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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump Decision on Iran to Come within Two Weeks; Israeli PM: We will strike all of Iran's Nuclear Facilities; Israeli Hospital Damaged by Iranian Missile Strike; Israel Strikes Iran's "Inactive" Arak Nuclear Facility; Search & Rescue Team Responds To Iranian Missile Strike Outside Tel Aviv; WH: Trump Decision On Iran To Come Within Two Weeks, Any Deal Must Include "No Uranium Enrichment." Aired 8-9p ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: But historically speaking, being mayor anywhere is not a good launch pad for presidency. There have, in fact, only been three mayors who have gone on to be president of the United States Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland from Buffalo, and of course, Calvin Coolidge from Northampton, Massachusetts. So, being mayor of New York, it's a powerful position. But the idea that you can become President just ask Mike Bloomberg, Bill De Blasio, Rudy Giuliani, it don't work.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Okay, that is a great point I love how you said -- and Calvin Coolidge, of course, of North Salem --

ENTEN: Northampton.

BURNETT: Northampton, okay. Of course, who didn't know that.

ENTEN: Who didn't know that?

BURNETT: Not me, thanks for joining us. Anderson starts now.

[20:00:39]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening again, from Tel Aviv, with President Trump saying he'll make a decision on striking Iran within two weeks and the fighting here continues. Today, despite a week of Israeli airstrikes, Iran showed that it still has enough missiles to cause serious destruction. Four missiles hit early this morning. A strike in Ramat Gan to our east and most businesses were closed at the time, and a big apartment tower avoided a direct hit. So no lives were lost there. In the Negev, Beersheba's main hospital sustained heavy damage from a strike. Several dozen people were injured. Most of those light injuries.

For its part, Israeli forces continue targeting nuclear sites inside Iran, hitting the nuclear reactor complex in Arak, Southwest of Tehran. The reactor there can make the bomb material plutonium, most famously used in the fat man device dropped on Nagasaki. It's also above ground and vulnerable to airstrikes. Other sites, most notably Fordow, not so vulnerable, which is why today's announcement from the White House is so important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I have a message directly from the President, and I quote, "Based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks." That's a quote directly from the President for all of you today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, she was also asked about the as yet unreconciled gap between the President and the U.S. intelligence community on how close Iran is to getting the bomb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: When the President says Iran is very close to a nuclear weapon, is he relying on U.S. intelligence or intelligence sharing from an ally to make that assessment?

LEAVITT: It is a fact and the United States government maintains this fact that Iran has never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Now, never been closer is interesting. It conveys a certain sense of urgency without giving an explicit time frame. But the President's decision to take as much as two weeks more to decide on striking Iran or not certainly suggests that he thinks he got some breathing room here. And that, in turn, is quite a change from his tone just a few days ago, when he cut his trip to the G7 summit short, telling reporters this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This is big stuff, and I have to be back early for obvious reasons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, that was on Monday and shortly before you'll remember, he went on social media warning people in Tehran to flee. In his words, everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran. Tonight, that sense of immediacy has been replaced by something else, something different. And though we don't yet know why or to what end, the words themselves are familiar. Here's the President late last month, when asked whether Vladimir Putin was ringing him along on Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks. Within two weeks, we're going to find out very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Two weeks, within two weeks. That was more than three weeks ago and no decision on Russia yet. Now, whether today's two-week time frame will turn out the same as impossible to know. But again, for both Trump 47, and Trump 45, two weeks is both a callback and a go to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will make that decision. I would say over the next two weeks.

I could answer that question better in two weeks. I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks.

I'll announce it over the next two weeks. You'll know, in about two weeks. It'll be out in about less than two weeks, maybe in two weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, speaking of callbacks and go-to's, right wing podcaster and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was at the White House today for lunch with the President. Bannon is on record opposing U.S. involvement in strikes on Iran. Here's how he put it yesterday, telling reporters, "The Israelis have to finish what they started."

