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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump Calls Higher Gas Prices "A Little Glitch"; Iran Names Khamenei's Son As New Supreme Leader; Seventh U.S. Service Member Killed In War With Iran; Interview With Representative Adam Smith (D- WA); Who Is Mojtaba Khamenei; Airstrikes And Anger On The Streets Of Lebanon's Capital. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired March 08, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: His father, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and others were killed at the war's outset. Now 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 existence.

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, blanketing parts of the capital in thick black smoke. It's part of a series of Israeli air strikes on fuel depots and other pieces of Iran's petroleum infrastructure.

At home supply concerns are driving up gasoline and diesel prices. A gallon of regular has shot up 16 percent over the last week. Diesel is up 22 percent. Speaking with ABC News, the president today called the price hikes, quote, "a little glitch." Not the first time in the last few days he's expressed that sentiment.

And just moments ago, shortly after oil futures topped $100 a barrel, he posted this online. "Short term oil prices will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over. It's a very small price to pay for USA and world safety and peace. Only fools would think differently."

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright about the pain at the pump earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump told Reuters about gas prices, quote, "If they rise, they rise." Is that really the message of the Trump administration to consumers who are already struggling?

CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: The Trump administration has been all in on lowering energy prices, and I would say quite successfully. Gasoline today is still $1.50, a gallon cheaper than it was in the middle of the Biden administration. But you're right. We want it back below $3 a gallon and it will be again before too long.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: The human cost of the war grew as well. CENTCOM saying a seventh American service member has died of wounds from an Iranian strike on Saudi Arabia at the outset of the war. The Pentagon has not identified him or her yet until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified.

Yesterday, the bodies of six other Americans killed so far returned home, arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The president attended the dignified transfer process. He's the one in the baseball hat.

I'm joined now by CNN's Clarissa Ward in Erbil, Iraq.

So, Clarissa, what more are you hearing tonight about the new supreme leader and the impact his selection could have on the war?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's talk a little bit, Anderson, I guess about who this man is, because to many Iranians, even he's somewhat of an enigma. He is not someone who was a very public figure in the sense of being a known voice. Of course he was known as Ayatollah Khamenei's second eldest son, and he was known to wield a lot of power behind the scenes, known to have a very close relationship with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, who in fact released a statement shortly after his being announced as the new supreme leader, quote, "A new dawn and a new phase for the revolution and the Islamic Republic's rule."

I think, though, broadly speaking, most people do not really see this as a new dawn and a new phase, but rather very much, Anderson, as a continuation of his father's legacy, a continuation of the power of the security apparatus. And many Iranians really feeling very concerned, I would say, at this stage, Anderson, that they find themselves kind of trapped in a sense between a brutal regime that is basically showing it is doubling down on its policies, it does not intend to capitulate or reform or compromise, and also signaling that it's not in interest -- not interested in a ceasefire, but is perhaps willing to engage in a protracted and long conflict.

And on the other hand, they're faced with this intensive bombardment that has resulted in many casualties. Scenes of chaos you saw also after the strike on the oil refinery, as our Fred Pleitgen in Tehran has been showing the extraordinary effect that that has had across the city. Black, thick smoke, oily black rain. People complaining that they can't even breathe properly. The air quality is so poor.

And the sense now for many that with this announcement that the end is not anywhere near in sight. There is no diplomatic offramp that anyone can see right now -- Anderson.

COOPER: And, Clarissa, no matter what damage is done from the air by U.S. and Israeli forces, if the Revolutionary Guard Corps and militias are still have all the weapons in Iran, there's no reason to think that there will be any sort of major shift.

WARD: Well, I think there was a sort of magical thinking moment early on in this conflict where we kept hearing President Trump saying, Iranian people, take to the streets, take your country back. And I think it's easy for people to forget from far away just how terrified most Iranian people are -- feel right now and what they went through in January, Anderson.

