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Iran Denies Israel's Claim It Violated Ceasefire; Trump Arrives at Royal Palace for NATO Summit; Interview with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ): House and Senate Classified Briefings on Iran Postponed; Early U.S. Intel Assessment Suggests Strikes Only Set Back Iran Nuclear Program by Months. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Breaking new details on the Israel-Iran ceasefire that took effect just hours ago. Iranian state media is now reporting that Iran's president, during a call with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, is today claiming a, quote, historic victory in the conflict with Israel, adding that he is ready, and this is the crucial part, to, quote, unquote, resolve issues between Iran and the United States.

It comes as President Trump is headed to the NATO summit in Netherlands, just landing there a few moments ago, as we've been on the air, soon to be together in person with world leaders, NATO leaders.

He is taking credit for brokering this ceasefire between Israel and Iran that earlier today did seem to be on the brink of utter collapse just an hour after it took effect, causing the president to use the F- word to describe Iran and Israel's behavior, appearing frustrated and exhausted as he spoke to reporters before boarding that plane to NATO.

Now, of course, that ceasefire appears to be holding, and a White House source telling CNN that the president then called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And the words that the White House is using to describe that call show the way they want people to read it.

They want it to read that President Trump came in with the hammer, brought it down on Netanyahu, and brought the whole thing back to -- back into line. They use the words exceptionally firm and direct to describe that call. But ever since the call, the ceasefire has been effectively holding.

So we're now coming into these hours after it here, 12 hours, the video of one of the last strikes we saw in Tehran overnight, an important one, as they were back and forth missiles. And just before the ceasefire took effect, a residential building in Israel also struck with civilian casualties.

Moments ago, the State Department giving us new information saying more than 400 Americans and their families have now left Israel on U.S.-facilitated flights since Saturday, which of course is when President Trump authorized those three strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

And just moments ago, moments ago, a classified briefing to Congress and to senators was abruptly canceled by the Trump administration, where they were supposed to talk about what exactly happened in those attacks and what was achieved. So all we know is that it was abruptly canceled, as we're waiting for more information on that.

Let's get the view now from Iran, where our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen has been on the ground through this unprecedented crisis in Tehran -- Fred.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After the Israelis made that claim that Iranian missiles were flying towards Israeli territory, I actually got in touch with a senior Iranian official who flat out denied that the Iranians had fired any missiles toward Israel after the ceasefire went into effect. In fact, they said at the moment that that time had come for the ceasefire that no missiles had been fired from the Iranian side. The Iranians are also now warning the Israelis against hitting Iranian territory, saying that that would open up Iranian retaliation once again, and that everything within what they call the occupied territories, of course, meaning all of Israel, would then become a target for Iran.

So some tough language coming out of Tehran here as well. Also the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which of course is that elite wing of Iran's military, claiming that there were several violations of its soil, as they put it, by the Israelis, possibly meaning incursion by some sort of aircraft in the hours after the ceasefire went into effect.

What we're seeing right now actually here in Tehran is that things are fairly calm here. I was on the streets a little bit earlier today. There's a lot of people who are out driving, some shops opening up. But what the president said there about the Israelis unloading overnight after the ceasefire deal was announced was definitely something that we saw and we felt here from our vantage point as well.

I was up here on this roof, and we all of a sudden heard Israeli Air Force planes, what seemed to be Israeli Air Force planes, streaking past, and then extremely loud explosions rocking our building, and then rocking also a lot of other places in central Tehran as well.

[14:35:00]

We saw a lot of outgoing anti-aircraft gunfire coming from the Iranians. The skies here over the city really were illuminated. That went on for the better part of, I would say, about half an hour, 45 minutes, maybe up to an hour, where those loud bangs continued.

The Israelis at some point even issued evacuation orders for certain districts here around 2:30 in the morning, when obviously people in those districts most probably would have been asleep. So it certainly was a night that saw a lot of kinetic activity. And as of right now, the Iranians are saying that their forces are not firing back.

The foreign minister of this country, Abbas Araghchi, came out and said that Iranian forces had fired until the moment that the ceasefire went into effect, which the Iranians consider to be 4 a.m. in the morning, and that since then, no projectiles, they say, have been fired from Iran towards Israeli territory.

BURNETT: All right, Fred, thank you very much. And Tehran, of course, keeping in mind that the Israelis just moments ago saying the significant phase of the campaign is over, but, and this is crucial, that the campaign against Iran is not.

Well, still to come, as I said, there was supposed to be this joint classified briefing on Capitol Hill for senators and congressmen to get details on the U.S. strikes at Iran, exactly what was accomplished, what the goals were, what happened to the nuclear program that Trump has described as obliterated. But we understand that those classified briefings were just abruptly postponed. We don't know until when. We're going to be joined by a member of Congress to get the very latest on that right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, the president there meeting with the Dutch King and Queen. He is there in the palace, which is near The Hague. He is in the Netherlands.

And we just saw him walk into the palace where the red carpet had literally been rolled out for these leaders who are going to be attending this dinner. These leaders were part of the NATO alliance. And he is, we've also learned, going to be staying there at the Dutch King's residence.