A lot to get to in this hour. We begin with the President and CNN chief white house correspondent Kaitlan Collins. So, Kaitlan, the two- week window, the lunch with Bannon, is it clear what's going on or what may have changed? Because obviously the within two weeks punt is Presidents go-to move.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, yesterday when we were in the Oval Office asking the President, Anderson, about whether or not he had made a decision yet on whether or not to strike Iran and to get the U.S. militarily involved. There seemed to be an indication that he was softening his language a bit in terms of what he was looking at. I mean, remember, it was just 24 hours before when we had returned from that trip that was cut short to Canada, where the President was tweeting that he knew where the Supreme Leader was hiding and that the United States could assassinate him if they wanted to. But were choosing not to do so for now.

He was demanding unconditional surrender. And then in the Oval Office, he seemed to raise this idea of talks actually happening. He told me he had not closed the door yet on having more diplomatic efforts with the Iranians, though it's not really clear what exactly that would look like or if we'd actually ever see them at the White House.

And I think that, you know, was very clear that the President had not reached a decision yet and he had a Situation Room meeting yesterday. He's been getting his National Security briefings every single day and clearly has not arrived at a decision yet, which is why he's now essentially providing himself the space of two weeks.

[20:05:47]

On Steve Bannon, I will say that that two things. One, he had a lunch with the President that was scheduled several weeks ago, I was told, and it was actually rescheduled, happened to be for today. Obviously, that was well timed given there are people on Steve Bannon's side of the party who do not believe that a strike is completely in line with America First.

But if you listen to what Steve Bannon has been telling his followers, which is often a pretty big signal to Republican congressmen and women, he was kind of creating space for Trump to strike and what that would look like, and essentially how they would make the argument that he had made the right call there, even if it goes against what we had been hearing from some Republicans like Thomas Massie, who say, one, they don't believe that the President should get the United States involved in what's happening between Israel and Iran. And two, he needs congressional approval to do so.

And so, of course, this is a tried and true time frame of the President's. But, Anderson, what is different here to me is that often cases, its more nebulous what the President is going to announce in two weeks. I mean, sometimes its specific, like health care or infrastructure, but with Russia, Ukraine, it's not been a clear deadline of two weeks. This is clear. Well know if he decides to strike Iran or if he decides not to. And so there is this two week time frame. They said within two weeks, which I thought was key here. And obviously, that is a decision that still lies with the President and we'll see which one he makes.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, within two weeks could mean two days from now. It could mean three days from now or a week from now. Its -- there's obviously a wide window in there. European Foreign Ministers are meeting tomorrow with Iranian counterpart. Is the U.S. taking part in that?

COLLINS: Yes and there was the British Foreign Secretary also at the White House today, who was meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this afternoon. We saw him entering the door of the West Wing, had been on his schedule. And so you are seeing this kind of last minute push by the Europeans to try to intervene here and try to push for a diplomatic solution.

I still think it's a real question of what that looks like. Do the Iranians see an offer from Steve Witkoff and from the President differently now that Israel has struck and this fighting has gone on for an entire week now, as we come on the air tonight, that's still the big question. Even inside the White House and there doesn't seem to be a lot of confidence that a diplomatic solution is going to work. I mean, remember, the President came back from Canada saying he wasn't looking for a ceasefire. He wants this to completely end.

And so, that is really the question here in terms of how the Iranians see it. They are still in contact with Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, whether or not it produces results or if it returns to where the President was leaning earlier this week towards a U.S. Strike on Iranian nuclear facility, remains to be seen.

COOPER: All right, Kaitlan, we'll see you at the top of the hour on "The Source."

Joining us now is CNN global affairs analyst, Brett McGurk, former Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the National Security council, CNN National Security analyst Beth Sanner, who's a former Deputy Director of National Intelligence and CNN senior military analyst Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander.

Brett, when we spoke last night, you told me that the U.S. owns the clock on this is the within two week time frame. What you had in mind. And do you think it's a wise move?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think, Anderson, it's not exactly what I had in mind, but I will say we'd all like a diplomatic resolution here. And diplomacy with a firm deadline can be very effective. So, if this is a firm deadline that by the end of the two weeks, we either need a diplomatic resolution, particularly to that Fordow facility that we've been talking about and dismantlement of those machines and centrifuges or the President is prepared to use force as were moving forces in place. That can be a very effective combination.