[20:05:03]

The brutal, horrific crackdown on those protests that resulted in the deaths of 8,000 at least. And that is, you know, an estimate that many believe could actually be much lower than the actual number of people who were killed and so now people find themselves, well, how can we go out on the streets when we don't know if we could be killed? We don't know if we could be killed by the IRGC or the Basij, the paramilitary volunteer force, or we could be killed by the intensive bombardment that is continuing.

And then you've had this speculation about potentially trying to get Iranian Kurdish groups here in Iraqi Kurdistan to launch some kind of a ground offensive. President Trump apparently ruling that out last night, but two days earlier had said that he would welcome it. The Israelis also appear to have sort of embraced this idea. And all of that, again, giving people Iran a kind of feeling of dread in their stomachs that perhaps the end result of this will not be regime change in a positive way but a protracted, chaotic conflict that potentially could just tear the country apart -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Clarissa Ward, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Back with me is former deputy director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanner. Joining me also is retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a former deputy CENTCOM commander who grew up partly in Iran. He'll be joining us shortly.

So, Beth, what kind of a message do you think Iran is sending the White House by selecting this new leader?

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I don't think I can say this on our television. So he's --

COOPER: It's cable.

SANNER: Giving us the hand, I guess is what I would say. It's absolutely a signal. It's absolutely a signal that we are not backing down. This is a continuation of this regime and as Clarissa was saying, it's like, yes, the people of Iran must just be so depressed right now to see this happening. And I do worry that there will be a point where the world will see what is happening in Iran with, you know, not just oil explosions, but, you know, many people being killed.

There is a point where we go so far that the world will have a lot of trouble seeing this any different than, you know, what happened to Palestinians in Gaza.

COOPER: There is -- I mean, there's obviously not a lot of love lost for the Iranian regime in many parts of the world. But unless, I mean, again, I go back to the question I asked Clarissa, which is unless the Revolutionary Guard Corps is decimated or -- and some of these armed volunteer militias as well, it's essentially business as usual. I mean, you can --

SANNER: Completely.

COOPER: You can destroy as much of the infrastructure of Iran but if the people who have the weapons still have the weapons.

SANNER: Right. And think about this, it's like Mojtaba has skin in the game. You know, all of the IRGC people and the Basij who killed those maybe over 10,000 people, they will pay the price if that regime falls. So they're afraid. They have reason to maintain power for their own personal --

COOPER: Right. There's no good ending for, if you've been in the IRGC and a new dawn, you know, breaks in Iran, it's not going to go well for you.

SANNER: No. Plus you lose everything. I mean the IRGC is the privileged part of the society. They own almost all of the economic, you know, manners of wealth in the country, you know, factories, you know, there is a private sector.

COOPER: Right. They --

SANNER: But they are like, they are the rich people.

COOPER: Right. In these, you know, kleptocracies or theocracy, I mean, the people who have the weapons also, the militaries often have control all the businesses.

SANNER: Exactly.

COOPER: You see that in Myanmar and other places.

SANNER: So what would their life be like if they gave up? You know, and so amnesty that President Trump offers which he said, that means nothing in this system.

COOPER: So --

SANNER: President Trump isn't going to run this place.

COOPER: So does Iran have an advantage in that, you know, that old saying in the Middle East, and I don't want to butcher it, but you know, essentially, you know, you have the watch, we have the time.

SANNER: Yes. No. Totally.

COOPER: That they have the long game.

SANNER: Totally, and what I think that we also have to see is that Iran is acting like an insurgency now. Right? It's not a great power to great power. An insurgency always has the benefit of, as the weaker power, they only have to do so much in order to disturb, to disrupt, to hurt us. COOPER: And so --

SANNER: We have to defend everything.

COOPER: And the strategy continues, therefore, to be -- continue for Iran, to continue to hit out at other U.S. allies in the region, other neighboring countries, make the price of oil go up as high as possible, make it start to make it as painful as possible economically for other countries, and hope that the weight of it, the inertia of it, and ultimately makes the U.S. and others stop.