So this is very much, as we've been talking about, a NATO summit that is tailored to him. It is going to be revolving around a commitment from NATO members to dedicate 5 percent of their GDP to defense, which is something that for years Donald Trump has been arguing for. And right now he is feeling very good about what has happened with Iran.

And so he's riding a little bit of a high as he is there in the Netherlands with this NATO summit that has been largely tailored towards him.

Sources now telling CNN that the classified briefings from members of Congress about those U.S. strikes against Iran have now been postponed. This was supposed to be the first time that lawmakers were going to get answers directly from the Trump administration since those attacks happened on Saturday.

And it's a delay that is coming as members of both parties have been voicing concerns about whether the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran will hold.

With us now is Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari. She was the first Iranian American Democrat elected to Congress.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us. Do you know why these briefings were postponed? REP. YASSAMIN ANSARI (D-AZ): I do not. We have gotten no information from this administration about why they chose to unilaterally and illegally make a decision to take us into conflict with Iran and get involved with this war. I think many members of Congress, all of us, were very much looking forward to the opportunity to get this classified briefing from senior members of this administration.

And the fact that they have abruptly canceled this after 12 days marked by absolute chaos from this administration. Hundreds of civilians from different countries killed. And now no information, no evidence on why the U.S. decided to take military action in the first place and whether or not that those strikes were even successful.

So I'm extremely concerned. I think the president has continued to act in a manner that is unconstitutional. We are in a constitutional crisis and we will continue to demand answers.

KEILAR: The speaker says these are going to happen. But again, at this point, it doesn't appear that there is going to -- there is a rescheduled date. We don't have anything on the calendar at this point.

What do you want to learn when you are briefed? What do you want to know?

ANSARI: I have an endless amount of questions. Let's talk about the last 12 days started by this administration. Donald Trump has been directing foreign policy via Truth Social, the social media platform that he owns.

He has done everything from tell a city of 10 million people in Tehran to evacuate, threaten regime change, war, mass casualty, then praise himself for a ceasefire in a conflict that he got us involved with without congressional authority. So the two most important pieces of information are, first and foremost, what was the intelligence that actually showed urgency and showed that Iran was allegedly, as they say, days away from making a nuclear weapon, which Tulsi Gabbard said also throughout these last 12 days that that was not the case. So that's my first question.

The second question, we don't have any information on whether or not this was actually successful. We've heard conflicting reports. The president himself has used the term obliterated when it comes to Iran's nuclear enrichment.

[14:45:00]

But then, you know, others in the senior levels of his administration have said otherwise. So we need to know whether or not this illegal action was even successful. I think there's a lot of potential long- term backlash that can come from the decisions that Donald Trump made, including an emboldened Islamic Republic regime in Iran that's going to further crack down on Iranian people and also potentially continue its nuclear program and pursue nuclear weapons without being part of the NPT, which would be a massive concern for us. KEILAR: So I hear you're raising questions about the legality of this. You're raising questions about whether this was successful. Your colleague Jake Auchincloss has said that this made America safer. He also has questions, like you do, about why Congress was not consulted on this.

There is a former U.N. weapons inspector who assessed that at least Iran's centrifuge program has been destroyed, though, as you are well aware, there are questions about Iran's highly enriched uranium and the status of that, whether they were able to preserve it.

But knowing that, that it does appear that there very likely may have been some damage and certainly some kind of setback, do you seek some kind of success in these strikes?

ANSARI: I do not, and the reason is because I don't think abrupt military action and making the decision to get the United States potentially involved in a war is the right decision for this country. We are dealing with a regime in Iran that is reckless, that will do anything to survive. And so there is no reason to say that they will not rush even faster now to a nuclear weapon as a result of the actions that were taken, because they feel that might protect them even more so.

We were in the midst of negotiations. Our president was priding himself on and campaigned on the fact that he wanted a deal. To bomb a country in the middle of negotiations is going to have severe long- term consequences for this country.

KEILAR: If the ceasefire holds, would your assessment change?

ANSARI: I hope the ceasefire holds, and the reason for that is because I do not want to see hundreds of civilians, whether Iranian or Israeli, be killed, which they have been as a result of all of this. I want to see diplomacy work. I hope that now we can see an actual binding agreement between all of these parties, but that is not the language that we are seeing come out of whether it's the Islamic Republic regime or otherwise.

But it is really important to make sure that we don't let the president get away with the illegality of this. It is unacceptable that Congress was never briefed, the American public never heard the case made against us. I can tell you in my district, representing Phoenix, Arizona, my constituents don't want to see the United States take military action like this when it's not our conflict or our war.

So that is my concern. We need to hold this administration accountable. I hope that the briefing gets rescheduled immediately and that members of Congress actually get facts from an administration that has, unfortunately, consistently lied not only to us but to the public.

KEILAR: The polls show that, you know, at least right after the strike, there were a lot of Americans who were -- had major concerns about it, and they disapproved of it. And, of course, we are just aware that after decades at war in the Middle East and in South Asia, there is a war weariness and a concern about being in these so-called forever wars --

ANSARI: Absolutely.