If the two weeks is indecisiveness, I think the Iranians will try to string this out. Very important meeting tomorrow in Geneva. You have the Germans, the French and the Brits, together with the E.U. at the table, with the Iranian Foreign Minister. However, the Iranians so far are showing total defiance. And if they come in tomorrow with their same position, because these talks have been stuck before this crisis started, I'm not sure where we go.

But it's good that the Foreign Secretary of the U.K. was in the White House today is now going to Geneva. Ultimately, the Americans Steve Witkoff has to be part of that process because what the Iranians want is a ceasefire from the Israelis and sanctions relief as part of this deal, which the Europeans really don't have in their hand to give.

So tomorrow is a really important day in Geneva, and we'll see what comes out of that. Look, we want a diplomatic solution. Firm up this deadline, and you might be able to align the pieces as the military maneuvers continue and we continue to get things in place for a possible strike.

COOPER: Admiral, it seems that that Israel acted on their own timetable in advance of possible negotiations between the United States and Iran last week and launching these attacks. Do you see them waiting for this two week window?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: I think they're going to continue doing exactly what they're doing, which is to continue and degrade what's left of the Iranian air defense systems. I think those are beaten down maybe 80 percent, but they're still targets to be hit. They'll also, I think, more importantly, in the wake of all the ballistic missile strikes, they'll go after Iranian ballistic missile offensive sites, but also ballistic missile production sites, essentially, the Israelis will continue what they're doing and I think Prime Minister Netanyahu will continue to kind of try to pull the United States into this conflict.

Final thought, adding to what Brett said a moment ago, I think there's a diplomatic possibility at the end of this. I wouldn't rule out that this is, in effect, a ruse, and that suddenly there will be a strike over the next day or two. I guess that's the operator in me.

And then thirdly, it could open the window to operationally get even more forces in theater, set the table even more aggressively for what could be an ultimate strike. So it's hard to say exactly what will come out of this. I agree with Ambassador McGurk. I hope it leads to diplomacy. If it doesn't, there are some other military angles to it that could be advantageous.

COOPER: Beth, you know, we were just looking at night vision images put out by the IDF of some of their strikes in Iran. It is just striking to see how much freedom of movement they have in the skies over Tehran and other parts of Western Iran. Even though we saw this missile barrage coming from Iran early this morning here, and that was probably the worst we've seen over several days. The freedom of movement, they have is extraordinary in the skies over Iran.

When you look, Beth, at the President Trump's remarks this week urging Iranians to evacuate Tehran, demanding unconditional surrender, suggesting Ayatollah might be targeted, all while holding out the prospect of a deal. And now this within two week window is sowing uncertainty. I mean, is that part of a strategy by the White House?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I don't really know. I think that having moving bars demands is something that's just kind of typical. And I think that sometimes its intentional and sometimes it's not. But I think that this is part of the issue here, just simply being unpredictable, it has a point, but at some point it also can force Iran to kind of be at a fork in the road where one of those forks is negotiation, but the other one of those forks is something that isn't good related to what they have still left of their nuclear program.

And so, you know, I think that what is required right now is a lot of focus and discipline and that should seep into the messaging both in the United States and in Israel. And our focus in the United States should be on the nuclear program, not on regime change. It should be on ensuring that Iran cannot get a weapon. So, you know, all this talk about threatening the Ayatollah, it only makes it harder to get them to the negotiating table, in my view.

COOPER: Brett, I mean, assuming Israel went into this not being fully sure whether the U.S. would engage and take part in an attack on Fordow and other facilities. Assuming Israel believes they have the capabilities to severely damage or eliminate the Iranian nuclear program. Do you see any realm in which they go forward with some sort of strike or commando raid or whatever it might be against Fordow or other very difficult facilities? Or do you think they will have to wait for word from the U.S. one way or another.

MCGURK: You know, Anderson, it's a great question. When we were on air one week ago tonight as this was breaking, we were talking about the problem here is Fordow because the Israelis really can't do that on their own. And it is Iran's main enrichment facility. It's smaller than Natanz, but its where they have these ten cascades of IR-6 centrifuges enriching the 60 percent.