SANNER: Exactly. If you put one drone into a high rise in Dubai once a month you're shattering that Shangri-La sense of that amazing financial and tourist hub that they've created.

COOPER: We're having -- we had trouble getting the Admiral's signal, Admiral Robert Harward joins us on the phone.

Admiral, I know you actually grew up in pre-revolution Iran which must have been fascinating. Your dad was stationed there for the U.S. military. I'm wondering what your -- how you see this selection of the new supreme leader? What do you think it augurs for the continuation of this war and the policy of Iran?

ADM. ROBERT HARWARD (RET.), Well, I think it's the same it's been for the last 45 years. It's this ideology that's driven the government and they're trying to maintain it and live out Donald Trump and this administration. So we've got to have a voice, and so do the Iranian people. And what the next leaders will be in Iran because if not, it's just the continuation of the same.

COOPER: Admiral, the president has said he wants an Iranian leader in the Venezuelan model, essentially someone who will take orders from Washington. That certainly is not this guy and is that even plausible, you think, in this scenario? Or what would it take to get that?

HARWARD: Well, I think -- I think it's going to take further efforts to combat and eradicate the IRGC and those ideologues who are tied to the Islamic Revolution. That's not what Iran was, and it's the people clearly said that's not what they want. In fact, and that's what's different now. It's such broad support throughout the people, the Bazaaris who run the business, the politicians they've seen this government promote radical Islam over good governance of the people.

And it's failed them for 30, 40 years. So they want a government that's reflective of their needs, that's going to look after the well- being of the people, not force them. An ideology down their throats. And that's what they've come to realize because its failed them in every way. So it's still going to take time, but it's not going to come to fruition until we can remove those elements who control that ideology and has used it not only to gain power, but to manipulate the businesses, money and economy of Iran.

COOPER: And, Admiral, can you do? Can you eliminate the IRGC from the air? HARWARD: Well, I think that's going to have to happen from the ground,

but it can sure help. I think the first thing we've got to do is make sure they can't continue to strike allies, our bases and other partners in the region. That's got to stop. Once we can eradicate that, then we can take that intel capacity. The partnerships we have with Israelis and others to work on the ground through partner surrogates and the Iranian people.

So you've got to take care of the bigger problem before you can really push capacity into the problem on the ground. But yes, I think we can do that.

COOPER: Admiral Harward, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. And Beth Sanner as well. Thank you so much.

SANNER: Thank you.

COOPER: Coming up next, more on the seventh U.S. service member killed in the war. Live report from Saudi Arabia as well as our CNN global coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:17:52]

COOPER: More now on that State Department bulletin tonight ordering non-emergency diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia. It comes a day after six American soldiers killed in Kuwait returned home. And just hours after CENTCOM late today has said a seventh service member has died after being wounded in a strike in Saudi Arabia last weekend.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from Riyadh.

Nic, what more do we know about the seventh U.S. service member died? The name has not been released yet.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it won't be released for 24 hours until next of kin have been informed. We know that he suffered or they suffered, we don't know if it's male or female service member, suffered serious injuries in that attack a week ago and subsequently passed away as a result of those injuries. It's not clear where this incident took place. It's not clear if there were any other people injured.

And I think it speaks perhaps to the sensitivities in Saudi Arabia of a U.S. military presence here, that this hasn't become public knowledge until now. But what we do know is that the Prince Sultan Air Base, that's just outside of Riyadh, does have a large contingent of U.S. forces there. In the past couple of hours, we've seen a number of ballistic missiles intercepted near there, according to the Saudi MOD.

It's been a repeated target of drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles over the last few days. And from CNN's own reporting earlier in the week on the 1st of March, when this service member was injured, CNN reported that there was a strike at the Prince Sultan Air Base at a THAAD, high altitude interceptor missile system, the radar system, the sort of eyes of that, was hit at the Prince Sultan Air Base.

We don't know if he's -- if the injury and death are connected with that, but we do have that from CNN's reporting. And I think it just speaks to the growing concern about the safety and security on these bases. They're clearly a very high value target for the Iranians. They keep going after them -- Anderson.

