Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Iran Names Khamenei's Son As New Supreme Leader; Intense Strikes On Tehran's Energy Sites; Trump Says U.S. Troops Could Possibly Be Sent To Iran To Seize Uranium; Trump Says Next Supreme Leader Won't Last Long Without His Support; What We Know About Iran's Drone Arsenal. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired March 08, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:41]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. Thanks for joining us.

Starting off our CNN global war coverage tonight, for only the second time in its 47-year history, the Islamic Republic of Iran has named a new supreme leader. His name may be familiar to you. Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed at the wars outset after ruling for more than 30 years.

The president has already called the son, quote, "unacceptable" and called him a, quote, "lightweight." Israel, which has been pummeling Tehran's energy infrastructure this weekend, has already marked anyone the regime chooses to lead Iran against the Jewish state for death.

Word of the new supreme leader came shortly after we learned that a seventh American service member has died. Quoting Central Command statement now, "The service member was seriously wounded at the scene of an attack on U.S. troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 1st." CENTCOM saying that he or she died of those injuries overnight. As is customary, their name is being withheld until 24 hours after their next of kin are notified.

Starting us off tonight, CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran. We should mention our team's movements are monitored there by the Iranian government.

Fred, how exactly was the announcement of the new supreme leader made? And what more do we know about him?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Anderson. Yes, it was a pretty low key announcement actually on the state TV here in Iran. It was a statement that was read by the Assembly of Experts, which is a body of 88 clerics here in Iran that elected the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, who, as you correctly pointed out, is the second eldest son of the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who of course was killed in that airstrike about a week ago.

And that was all part of broader coverage that was going on here on Iranian state TV because there's vigils that are going on right now as, of course, the combat operations between Iran and the U.S. and Israel continue in the nighttime hours. And those vigils across the country were then seen to erupt into joy and celebrations as the announcement was made. That's something that's actually continuing right now on Iranian state TV.

And it really comes as the Iranians have been going into a completely different tone as far as the confrontation with the United States is concerned. It's been quite interesting actually over the course of this weekend where at the beginning the president of this country apologized to some of Iran's neighboring states for some of the rocket attacks and have been missile attacks that have been going on there. But really over the past, I would say about 36 hours, the tone has changed where the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council came out and said that Iran doesn't want a ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel, wants to avenge the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

And then also tonight, the head of the parliament here in Iran said exactly the same thing. And with the election of Mojtaba Khamenei as a new supreme leader of Iran, it really is seen as sort of the continuation of the policies of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where this is a hardliner, certainly much more so than a moderate. It is also someone who commands the respect of the security forces here in Iran specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is, of course, the most elite wing of Iran's military and certainly the group that's doing most of the fighting.

And if we look at the missile attacks that have been going on, on Israel, on some of the states in the Gulf, all of that is done by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, by the aerospace forces of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. So certainly this is seen as a clear sign that Iran is gearing up for this war to continue for an extended period of time. And certainly at this point in time not necessarily looking to de-escalate, not necessarily looking for a ceasefire with the United States and Israel -- Anderson.

COOPER: Fred, what have you been seeing over the weekend from Tehran?

PLEITGEN: Yes, I mean, it's been a very kinetic weekend, I have to say. Of course, last night we had massive attacks on some of the oil infrastructure here around Tehran. In fact, at this point in time, about 24 hours ago, we were seeing thick plumes of smoke in the night sky here over Tehran. We also saw some of those fires still burning. Earlier today I was able to go to one of the oil installations, a storage facility in the west of Tehran, and see all of that.

Still very much aflame, very much burning, thick black smoke coming out of that also as well. And as we woke up here in the morning of the -- here in Tehran, Anderson, it was raining and there was actually oil and soot that was mixed into the rainwater, making the floor basically absolutely black. The cars had a black film on them. It's certainly something that also felt quite toxic to actually breathe the air here in Tehran for the better part of the day.

[19:05:07]

So it's certainly been a weekend where a lot has been going on. But I think one thing that's also very important to point out is that the airstrikes that are conducted by the U.S. and Israel, certainly something that you feel here pretty much throughout the entire day, you'll be walking on the street or even being here in the place where we're staying, and you'll hear a thuds in the not too distant places here around the city.

