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Missiles Fired From Iran Toward U.S. Base in Qatar Intercepted; Iran Gave Qatar Advance Notice of Attack on U.S. Base. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 23, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: ... U.S. base in the Middle East. No injuries or damage to the airbase has been reported. With me now is Jeffrey Lewis, nuclear policy analyst and professor at the Middlebury Institute.

Jeffrey, thanks so much for being with us. What do you make, first of all, of Iran's response? They say an equal number of missiles to those launched by the U.S. at the two facilities of Fordow and Natanz.

JEFFREY LEWIS, NUCLEAR POLICY ANALYST AND PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE: Well, I think the Iranians are clearly trying to avoid any further escalation. You know, I think they've gotten off a little bit easy. The president has said their program has been completely obliterated. This is a one-off strike. And I think that as painful as the loss of Fordow is, I think the Iranians are looking to move forward.

COOPER: In terms of the nuclear capabilities of Iran, obviously, you know, bomb damage assessment is still underway. We hear from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. That's going to take some time.

In terms of where all the nuclear material may be, how confident are you that the U.S. or Israel knows where enriched plutonium -- or excuse me, enriched uranium may have been moved to?

LEWIS: Well, it's pretty clear that they don't know where that material is. I mean, I think one of the reasons that Iran is probably trying to be not terribly escalatory is that it still has a significant amount of nuclear capability left, starting with that 400 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Most of that was stored in some underground tunnels near a place called Isfahan.

Yes, those tunnels were not struck. So Iran still has that material. The head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, says they moved it. So I don't think anybody really knows where that material is. And that's enough for about 10 nuclear weapons if Iran enriches it further.

COOPER: So in terms of, I mean, at some point, this has to end diplomatically. At some point, Israel will decide, you know, they've hit the targets they want to hit. They can maintain control -- some form of control over the skies of Iran and can kind of hit at will. What needs to happen for the U.S., for Israel, for Europe to know fully Iran's -- where Iran is and their nuclear capabilities in terms of -- is it accessed by IAEA inspectors who I guess are still on the ground but haven't been able to obviously to inspect sites given the ongoing conflict? Is it some other form of negotiation or agreement?

LEWIS: Yes, I think it's a very -- it's a very difficult question, to tell you the truth, because the reality is is that a lot of these facilities are simply not going to be able to be monitored unless you can get people in them. And there's going to be a huge problem of the facilities that we don't know about, including a lot of facilities that are underground and have not been struck yet. So if there is no diplomatic settlement, if this just keeps going with the kind of airstrike after airstrike, you know, I think at the end of the day Iran is going to be left with still a pretty substantial capability to build a nuclear weapon if that's what the regime chooses to do.

COOPER: Vice President J.D. Vance told ABC News this week, and I'm quoting, what we know is they no longer have the capacity to turn that stockpile of highly enriched uranium to weapons-grade uranium, and that was really the goal here. He also added enriching uranium up to the point of a nuclear weapon, that was what the president put a stop to last night.

From what you can see of the damage, do you agree with Vice President Vance?

LEWIS: I think that's probably false, but we don't really know. I mean, certainly we know that the known enrichment facilities have probably been either destroyed or very severely damaged, so I don't have any doubt about that. You know, one of the problems is the eve before the war, Iran announced that it had a new enrichment facility that it was about to begin installing centrifuges in, and they had invited the IAEA to come inspect it.

That facility, we don't know where it is. It hasn't been struck, and you know, there's some possibility it's not the only one. So I think that we know that we have destroyed the facilities in Iran that we know about. The problem is we know that there's at least one and possibly two out there that we don't know about. And so I don't think it's quite accurate to say that Iran's enrichment capability has been obliterated or completely eliminated.

COOPER: Professor Jeffrey Lewis, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Our breaking news continues after this short break.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill today for the first time since President Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran without congressional consent, and as Iran launches retaliatory strikes toward U.S. military installations in Qatar. CNN's Manu Raju is at the Capitol with a reaction. What are you hearing from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the reaction has really been all over the map, Anderson.

[15:40:00]

Most Democrats have been sharply critical of the president's decision, especially to take this step without the consent of Congress. Some Democrats, though, have supported what Donald Trump has done, including more members who are more hawkish on the issue of Israel.

The Democratic leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffries, just moments ago accused the White House of ignoring his demand for a briefing of the so-called Gang of Eight. Those are the leaders, the top leaders in the House and the Senate on both sides of the aisle, top intelligence committee leaders. He said, quote, what is the administration hiding?

And then on the Republican side, some of the more MAGA-aligned members have been critical of Trump's decision, saying that his campaign promise was to end foreign wars, not to get entangled in them.

But most Republicans are falling in line, including the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who is aligning himself with Donald Trump, defending his move. Johnson himself just told us moments ago that he had been briefed earlier this morning in a classified briefing about the expectations of retaliation by the Iranians. And I asked him about the demand for a vote in the United States House, and he pushed back on that demand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Why not have Congress vote on Iran? Why not have this given that you're the imminence of this threat?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: So, look, there's been so much talk ranging from AOC suggesting this is an impeachable offense, which is just absolute nonsense, to people suggesting that Congress should dither over this.

