at whether or not we are able to eliminate key regime members like the ayatollah, his son, certain generals within the IRGC, and look at exactly how that's disrupted capabilities of your own.
MICHAELSON: You talked earlier about you wanted there to be a regime change because you just said that this is an evil regime and something needs to happen towards it. From what we are seeing, including that picture we're looking at on T.V. right now, this is Tehran. This is government building. This isn't a minor attack out in the outskirts somewhere. Is the United States doing what you wanted?
Does it appear that the United States is targeting the supreme leader and his regime?
MILLS: Well, that's exactly what I was looking for. I mean, you cannot negotiate with terrorists. We have tried diplomacy. The president understands peace through strength. The Ayatollah has continually gone ahead and chanted death to America, and he means it.
He's continued to threaten the stability within the region as well as for our ally Israel. And he's also continued to fund proxy militias with the help of China, Russia, North Korea, to go ahead and launch attacks against Americans as well as for our allies in an indirect manner. And so eliminating the ayatollah and even his son, who I would argue will be 10 times worse if he was ever to rise to power. This is why I said I'm not looking for regime change, but regime elimination. And I think that's exactly what we're looking at right now, where these peace talks have continued to fail.
And again, these weren't your typical Geneva type peace talks where you're going weeks and weeks for 12 hours. These were a couple of hours a day trying to come to very strict demand, which is to eliminate nuclear enrichment programs, eliminate the mid-range -- long range ballistic missile capabilities, let IAEA go in and do their inspections, and then make sure that Iran never has the ability to host a nuclear weapon ever again. And so that's exactly what the president had demanded. Iran tried to balk. And you know, again, this is not a president that you go ahead and try to bluff.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
MILLS: This is not a president like Obama or others who would draw a line in the sand. So I'm very happy to see that the Iranian people throughout all of their sacrifices are going to hopefully get what they want, which is to free Iran from Islamic dictatorship.
MICHAELSON: Your Republican colleague, Thomas Massie, who has sometimes been a thorn in the side of President Trump, posted on X, "Act of war unauthorized by Congress." A lot of Democrats have said that as well. Are you worried about that? Have you been notified as a member of two of the most important committees in Congress? And what do you say to your Republican colleague who says that this is an act of war unauthorized by Congress?
MILLS: Well, again, I would ask them to go ahead and one look at the Constitution Article 2 authorities that gives the president certain leverage. I would also argue that we need to be reviewing the 1957, 1991, '01 and '02 authorized use of military forces where it was Congress, well before I was in Congress, who abdicated their roles and responsibilities under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 through 13 of War Power authorities to the executive branch when you're doing these global war on terrorism authorized use a military force.
[02:30:07]
So when you look at the IRGC, when you look at Hamas or Hezbollah or others who are Iranian proxies that do qualify and fall under the global war on terrorism or the terrorism designation, then this does fall within the actual brackets of military or constitutional authority by the president.
MICHAELSON: Congressman Cory Mills, when we spoke a few hours earlier, you said, I don't know when we're going to talk again about this. I said, stand by. And we didn't realize that this would be happening imminently. Thank you for staying up late. I know a lot of folks on the East Coast who are not usually up at 2:30 in the morning or up watching this precarious historic moment unfold live here on CNN. Congressman, thanks again for calling in and thank you for your military service.
We want to bring back --
MILLS: Well, thank you so much. It's truly an honor. And gain, Javid, Iran and you know, I look forward to seeing a free Iran where the people are not subjugated, where the women are not being put through these atrocities like Mahsa Amini, and where we can see a free Iran once again, not under the Islamic dictatorship. So thank you so much for having me.
MICHAELSON: Thank you, Congressman.
Let's bring back into the conversation Jeremy Diamond. Plus, we also have CNN Senior International Correspondent Ivan Watson in Hong Kong. We have team coverage. Everybody waking up to do this right now. Let's start with Jeremy.
Jeremy, can you describe what's happening in Israel right now?