And then you'll hear that there's been an airstrike somewhere. So that certainly is a backdrop that pretty much continues throughout the better part of the day. But those airstrikes that happened in the night from Saturday to Sunday were definitely a lot larger than what we had been seeing in the days prior to that -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Fred Pleitgen, appreciate it. Thank you. Be careful.

I want to go next to CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward, who is reporting from Erbil in Iraq.

So what is Iran's choice of Khamenei's son as the new supreme leader signal, do you think, to the to the region and to the world?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think as you just heard from Fred there, Anderson, this is a strong signal that reform, compromise, ceasefire, capitulation, none of those are on the menu. Iran is now showing very strongly that it is gearing up for a protracted conflict. As one analyst put it from Iran, the main achievement of Donald Trump's campaign so far has been to replace Khamenei with Khamenei. In other words, it's business as usual.

Now the question becomes, what will the response be from President Donald Trump? What will the response be from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Both have made it very clear that he would not be a palatable choice.

And I think what's also striking and interesting, Anderson, is how little Iranians really know about Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. This is not someone who was a familiar face on TVs or on the radio. People have not often heard him speaking. Some have not heard him at all. He was a man who was in the shadows. He was understood to wield a great deal of power, to have very strong relations with the IRGC.

He served in the Iran-Iraq War and had a close relationship with the former leader of the IRGC, Qassem Suleimani, who President Trump had assassinated back in 2020. But he's not per se a familiar face to many Iranians. And from those that I've been speaking to mainly in diaspora, because of the difficulty with connectivity there, there's a sense of dread now because many feel that they are sort of trapped between a clear continuation of the former ayatollah's policies and a ruthless and relentless bombardment campaign that some fear threatens to catapult the entire country into complete chaos if it continues.

And with no real sense, and particularly with the announcement of this new supreme leader, that there is any offramp in sight -- Anderson.

COOPER: And do you think it changes much in terms of Iran's strategy? Because we did hear from the president in Iran talking to regional countries, saying that essentially that they weren't going to be striking regional countries, that didn't strike them, and yet we continue to see countries being struck.

WARD: Well, and again, it's exactly as Fred said, we had this announcement from President Pezeshkian saying we're sorry, we've been attacking you, we won't do it again. And within moments, a drone hit the Dubai Airport, and Iran has continued to hammer the Gulf countries. Just today, a large ministry in Kuwait was hit. 22-story building engulfed in flames. A desalination plant in Bahrain. Missiles and drones being intercepted over the United Arab Emirates, over Qatar, over Saudi.

Here in Iraq, it has truly been relentless, and while I think we obviously need to wait to hear what this new supreme leader will say, and perhaps, perhaps, so just maybe, it would be possible that if he was to decide to try to find some path of reform or some way out of this, at least he would have the credentials and the bona fides and the gravitas within the security apparatus to try to push that through, potentially.

But here in the region, I would say this news will be taken again with some real anxiety, particularly Gulf leaders, Anderson, who have not wanted for this to escalate, who have really tried to kind of bite their tongue and maintain a posture of forbearance, but who are increasingly feeling that they are running out of patience and may at some point be forced to respond -- Anderson.

COOPER: Clarissa Ward, thanks very much, from Erbil.

Perspective now from someone who briefed the president on Iran during his first administration, former deputy director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanner. Also with us, CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz, and CNN global affairs analyst Karim Sadjadpour.

Karim, let me start with you. This is only the third supreme leader in Iran's history.

[19:10:02]

President Trump previously said that the son would be unacceptable. It was interesting that, you know, Fred was saying a lot of Iranians, actually, it's Clarissa was saying, a lot of Iranians don't really haven't heard him before, don't know much perhaps about him. What is he like? How does he compare to his father?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So, Anderson, Mojtaba Khamenei is a familiar name for Iranians, but he's not a familiar face nor a familiar voice. He's operated in the shadows the last decades. I spoke to someone in Tehran earlier today who's known him for many decades, and he said, you know, like the children of many dictator he's socially awkward. He's not a good speaker. He doesn't have very good interpersonal skills.

His stock rose by virtue of the fact that his father was assassinated. His mom was also killed and his wife was killed in that operation, and he's really the power behind the throne here as one of the biggest thugs in the Islamic Republic called Hossein Tayeb. He's the former head of Revolutionary Guard intelligence, and I think he's going to be the real power behind Mojtaba Khamenei.

