Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump Announces Ceasefire, No Confirmation Yet From Israel And Iran; New Blast Heard In Tehran After Trump Announces Ceasefire; Source: Qatar Helped Broker Israel-Iran Ceasefire; WH: Israel Agreed To Ceasefire On Condition That Iran Stop Its Strikes; Sen. Lisa Murkowski Is Interviewed By CNN; New Blasts Heard In Tehran After Trump Announces Ceasefire; Sources: Qatar Helped Broker Israel-Iran Ceasefire. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired June 23, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What happened to the enriched uranium, whether or not this really shut down this program. But when you think about it, Erin, the ground crews, the communications crews, everybody who had to be involved in this, it really is pretty remarkable that this was managed to be kept so quiet right up until the moment of the strike -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: It certainly is. That is an incredible reality. Thanks so much you Tom. Thanks so much to all of you for being with us for this special coverage. AC360 begins now.

[20:00:25]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening again from Tel Aviv. It has been a remarkable 24 hours here. Events on the ground moving quickly. The question at this hour, which seemed unthinkable 24 hours ago is this, is the fighting between Iran and Israel about to end? President Trump announced it is. In a post on his social network at 6:02 P.M., he wrote this.

"Congratulations to everyone. It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a complete and total cease fire in approximately six hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in-progress final missions for 12 hours, at which point the war will be considered ended. Officially, Iran will start the cease fire and upon the 12th hour, Israel will start the cease fire, and upon the 24th hour, an official end to the 12-day war will be saluted by the world. During each ceasefire, the other side will remain peaceful and respectful on the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will."

"I would like to congratulate both countries, Israel and Iran, and having the stamina, courage and intelligence to end what should be called a 12-day war is a war that could have gone on for years and destroyed the entire Middle East. But it didn't and never will. God bless Israel. God bless Iran. God bless the Middle East. God bless the United States of America and God bless the world."

That was a post from the President about two hours ago, there's that. If his timeline is correct, that would mean in approximately four hours from now, because that was two hours ago. There would be a ceasefire. It is just past 3:00 A.M. here in Tel Aviv. And just within the last hour or so, explosions were heard in Tehran, capping one of the heaviest days of Israeli airstrikes there so far.

Around 10:30 A.M. In Israel, Iranian missiles were fired into Israel, including this one scene from a car in Ashdod, just south of here, and about seven hours ago, we saw Iran fire a flurry of missiles at the American Al Odiid Air Base in Qatar. None of which hit their targets, though some of the debris fell nearby. No one was hurt, thankfully. Even if it made for some dramatic night video, as it also did at a local mall when the alert went out.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

COOPER: It was quite a day leading up to the ceasefire announcement, Vice President Vance was on Fox when the when the President's post went up. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: First of all, the President without, knock on wood, having a single American casualty obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. We are now in a place where we weren't a week ago. I actually think when we look back, we will say the 12-day war was an important reset moment for the entire region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, prior to that, the Vice-President was asked about where this leaves the hundred pounds of highly enriched uranium that the Iranians may have moved ahead of the U.S. strikes. He responded, "I think that's actually not the question before us." In fact, more accurately, it's not the only question about a question about that about how the ceasefire will work and what the next hours and days might bring.

There's a lot to get to in the hour and a lot to figure out. We do have new reporting, though, on how this came about, starting with CNN's chief White House correspondent and anchor of "The Source," Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, what have you learned?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, It's a very fluid situation. I should note, just as were going into this, just to look at the big picture of what's happened over the last 72 hours alone in terms of how the White House has been handling this. I mean, there were moments inside the White House when we were there earlier today where officials were running into the Situation Room as they were monitoring Iran's response.

But as far as to how we got to this cease fire that the President announced tonight, it is something that they have been working on as the Vice-President, J.D. Vance, alluded to in that interview just about two hours ago when the President posted on Truth Social.

They've been working on it all day, and there have been a series of phone calls that had been going back and forth between the leaders in Qatar and also the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who right now is meeting with his Security Cabinet, I should note, in terms of the President trying to get this to an agreement to have Israel and Iran agree to stop firing upon one another so they can try to broker a ceasefire.

