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Iran Rejects Temporary Ceasefire, Demands Permanent End to War; Trump to Speak on Daring Rescue of U.S. Airman Shot Down in Iran; Israel Says It Killed Intel Chief for Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New reports this morning on what is called a last ditch push for a ceasefire in Iran. But with so many shifting deadlines and expletive, latent threats from the president, what is the reality on the ground?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A historic day in space right now, the crew of Artemis II racing towards the moon for a fly by that will give them a stellar view of the far side of the moon, going where no human has gone before into deep space.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Queens of the court, UCLA, dominated over South Carolina to give the Bruins their first ever NCAA women's title. Now, everyone's getting ready for the men's final match tonight.

I'm Kate Baldwin with John Berman and Sarah Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: Breaking this morning, Iran has rejected a temporary ceasefire. President Trump had told Axios that deep negotiations are underway for a potential ceasefire in Iran, and he told them there are -- there is a good chance of a deal by Tuesday.

But he has said versions of this before with deadlines that have shifted before. The latest new extended shifted deadline is 8:00 P.M. tomorrow night for Iran to open the critical Strait of Hormuz. And if they don't, the president says, quote, I am blowing up everything over there.

Now, that too is a shift. Just last week, the president was saying the U.S. did not need to open the strait to end the war, and that it would open naturally. His language now indicates he feels differently. He posted this now infamous Easter message, open the F-ing straight, you crazy bastard, or you'll be living in hell. Iran responded, they will open the straight only when financial damages from the war are fully compensated.

Now we could hear more about all of this when the president answers questions at 1:00 P.M. today. Let's get the latest on it from CNN's Alayna Treene, who is at the White House this morning? Alayna, what are you here? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think we have seen this escalation in war of words, the most remarkable, I think, being that, posts that you just referenced from the president yesterday, that expletive-laden post, where he laid out what exactly the threats are against Iran. But I think even more importantly is now looking at the shifting deadline that the president is giving Iran.

It was originally expected to expire this evening that they must reopen the strait or face severe attacks from the United States on key civilian infrastructure points inside Iran. He has now extended that deadline, saying yesterday that he was going to be pushing it to tomorrow at 8:00 P.M.

And what we're hearing now from our conversations with our sources here throughout the Trump administration, but also in the Middle East, is that we know Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, they are the among the mediators trying to find some sort of off ramp here before further attacks can escalate. And we're told essentially that they're continuing to keep these communications open between Washington and Tehran.

And, really, there's a big hope as well to almost buy time before we could see the United States go even further with some of these attacks that the president has laid out, attacks on energy infrastructure, on potential desalination plants, which the president has outlined before, things that could potentially amount to a war crime.

But, again, there are so many questions here. I do want to go back to what you noted as well, John, this idea that the president told Axios' Barak Ravid essentially that they are in deep negotiations and that he's confident they could potentially reach a deal before that deadline tomorrow.

Now, there's a lot of pressure on, you know, a lot of countries hoping that at least some sort of deal, even if temporary, again, even if only to buy more time, could be reached. Because there's also a huge concern that if the United States does move forward and make good on the threats that we've heard from the president, you're going to see massive retaliation from the Iranians on different partners in the Gulf, different allies in the region and things that, of course, we've now been hearing from a lot of allies in the Middle East that they are gearing up for it, but, of course, hope do not happen.

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Now, Iran again said that they will reciprocate if they see any sort of attacks from the president. And when it comes again to U.S. interest in the region, the neighbor countries will come even under more fire than they had before. And so that's really what I think this deadline racing to try to achieve some sort of negotiation is really about.

Now, we are, as you mentioned, going to see the president today as a news conference at 1:00 P.M. It's going to be held in the briefing room, which means we're going to expect a lot of questions from reporters trying to get more clarity on what we are hearing from the president, and really this idea of whether substantial negotiations could actually lead to a potential off-ramp here before more attacks could happen.

And, again, we need to learn more from the Iranians who we're saying this morning a temporary ceasefire is not something they are interested in.

Alayna Trine at the White House, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

This morning, we're learning more about the incredible mission to rescue the airmen whose 15-fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Officials are speaking about the operation telling CNN hundreds of U.S. special operations, military and intelligence personnel, were involved in this as well as the CIA. They say the Air Force colonel was able to evade capture for over a day, scaling rugged terrain while hiding out to avoid capture.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live in Tel Aviv with the very latest with this. Jeremy, you're seeing some new satellite images this morning of this crash. What else have you learned about this incredible rescue?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this was truly an extraordinary and highly complex mission that involved hundreds of U.S. military and intelligence personnel, including the CIA and special operators that actually went on the ground to rescue this downed weapon system officer.