DIAMOND: Yes. Well, let me take you through the series of events that we've witnessed over the course of the last hour and 15 minutes at about 8:15 a.m. local time, so an hour and 15 minutes ago, air raid sirens sounded across the country, waking many Israelis up, some rushing to bomb shelters, only to realize that these air raid sirens were not signaling immediate incoming fire, but rather directing Israelis to this new state of emergency that has been declared, announcing to Israelis that Israel has carried out strikes against Iran. But it turns out that these are not just Israeli strikes against Iran. Two U.S. officials telling us that the United States is also striking Iran alongside Israel, that these strikes were coordinated and that they are being carried out jointly by both country's militaries.
We do not yet know the exact targets or the extent of these strikes, but one U.S. official telling me that this is, quote, "not a small strike." In addition, that official also telling me that the United States is focusing on military targets inside Iran, but declined to elaborate more specifically on what those targets are. What the Israeli targets are far less certain. We know that the United States and Israel have both been concerned about Iran's nuclear program, but also the Israelis in particular are very concerned about Iran's ballistic missile program, which they believe represents a direct and existential threat to the State of Israel. Israel has also been concerned about Iran's use of regional proxies, militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas that it props up throughout the region, and which have regularly carried out attacks against Israel.
And so you can imagine that there is a very broad range of targets. The question is, how big did the United States and Israel truly decide to go? Have they gone for a regime decapitation operation that could target the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei? We do not yet know that at this stage. We know that it was one of the options certainly being considered, and we are seeing strikes on government buildings inside the capital of Tehran.
But it's important to note that at this stage, we do not know whether or not the United States and Israel have targeted the supreme leader, whether they are going for a regime decapitation operation, as the congressman was just suggesting before. Let's stick to what we know right now, which is that the U.S. and Israel have carried out strikes against Iran. The U.S. is focusing on military targets, and importantly, Israel is now bracing for a series of retaliatory strikes from Iran.
The Israeli defense minister saying that a missile and drone attack against the state of Israel is expected. And keep in mind that the Iranians have been far more prepared for these attacks today than they were back in June when Israel launched strikes against Iran, eventually followed by U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites as well. And the Iranians have also made clear that they will not only target U.S. military bases in the region, but also the State of Israel, and that the kind of retaliation that they would bring to bear would likely be much larger in scale than what they carried out back in June. In fact, both sides seem to be talking about a much larger military confrontation here than what we saw during the 12-Day War between Iran and Israel back in June.
[02:35:15]
So it is important to note that the Middle East is currently entering a very, very dangerous moment with enormous risks of escalation, enormous risks of this becoming a very wide regional war. And we are now in that frame of mind with preparations being made here in Israel for people to head to bomb shelters in anticipation of Iran's next move.
MICHAELSON: Yes, it seemed like in June everybody went out of its way -- their way to try to minimize the situation. And now it seems like we're having the opposite situation happening.
Let's bring Ivan Watson into our coverage from Hong Kong for the first time. You have been reporting on this region for so many years. Your first thoughts based off of everything that you're seeing?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think most important is what we're hearing from inside Iran as this bombing campaign from the U.S. and Israel begin. We're getting reports from various Iranian state news agencies like Farce (ph) News describing -- reporting bombing taking place in a number of cities, Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, Kermanshah as well as the capital, which indicates that you're going from the center of the country to kind of the west, northwest of the country potentially being struck as part of this bombardment. We're also hearing from eyewitnesses on the ground in Tehran who've been speaking, communicating with CNN journalists, a 35-year-old woman, a resident of Tehran, sending a message saying, quote, "We were at the office and then they hit a few different places and we saw the planes. There was a lot of noise and explosions and so terrifying. Everyone freaked out and started leaving.
The situation is really bad. They've hit a few places and we saw that, but now we have to wait and see." That's a 35-year-old woman, a resident of Tehran, who says she has witnessed the explosions in the capital.