Now we're hearing incredibly optimistic views coming out of the White House as far as how long this could hold and what this is going to look like, that obviously still remains to be seen on the implementation side of this, and waiting to see if the firing does stop and if Iran and Israel do both agree to this because, you know, speaking of the fluidity of the situation, it was just 24 hours ago that President Trump himself was suggesting a regime change in Iran was a possibility.

And obviously, right before that, having the United States strike Iran. And so, yes, there have been a lot of phone calls going back and forth. In part, this has to do with Iran's limited response earlier, where they fired on a U.S. base in Qatar, but there were no casualties. We know that they did give a heads up that they were going to be firing on U.S. Bases without exactly specifying which ones.

But that is the question here, is if the United States felt that it did not need to respond to the Iranian retaliation, did that create the space for this? That is what we've been hearing from administration officials. And so, the question is whether or not this still holds for the next few hours.

[20:05:45]

COOPER: Kaitlan, I've just been given word that Iran, according to a diplomat who briefed CNN, Iran has agreed to the ceasefire. So this is significant -- I just want to try to learn some more information as soon as we get it about that. But if that is the case, that's incredibly significant because that is, we were waiting. We had not heard from Iran. We had not heard from Israel. All we were going on so far has been the President's social media post, which was some two hours ago. So again, that is the first indication we have that Iran has agreed to this.

It would be interesting to hear from Israeli authorities. We'll see if we're going to hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu or perhaps directly from the President tonight. Kaitlan, do you know, is there any plan for the President to actually speak publicly?

COLLINS: So far, no. They've called what is known as a lid at the White House, which means the President is not expected to have any more planned appearances for the rest of the evening. Of course, this is President Trump that can always change. He can always post on Truth Social. But I think to the to the point of the Iranians are saying that they have agreed to this, Anderson, as you were just told. I mean that is --

COOPER: By the way, that's a diplomat who has been briefed on, I'm sorry to interrupt but that's based on a diplomat telling CNN who has been informed about the talks. So, that is not a direct statement from the Iranian regime. That is from a diplomatic source talking to CNN.

COLLINS: And remember, there's very little trust between Israel and Iran, for obvious reasons. And so, that is the question of actually seeing them stop firing missiles back and forth. I've been texting with Israeli officials ever since the President posted on Truth Social. They're kind of saying that they're waiting to see how this plays out and what the actual implementation of this looks like. So, I'm even hearing skepticism from people that I've been talking to on the ground.

Obviously, the White House is hopeful that this is the end, not just even a temporary ceasefire, because the President was telling us just a week ago he didn't want a temporary ceasefire. He wanted a complete cessation. That is still a big question tonight that remains to be seen, and we'll only be able to tell in the coming hours.

COOPER: Kaitlan, thanks. We'll check in with you throughout the hour as warranted.

I want to go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who's one of the few western journalists in Tehran. He's been hearing several explosions in the area over the last, really all throughout the day. It's been a very active day with Israeli strikes in Iran. What are you hearing now? Have you heard anything? Is Iranian state media saying anything about President Trump's social media post?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Anderson. Yes, it has actually been a pretty intense night here over the Iranian capital. We have seen a lot of airstrikes take place, especially in the past, sort of, I would say 30 minutes, maybe an hour or so. There was intense anti-aircraft fire that we heard and saw over the Iranian capital, especially to the south of our position right here. We saw those tracer fires going into the air, and really a lot more intense, I have to say, than anything that we had been seeing over the past couple of days.

So clearly, the Iranians were shooting very intensely at something that was in the skies. We also tonight, again, Anderson heard planes flying over the location that we're in, and then some pretty loud explosions to a location south of us. So, that certainly seemed to indicate that there were Israeli jets in the air, and that they were making several passes at whatever they were trying to bomb here in the central part of the city.

The Israelis, of course, had issued evacuation orders for two districts here in Tehran and that was actually also exactly where we saw that tracer fire into the air coming from as well, where we heard those explosions also. And you alluded to the fact that it has already been a pretty intense day.