[20:15:16]

Now, I'll say one thing, the Israelis in September and I was in the White House at this time, did a Special Forces raid in Syria into an underground missile facility, almost the same depth, about 300 feet underground, the same as Fordow. The Israelis named that operation many, many ways and they basically it was a signal to Iran. We have many ways to take out underground facilities. So they have that option but the distance from Israel to Iran are vast. It's a totally different operation, very high risk to do that without us, enabling, providing search and rescue other things would be very difficult.

But look, the Israelis might have something up their sleeve here. I would not count them out, but the end of the day, it is the MOP that Massive Ordnance Penetrator that we have. We know how to do this. We've trained on it. It's been refined over the years. That is the lowest risk option. If we want to destroy Fordow not guaranteed, but that is the best option.

Bottom line, Anderson, we identified this a week ago, Fordow is the issue and right now I still don't see the answer to it. It's either a diplomatic deal or an American strike.

COOPER: Brett, I looked into that operation you talked about because you mentioned it before, and I found it fascinating. I think it was used overwhelmingly. It was Israeli Air Force, Special Operations Forces, helicoptering in multiple helicopters, many dozens of operators rappelling down ropes going into this facility took them a long time. They had hours on the ground. I assume an operation against Fordow would be multiple times that in terms of the number of personnel involved, given the fortifications right?

MCGURK: Yes, and the distance -- and it's a whole different deal. But they operation in many ways was to show we have many ways to do something like this. And Israel has the capability, but you have to reach the site and you have to secure it, and you have to be overhead, and you need search and rescue. And I mean, that is something the U.S. military can help with.

Look, it's lower risk now because Iran is so degraded but it is a high risk operation. Again, if you want to do Fordow, let's hope for a deal. Get those centrifuges out of there. No enrichment in Fordow. Iran should sign up to that tomorrow, that'd be great, if they don't, the other option is an American strike or the worst case, Anderson, this all ends with Iran still having that infrastructure intact with enrichment facilities, ten cascades able to produce weapons, create uranium in a matter of days and then were in an even worse case.

So, Fordow has to be dealt with, in my view. Let's hope for a deal, if not a deal, the option is the American option, really.

COOPER: Brett McGurk, Beth Sanner, Admiral Stavridis, appreciate it. Thank you.

Coming up next, more on what has been a destructive, though thankfully not a deadly day here in Tel Aviv. Also, more reporting from inside Iran. Now, perhaps under this new deadline of sorts and a new round of Israeli airstrikes tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So what we've been hearing tonight is really an increase in aerial activity over the skies of Tehran. There's been a lot of outgoing anti-aircraft fire seemingly coming from Iranian anti-aircraft guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:23:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: ... the children's ward is over in that direction. There is a maternity ward in this hospital. I've seen pregnant ladies outside the hospital having to leave with other patients already today. This is the biggest medical facility in the south of Israel. It serves a million people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: CNN's Nic Robertson at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba earlier, the destruction considerable, but most of the injuries are minor. Thankfully, the hospital's director general telling "The New York Times" that all staff and patients were in protected spaces when the missile struck. With me here again tonight is CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward. How are Israeli government officials? What are you hearing about this within two-week window now that's been set by the White House.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what we're hearing is silence, which is perhaps not entirely unexpected. It feels like everyone has been told not to say anything. And I think the Israelis have really gone out of their way throughout this whole process to not come across as though they're trying to force President Trump's hands or make him look bad publicly, or apply pressure publicly. Privately, however, clearly, this is likely to be a disappointment because the Iranians -- the Israelis, I should say, believe that now is the moment. They were optimistic that he was going to intervene. They were optimistic that the window was going to be 24 to 48 hours, potentially and I think there's a sense that they feel they have the momentum going, right.

They've achieved a considerable amount in their eyes in the last week, and the idea of having to keep that going for another two weeks and to allow this diplomatic process to play out in tandem. I think also there's a concern and they've been quite vocal about this before. This idea of some kind of a ceasefire that would have to take place in order for the diplomacy to play out.