COOPER: General Schwartz, do you think now this new leader is the new target for Israel, for the U.S.?

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You know, based on what we've certainly heard in the, you know, from the president and certainly from Prime Minister Netanyahu, he's probably a high value target number one. You know, he's certainly completely in line with his father and the broader ulema inside of Iran. So I would say so.

COOPER: Beth, how difficult do you think to actually target him would be given --

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Well, you know, the Israelis and now we found out with the first wave of attacks that killed Khamenei, that the United States at CIA had very good information on where everyone was. However, in the last week we have seen this council of three leaders, including President Pezeshkian, meeting. We've seen pictures of them. We've heard audio of them and they are obviously have not been found.

And so while I think over time we probably -- the U.S. and Israel will probably figure it out. So far, you know, it's not a shoe in. Right? And this is why, I think, you know, being target number one, you know, I think that there's this understanding that this guy is someone who is a hardliner and he is being put forward by the hardliners in the IRGC. But there is something that is about maybe your own self- preservation. So I think we have to keep our minds open, too, about what might happen next.

COOPER: Karim, how decentralized is authority in Iran right now? I mean, is there a central authority which is, you know, has command and control over, you know, response, over -- whether it's defensive operations or offensive operations, or is it centralized or is it completely decentralized?

SADJADPOUR: I think it's -- the war effort has been broadly decentralized. There seems to be two people essentially managing the country's affairs right now. The guy who is running the country's political affairs is Ali Larijani. He's a longtime Islamic Republic apparatchik. He gave a long speech yesterday on Iranian state television inside a bunker and, you know, very -- projected a very hard line, non-compromising outlook.

The guy who's running the country's military affairs is a guy called Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. He's the current speaker of parliament. He's also seen to be very close to Mojtaba Khamenei.

And the reality, Anderson, is that the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei was the political equivalent of a bunker buster. You know someone has been ruling for four decades is abruptly killed. It's left a huge vacuum. And I think it could take -- if the Islamic Republic remains in power, it could take many years to fill that vacuum. Mojtaba Khamenei is going to begin as a very weak supreme leader. His father ruled for 37 years. He may not last for 37 days.

COOPER: General Schwartz, just big picture. How do you see the campaign going by the U.S. and Israel so far?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think militarily the U.S. Central Command and the Israeli Defense Forces have done really a remarkable job. You know, if you look back at how rapidly Israel was able to achieve air supremacy in June of '25, I mean that certainly provided us some great insight, the United States in particular, in terms of, you know, what the ability was going to be for Iran to resist with air defense capabilities --

COOPER: That operation sort of set the stage for this one.

SCHWARTZ: Absolutely. And I know we learned so much from watching how the Iranians were going to defend as well as we got a really good insight into their capabilities and lack thereof. So I think it's going very well to this point. I mean we achieved air supremacy in about four days, I believe is when U.S. Central Command and we heard the chairman and the secretary announced that.

[19:15:06]

But there's still, you know, air supremacy gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of targeting certainly. And obviously, you know, reduces the risk to our air forces that are carrying out the preponderance of these strikes now, manned aircraft unlike what we saw with the standoff munitions. But there's still a lot to go after. We haven't seen attacks on ground forces yet. We still have an estimate of one to 200 launchers for the strategic, or for the ballistic missile capability.

So there's still a lot of work to do, and a lot of the munitions are still, you know, in underground facilities that, again, are going to have to either be --

COOPER: Do you think the U.S. knew about the large number of drones? I mean, obviously we've seen the Iranian drones being used in Ukraine through Russia. Do you think the U.S. knew the number of these drones?

SCHWARTZ: I do. I think we had a very good understanding, particularly looking at just the production capability that they were pushing into Russia in support of the Ukraine war. So I don't think that was a surprise in terms of what they're able to employ and how effective they could be against some of our, some of our most, you know, state of the art air defense capabilities.

COOPER: And, Beth, so the president has talked about kind of the Venezuelan model, you know, taking out Maduro and then allowing the vice president to remain in power and kind of the upper echelon of thugs to remain in power. Does that model fit in Iran?