There was one massive airstrike directly in the vicinity of where we are right now that really shook the buildings that we were in. We had to then take cover when we emerged from our cover the entire sky of the Iranian capital to the to the west of us was in thick black smoke. So, that clearly a major strike that took place. Now, as far as that ceasefire is concerned, earlier, a senior Iranian

official said that the Iranians had not gotten any sort of proposal about a ceasefire. They were not expecting one. They also said, and they were in fact saying that they were going to intensify their retaliatory strikes, of course, first and foremost, meaning against the Israelis for some of the airstrikes that we've been seeing here.

We've not seen the situation quiet down since then, but certainly as of right now, there's no indication that the Iranians are expecting that a ceasefire is going to happen soon. But one thing that we certainly are seeing is that in this night, the Israelis seem to be ramping up their aerial campaign.

The Iranians obviously ramping up their defense that they're trying to mount of that aerial campaign and of course, you had those air strikes against Al Udeid Base, which the Iranians earlier today, this was on state media, but this was also official channels as well. They called it robust and successful and one of the things that was a key line that the Iranians were putting out is that they were saying that on that base, they fired exactly as many missiles there as the Americans dropped on Iranian nuclear installations. Of course, that could indicate that that was a tit-for-tat response -- Anderson.

[20:10:41]

COOPER: Yes, Fred Pleitgen appreciate it. We'll continue to check in with you if you hear anything from official media there. Republican leadership is beginning to weigh in on the President's announcement. House Speaker Mike Johnson said to reporters in just the past few minutes, "This is what peace through strength looks like."

Clarissa Ward joins me now here in Tel Aviv. I mean, it's been a remarkable day. If this is the case, this is certainly a cap to an extraordinary 24 hours.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's head spinning, I think is the word I would use the idea that the Qataris, after having their sovereignty under attack, would then have the wherewithal to broker or to mediate, along with the U.S., this cease fire agreement is really pretty extraordinary, but I think gives you a sense of the behind the scenes that there was a kind of carefully choreographed sequence of events going on here that would allow everybody to have a much needed exit ramp and try to prevent this thing from escalating even further.

COOPER: The fact that when Iran did this strike, sending missiles toward Qatar, they not only, according to all the reporting, gave advanced word to Qatar, but also made a very public announcement highlighting it, that this is just -- this is the same number of missiles being fired that were of bombs that were dropped on the two nuclear installations, sort of highlighting to the entire world, this is simply one response to this and that's it.

WARD: One and done, that's the message that they were trying to project. It's a playbook that we've seen before in 2020, after President Trump ordered the killing of Qasem Soleimani, they responded with the strike on Al-Assad Airbase in Iraq, in Anbar province. But they did so in a way where they telegraphed in advance nobody was seriously injured or killed. And so the region was able to move forward.

Now, there are still things that can go wrong. Firstly, we haven't had any official confirmation from the Iranians or the Israelis. We know that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was with his Security Cabinet earlier. Now, he's in a more narrow security cabinet meeting. We have been seeing as Fred was just reporting an intensification of Israeli strikes against Iranian targets, a lot of mixed messages coming from the IDF. Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier had said, were very, very close to finishing what we need to do. IDF chief spokesperson later on saying we've got plenty of targets left. Where is the actual truth of the matter? I guess we will find out in the coming hours.

But I would say that we should all be bracing ourselves, potentially for a heavy evening, because as we've seen time and time again with conflicts, when you announce a ceasefire, you give that window you're basically all sides want to try and sort of prove their mettle, get in as many strikes as they can before they hit that deadline.

Another thing that I was struggling to understand from President Trumps post, Anderson, was this idea of a sort of staggered ceasefire whereby potentially Iran would cease fire after six hours, which I guess now would just be about four hours from now and then Israel, after 12 hours. So, there's definitely some ambiguity in terms of like the mechanism and implementation of this. And, you know, we will be waiting to see what and when Israeli officials are going to come out and make some public comments on this.

COOPER: Yes, Clarissa, thanks very much. I want to bring in CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk, former Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the National Security Council. Brett, I'm wondering what you make of the President's social media post.