[20:20:06]

COOPER: Yes, and we're seeing what looks like Shaheed drones being targeted. What is the U.S. State Department ordering non-emergency diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia say about the widening scope of what's happening?

ROBERTSON: Yes, I think, you know, there was a moment yesterday when the Saudis here in political circles really sort of looked at Iran and thought this was a moment when the Iranian president apologized for striking Gulf countries. Clearly the decision today is being interpreted. The appointment of the new supreme leader, the son of the former supreme leader, a hardliner, and also the rounds and continued rounds of missiles that are coming in here over the past 24 hours here, there have been more than two dozen drones and other missile systems, many of them focused on Riyadh.

One of them landing or targeted, rather, intercepted the Diplomatic Quarter, which is where the U.S. embassy is, which was hit in four drone strikes just a few days ago. I think all of that emerging picture paints an image that there is an increasing level of threat or potential threat we had just a few days ago.

Voluntary repatriation of embassy staff here. Now this is an instruction for nonessential diplomats and families to leave. I think it speaks to the potential for the widening scope of the conflict. And of course, today you have as well Saudi authorities announcing the first deaths of civilians here from a strike, again, near the Prince Sultan Air Base just outside of Riyadh. A Bangladeshi and an Indian national both died in this projectile strike, 12 others injured.

When you judge the situation from the sort of what's happening in Saudi Arabia, the metrics for casualties, death toll, missiles, it just keeps going up -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Nic Robertson, thanks very much from Saudi Arabia.

While attending the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base yesterday of six fallen U.S. soldiers, President Trump met with their families. In an interview with ABC News he said that witnessing the transfers did not give him pause about the war with Iran. He said the parents would be upset with him if he halted it and that all of them said to him, quote, "Please win this for my child."

Joining us now is Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He's ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, obviously a very solemn weekend with the return of the six who were killed and news today of the seventh member of the U.S. military who has died in this war. I'm wondering what the selection of the new supreme leader says to you about where this war may be headed.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Well, it says that the benefits that we would get from this war are going to be substantially less than the president had hoped. And there's a range. I mean, by and large, he wanted to weaken Iran, but he also said that he wanted regime change. At a minimum he wanted a regime in Iran that was going to be less hostile to U.S. interests, and it seems increasingly unlikely that this war is going to achieve that outcome.

Meanwhile, the cost of the conflict has -- and all of this was very predictable, by the way. You know, the war has spread to I think 14 different countries have been involved in some way in the Middle East. We've seen civilian deaths. We've seen the inadvertent deaths of Iranian civilians with the schoolgirls getting killed. We've seen obviously seven U.S. service members lose their lives. Oil prices are now spiking. So we're going to have a massive economic disruption for the world certainly but specifically in the Middle East.

All of those costs are going up and up and up while the benefit that the president I think envisioned is becoming less and less likely.

COOPER: It would appear certainly with the selection of this new supreme leader that the policy is not going to change from Iran. Do you -- and according to Axios now the Trump administration is considering sending in or not ruling out sending in special forces teams to try to secure or dilute Iran's enriched uranium stockpiles, which would be very risky, obviously, and would be very difficult. Would you support that?

SMITH: Absolutely not. And all of this was unbelievably predictable, by the way. I've been on the Armed Services Committee for a while now, and I've been briefed and we've been examining this problem through multiple different administrations. And one of the things that the military leaders, the ones who are really paying close attention to this all said was the military objectives are going to be very, very difficult to achieve.

I was told repeatedly that there wasn't really a military solution to Iran's nuclear program, that you couldn't eliminate it just with an air campaign.

[20:25:04]

You know, short of overturning the entire regime, and then was told and that's going to be very, very difficult as well because the Iranian regime is dug in. Right? This isn't just one guy at the top controlling everything. There are layers upon layers upon layers. They have the guns. They have the forces.