KEILAR: -- that Americans have. At the same time, President Obama ordered much more protracted airstrikes in Libya back in 2011, did not seek that congressional authorization of Congress as well.

Seeing that, I mean, does something like that pave the way to give other presidents, like President Trump, permission to do something like this?

ANSARI: Certainly, I think that looking at our history in this country and looking at -- if we're going to learn from our past mistakes, I think -- I was not here in Congress at the time, I'm a freshman member, but I would have liked to see even President Obama come to Congress and make the case for military action. That should be the case always. Unless there is an imminent threat, there's a difference between these two articles.

And so I think it's very important that we maintain consistency when it comes to this, that we hold this administration accountable for this because, as you mentioned, the United States has a fraught history in this area. We spent $800 billion in Iraq, so much more in Afghanistan. And what is the result?

After 20 years of war, we still have the Taliban controlling Afghanistan, so we don't have a successful history when it comes to foreign intervention and regime change. And again, just looking at the last 10 days, the fact that within 24 hours our president can go on social media and say, call for regime change, call for evacuation, then call for peace, this isn't how foreign policy should ever be conducted. It is chaotic.

[14:50:00]

It terrifies people around the world. We're not going to build partners or allies. I mean, we have lost credibility on the world stage for so many other reasons, but this is the latest example. And that's not what I want to see for American global leadership going forward.

KEILAR: Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, thank you for being with us. We do appreciate your time this afternoon. And stay with CNN for more breaking news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We have major breaking news into CNN.

[14:55:00]

Three sources tell CNN that according to an early U.S. intelligence assessment, the U.S. military strikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country's nuclear program and likely only set it back a few months.

KEILAR: That's right, so this is an assessment that actually is out from the Defense Intelligence Agency. That is the Pentagon's intelligence arm. And it was based on a battle damage assessment conducted by U.S. CENTCOM after the strikes, according to one of the sources.

Let's go to CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand, who has this exclusive new reporting. This is to that question that has been asked about how much damage has been done. This is a real question.

It's also a political question that has been something that Donald Trump has been sort of dealing with here recently. What are you learning, Natasha?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, Brianna, this is the first assessment that we are getting that the U.S. intelligence community has found about the battle damage that resulted from those U.S. military strikes on these three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend. And as you said, it was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the Pentagon's intelligence arm. And it is worth noting that it is a very early assessment.

The strikes were only a matter of days ago, and the intelligence community is still gathering intelligence. They are still working to come up with a full comprehensive picture of what exactly happened here.

But based on a battle damage assessment that was carried out by U.S. Central Command, essentially looking at the images and looking at what was actually damaged, the Defense Intelligence Agency has assessed that the core components of Iran's nuclear program are largely intact, and that Iran's nuclear program has essentially only been set back by months.

Now, we presented this information to the White House for comment. And White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, she did acknowledge the existence of this assessment. But she said in a statement that the administration disagrees with it.

She said, quote, this alleged assessment is flat out wrong and was classified as top secret but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous low level loser in the intelligence community. The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop 14 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets, total obliteration.

Now, it is worth noting here that there has been dissent, I should say, within the intelligence community, within the defense community about just how much of an impact these massive bunker buster bombs would actually have on Iran's nuclear facilities. It was far from certain, given that these bombs had never been tested in an actual combat scenario, whether they would actually penetrate those very, very deep underground tunnels that lie underneath these nuclear facilities.

And what we are told is that as of now, this Defense Intelligence Agency assessment, it does conclude at this point, again, it is still very early that those underground facilities, including the centrifuges, including the highly enriched uranium that everyone has been talking so much about, those are largely intact.

Now, of course, this does stand at odds with what President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have been saying in recent days about the impact of these U.S. military strikes. Of course, President Trump said it was totally obliterated, and Secretary Hegseth did as well. And he actually also provided CNN with a statement.

And he said that, quote, Based on everything we have seen, and I've seen it all, our bombing campaign obliterated Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons. Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran. So anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.

Now, our sources did emphasize here that there was severe damage that was done largely to the above ground structures at these nuclear sites. And so there was damage done, of course, by these massive bombs.

But the core components of the nuclear program, we are told they are largely intact, and it only set the program back by a matter of months -- Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Natasha Bertrand, please stand by. Let's go now live to CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, who's traveling with President Trump as he attends a NATO summit from the Netherlands. Kaitlan, you heard the statement there from the White House.

They acknowledged the existence of this assessment but said that they disagreed with it and then attacked the sourcing behind it. What are you hearing?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think it's notable that when we reached out to the White House for comment on what Natasha and Katie Bo had been hearing here from these sources about this initial assessment that they provided statements, not only from Karoline Levitt, the White House press secretary, obviously, who is designed to respond to media reports, but also from the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth himself, given he is on the record talking about what he believes the results of these strikes were here.

Now, the issue here at hand is obviously this is an initial assessment. We're still waiting for a comprehensive assessment to be done. And as Natasha mentioned there, certainly more information could come to light. And that is how this works as they are in the early days of assessing this. But if this is the assessment that stands as it is right now and what the DIA found, according to this report, that that undermines what President Trump has been saying ...

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