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Anderson, I think we spoke earlier. I said this crisis is now in the stage of beginning to recede. Let me say two things. Number one, we spoke last night about turns, the escalation ladder that we had been on. The American strike was turn one. We are waiting for a turn two from Iran. You want to try to cabin it, put a ceiling on it there. That's exactly what happened today. This turn from the Iranians. the response was not a real response. It was choreographed, telegraphed. Most of the missiles were defeated by both Qatari defenses, interestingly, and U.S. defenses and then you had this flurry of back-channel diplomacy.

What's striking there, Anderson, is we've been talking throughout this crisis about, you know, if the President is going to order a military attack into Tehran, it's very important when he does that to get on the same page with the Israelis, that the objective here is the nuclear and ballistic missiles, and were going to put a ceiling on it. We're not going to go down the road of mission creep or expanding objectives. That appears to be here, exactly what's happened.

And now, we have the chance to get into a ceasefire de-escalation. But I have no doubt, I think the Israelis will continue to patrol Iranian airspace to make sure that Iran cannot reconstitute some of its capabilities. And just finally, as we look to diplomacy, there has been so much back-channel diplomacy going on over the last week, and it's my understanding now that the negotiation that will probably start with Iran fairly soon has a bit of a deadline, because the Europeans are prepared to use a power called snapback.

[20:15:44]

They can snapback all international sanctions between now and October, but they have to do it by August. That power expires under U.N. Security Council resolution put in place with the JCPOA, the Obama era deal, and the Europeans are saying it's my understanding that if Iran thinks that it is going to maintain a secret stash of highly enriched uranium, or its going to threaten to leave the NPT, they are prepared to snapback sanctions.

So, the diplomacy has a bit of a deadline. Look, bottom line, this is about the best place we can be. I give extremely high marks to this National Security team and President Trump for managing this crisis. And given where we are. But now let's follow through. There's a chance for diplomacy here, not only on the Iran side, but also in Gaza. Those talks are also going on back-channel. In Cairo, there's a Hamas delegation there. Try to get that ceasefire in place, and you can come out of this in a place that is far better than we would have anticipated ten nights ago.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, it's just again, I keep using the term remarkable, but it is just an extraordinary turn of events just in the last 24 hours. From my understanding, what the President is saying is social media post is that some four hours from now, the beginning of a ceasefire would start. Iran would stop any in that four-hour time frame, approximately. Iran would stop any kind of aggressive action toward Israel or anywhere else.

Israel, I assume if what I read in that is correct, is that Israel would also then stop during that timeframe, see if that Iran stops this for a given length of time, and then Israel will officially cease operations as well. Have you seen staggered cease\fires like this before?

MCGURK: Yes and what I read into that, I think Clarissa alluded to this. Look, the Israelis were reaching a point in their military campaign where the targets they had planned to hit had already been hit. So, the campaign was kind of culminating on its natural course. The Israelis here, clearly, I said, if I read between the lines there, okay, we're going to finish our target set tonight. And then if Iran doesn't respond and they stop and we have a window, we will stop as well. So, I think that's what we're looking ahead forward --

COOPER: I think your breath has frozen. We'll try to reestablish contact with Brett. Next, we're going to take a short break. We're going to have more on what we are learning about the people involved in getting this accomplished. A lot more from the region ahead. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:22:47]

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage here from Tel Aviv.

Just before air time, not long after announcing a ceasefire within the next four hours between Israel and Iran, the President spoke by phone with NBC News. When asked how long it will run. He said, "I think the ceasefire is unlimited. It's going to go forever."

In just the last few minutes, we learned that according to an Iranian diplomat briefed on the talks that Iran has agreed to the ceasefire, we have not heard that directly from the government of Iran.

Kylie Atwood is standing by. She has more. She's a National Security correspondent. She's new reporting on how all of this came about and Qatar's role in this. Kylie, what have you learned?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we'll, what we've learned is that there has been a tremendous flurry of activity, primarily between the U.S. and Qatar, serving as a key mediator between the U.S. and Iran to get this cease fire into place. What happened today according to a U.S. official is that President Trump spoke on the phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu. And then, according to a source familiar with Qatar's role, President Trump spoke with the Emir of Qatar and told him that he was able to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, then asked the Qataris to actually help in getting Iran to agree to a ceasefire as well.