There's no interest in that and frankly, from the conversations I've had, there's no real interest in allowing any diplomatic process to play out. They believe they need to achieve the strategic objectives that they have set out for themselves. It's worth saying that they haven't really clarified exactly what those are, but diplomacy is not part of it.

COOPER: Even if, though they strike Fordow and have success, unless there is complete regime change and there is a complete ability for Israel to have boots on the ground searching various sites, there's no guarantee that there's not other stores of uranium hidden elsewhere. All of that will have to be determined through some sort of diplomacy or negotiations assuming a regime stays in power.

[20:25:34]

WARD: And I think that's why there is so much ambiguity and frankly, a real desire from so many on the international community to understand what is Israel's objective here. Is the objective to simply diminish their capacity, slow down the capacity to build a nuclear weapon? Is the objective to completely decimate any possible future nuclear weapon? Or is the objective actually regime change and I don't think we've had very clear answers on that. We hear today, the Defense Minister, Israel Katz, saying, like Khamenei cannot continue to exist.

Then we hear later, Prime Minister Netanyahu, in an interview with an Israeli T.V. channel, not rowing it back, but maybe being a little more ambivalent about it and saying no one deserves immunity and actions speak louder than words.

And it's possible that that ambiguity around this is what gives them some kind of wiggle room. But without real clarity on what the objective is, it's hard to see how this diplomatic effort can really play out, because there's no clear sense of what the end goal is.

COOPER: Clarissa Ward, thanks very much. We'll check in with you a little bit later on in the program.

Iran's national broadcaster has issued a warning to employees of channel 14 in Israel, saying the station is, quote, considered a legitimate target and warning that, "in the coming days, it will be the target of Iranian missile attacks."

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran for us tonight, which has seen considerable action in the last several hours. He filed this report just before air time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (on camera): So, what we've been hearing tonight is really an increase in aerial activity over the skies of Tehran. There's been a lot of outgoing anti-aircraft fire seemingly coming from Iranian anti- aircraft guns. We've seen in the skies the sort of burst of those munitions exploding in the skies. It's unclear what the air defense forces here are firing at, whether or not there's drones or planes or something else that they're trying to intercept.

We're also hearing quite a few thuds that seem to be coming from the ground, or could also be from that outgoing anti-aircraft fire, or even from outgoing anti-aircraft missiles. But it is definitely something that were noticing. There's a lot of noise tonight over Tehran. It's unclear whether or not that means that there's a big attack going on, but if we listen, we can hear the fire coming out.

So, you can see those are the things that we've been hearing. Those are the things that we've been seeing as this evening has been progressing. There certainly is a lot going on in the skies over Tehran.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, a key report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, has fueled arguments on both sides of this fight about how close Iran is to a nuclear weapon.

Now, last week, you may remember the board of governors of the IAEA declared Iran in breach of its nonproliferation obligations, saying that Iran had uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, which is shy of the weapons grade levels of 90 percent purity and enough of it to potentially make nine nuclear bombs.

Now, the IAEA criticized Iran's, what they call general lack of cooperation. The agency also says it was not able to verify that there's been no diversion of nuclear material required to be safeguarded, and it couldn't provide assurances that Iran's nuclear regime is exclusively peaceful.

Now, after the IAEA reported that Iran vowed it would ramp up its nuclear activities by launching a new Uranium enrichment center and installing advanced centrifuges. But just hours later, Israel attacked. Now, before air, I spoke to the IAEA Director General, Rafael Grossi, about his agency's report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAEL MARIANO GROSSI, IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL: Well, think -- thanks for raising this point, because it's a very delicate one. Because a report on the nuclear verification, in Iran could hardly be a basis for any military action, military action, from whomever it comes, is a political decision that has nothing to do with what we are saying.

And by the way, what we said in this report was essentially not new. We have been for quite a long time already, indicating that we were not getting from Iran the replies and responses and clarifications that we were needing in terms of a number of nuclear activities throughout the country. In that report, I also said that at this point, we do not have any indication that there is a systematic program in Iran to manufacture to produce a nuclear weapon. So, you know, we are objective, we say as a court of auditors, inspectors, we reflect what we can determine and verify, you know, on the different issues and cases.