You know, it was extraordinary also on the part of this weapon systems officer who was injured when he was downed from that F-15E aircraft. He was injured and he managed to scale a ridge line up to 7,000 feet above sea level, hid in a crevice to avoid detection by Iranian forces who were actively looking for him. And then we had the U.S. mission that actually sprang into action. And it did indeed involve massive bombardment of the area around where this U.S. airman was located.

And you can see in this satellite imagery at least 28 different craters along the Central Isfahan Province. This is because U.S. forces basically carried out bombardment around this area in order to keep Iranian forces away while Special Forces, including the U.S.'s Navy SEAL Team Six, went on the ground to actually grab what weapon systems officer and put him in a helicopter and safely get him to an airfield.

But things did not go as smoothly as anticipated. There are always surprises in these missions, and in this case, at a remote air base that had been set up inside of Iran, two of the aircraft that were supposed to fly those teams out of Iran, they were somehow damaged at some point. Other aircraft had to be brought in and those two aircraft that were left on the ground were ultimately blown up by U.S. forces in order to evade the -- avoid them falling into Iranian hands. That weapon systems officer, we understand, is in good condition. He's being treated by the U.S. military.

Now, separately here in Israel, we have been witnessing a very heavy night of Iranian ballistic missile fire aimed both at Central and Northern Israel overnight here in the Tel Aviv area. We had multiple air raid sirens going off, several cluster munitions impact in the areas causing multiple injuries and property damage, but no fatalities.

But last night, a very different story in the northern city of Haifa, where a ballistic missile struck a residential building, four people were killed. It took hours of rescue forces to try and actually find them to discover that they had indeed been killed. But amazingly, that ballistic missile did not actually explode. It partially collapsed the building just by the force of the warhead hitting it. But had that ballistic missile actually exploded, the whole building would likely have collapsed and we'd be looking at much more than four fatalities.

SIDNER: Wow, yes. People don't realize just how large those ballistic missiles are without exploding in how much damage they can do, and now we're learning about these four deaths.

Thank you so much for your reporting there for us, Jeremy. I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Savannah Guthrie returns to the Today Show today. Her message of faith and grief as they are still searching for her mother two months later now.

And in just hours, you will be watching history unfold, four astronauts flying by the moon, traveling farther from Earth than any human ever before. We have the very latest on the Artemis II mission.

And how about this for a bit of a side hustle, guys, get paid to film yourself doing chores.

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How companies are leaning on real people today to train the robot butlers of tomorrow.

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BOLDUAN: It is shaping up to be a historic day, what NASA's big moon mission has really all been leading up to. The four Artemis II astronauts will be reaching the far side of the moon in just hours.

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During this flyby, they're going to see features on the lunar surface that the human eyes have never seen before, traveling farther from Earth than any human has ever.

CNN's Randi Kaye is tracking all of this from Johnson Space Center in Houston. So, Randi, there is -- I mean, talk about a lot of buildup to this moment, but it's very exciting that this is all happening today. What is all expected?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. People here are really excited, especially the scientists. That's what this whole mission is about. It's a test mission and they want to learn as much science as they can. But according to the lunar scientists that I spoke with, when they get to the moon, it's going to be like looking at a basketball held at arm's length. That's how they're going to see the moon. That's how close it's going to look to them.

But let me run down this schedule for you for today for them. The astronauts will pass the Apollo 13 distance record at about 1:56 P.M. today Eastern Time. At 2:45 P.M., that is when the lunar flyby window opens, Kate. At 6:44 P.M., there is going to be this predicted, very important to say that, predicted loss of communication with mission control here. That is when the Earth sets and it will be behind the moon, and then they'll lose communication for about 40 minutes. And then when it rises again, they'll be back in touch as planned.

At 7:02 P.M., they'll make their closest approach to the moon, about 4,070 miles away from the moon. And then at 7:07 P.M. tonight, that is when they're expected to reach their maximum distance from Earth. The number of miles, 252,760 miles away from Earth. And then at 9:20 P.M., the lunar fly by will conclude.

Now, they have a lot of work to do, Kate, while they're up there. They have about 35 lunar targets to try and find. And I asked one of the lunar scientists here just how they're going to do that, and here's what she told me.

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DR. JULIANE GROSS, ARTEMIS CAMPAIGN SAMPLE CURATION LEAD: It's a timeline that goes with them so they know where within that timeframe, where they are, which is the next target to go in, so they can look at those. They can orient themselves. We have little maps in there. So, we are highlighting directly where the next features are that they're going to observe, so that they know where to go.