The Qatari Emir then put Vice President Vance in charge of this. Speaking with the Qatari prime minister to actually coordinate what this would look like. And then the Iranians came back in agreement with this ceasefire. But as you guys have been noting, we do not yet have confirmation from officials from either Iran or Israel that they have agreed to this, even though President Trump wrote when he announced that the ceasefire had come to fruition, that it had been fully agreed to.

COOPER: Any other key players now involved in talks with Iran?

ATWOOD: Well, listen, Anderson, I think it's really important to note that there are messages going back and forth between the U.S. and Iran by multiple intermediaries right now. It's clear, however, that Qatar is serving as the key intermediary at this point. They are the ones that helped broker this ceasefire that were seeing. They are also the ones who received the heads up from Iran that there was going to be strikes that occurred today against U.S. bases in the region, but they have also been telling the Iranians that the United States remains engaged and interested in a diplomatic agreement when it comes to the Iran nuclear facilities.

So, they have not just been shuttling messages when it comes to the military strikes between the two sides but also the desperation for diplomacy that President Trump has consistently said that he wants to see play out, but we have to watch and see if this ceasefire actually paves the way for that if it holds.

[20:25:30]

COOPER: Kelly Atwood, thank you very much.

Just moments ago, Israel agreed to the ceasefire provided Iran stops its strikes, a reminder that just a few hours ago, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, was posting on social media, "We will not surrender to anyone's violation." Take that for what it's worth.

With us now is Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Karim, what do you make of what we are hearing now on this ceasefire, just everything that we have seen in the last 12 hours here.

KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR FELLOW AT THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Well, Anderson, this is a regime in Iran which is fighting for its survival, for its existence. It's fighting the greatest superpower in the world. The United States is fighting with the greatest power in the Middle East, the state of Israel, and mostly, it is fighting against its own people. And so, they want to survive and in my view, this is a tactical pause. This is not a strategic shift.

Their capacities have been enormously diminished, but their intentions haven't. I guarantee you that next week or tomorrow, they're not going to say that we now accept the state of Israel. So, this in my view is -- a Supreme Leader, years ago gave a speech evoking this concept of heroic flexibility. He said, when you're a wrestler and you're fighting an opponent, sometimes you need to take a step back to regroup and rebuild your strength. And I think this is a simply a tactical pause, if indeed they have agreed to this ceasefire.

COOPER: If that is the case, and there's no reason that would not be given their past behavior as well, there's got to be steps in place, I assume, and the U.S. and Israel and European partners and regional partners would know this better than anyone to verify aspects of the Iranian nuclear program. What do you see from happening on the diplomatic front over the next few weeks?

Clearly, the Trump administration, they have talked about direct talks. They clearly don't have much patience for the kind of negotiations which have been laborious, often dragging on for years between Europeans, the U.S. and Iran. Those negotiations are painstaking. That doesn't seem the kind of negotiations that the Trump administration is interested in engaging in.

SADJADPOUR: The challenge you have in Iran diplomacy now is that the Supreme Leader is 86-years old. He probably has limited physical or even mental bandwidth at this point. Most of his top military commanders have been assassinated. He's inaccessible, as far as we know, to his nuclear negotiating team. So, it doesn't seem like they're empowered to be able to deliver anything of great consequence.

So, this is not something that's going to, in my view, going to be resolved in a couple of days. This is going to take real time. And as I said, he's very paranoid at the moment. He thinks that, you know, his system has been totally compromised and infiltrated. So this is, in my view, going to be a month long process -- months not

days.

COOPER: Any decision still -- in your opinion, would have to be approved by the Supreme Leader who's in we assume, some sort of secure bunker somewhere with limited communication.

SADJADPOUR: Well, Anderson, that's actually a very good question. You know, he is the longest serving autocrat in the world. He's been firmly in charge of Iran since 1989. And for as long as I've been doing this work, two decades now, it's not totally clear to me whether he's still the person steering the ship. You know, if the people around him, these senior Revolutionary Guard Commanders, have to be thinking, this guy his entire life's work has just exploded in flames.

Our regional proxies have been decimated. Our nuclear program has been decimated. We don't control our own airspace and the country has been led to economic ruin. So, in my view, he's someone on borrowed time. He's on borrowed time anyway, right? He's 86, but I'm not sure how much longer the Revolutionary Guard Commanders are going to continue to defer to him as their commander-in-chief.