[20:30:52]

COOPER: Do you have a sense of how long it might take for them, given what you know about their capabilities, for them to weaponize what they do have, even with a crude device or a very crude delivery system?

GROSSI: Well, it depends. And again, here one has to discriminate, Anderson. One has to look at the material on the one hand, which is the enriched uranium, and there has been a lot speculation in the press and in other, you know, outlets here and there about this. One thing is to have the material to put in a warhead, and a very different one is to have everything else that, as you can imagine, goes inside a warhead to make it work. And we do not have any evidence that this is ongoing in Iran.

It is true that in the past, in the early 2000s, there have been some activities which were assessed at that time as related to nuclear weapon design and nuclear weapon development. So that has happened in the past. We are not seeing this now. So saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation, because we do not know whether there was somebody, you know, secretly pursuing these activities.

We haven't seen that, and we have to say it. Just as we are saying, and I repeat again, just as we are saying that Iran is not answering all our questions, that they are the only country in the world that is enriching 60 percent uranium, outside, of course, those who have nuclear weapons.

COOPER: Just finally, there's a lot of discussion about the U.S. obviously getting involved using these so-called bunker buster bombs against in the facility at Fordow. Just from a scientific standpoint, this is obviously unknown. These weapons have never been used before, certainly not against this facility or a facility like it. From a scientific standpoint, are you concerned about unintended consequences of dropping enormously powerful munitions on this Fordow facility?

GROSSI: I hope this doesn't happen. I'm a diplomat with 40 years of work for peace. So I hope this doesn't happen. I hope that we can go back to a diplomatic solution. Because, you know, at the end of the day, of course, physical structures can be destroyed, but you cannot destroy knowledge. You cannot destroy technological advancements being made in a country.

So, what we believe -- continue to believe is important is to find a way to go back to the diplomatic table. We believe that with a good agreement and with a robust verification, inspection, there's no need to, you know, bunker busters or anything like this. Diplomacy is the way forward.

COOPER: Director General Rafael Grossi, thank you very much for your time.

GROSSI: Thank you very much. It was a pleasure.

COOPER: Coming up next, see how an elite Israeli military search and rescue team responds to an Iranian missile strike, an urgent mission ahead. We'll have that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:39:14]

COOPER: Not far from here in Ramadan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, which usually a busy neighborhood is left in ruins after a single Iranian missile strike. Take a look.

Israeli authorities say the residential and commercial area took a direct hit this morning with the facade of a high rise torn open and other buildings damaged. Now, in an emergency like this, an Israeli military search and rescue unit is ready to go in.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond spent some time with them. Here's his report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Air raid sirens in Tel Aviv these days can mean only one thing. Another barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles. For these soldiers, it also means being ready for what comes next.

DIAMOND: So like millions of others in Israel right now, we are in a bomb shelter, but we're with the elite rescue unit of the Israeli military. These are the people who are going to be going out and trying to rescue people should any of those ballistic missiles which are now flying overhead actually make impact.

[20:40:11]

DIAMOND (voice-over): Minutes later, the team leaders head straight into the command center. Reports of strikes, interceptions and falling debris are pouring in all at once.

Lieutenant Colonel Golan Landsberg needs to make sense of it all and determine whether and where to deploy his team of specialists.

LT. COL. GOLAN LANDSBERG, IDF SEARCH & RESCUE: Look like either frozen open areas or interception.

DIAMOND: So right now you're trying to assess whether those two potential impact sites are worth your team going to and providing your expertise.

LANDSBERG: Yes. By this time, we should have seen all the pictures, movies from scenes --

DIAMOND: Right.

LANDSBERG: -- all reports on casualties.

DIAMOND: So even that open source information from social media is being fed into your systems?

LANDSBERG: Oh yes. Look like.

DIAMOND: So that's it. DIAMOND (voice-over): This night it's back to bed. But the next morning isn't nearly as quiet. Four ballistic missiles have broken through Israel's air defenses. Lieutenant Colonel Landsberg decides to deploy to a strike on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

DIAMOND: So we just arrived on the scene of this ballistic missile strike.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The scale of the damage is stark. A single missile has shaved off the side of this building, partially crushed another, wrecking cars and shattering windows for blocks.