Look, the commander in chief has Article 2 responsibilities. I don't think this is an appropriate time for a war powers resolution, and I don't think it's necessary. Listen, for 80 years, presidents of both parties have acted with the same commander in chief authority under Article 2.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU (on camera): But not all Republicans are on the same page. One of Donald Trump's closest allies, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is one of those hard-right members, Republican from Georgia, put out a strongly- worded statement on X, saying earlier today that the MAGA agenda included key promises, no more foreign wars, no more regime change, and world peace. And she said, this is what the people voted for.

And she said, only six months ago, we were -- only six months in, and we are back into foreign wars, regime change, and World War III. She called it a complete bait-and-switch to please neocons and warmongers.

It shows you the pressure that Trump is under from some aspects of his party, Anderson. But, overall, Republican leaders are defending the president and are indicating they plan to kill any efforts to force a vote, to get a vote approved, really, in the House and the Senate. A vote is almost certainly going to happen because of the rules in both chambers. But they don't have the support in order to challenge the president's authority here.

So, watch that play out in the coming days as Republicans align themselves largely behind the president, Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Manu Raju, thanks very much.

This just in. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just responded on social media. We have not heard from him now for -- since the strike.

He responded saying Iran has not violated anyone and would not accept any violations from others. He wrote, and I quote, We will not surrender to anyone's violation. This is the logic of the nation of Iran.

We will not surrender to anyone's violation. This is the logic of the nation of Iran.

Back with us is Brett McGurk, the former National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.

Brett, I'm not sure, what do you make of the fact that we finally heard from the supreme leader, Khamenei? What do you make of his response?

BRETT MCGURK, FORMER MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA COORDINATOR, national SECURITY COUNCIL: I think Anderson, I mean, they can be boastful and say what they want. I'd rather see that than them being able to launch massive barrages of missiles at our people. So, given where we are, telegraphed, very small missile attack, defeated, and then the supreme leader, from wherever he is, to the extent he even understands fully what is happening, getting this short statement out, not surprising.

The Iranians, as Fred has been reporting from Tehran, are putting out statements about, you know, this amazing attack they just conducted when everybody knows it really wasn't. But look, if that's what they need to blow off some steam and save a little face and recede from this crisis and get on with talks, I think that's OK. I will have to see.

I just have to say, again, this is good. I think we're, the escalation ladder, we're not going up. I just want to emphasize, Anderson, I'm mindful of that 2020 experience. You had the Soleimani response from Iran, and then those attacks in Iraq didn't really stop. We had two Americans killed in March. We had a big attack against our embassy in September of 2020. So, I wouldn't counter on out here. What's different, though, is they're just in such a weak and vulnerable position. So their options are really limited. And that's why I suspect here this crisis will begin to recede. I think Israel will maintain that air superiority over Iran, although you won't see the pace of operations we've been seeing. But they will ensure that Iran really cannot regenerate its missile production capability, nuclear building centrifuges.

[15:45:02]

The Israelis will try to stay on top of that. And I do think we'll see talks here get back on track over the coming weeks.

COOPER: Just the potential for change in this region, you know, there was a lot of talk about that when Saddam Hussein was, you know, was taken out of power, and there was a regime change there. But just from a planning standpoint, the potential for seismic change in this region, I mean, how real does that feel to you at this juncture?

Again, it's early days. But given the weakness of the decimation of Hamas, the weakness of Hezbollah, now this response from Iran, if this is the only response that there will be, and to your point, you know, there could be others down the road, could be, you know, a revenge served cold down the road. But what do you -- I mean, in the panoply of just possibilities, I'm just wondering, as somebody who's worked on this for so long, are you kind of stunned by this? Or yes.

MCGURK: Well, I have to say, before October 7th and that Hamas attack, the kind of direction of events was more integrated Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia, normalization was kind of on the agenda. There was just an announcement about an integrated economic corridor from India through the Middle East, through Israel to Europe, that was announced at the G20, that was kind of the direction of things. Obviously, the attack on October 7th fundamentally changed things.

You know, Anderson, I'd be reticent right now to draw some conclusion that there could be a linear course, nothing will be linear. But I've been struck by, after October 7th, and again, I was just so directly involved in all that in the aftermath. And you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu called President Biden, and I remember this discussion, and he said, you know, Joe, in the Middle East, if you're weak, you're roadkill. Just weakness is a massive vulnerability. And here we are now, 18 months later, nobody would say Israel is in a weak position. Iran, which made some faithful decisions from October 7th onward, is in a historically weakened position.

Again, they have asymmetric means, link to terrorism, they still have missiles. But this is a changed equation, and power in that part of the world does matter, and power equations matter. And so I just -- I do think there's an opportunity here.