SANNER: It really doesn't. I mean, you know, maybe it could happen in Cuba. I kind of doubt it even there. But who knows? But Iran is much more complicated. And to pick the point that Karim made about Mojtaba being a weak leader, I do not see him as being, you know, having gravitas or being this powerful leader. I see him more as a puppet and competing against, you know, very, very powerful individuals who are still around and have a lot more power than he does. So I think that this is a regime where the hardliners who have picked

him are not going to want to capitulate, and he is not like Delcy. It's kind of like Cabello, the security minister in Venezuela, that Delcy has to kind of manage that. But we help her manage that, you know, by saying, oh, we could come in and snatch Cabello and arrest him because we have arrest warrants for him. We can't do that in Iran. So I think it's much more complicated.

COOPER: Yes. Beth Sanner, thank you. General Schwartz, appreciate it. And Karim Sadjadpour, thank you. We'll see you all again throughout the next few hours.

Coming up next, a closer look at the question of sending special forces into Iran to secure Iran's nuclear sites and what the president is saying about American boots on the ground as our CNN global coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:21:53]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, don't you need ground troop to secure the enriched uranium at the nuclear sites?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We find out about that. We haven't talked about it, but it was a total obliteration. They haven't been able to get to it. And at some point, maybe we will. You know, it'd be a great thing. But right now we're just decimating them. But we haven't, we haven't gone after it. But something we could do later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Just talking about nuclear material. Nuclear sites that were previously hit in Iran. President Trump at least for the moment downplaying the possibility of putting American troops, most likely special forces on the ground in Iran, to try to seize enriched uranium at Iran nuclear sites. He clearly did not rule it out, and one of his justifications for launching the war was to prevent the Iranian regime from developing a nuclear weapon.

Axios reports that the U.S. and Israel have discussed sending in special forces to secure Iran's stockpile of uranium, but would likely only do so once Iran's military is no longer a serious threat to those forces.

Barak Ravid is one of the Axios reporters on the story. He joins us now.

So, Barak, is it clear to you, based on your reporting, how likely a special forces ground deployment actually might be, or certainly how difficult it would be?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, obviously, this would be a highly risky and complex operation. But what I heard from people very close to the president is that getting this material, those 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, is one of the key things that they want to try and do during this war.

I think it will depend a lot about the progress that they think they can make over the next few weeks. As in this -- the air campaign, they're going to go on, they're going to continue. And obviously, in order to go on such an operation let's say in a place like Isfahan, which we're talking about an underground tunnel, it's a very big facility, you basically need to make sure that this whole area doesn't have any enemy combatants in it.

This is not a simple thing to do. So I think if this operation will take place, it will take place in a -- in an atmosphere or in a reality where the Iranian military or the IRGC are not really functioning. We are pretty far away from that point. But I think one of the goals of the Trump administration and the Israeli government is to try and reach such a point.

COOPER: Well, I mean, the Isfahan facility was obviously hit in, you know, the prior attack by the U.S. and Israel. It was said to be buried under rubble. Do you know even the capabilities? I mean, how long it would take to get underground inside it to whatever material may be there, if they even know where it is?

RAVID: So I don't think there's any knowledge at the moment where exactly it is.

[19:25:02]

The Isfahan facility actually during the war in June, what the U.S. did is to basically bomb the entrances so that the enriched uranium will stay inside, that they will not be accessed from outside. And I think in Isfahan is, it's sort of, you know, it's all complex and difficult, but it's less difficult than Fordow, which was bombed and still it's unclear -- nobody knows what's the situation inside the facility. So I think there it's going to be even more challenging.

When the war started, I think on the second day Israel bombed the Natanz facility that was already bombed in June, and it bombed it because it wanted to prevent the Iranians from trying to get the highly enriched uranium that is there. So we're talking about something very complex that I think the U.S. and Israel discussed it, thought about it, but I don't see it happening within the next, let's say, three, four weeks, definitely I don't see it happening.

COOPER: Because I remember even, I mean, from the reporting, you know, when the prior bombings took place, there were some concern of, you know, did Iran move some of that material to locations that the U.S. doesn't even know about?