And we're starting to also hear responses from Iranian officials. There is a social media post on X from Ebrahim Azizi. He's the chair of the Parliament's National Security Commission. We've translated where he says, quote, "We had warned you. Now you have started a path whose end is no longer in your hands."
And that followed up by something we're seeing in the Tasnim News Agency, another state affiliated news agency, announcing that Iran is preparing for, quote, "Revenge and a crushing response to the Zionist regime."
So if you put this all together from inside Iran, we're hearing about a bombing campaign hitting at least five, six cities across the country. Residents of Tehran terrified by what they're seeing and hearing. And also vows of reprisal coming from Iranian officials and being reported on Iranian state media, which suggests we have seen the opening salvo from Israel and the U.S. and that we can expect, judging by the rhetoric we're hearing, that Iran will retaliate in some form. The question is, where will this go? What kind of form will this take?
And I have to point out that in Doha, the -- in Qatar, you have the U.S. embassy that has put out a warning to U.S. citizens issuing a shelter in place order. Of course, back in the June conflict, the U.S. military presence there, the air base, came under Iranian retaliation. So that is directly across the Persian Gulf, across the Gulf from Iran, and could be a potential target if, in fact, Iran follows through with what we're starting to hear, which are threats of some form of retaliation.
MICHAELSON: Right. But the retaliation hasn't happened yet, Ivan. And we're now hearing from President Trump, who just posted on social media saying, our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world. He said, for 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the U.S., our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
He's described this as major operations. So that is from the president of the United States, who is in Mar-a-Lago tonight.
And Jeremy, it is interesting that this president, who, when he ran for president, mocked George W. Bush for the war in Iraq, mocked the idea of endless wars in the Middle East, has gone out of his way to do very sort of short prick like operations when he's acted militarily. May have, may have just gotten the United States into a much larger, wider conflict.
[02:40:29]
DIAMOND: Yes, that is absolutely right, Elex. You know, President Trump, I covered him for six years during his 2016 campaign and then into the White House in his first term in office. He always kind of struck out as someone who was opposed to creating new wars, especially wars in the Middle East, as he repeatedly assailed President George W. Bush for the war in Iraq that was launched in 2003. And President Trump has now opened a new and very potentially dangerous front in the Middle East. It remains to be seen how widespread this will be.
There has, certainly, it is important to note, been no talk of putting U.S. ground forces inside of Iran. But nonetheless, there are U.S. military personnel in the region who are now facing a very real threat of retaliation. And there are, of course, there is an enormous military buildup that preceded this operation that seems to be like nothing that we have seen since the scale of the Iraq war in 2003. And now President Trump has launched what appear to be very, very significant strikes against Iran alongside the State of Israel. The president saying that the objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.
We don't yet know exactly what that means. Is he focused on purely military targets? Is he going for an operation that could try and topple the Iranian regime? Is he also striking nuclear sites, ballistic missile programs, seats of power of Iran's Basij, you know, the internal security forces that have oppressed the Iranian people and killed thousands of Iranian protesters last month? None of that is certain as of yet.
What is clear is that President Trump has launched a major military conflict in the Middle East right now, and the consequences of which no one can really be sure and predict. Because keep in mind that the Iranians have made very serious threats in recent weeks as the United States was considering this military action. They have talked not only about striking Israel and striking U.S. military bases in the region, but they have also talked about other fronts as well. And it's important to keep in mind that the United States has designated Iran as a major state spot sponsor of terrorism, that Iranian proxies in the region, but also elsewhere in the world, could potentially aim to carry out terrorist attacks in retaliation for this. And that's certainly something that the U.S. intelligence community is going to be very focused on at this moment.
MICHAELSON: So we were just reading statements from President Trump. President Trump posted a video on his Truth Social platform as an address to the American people. So we want to now play that for you in free full. I think it runs about eight minutes. Here's that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries. Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel. In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole, many died.