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KAYE: One of the main lunar targets that they want to try and find is something called Oriental Basin. It's this massive multi ringed basin on the moon. They really want to find that. They want to look for certain colors and textures on the moon surface.

And they also want to try and find the south pole on the moon. They also want to look for future areas where we can land on the moon, because as I said, this is a test mission, so for Artemis III and Artemis IV, they do plan to land and then also they want to look for some new craters.

But they are expecting to take about a thousand pictures. Now, we don't know when we're going to get those, of course, but we do know that the lunar scientists and mission control plan to download with the crew on Artemis as quickly as they can while all of this information is fresh in their minds. Kate?

BOLDUAN: I mean, absolutely. I mean, I feel like if I see a pretty sunset, I take like a thousand photos. So, if I was passing, I don't know, by the moon as closer than any human has ever, I guess it's probably worthy of a couple of thousand photos.

KAYE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see it, Randi. There's so much that's still to cover from this today, all of the buildup. John?

BERMAN: Best part would be some photo bombs like Earth. If like you're there is supposed to be this perfect picture of Earth behind --

BOLDUAN: Earth, just move.

BERMAN: And me. Yes, exactly, looking forward to that.

An airplane lands on a highway and it is all caught on this camera with this view right here.

And standing by for the start of the highly anticipated White House Easter egg roll, how a raccoon that was sent to the White House to be eaten once ruled the annual festivities.

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BERMAN: This morning, it is time for eggs, candy, games, baby chickens, and more eggs. We are standing by for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

With me now from the White House, CNN Chief Easter Egg Roll Correspondent Betsy Klein. Betsy, what are we expecting this morning?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: 35,000 eggs and about 30,000 people, John. President Trump is going to make his first public appearance a few hours from now here at the White House since that remarkable rescue of an F-15 crew member in Iran over the weekend. So, we'll have to see if he stops to take some questions from reporters in between presiding over these egg races.

But this is a 146-year-old tradition. It has withstood multiple World Wars, multiple pandemics this year, once more showing its durability. The American Egg Board has provided about 35,000 eggs for rolling, decorating, hunting, and eating. This takes a team of volunteers and farmers about six days to hard boil and hand dye.

And for the second year in a row, the White House is doing high dollar corporate sponsorship. So, we should expect to see YouTube's bunny hop stage, the Waymo coloring road trip among other activities to explore here.

But I want to take you through a brief history of how this came to be. The tradition of egg rolling actually started at the Capitol in the 1870s, but it was very messy, very smelly, and President Grant signed legislation prohibiting it. Then in the Hayes administration in 1878, the president brought it to the White House. The tradition continues today. Back in 1921, First Lady Florence Harding dyed the eggs herself. In 1927, First Lady Grace Coolidge brought her pet, Rebecca the Raccoon, here to the White House on a rhinestone collar. Rebecca was not very pleased with the crowd and went back inside.

The Trumps oversaw a return to White House basics after they had become quite star-studded during the Obama administration, where we saw Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, among the other performers, and then there was a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But today, this remains a tradition, one of the only times where the American public can come here to White House grounds with tickets to celebrate Easter and enjoy this season. John?

BERMAN: That was an education. I wasn't joking. What I said you're the chief Easter egg correspondent. You know a ton of stuff about it. I was reading because I felt like I had to know what I was talking about to talk to you that the raccoon, Rebecca the Raccoon, was actually sent to the Coolidges at the White House to be eaten on Thanksgiving, but they decided not to eat the raccoon, which I think was a good choice, and they kept it around, and then it started at the Easter Egg Roll. So, you know, that's a long history for one raccoon.

KLEIN: She's a star.

BERMAN: As are you. Betsy Klein at the White House for the Easter Egg Roll, thank you very much for all of that.

SIDNER: Proving once again raccoons can be pets.

BERMAN: Yes, and better not to eat.

SIDNER: I'd say so too.

All right, breaking overnight gas prices, hitting $4.12 a gallon the highest since August, 2022. But will a move by OPEC have any effect on prices?

Plus, UCLA getting its first ever NCAA women's basketball title. Now the men's title is on the line. We're live in Indianapolis to review the final, final.

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BOLDUAN: So, this morning, oil prices have fallen slightly, trading relatively flat now following President Trump's latest threat, an ultimatum leveled to Iran, threatening to take out Iran's power plants and bridges if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz, as the president says, immediately.

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And in the midst of this growing energy supply crisis, this weekend, eight OPEC-Plus nations announced a new agreement to.