RAVID: Yes. At least from everything I hear from Israeli and U.S. officials, they believe the material is still there. It's in special canisters and there's no evidence at the moment that suggests that the Iranians moved it. This was one of the things that U.S. and Israeli intelligence have been looking at since June. One of the things that the U.S. and Israel told the Iranians is that if you're going to try and move those 450 kilograms we're going to see it and we're going to attack. And so from everything I know, the Iranians haven't tried moving it from those facilities.

COOPER: Wow. It's remarkable reporting, Barak Ravid, appreciate it. Thank you.

Joining me now is retired General Joseph Votel, former commander of CENTCOM.

General Votel, appreciate you being with us. Obviously you oversaw special operations like the one being -- that we were just, you know, discussing the theoretical possibility of. It sounds incredibly complicated, incredibly dangerous. How exactly would that work?

GEN. JOSEPH VOTEL (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes, thanks. It's good to be with you, Anderson. Well, you know, the special operations community maintains a whole series of very unique capabilities that give the ability to respond to missions of national importance. And at some point, this may become a mission of national importance to try to confirm, you know, what the status is of nuclear material that left behind in Iran.

So the way an operation like this would likely take place, as Barak suggested just a few moments ago, would be in a situation where we would likely be able to control the environment in which, you know, forces might have to go on the ground. You know, we have air superiority over Iran right now. So we'd have to be able to get in and be able to control an area and then be able to bring forces in there to do an assessment, understand what is going on.

And then at some point, either then or maybe and perhaps in a follow on opportunity, you know, begin to start the process of extracting that. I think as, you know, as your previous guest just highlighted, I mean this is a very high risk mission. It takes -- it'll take an extraordinary amount of planning. It involves the military, but it also involves a whole bunch of experts from across our government, and perhaps from some other international agencies as well.

And there's a lot of risk to this, putting forces on the ground that have to be on for a long period of time. They're operating in very, very difficult conditions underground. There's a whole series of challenges with that. And then, of course, and then we're talking about this very, you know, hazardous material that has to be moved. And a lot of it, you know, 450 kilograms, over 1,000 pounds of it have to be moved.

So this is not an insignificant mission, but perhaps when the situation allows, we may have the ability to go in and do something like this.

COOPER: I mean, when things of, you know, the planning it took, you know, what is known publicly about the operation to kill or capture bin Laden, the planning that that took and the intensity of it and the limited, you know, time that they had on the ground, this is something that you would need a significant amount of time, I assume, on the ground to bring about given -- depending on what the level of destruction at those facilities might be.

[19:30:08]

VOTEL: I think that's right. I mean, I certainly have to believe that, you know, our excellent intelligence community is leveraging our resources, understand what the, you know, get a good assessment of what the damage is that we inflicted last summer. What has been done now?

We've now had six or seven or eight months to look at it so we probably have a much better understanding of what the possible consequences of those strikes might be so that will help inform it. But yes, certainly this isn't a quick in and out. This is likely going to take some time on the ground again.

You know, it's hard to determine that the situation actually drives that, but yes, we would have to plan for the force to be on the ground long enough obviously, to accomplish the mission, which would be more than just a very quick operation.

COOPER: How much -- I mean, I don't know how much training the U.S. military does with the IDF Special Forces. I assume they would probably have to work together on something like this.

VOTEL: There may be, I'm sure there would be a collaboration, certainly there would be intelligence collaboration on this and you know, looking at the unique capabilities that each of the forces brought, obviously, if there was a need to, you know, leverage some of those unique capabilities of, you know, one side or the other, for example, us leveraging some of the Israeli capabilities, then then we probably would do that.

But you know, on an operation like this, you know, the commander on the ground trying to do something like this would like to have all of this really completely under his control, his or her control, so that they could, you know, orchestrate this in the manner that that it needs to be done.

So, yes, we're going to leverage capabilities and expertise wherever it lies for this. But, you know, unity of command, focus on an operation like this is absolutely critical.

COOPER: General Votel, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it.

VOTEL: Good to be with you.

COOPER: We've got much more to bring you tonight. Next, a live report from Tel Aviv. What Israeli officials are saying about Iran naming the son of the late Supreme Leader as his successor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:36:37]

COOPER: We're going to go right to Tel Aviv and CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, what's the situation Tel Aviv right. Now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: We'll Anderson, as you may be able to hear right now, we are getting air raid sirens in Tel Aviv indicating that more ballistic missiles from Iran are being fired in our direction. Those sirens have gone off several times today now, and they are going off once again. We have seen these barrages from Iran get smaller in size, but they are still disrupting daily life here.