COOPER: Has the Islamic State ever been in as weakened a position as they are in right now?

SADJADPOUR: Certainly not militarily. They've just been totally emasculated. I mean, they don't control their own airspace. And the things that you want to look for when you're trying to figure out regime fragility, you want to look at any signs of elite fissures within the system.

You know, senior officials defecting or differences amongst them, we've seen a lot of popular tumult in Iran over the years. At the moment, the population in Iran is, I think, just thinking about their immediate security and safety. But as you've so often witnessed in the past, Anderson, going back to the Arab Spring and more recently, the collapse of the Assad regime, you know, as they say, every dictatorship looks good until the last ten minutes.

COOPER: Karim Sadjadpour, I so appreciate having you on tonight. Thank you. I really appreciate your expertise.

[20:31:00]

We have new reporting from our White House team that Israel agreed to the ceasefire deal on the condition that Iran stop its attacks in their country, that's according to a senior White House official. The source also says that Iran agreed to those terms as well. Now word of the ceasefire sent the price of oil futures down sharply.

CNN's Erin Burnett, anchor of OutFront, joins us now from The United Arab Emirates. Erin, just an extraordinary turn of events that we are broadcasting through right now.

BURNETT: I mean, Anderson, it is extraordinary. And, you know, even standing where we're standing, you know, right by the Strait Of Hormuz, the Iranian parliament had approved shutting down this crucial straight, which would have sent oil prices surging and truly would have been -- something that would have indicated the precipice of a much greater war. That was something that had been approved by the parliament and was going to the National Security Council, for their approval to take effect, which is obviously so important to think about what that role would have been in the context of the conversation you just had with Karim.

But now here we are waiting to see what this ceasefire really is and whether it is just a ceasefire. And as, you know, Karim was telling you that he sees this as if anything a tactical pause, not a strategic shift. And that is going to be the crucial question. JD Vance, not long ago tonight, Anderson, just coming out and saying, the U.S. will probably have more strikes if Iran attempts to build a nuclear weapon.

So, you know, you talk about a ceasefire. What exactly does that mean? And is that just a pause for Iran to essentially try to regroup? You know, what we saw today, though, Anderson, the tension, coming in here, you had airspace partially closed, flights delayed -- or actually, I'm sorry --

COOPER: Yes.

BURNETT: -- even put on hold completely into Riyadh, into the United Arab Emirates, because they were concerned about missile strikes. And then we saw what happened in Qatar even as all of that is happening and you have tenterhooks, you have, it seems, this deal actually being negotiated in the very country that Iran was striking with missiles and people were running and hiding in malls from missiles. I mean, truly extraordinary to think about this moment --

COOPER: Yes,

BURNETT: -- that we are in as we are waiting in these next few hours, Anderson, to see if the ceasefire actually is real and will hold.

COOPER: Erin Burnett, we'll continue checking with you.

Coming up next, some of the still unanswered questions about the results of American air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. We'll talk to Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:37:33]

COOPER: We are now just a little less than three and a half hour from the start of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. A senior White House official telling CNN that both sides have agreed to that. That said, there are still some outstanding questions about the agreement as well as where this leads Iran's nuclear ambitions and the ability, what will be the ability of the U.S. and other countries to monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities.

Also the question of whether Iran had already moved enriched uranium ahead of U.S. air strikes to secret locations around the country. Lawmakers obviously will be looking to try to get answers at a classified briefing tomorrow on Capitol Hill. My next guest will be in that briefing. She's also the author of the new book, "Far From Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, D.C."

Senator Lisa Murkowski joins me right now. Senator Murkowski, I appreciate your time tonight. I want to ask you about your book, but first, what do you make of the president's announcement on social media of this ceasefire?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Well, I think this is good news, and it is news that we've all been following. It's literally, if not by the minute, certainly by the hour in terms of the events and how quickly things have transpired over the course of these past 24, 48 hours. And so to be at a point where we're talking about the terms of a ceasefire where Israel has said this is happening, Iran has said this is happening, this is a much, much better place than where we were, just mere hours ago, when we learned of the missile attack there within Qatar.