We all knew this. You know Donald Trump chose to not pay any attention to it for some reason. But we've been talking about this. I get it, Iran is a bad actor in the region. It would be better if they had a better government. Certainly better for the Iranian people and better for the region. But that doesn't mean that there was a military solution to it. So that's what we're learning here, is that the cost is enormous and the ability to achieve those goals is extraordinarily difficult but again, this was all very, very well-understood.

And then, as always happens, specifically to your question, you get into a war saying, well, this is what we're trying to achieve and we're going to do this, this and this. Bam, we got it done. It's going to be great. Then you get into it and you're like, oh, it's harder than we thought it was going to be. And then you double and you triple down. In this case, I mean, I don't see a military option unless, I don't know, if we want to send 200,000 troops in and do a full scale Iraq sort of war here, I think we'd have every little bit as disastrous an outcome and not get there anyway.

But short of that, this regime is hard to get rid of and remove. And again, this was very well understood by those of us paying attention before Donald Trump foolishly launched this war.

COOPER: Congressman Adam Smith, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.

Coming up, we're going to have more on Iran naming Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's new supreme leader following the killing of his father. A deeper look at who he is and how he came to power next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:31:26]

COOPER: Earlier tonight, Iran scholar Karim Sadjadpour had this grim prediction for Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, quote, "His father ruled for 37 years," Karim said. "He'll be lucky to last 37 days." Whatever his future may hold, though, the question for now are simple. The questions are simple. Who is he? How did he get here? And what might that say about his time however short that could be at the top?

CNN's Isobel Yeung has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As many in Iran celebrated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, others mourned it. But his second son, 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, was planning to step into his father's shoes and into the heart of war with Israel and the U.S.

Mojtaba Khamenei is Iran's declared new head of state. The spiritual leader for a brutal regime his father came to embody before he was slain by Israel and the U.S. in joint strikes. Alongside his father, Mojtaba's mother and wife were also killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.

MAHA YAHYA, DIRECTOR, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: The signal regime is saying -- is sending is continuation. We're still holding together. It's more of the same and in fact we're going to become even more hardliners than we were before. All the military pressure that is -- that the country is under is not going to get us to shift position.

YEUNG (voice-over): Born in Mashad in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei served in the Iran-Iraq war and studied in the holy city of Qom. Mojtaba Khamenei has strong links with the security establishment, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the Basij paramilitary force. Relationships he's likely to foster if he wishes to rule in the same vein as his father.

But the junior Khamenei could struggle for legitimacy even among supporters of the regime. He's not a well-known cleric and has not held government office, and a father-to-son succession may not be palatable to the supporters of a revolution that overthrew a monarchy.

But the new ayatollah's greatest challenge is the regime's current existential threat posed by the war unleashed by the U.S. and Israel. Israel has confirmed the new leader will immediately be an assassination target if he isn't one already. Trump says the U.S. and Israel have killed dozens from Iran's leadership circle since 28th of February and they're far from finished, which complicates plans for a U.S. preferred successor.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, most of the people we had in mind are dead. So, you know, we had some in mind from that group that is dead. And now we have another group. They may be dead also based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty soon we're not going to know anybody.

YEUNG (voice-over): The appointment of Mojtaba suggests that at least for now regime change has not been successful. A new ayatollah and a new enemy of the United States and Israel, with at least one advantage over his peers. He's still alive.

Isobel Yeung, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And back with me is CNN global affairs analyst Karim Sadjadpour. He's a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a contributing writer at "The Atlantic."

So, Karim, you believed that Mojtaba Khamenei would be most likely selected as the supreme leader. Where do you think this goes from here? Because if it's not, I mean, obviously you said, you know, he obviously has a bull's eye on his back.

[20:35:02]

But if it's not a real regime change, it's not a change in direction, where does that leave the U.S.?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, this puts President Trump in a very difficult position, Anderson. Imagine he had spent $10 billion on that Venezuela operation and you take out one Maduro and replace him with Maduro Junior, continuation of the same exact views. I don't think that President Trump is going to be OK with this scenario in which one dictator is replaced with a dictator's son, whose ethos remains death to America and death to Israel.