And earlier today we did see one of those missiles cause several injuries, including one severe injury. And that's because in addition to the fact that Iran is firing these missiles, they're also firing some that have these cluster submunitions within the warhead. This is these smaller bomblets that are falling, that are being dispersed as these ballistic missiles make their way down from the atmosphere towards their target area.

And so, we saw several of those smaller bomblets hit, including just a few blocks away from where we are now. So, were now in shelter, Anderson, as these missiles are coming in over Tel Aviv.

COOPER: And what's the latest on strikes by Israel against Iran?

DIAMOND: Well, we've seen that the Israeli Air Force has continued to carry out an intense wave of airstrikes in Iran. This is part of what officials here are calling this, the kind of next phase of this campaign were now eight days into this war, and we've seen that Israel has done everything that they can to kind of weaken the Iranian regime. So, in addition to going after military targets ballistic missile launchers, they're also going after targets. Now that are tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Internal Security Forces, the Basij but now it's also going after infrastructure targets.

And that's what we saw with these strikes on oil depots in the capital city of Tehran, which resulted in these huge, huge flames. The sky completely blackened by this. And that's going to continue with the news now that this new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been chosen to lead Iran, the Supreme Leader in the country's history. And I had one Israeli official today telling me that, you know, the I doubt that the Iranian people will want to replace one Ayatollah with another Ayatollah.

So, from Israel's standpoint, the goal of regime change is still intact. This obviously does not represent it; it represents a concerning albeit perhaps not surprising sign that Iran is really digging down on its hardline stance that this new Supreme Leader will likely be a continuation of his father's legacy in many ways -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, it seems like, Jeremy Diamond, thank you.

I want to go to CNN's Julia Benbrook in Doral, Florida, where President Trump is this weekend. Any reaction, Julia from the administration or the President so far? JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we're tracking any

sort of reaction from the administration. But I do think we will hear from President Donald Trump first on this. Top officials are not going to likely want to get ahead of him here.

We've reached out to The White House for comment, have not heard back. But ever since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, those joint U.S.- Israel strikes against Iran that took place just over a week ago now, Trump has frequently announced big news or reactions on social media. That's where we learned that the strikes took place. It is also where he announced that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, had been killed.

Now, according to Iran's state media, his son, his second oldest son, Mojtaba Khamenei has now been selected as the next leader. And while Trump has not reacted specifically to that, we do know what he thinks about pick. He had previously called this possibility unacceptable saying that he could not support anyone who would continue the late Supreme Leader's policies. He also said that he wanted to be involved in this process. He was pressed on this over the weekend. He said that he needs to play a role here, so that the United States doesn't have to go in every five to 10 years and continue to take action.

[19:40:43]

COOPER: Julia Benbrook, thanks very much, appreciate it.

Iran's attack drones may be diminished but there are still enough of them to target skyscrapers, airports and other sites across the Persian Gulf.

Next, how Ukraine is offering to help stop them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:45]

Video clip plays

COOPER: An Iranian drone attack and purported interception in Dubai's airport on Saturday as Iran continues to target countries across the region. No reported injuries in the airport have reopened. Iran's regime has relied heavily on its drone arsenal since day one of the war. Today Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian drone experts will be heading to the Middle East next week to help the U.S. and Gulf nations defend against the attacks and as CNN's Tom Foreman reports right now, the use of drones in the fight is not exclusive to Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this battle, we are seeing a weapon system that the U.S. military has never fielded before and let me bring in a life-size model so we can take a better look. This is the Lucas drone. Its low-cost unmanned combat attack system. As you can see its about ten feet end to end. It has a wingspan of about eight feet. It has a propeller drive in the back so it doesn't give off a lot of heat that can be easily tracked. It weighs about 180 pounds and it can carry 40 pounds of explosives up front.

It is also interestingly, a clone of an Iranian drone, the Shahed 136. The Iranians have been working on these for years. The U.S. got ahold of one and they had engineers replicate it so they could turn it back on the Iranians. Why do Iranians like this so much?