So it is moving quickly, but we're all very -- I am certainly very hopeful at the moment that we are in right now that, in fact, with the decisive measures that the president and his national security team have taken, that we could be in a place where Iran has a graceful exit here.

COOPER: You're somebody in Washington who's, you know, people on both sides of the aisle consider a straight shooter. You have your -- what you believe in and you stand by it. Sometimes it's out of favor. Sometimes it's in favor with your own party. Do you think it was the right move by President Trump to order the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities given what we have seen now as the outcome?

MURKOWSKI: Well, again, I would just caution that we are all seeing things in in real time. There are many, many questions that I think we have.

[20:40:08]

Certainly, those of us in Congress are going to be seeking answers tomorrow at this classified briefing. I think that that will be very, very instructive. But I think we all recognize the direction that Iran was heading with building up their nuclear capabilities was a place that was not acceptable.

And so the decision to strike when the president determined so, you can do a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking here, trying to figure out was this the right time. But it looks at this moment, it looks at this moment where the attacks were still going to be doing much of the damage assessment going forward, but have brought us to a place where not only are you going to see a ceasefire, but hopefully serious negotiations moving forward.

And I think we need to give credit where credit is due. It was decisive. It was with a level of precision executed in a way that, as an American, you're extraordinarily proud of the men and women that were executing this mission. But again, much, much to be learned in the hours and the days going forward.

COOPER: You write about the president in your book, and you say, quote, "Trump seemed to think of himself like a president in the movies, making snap decisions based on a few words of explanation and expecting immediate results." Did you see that attitude on display in the way he teased the possibility of military action in Iran? What are your expectations about what will happen next on the diplomatic front?

MURKOWSKI: Anderson, I've lost you here.

COOPER: OK. All right. I'm sorry. We'll try to re-establish contact. It is very difficult given the situation. There's a lot of engineering issues to try to get a live broadcast out of here. So I apologize for that, Senator Murkowski.

Coming up next, reaction from a Democratic lawmaker and member of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Jason Crow, on the ceasefire and the American airstrikes. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:47:09]

COOPER: Well, before the break, we heard from Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying tonight's ceasefire between Iran and Israel puts us all in a, quote, "much better place than we were just hours ago". Again, our apologies to the senator for communications problems.

I want to get perspective now from a lawmaker, the other side of the aisle, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, who's a member of the House Intelligence Committee and will also be getting a classified briefing tomorrow. Congressman, first of all, what do you make of President Trump's announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran?

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Well, Anderson, we don't know what's true and what's not at this point. I already have received classified information. I'm a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and we were in briefings today. We don't know what's fact from fiction at this point. There are still reports of bombings and strikes in Tehran. We don't know the origin of that, so we have to see how this plays out.

But I agree that, you know, it would be great to have a ceasefire, but that literally would just set us back a couple of weeks to where we were a couple of weeks ago. What success ultimately looks like here is a permanent and verifiable agreement that Iran would not get nuclear weapons. That did not come out of these strikes. That actually would have been part of the deal that Donald Trump tore up in 2018.

COOPER: You said that this would just set us back to where we were a few weeks ago. Do you not think whatever damage -- and again, bomb damage assessment is still underway, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Trump has said it was obliterated. The Joint Chiefs of Staff say it's still underway, though the damage does seem to be extensive. Are you saying that that damage did not set the Iran nuclear program back much farther than where we were a few weeks ago? CROW: Well, let's not forget that this has happened before. Strikes have happened before. Espionage against Iranian nuclear facilities have happened before. We have been in this position before, and what happens is maybe it sets things back a couple of months.

But if the Iranians want to develop a nuclear weapon and there's no verification, there's no inspection, and there's no permanent agreement, then they always just come back. Which means what? A year from now, we'll be here again. Two years from now, we'll be here again, at best, on the outside.

What we ultimately need is a deal that is permanent and verifiable, and that deal will not come out of airstrikes. And let's not forget the fact that President Trump, without congressional authorization, issued an offensive strike against another nation, right? There was no imminent risk. There was no information provided to Congress that showed that there was a risk to U.S. persons and U.S. facilities that would have authorized him, without congressional action, to perform this strike.