But that's exactly what he's going to be getting with Mojtaba Khamenei. And Mojtaba Khamenei is inheriting an impossible situation because he's inheriting a government that is at war with the greatest superpower in the world, the United States. The greatest military power in the Middle East, Israel, and his own society. And he's injured right now. He's living in hiding. I asked someone who's known him for a long time, you know, how on earth is he going to govern? And he said he's not focused on governing. He's focused on surviving.

COOPER: So, I mean, does the U.S., assuming, you know, the U.S. doesn't send in ground forces, assuming the U.S. doesn't want to escalate it to that degree, at a certain point unless there is another regime change and a true sort of change, does the U.S. then -- does the Trump administration just kind of declare victory and then does the U.S. try to do this every few years to make sure that they don't, you know, I guess what the Israelis used to call mowing the grass?

SADJADPOUR: Well, in the immediate term, it seems to me that Mojtaba Khamenei still has a bull's eye on his back. And given how thoroughly penetrated both Israeli intelligence and U.S. intelligence have penetrated the communication system of Iran's senior elite, as I said, his father ruled for 37 years. He may not rule for 37 days, and he's someone who already people in Iran have started chanting death to Mojtaba. And so I think that, in my view, he's at best, Anderson, going to be a transitional figure for Iran.

COOPER: What about the Revolutionary Guard Corps? I mean, they still have the power. They still have the gun, guns. Does anything change if they are not targeted?

SADJADPOUR: So the Revolutionary Guards are 150,000 men, and at the top levels, they reflect the worldview of Ayatollah Khamenei because he handpicked these folks. So at the top level, there are hardcore revolutionaries, ideologues. The rank-and-file are thought to be somewhat different, not necessarily 10 out of 10 ideologues. The question is, if some of these more senior folks continue to be assassinated and the regime starts to, you know, if this conflict continues, do they start to show signs of rifts, internal rifts?

So far, we haven't seen that. But, you know, the Israelis have said that there are signs of rifts which are not yet evidenced by the public.

COOPER: Interesting. Karim, stay with us.

Up next, hundreds killed in Lebanon as Israeli forces pound Hezbollah targets in Beirut and its surrounding areas. Beirut residents are angry at being caught in the crossfire. We'll take you live to Lebanon's capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:42:44]

COOPER: Israel's military is striking Hezbollah targets in Beirut and has been striking them since the Iranian backed militia attacked parts of Israel near the border with Lebanon after the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Lebanon's Health Ministry reports nearly 400 people have been killed. Residents of Beirut are now expressing anger at being caught in the crossfire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

CNN's Matthew Chance reports tonight from the Lebanese capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a city on edge, tensions quickly boil over. At this anti-Israel rally in Beirut, anger over airstrikes on Lebanon and Iran was soon directed at us.

We've just been told to get out because we're not welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to leave.

CHANCE: We're going. We're going.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you, America. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Trump.

RANIA, PROTESTER: I'm trying to tell them, no, we need to deliver our message.

CHANCE: Yes. So what --

RANIA: So don't worry.

CHANCE: What message do you want to deliver here tonight?

RANIA: That Israel is all evil. We've been suffering from Israel since before 1948. We support all forms of resistance.

CHANCE (voice-over): For a week now, Lebanon has been pounded. Israel says it's targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah after the militia launched missiles and drones to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader.

MAGUY CHEBLI, HOTEL OWNER: This is where it happened. It started from the roof.

CHANCE (voice-over): But the owner of one wrecked Beirut hotel in an upscale Christian neighborhood told CNN just ordinary families were her guests. No Iranian citizens and definitely no Hezbollah, who she blames for the spiraling violence.

CHEBLI: And we are not that stupid to check them in. We are not that stupid. We live here. It's our home.

CHANCE: How angry are you --

CHEBLI: I am angry, of course.

CHANCE: With Hezbollah right now?