Colonel Landsberg and his team immediately push into the building, going floor by floor, apartment by apartment, searching for casualties and evacuating survivors. Inside the building that was struck, it's easy to see how deadly this attack could have been.

DIAMOND: Destruction here is just enormous. I mean, it's hard to describe if you weren't to see these pictures. Everything is covered in dust and soot. And this right here is the building's gym or what once was the gym.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But while the people evacuating this building are shaken, they are alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five minutes ago, we finished up scanning the entire building from bottom to top and take everyone.

DIAMOND: The safe rooms seem to be making your job a lot easier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, well, they save life. So it's very easy to see that.

DIAMOND: All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safe life. You get in. 99 percent that you are still safe.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But as one war spills into another, danger still lies ahead.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COOPER: And Jeremy Diamond joins me now. I mean, if it wasn't for the safe rooms that are in all these buildings, particularly ones in basements, I mean, the death toll could be much, much higher.

DIAMOND (on-camera): No, I mean, I've arrived on the scene of several of these strikes over the course of the last week. And when you get there, I mean, you wonder sometimes, like, how could anyone survive this? And the reason they're surviving it is because of those bomb shelters, because of the early warning systems that people have here to get there and because people are following the instructions as well.

And that has more to do, I think, with the threat of these Iranian ballistic missiles. You know, Israelis aren't always quite as to the minute on getting to the bomb shelter when Hamas or Hezbollah are firing rockets. But now with these Iranian ballistic missiles, when people see pictures like this, they take it very, very seriously.

COOPER: And also the fact with the ballistic missiles that they can give citizens a 10-minutes warning that then you're going to need to get to a shelter and gives people time to prepare. And then you get that red alert of like a minute, a minute and a half, and then you really need to get to the shelter.

DIAMOND (on-camera): Exactly. And so people are certainly following those. You know, we were talking yesterday about the fact that Israel has degraded Iran's --

COOPER: Yes.

DIAMOND (on-camera): -- capabilities to fire these ballistic missiles. What we are also seeing, though, was today they fired about 30 missiles all at once. So clearly their capabilities have been degraded --

COOPER: Yes.

DIAMOND (on-camera): -- but they're not gone altogether and it's --

COOPER: Quite a wakeup call at 7:00 a.m. this morning.

DIAMOND (on-camera): Yes.

COOPER: Jeremy, thanks very much.

Coming up next, CNN's Fareed Zakaria on the president's new two-week time frame or within two-week time frame from Iran and what he thinks that may bring. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:48:43]

COOPER: We've been talking tonight about what to make of the president's statement today that he'll decide on whether to strike Iran within two weeks, more time frame than a deadline by the sound of it. And at this point, more questions than answers surrounding it all.

I want to get some perspective from CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of GPS. I want to play again that montage of President Trump pledging to make decisions in two weeks time, because I do think it sort of gives us a window to look at this latest declaration.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will make that decision, I would say over the next two weeks.

I could answer that question better in two weeks.

And I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks.

I'll announce it over the next two weeks.

You know, in about two weeks.

It'll be out in about less than two weeks.

Or maybe in two weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: So how do you see this? Is this just pushing the can down the road? Is it a diversion? What do you make of it?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: Well, I think the best way to understand Trump's attitude to this crisis is really FOMO, fear of missing out, because he was negotiating with Iran. And all this -- everything I'm going to say now we have from Trump. He was negotiating with Iran.

He told Bibi Netanyahu, don't strike. Bibi Netanyahu then decides to strike anyway. Trump instructs Marco Rubio to issue a statement distancing the United States from it, saying this was a unilateral Israeli move.

[20:50:11]

And in that Rubio's statement, nowhere does it say the United States supports Israel, which is very rare. Then it goes very well.

COOPER: Yes.

ZAKARIA: And Trump decides he wants in on the action. And he starts acting like it's a joint operation. So I think what Trump wants is for any Iranian concessions that come to be seen to be coming because of Israeli action and American threats. He wants to be in on the action.