[02:45:00]
Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq. The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. Naval and commercial vessels international shipping lands. It's been mass terror and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts. And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7 attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage. It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested. It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I'll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon. That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons.
And we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried. They wanted to do it, they didn't want to do it. Again, they wanted to do it, they didn't want to do it. They didn't know what was happening.
They just wanted to practice evil. But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades. They rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions and we can't take it anymore. Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland. Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called to -- so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It's a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon. This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces. I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration.
And there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication. My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region. Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war.
But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future. And it is a noble mission. We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear armed Iran.
We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way. And we trust that with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail. We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[02:50:03]
To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or, in the alternative, face certain death. So lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let's see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action.
Do not let it pass. May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces. May God bless the United States of America. May God bless you all. Thank you.
MICHAELSON: President Donald Trump there with one of the most remarkable speeches in the history of the American presidency where he is encouraging the Iranian people to get rid of the regime, telling folks that are working in the military, lay down your arms and get immunity, if not, face certain death, promising to annihilate the Navy, obliterate part of Tehran, and mentioning that this could be going for a long time, and suggesting that there likely will be casualties for the United States, but that's part of war. What a moment. CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene with us now from West Palm Beach. How do you respond to what we just saw history and a totally new policy from the United States of America just laid out right there?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. This is a massive moment for the president and something that, of course, you know, a lot of people had been waiting for, asking questions if this would happen. We have seen that massive buildup into the region of U.S. military power in the Middle East. But there was a question of whether or not diplomacy would actually prevail. And as we are learning with that statement from the president and the strikes we have seen this morning in Iran, diplomacy was not working, the president essentially said, and so that they have moved forward with this.
Now, one of the things that I think was most notable in those remarks that the president gave in that video statement is he said that this is going to be a massive and ongoing military operation. I think that last word, ongoing, is really key here because there's a lot of concerns among Americans and including many Republicans, people within the president's own base about this type of foreign intervention in Iran and striking in Iran. And you know, we heard the vice president earlier this week, Elex, say that this is not going to be a protracted military involvement. We're, of course, still waiting to see what exactly this is. This is very early on.
But the president saying that this is going to be massive and ongoing is going to kind of, I think, only add to some of those concerns. But look, I will tell you from the conversations that I've been having with my sources, I am here in Palm Beach where the president is as well, for the weekend where he gave that address and I was told that he is awake and monitoring, of course, this situation. But what this really comes down to, I think, is the timing of this. I've had a lot of people ask me in recent weeks, you know, why would the Trump administration, the United States, get involved in a strike of this magnitude at this point? And it's because, and I've been told this repeatedly by people in the White House, because Iran is weakened right now, as is the regime with the proxies in the region.
And that's part of why we saw them strike last summer and join Israel ultimately to strike the Iranian nuclear facilities. And that's ultimately why they believe this is an opportunity for them now. But again, we had just seen the president's top advisers, his son in law, Jared Kushner, his top Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, engaging with the Iranians just on Thursday, just two days or so ago, in Switzerland, trying to see if they could come to some sort of agreement. And really what the United States was asking for, Elex, was to make sure, and you heard the president say this in that video statement, is they wanted to hear the Iranians say they do not ever plan to have a nuclear weapon, but even went further than that.
[02:55:13]
I know that they were also asking for them to have zero enrichment of uranium. And so that is something that apparently did not happen. We heard the president say yesterday when he was headed to Florida that he was frustrated and he did not believe that the Iranians were giving him what he wants. And that's where we are now. And so we're going to have to see what happens from here.
And of course, I know the Trump administration is on high alert for any sort of retaliation from Iran.
MICHAELSON: And in a nod to his America First base, who have been against the idea of endless wars, he laid out all the attacks that Iran has perpetrated against the United States over the years. Thank you very much, Alayna.
I'm Elex Michaelson in Los Angeles. Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi will pick up our breaking news coverage after a break. Thank you for being with us as we watch history together.
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