CHEBLI: I am angry with Hezbollah and Israel and Iran, but Hezbollah more. You know why?

CHANCE: Why?

CHEBLI: Because they are Lebanese. They should be Lebanese. They are not. They are hurting us. They are hurting our homes, our children.

[20:45:04]

CHANCE (voice-over): It's dragged ordinary Lebanese, many ordered by Israel to evacuate their homes into the Iran wall. Aid workers say they're now struggling to shelter hundreds of thousands on the move.

We've come to this school in the center of Beirut. You can see the children's murals on the wall. But it's no longer a school. It is a camp for people who have been displaced by the fighting in South Beirut and Southern Lebanon. And in each of these classrooms, there are families who are escaping the fighting and they've come to come here for safety.

(Voice-over): "The children woke up screaming," says Ali Shams, who fled the suburbs of South Beirut with his family. "We just ran, carrying them through the night," he told me. "Now we're all homeless."

It's easy to see why they left.

We've come into what is the most dangerous part of the Lebanese capital, which is a very important stronghold of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group. It's the place where Israel has been focusing, and you can hear the gunshots outside there, that Israel has been focusing its activity, its intensive campaign of airstrikes against the Hezbollah group.

(Voice-over): The destruction is massive and plain to see. And Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah, as we found out, is still far from over.

OK. We've got to go because they said there's been a warning from the Israelis that there could be a strike coming in. So we've got to get out of here, Alex.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: So, Matthew, what have you been seeing and hearing there over the last several hours?

CHANCE (on-camera): Well, I mean, look, Beirut is one of the main focuses of the Israeli Air Force as it continues its airstrikes against what it says are Hezbollah related targets across the country. So there's been a sort of regular pounding, particularly in the southern suburbs of this city by Israel and its airstrikes. Hezbollah has been saying that it's carried out dozens of missile rocket strikes and drone strikes across the border into Israel as well.

And so the whole sort of country continues to spiral into violence with those casualty figures, nearly 400 dead so far this week, more than 1100 injured, and hundreds of thousands of people across the country displaced from their homes -- Anderson.

COOPER: Matthew Chance, thanks. Be careful.

Massive wall of fire lights up the night sky in Iran's capital after an oil storage depot was struck. Israel is now stepping up its attacks on key energy infrastructure sites in Iran, and says it's conducting wide scale strikes on Iranian regime targets in Tehran and other parts of the country. Iran is also ramping up its attacks on infrastructure facilities of its Persian Gulf neighbors.

It struck and damaged a water desalination plant in Bahrain. But Bahraini authorities say water supplies were not disrupted. The drone attacks in Bahrain are also striking, damaging high rise buildings. Same situation in Kuwait, where a drone strike engulfed a government building in flames today.

I'm joined by retired Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz, the CNN military analyst, and Karim Sadjadpour is back with us as well.

I'm wondering what you make of how effective, you know, obviously the U.S. has been targeting the Iranian Navy. And there's great concern about the Straits of Hormuz. Iran is not above, I mean, Navy is one thing, but they've also used commercial vessels.

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely. And they've got a history. If you look at, you know, the attack on the USS Cole all the way dating back to 2000 and Iran has a number of commercial fast attack vehicles that they can use. Maritime vehicles so boats, and certainly for both mine delivery in the Strait as well as, you know, attacking, you know, direct impact on a vessel.

So while the Navy has sunk which is, you know, great in terms of, you know, enabling the Fifth Fleet there in Central Command to reestablish freedom of navigation, there's still a lot of threat out there that I'm sure that the intelligence community is focused on.

COOPER: And, I mean, the Strait is very vulnerable. I mean, ships passing through that are very vulnerable given just the location. I mean, it's not a far shot for Iran.

SCHWARTZ: No, not at all, and of course, they have the ability from shore to ship. They've got a whole range of missiles that they can employ. And I know a lot of the bombing that has been taking place over the course of the last week, week and a half now, has been focused on taking out those shore batteries that have the ability to reach into the Straits of Hormuz and not only hit obviously military vessels but also all these oil tankers that eventually are going to have to start transiting that very constricted route.