So he realized he had gotten the temperature too hot by suggesting he was going to strike immediately. So he's used his traditional two weeks to cool down. But at the end of the day, Anderson, the thing to understand is he is not setting the agenda here. There is a world leader setting the agenda. It's Prime Minister Netanyahu. Trump is just trying to get in on the action and be able to take some credit for an Iranian concession.

COOPER: What's interesting to me is that Netanyahu made this action, as you said, the U.S., you know, distanced themselves. They would not have made this action if reliant on depending on the -- in the off chance that President Trump would agree to back them up with an offensive strike using these bunker busters on Fordow.

Do you believe that Israel would move forward with whatever contingency they planned they had within this two-week window and try to take out Fordow one way or another, whether it through, you know, special forces or something else? ZAKARIA: Absolutely. Look, this Israeli operation has clearly been planned for years. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been trying to think about this and act on it for 20 years. So this is a long sort plan. And I think Bibi Netanyahu very brilliantly realized that events were moving in his favor over the last year, that his enemies were much weaker abroad.

Hezbollah collapsed completely. The Assad regime collapsed. Iran was not able to do anything once Israel took its air defenses out several months ago. And so he's pounced on the opportunity. They have got to have a plan as to how they go in and degrade Fordow and Natanz.

Remember, even the Americans can't completely destroy Iran's nuclear program, as various Israeli, you know, statesmen have pointed out, because they can rebuild. What they could do is probably destroy Fordow.

The Israelis can attack it, pummel it. Fordow has air vents, heat vents. It has entrances. You could even mount a commando raid. I'm sure the Israelis are thinking about all those contingencies. And by the way, you could also make it given that Israel has such air superiority.

You could make it so that it's effectively inoperable by doing periodic bombing raids. You know, you just make it so that every time you see anything of any substance moving in or out, you bomb those convoys. Remember, Israel owns the Iranian skies, which means it could do this two months from now, six months from now.

It can destroy the air defenses again if the Iranians try to rebuild them. Israel is really calling the shots here.

COOPER: Fareed Zakaria, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Still ahead, more on the diplomacy efforts as Tel Aviv and the rest of Israel and Iran wait to see what happens next. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:57]

COOPER: As we've been discussing tonight, we're going to a two week period of uncertainty about the United States' role in this war. Added, of course, the ongoing uncertainty about what this war may bring next day to day, hour to hour and strike by strike.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is back with me right now. It is interesting, this whole idea of some sort of a two-week window. What is your sense from Israeli authorities about what may happen? I mean, they must be able to act on their own if they chose to. Otherwise they would not, I think, have made this strike to begin with.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that there has always been a plan in place for the contingency that the U.S. would not be involved. Now, what does that look like? We really don't know yet, because obviously all eyes on this Fordow facility. Would it be possible for Israel to try to destroy it in some way without those U.S. bunker buster bombs? What might that look like?

Might there be some kind of a commando raid, which seems brazen and audacious. But could there be some kind of a raid whereby people on the ground would go in, destroy it from the inside?

COOPER: Which they did do in Syria at a facility. And it was a very audacious, you know, helicopters going in, commandos rappelling down. It was successful. But Fordow is a whole other level.

This is a whole new level. And again, it comes back to this thing that we talked about before, which I think gets to the crux of it, which is what is the end goal? When can Israel say that it has accomplished its mission? Is it enough to set back the process of enriching uranium and creating a bomb by three or four years? Or does it need to be a complete dismantling?

From the rhetoric that we're hearing, it certainly feels much more like the latter. But it remains to be seen what that would look like in terms of actually pulling something off like that. And meanwhile, you have to take into account that there are diplomatic pressures going on as well, not just from the U.S., who are presumably trying to use this space that they've given themselves with this two-week window to engage further.

And we know that Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, is continuing to talk to the Iranians. But also from other actors in the region, particularly in the Gulf, where there's an understanding that Israel is going to do what it's going to do. But there are efforts ongoing to try to, like, set ring fence certain areas --

COOPER: Yes.

WARD: -- particularly with regards to oil production and things of that nature.

COOPER: We'll see what happens with diplomatic efforts in the next 24 hours in Europe. That's where attention will be turning.

Clarissa Ward, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

That's it for us. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.