Well, unlike big missiles, which have to be come from some sort of a launch system, a truck or something like that, which can be easily tracked and attacked, this can be fired from the back of a truck, from a boat from the middle of a field. Unlike a missile, which requires a great big production facility which can also be targeted, these can be built much easier in covert locations all over the place. Again, hard to find, and these are cheap.

Missiles cost at least $1 million each, if not more, and this only costs about $20,000.00. So, when you look at an attack map out there where strikes have happened by missiles or drones, every time a drone is hit someplace, that doesn't necessarily represent one drone. No, these are often launched in swarms. The reason for that is simple enough to overwhelm defense systems so that if 90 percent of them are stopped, 10 percent can still get through with devastating results.

When you look at the video coming out from drone attacks there, you can see why the Iranians are relying on them so much and why U.S. forces are trying to turn this weapon back against the Iranians.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Tom Foreman thanks.

Joining me now is CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas, also CNN military analyst and former joint chiefs of staff member, Colonel Cedric Leighton. Let's talk about drones. What are U.S. capabilities? I mean, we've heard a lot about, obviously, we've seen the commercial use of drones in Ukraine by Russia and Ukrainians. How does the U.S. stack up?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, I mean this is its changed completely from the 25-year global war on terrorism we had. I mean, this is really evolved over the last couple of weeks.

COOPER: People think of, you know predators. The U.S. was very advanced in that. But that's antiquated.

PLITSAS: I mean it's antiquated, those were high altitude firing, single missile really looking for a high value target. Whereas now, we're seeing like swarms come out. As you can tell, these are coming out in larger groups. So, from a defensive perspective, which you were talking about for base defense, we obviously saw the troops that were killed in Kuwait. What we normally see at a at a tactical level, we call like a C-RAM. So, it fires a bunch of small bullets up in the air equivalent of that.

They sort of explode and we'll try to take it down coming in. They fly at a low altitude. It's very different than missiles. And there's a task force that's been stood up by the Pentagon specifically for countering unmanned systems, both aerial and other, because it's become the new the new way to fight a war. And quite frankly, the U.S. was the most advanced and experienced military, and were still advanced.

But in terms of experience, we're actually behind the Russians and Ukrainians. Now, they're the experts.

COOPER: It's incredible that Ukrainians are now coming to the Middle East to help U.S. Forces in with drones.

PLITSAS: I mean, it is a reflection of the relationship that we have. I mean, the Russians are now providing targeting information, allegedly, intelligence to the Iranians go after U.S. Forces. And then the you know, the Ukrainians have been kind enough now to give us technology. They're going to send advisers.

They're the most advanced in, you know, trying to defeat this particular type of drone, the Shaheeds, as well. And it's funny because now the Iranians are actually adopting the Russian tactics because they're firing ballistic missiles in combination with Shaheeds. And there is nobody better at understanding how to deal with that than Ukrainians.

[19:50:03]

COOPER: Colonel, Barak Ravid of "Axios" reported earlier. There are some disagreements between American and Israeli officials over Israel's decision to strike multiple Iranian fuel depots. What do you make of the decision to hit infrastructure targets?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Anderson, that's actually a really difficult decision because generally when you're talking about infrastructure targets just like the Russians hitting infrastructure targets in Ukraine, you're looking at going after the civilian population. And for the most part, the U.S. wants to avoid doing that. We want to concentrate normally, at least we want to concentrate on military targets. And this gets us into military targets, as well as civilian targets. So, from a targeting perspective and a policy perspective, the U.S. really usually stays away from those.

COOPER: Alex, do you think that this choice for the new Supreme Leader, one of the sons of the former Supreme Leader. Does it make a difference from in terms of anyone in the Pentagon? Does it change anything?

PLITSAS: I mean, it largely depends on what the policies are going to be because in speaking to U.S. policymakers throughout the day, what I've been told is basically what it's going to take for this to change is a moderate whether it's a cleric or a civilian, somebody to step to the microphone in the background and say, hey, new government new policies we're not going to be a threat to the U.S. --

COOPER: Which this guy does not seem to be that guy given his support from the Revolutionary Guard.