[20:50:19]

COOPER: Karim, Barak Ravid is reporting that the U.S. and Israel are not necessarily on the same page when it comes to targeting fuel depots inside Iran. Does it surprise you that there's some disagreement there? SADJADPOUR: It doesn't surprise me, Anderson, because for Israel, Iran

poses an existential threat. And I think if they could push a button and have their ideal outcome, their ideal outcome would be similar to that of the United States. They would want an Iran that is not revolutionary, ideological state, an Iran that follows its own national interests, much like pre-1979 Iran, a country which had good relations with the United States and Israel.

But if Israel can't get its ideal outcome, and Iran which has been significantly degraded, perhaps is, you know, bordering on a failed state, is an outcome which they can live with, which is not what President Trump intended and is what our -- a lot of our partners in the Persian Gulf fear because the spillover will go to them.

COOPER: General Schwartz, when you hear the idea of U.S. special forces, maybe Israeli special forces, being involved in any kind of ground operation to try to seize nuclear material, certainly I can understand from the U.S. and Israels perspective why you would want to get that material, because that's ultimately what a lot of this is all about. But the difficulties that are seem huge.

SCHWARTZ: They are even in a, you know, what would be a relatively benign environment, just the, you know, the complexity of putting together an operation like that. And we saw some spectacular special operations and demonstrated capability but nothing to the degree that it will take to --

COOPER: Because it would require time on the ground to locate, to get to, given the past destruction.

SCHWARTZ: It will, particularly if, you know, some of this material is down deep in the ground based on the strikes that we did during Midnight Hammer in June of 2025. So very difficult. The good, you know, situation right now is we do have air supremacy. So the ability to provide, you know, cover for a special operation in terms of air cover, that condition has been met, but still, it's an extremely complex operation to put together, to orchestrate, and to, you know, getting in is one thing. We've lost the element of certainly operational and strategic surprise now since the war has been going on for in excess of a week. So there's a lot of things to consider in putting an operation like this together.

COOPER: Karim, is crippling global oil markets one of Iran's biggest pieces of leverage at this point?

SADJADPOUR: Absolutely, Anderson. Iran is a very weak position, and I'm reminded of a famous quote about Russia that Russia seeks security in the insecurity of its neighbors. And likewise Iran is currently seeking security in the instability of its neighbors, who are obviously these major energy powers. And, you know, Strait of Hormuz, as we've talked about on any given day 20 percent to 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through.

And Iran with drones that cost $20,000 harasses those ships. Insurance becomes very difficult. So the Iranian strategy here is to impact, negatively impact American public opinion. So when Americans go fill up their cars with gas, they're asking, why on earth did we get into another conflict in the Middle East? That strategy has worked with them in the past with U.S. presidents.

COOPER: And, Karim, what do you make of this idea of, I mean, again, I don't know if it's actually being considered for real, but U.S. special forces or Israeli special forces trying to obtain the nuclear material that Iran has.

SADJADPOUR: Logistically, it seems to me an incredibly risky operation. And if you're President Trump, I think it's something that he'll probably want to avoid putting, you know, U.S. special forces in harm's way like that.

COOPER: Yes. Karim Sadjadpour, General Mark Schwartz, appreciate it. Thanks.

As our breaking coverage continues, we continue to the next hour. The streets of Tehran on fire as Israel steps up its attacks on Iran's fuel storage depots and other targets with the Iranian regime.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:59:27]

COOPER: Good evening again. Iran may have a new ruler tonight, but the regime remains and still has at least some capacity to lash out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That is CNN's Jeremy Diamond just a short time ago with a fresh wave of Iranian missiles inbound. He joins us shortly.

Israel for its part has been hitting oil refining and storage facilities around Iran and especially Tehran over the weekend. This refinery burned for hours. Scenes like these push crude futures today above the $100 a barrel mark for the first time since 2022 which in turn moved the president to weigh in a short time ago.