I also want to say, Anderson, we didn't mention Gaza, not far from where you are. We got to get that ceasefire -- we've got to get that ceasefire in place in Gaza. There's a Hamas delegation in Cairo, I understand. Hamas is also in deep trouble. I think there's an opportunity to get a ceasefire in Gaza. We have to do that, not only just to kind of de-escalate that situation, but just the humanitarian situation in Gaza is such a disaster.

And there's a deal on the table here. There are about 20 living hostages. Israel's accepted this deal. If Hamas would release 10 hostages, you have a two-month ceasefire. And I think we've got to work to get to that -- that point.

COOPER: You've raised this several times, and I think it's a really important point, because a lot of attention has been taken off the hostages, which alive, and those dead who are still in Gaza, and just the sickening humanitarian situation for, you know, women and children and men in Gaza is -- I mean it's -- it is horrific. You think that there is an opportunity here for some movement there?

MCGURK: You know, Anderson, my experience in those very difficult negotiations over the course of 2024, we had a different Hamas at the table after Hezbollah, its ally, cut a deal, got a ceasefire in Lebanon. After that happened, we had a very different Hamas. We were able to get to that agreement, finally get in place in January of last year.

The ceasefire fell apart, unfortunately, after that first phase. But that framework is still very much on the table. Mohamed Sinwar, the very militant leader of Hamas inside Gaza, he was killed about three weeks ago.

And the fact that talks are ongoing, even in the backdrop of this Iran, direct Iran-Israel confrontation, I think is a decent sign. But I would just -- if I was doing this, I would encourage everybody, with any influence over Hamas, let's take the deal. Let's get that 60-day ceasefire in place, the whole region that can then breathe a sigh of relief. And in that 60-day window, you can do a lot. You can work towards that permanent solution in Gaza that we need. And through the Europeans and our partners, work with the Iranians here on a verifiable nuclear deal with the backstop of snapback, which I mentioned.

[15:50:00]

Europeans can snapback all international sanctions. They can do that later this summer. They have that authority.

And so there's a lot to play here that I think you could move things in a pretty positive direction. I just, Anderson, I don't want to draw that conclusion yet. But I think there's a chance. I guess that's what folks doing this should be working towards.

COOPER: Let's hope so. Brett McGurk, thanks very much. Our breaking news continues after the short break.

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COOPER: We continue our breaking news coverage. Iran has launched what they call a powerful -- that was the word they used -- attack on a U.S. airbase in Qatar, the largest U.S. base in the Middle East.

[15:55:00] The Qatar's defense ministry says its air defenses successfully intercepted the attack, which targeted the Al Udeid airbase. No damage reported.

Colonel Cedric Leighton joins us now. So Colonel, just if you can, kind of show us what we know about this base, what we know about this attack.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Anderson, this base is based really in central Qatar right here, and Qatar is a very small country, but it's really close to Iran, so it's only about a little over 100 miles from the base to the Iranian seacoast. This base houses about 10,000 Air Force personnel, plus members of the Royal Air Force from Great Britain, as well as Qatari elements. And it's used primarily for the fight against ISIS, the fight against, you know, any of the other activities that we've had.

It was part of OIF, Operation Iraqi Freedom, so basically both Gulf Wars saw activity at this base, but primarily for the second Gulf War, that's where Al Udeid really came into play.

COOPER: And in terms of an attack, this would be, would it be interceptors from the airbase, U.S. interceptors from the airbase, or just the Qatari forces?

LEIGHTON: Well, they would use interceptors from the base, Anderson, and one of the key things here is they would have U.S. interceptors that would be within the base perimeter, but outside of the base perimeter, that's where the Qataris would have set up, and the types of weapons that they would have gone against would have been Iranian missiles like this. This is the Shahab-3, based on a Scud variant. This other one is the Fateh missile, and this one is a Qiam missile.

These are all based on various different technologies, some of them Chinese variants, some of them Russian variants, and basically these are short and medium range missiles that the Iranians would have probably used to attack the Al Udeid airbase, but luckily there were few in number in terms of these missiles, and also as far as we know, no casualties on the ground.

COOPER: And Colonel, in something like this, how many troops would have -- I mean, if there's 10,000 or so troops normally at this base, would they have been moved off the base? Obviously, you know, there's been a lot of run-up to this.

LEIGHTON: So what they did was they exercised basically their force protection program for this base. They took out all the dependents several weeks ago from this base. They also moved all the aircraft from Al Udeid.

So the U.S. Air Force commander, the wing commander at Al Udeid, knew from the Qataris that this attack was coming, and they moved all the air assets out of there. As far as the personnel goes, a lot of them were moved, we understand, but the skeleton crew at least was there, and probably more than that, to maintain all the things that we do. What's basically here at Al Udeid is known as a combined air operations center, and that runs basically all the air operations for the Middle East.

So those positions were all staffed, so those people remained in place because they're basically mission essential personnel.

COOPER: All right, Colonel Cedric Leighton, I really appreciate your expertise and all this. Thank you.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right after a quick break.

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