PLITSAS: And that's the problem with the history is, you know, he joined the Guard Corps in 1987 to 1988. He caught the tail end of the Iran-Iraq war. His contacts are still there. And then he was late. He went to the seminary at age 30. And then in 2009, he was in charge of the besieged during the elections, when there was an uprising, he supported Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There's indications that he may support acquiring a nuclear weapon. And if that's the case, policy wise, this is actually worse. But we haven't heard back from the U.S.

The President made a statement the other day that he wasn't acceptable. But if you remember the Delcy Rodrguez scenario in the beginning in Venezuela, there were some missteps in communication and then that sort of worked itself out. So, his first speech, if he gives one because he doesn't give public speeches. So, most of the Iranian people don't know what his voice sounds like will be very telling in terms of where he goes with policy and whether this is going to be workable or whether it's going to be what everyone fears and it's another hardliner.

COOPER: Colonel, the U.S. helped the Israelis locate and kill the previous Supreme Leader. How difficult do you think it would be to pinpoint this guy's new location?

LEIGHTON: Well, it's not going to be impossible, Anderson. And one of the things about this is that we've really refined the techniques to go after what we call high value targets. And in this particular scenario, you could see something like that happening with Muqtada, as well as his what happened to his father. So, you have a situation where the techniques that we really started to refine even before the counter drug wars of the 90s and then perfected during the global war on terrorism, are now coming to fruition in this particular scenario here in Iran.

COOPER: Alex, I mean, it depends what the U.S. objective is but at some point, does the U.S. start to try to just kill large numbers of Revolutionary Guard Corps members?

PLITSAS: I mean, they would have to if the goal is still for regime change, with the people taking over and no negotiation, because --

COOPER: Without that there's no taking over the government?

PLITSAS: Taht's right because the government has the guns. The people in Iran, that your average civilian are unarmed. And the IRGC specifically, you mentioned Quds Force. They make up about 10 percent of the military, and they report directly to the Supreme Leader, whereas the rest of the military reports, through a different reporting structure. They're usually the children of the elite. They're much more hard core.

So, if you were going to see some sort of takeover, you'd have to facilitate that. So, the military, the objective has been laid out are achievable they can set the conditions for regime change in terms of, as you mentioned, going after the guard corps and then also the besiege the local security forces who also killed a lot of the protesters to enable that to happen. But that's a huge mission and not something easily achievable.

COOPER: Yes, Colonel there have been concerns raised about U.S. weapons stockpiles running low. The Pentagon says the U.S. Military has everything it needs to execute any mission at a time and place of the Presidents choosing. Does that sound right to you?

LEIGHTON: Not completely, Anderson. So, there are, you know certainly sufficient stockpiles to do what they're doing right now for maybe the foreseeable future, in other words, the next month or so for sure. Beyond that, it starts to get questionable. And when you look at the higher end weapons, the precision guided weapons that require not only a great deal more servicing a great deal more precision in the manufacturing process, that's where you get into a situation where you really need to, the U.S. defense industrial base really needs to ramp up not only the production quota, but the quality control has to be there as well.

So, we're looking at a scenario where those higher end weapons to include. oh, by the way, the patriot batteries and the missiles associated with those, as well as the THAAD system, those are the ones that really need to be upgraded at this point in time.

COOPER: Yes, Colonel Leighton, I appreciate your time, Alex Plitsas as well, thanks.

Coming up, more of our breaking news. Wall of fire in Tehran as Israel hits fuel storage sites and other targets of the Iranian regime were on for the next two hours. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:59:36]

COOPER: Good evening again leading our CNN global wartime coverage this hour, the State Department has just now ordered non-emergency diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia. The word coming a few short hours after tonight's big announcement of a change at the top in Iran. No regime change, however, the country's Ruling Council Late today chose Mojtaba Khamenei as the Islamic Republic's new Supreme Leader.

It comes nine days after his father, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and others were killed at the war's outset. The President has called the new leader unacceptable. Israel has vowed to kill him. He's the only the third Supreme Leader in the republic's 47 years of and he comes to power with parts of Tehran in flames. In this case an oil refinery overnight. The fire burned for hours well into today, blanking parts of the capital in thick black smoke. It's part of a series of Israeli airstrikes on fuel depots and other pieces of Iran's petroleum infrastructure.

[20:00:30]