COOPER: The IAEA did raise concerns about Iran's nuclear program. They said that there was no reason to have 60 percent enriched uranium.

[20:50:09]

No other country has that kind of enrichment level that's not a nuclear power. Were you concerned by the report that the IAEA put out? They were not calling for strikes or anything like that. Were you concerned about what the IAEA said?

CROW: I'm always concerned about Iran. I'm always concerned about their intentions. They're one of the most malignant, dangerous regimes in the world, right? They've killed American troops. I served in Iraq as a paratrooper. And it was Iranian militias, Iranian support, that actually ended up killing American troops. They're one of the largest state sponsors of terror.

They support terror groups and proxy groups around the world. So, yes, they shouldn't be trusted. And, yes, I believe in being tough on Iran. But what I also know as somebody that's spent three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, I know the inherent limitations of military power.

I know you can't bomb your way out of this. And I also know without public debate and transparency and accountability and without Congress being involved, you can go for 20 years with a seemingly endless war, spend $3 trillion and have it end poorly. I have been there and done that, too. That is not where we want to be again.

COOPER: Congressman Jason Crow, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much.

Coming up next, there's more on the lingering nuclear question. There's a lot of questions. I'll talk that over with David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector, about what needs to happen next, to the congressman's point, to verify what is the situation with Iran's nuclear capabilities. Where is the enriched uranium that may have been moved before these strikes? A lot to talk about ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:56:33]

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage from the region. Iran's foreign minister has just tweeted, and I'm quoting now, "As of now, there is no agreement," he has in quotes, "on any ceasefire or cessation of military operations. However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4:00 a.m., Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards."

He concludes by saying, "The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later." That's actually not contradictory to what, from my reading of what President Trump's social media posts several hours ago was, those statements are not necessarily contradictory. While he may sort of quibble about the term agreement, he is indicating that Iran will stop its activities, and I think it's about the same time frame, it's almost 4:00 a.m. here in Israel, so a few hours from now.

And as part of what President Trump has said in that social media post, if Iran does that, Israel will follow on stopping theirs several hours later. So again, a lot remains to be seen. The next few hours appear to be critical to see whether what President Trump announced on his social media post several hours ago around 6:00 p.m. East Coast time, whether that will actually come to pass. These next hours will be critical in that.

What we have seen today, what preceded President Trump's social media post, of course, was the response by Iran to the U.S. strike on three facilities in Iran, and that Iranian response, which was much anticipated, there was a lot of concern about it, you know, a lot of watching of what level of response they would choose, given all the potential proxy forces that they have and have used in the past for many years.

Those proxy forces are now severely weakened. The response was extraordinarily limited. It was a direct strike toward Qatar. Iran put out a statement saying that the number of missiles fired was the exact same as the number of bombs dropped on at least the two facilities the U.S. dropped bombs on in Iran, telegraphing that this was, to their mind, proportional just in terms of the number of munitions involved.

Jeremy Diamond is here with me, Jerusalem Correspondent for CNN. A lot remains in the next few hours really critical to see.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Without a doubt. And listen, we know that the Israelis have been striking Tehran with ferocity in the course of the last few hours. You know, people in the Middle East will tell you when a ceasefire has been announced, get ready for things to get intense, busy and potentially deadly. And that is exactly what we're witnessing, at least in the skies of Tehran.

The question now is whether in the coming hours we will get another one of those ballistic missile barrages from Iran. The last one now, I mean, we're coming up on --

COOPER: I think it's about three hours left in the time frame that President Trump stated in his social media post.

DIAMOND: That's right. And again, there's some uncertainty there as to whether or not that timeline will actually be, you know, abided by in the way that the president said. I mean, I've never heard of a staggered ceasefire in this way where one side has to start and then six hours later the next side starts. So there's some uncertainty there.

And the fact that we haven't heard anything officially from the Iranians or the Israelis also tells us that maybe there are some last- minute negotiations still over some of the details. But yes, either way, we are getting very close, and these next few hours are going to be consequential.

COOPER: Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.

Our coverage continues with The Source and CNN's Kaitlan Collins.