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Iran Admits to Unintentionally Shooting Down Ukrainian Plane; U.S. Announces New Sanctions against Iran; Trump Now Claims Soleimani Targeted Four U.S. Embassies without Evidence or Explanation of Imminent Threat; NSW South Coast Welcomes Back Tourists after Bushfire Shutdown. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired January 11, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): 5:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia. And this is the story we've been following out of Iran. Iran now admitting it shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane by mistake.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, I'm Natalie Allen.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm George Howell.

Breaking news we're following this day, Iran initially having denied shot the plane down, the leader now saying a missile fired by mistake brought down the passenger jet, that plane on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board.

ALLEN: The United States, Canada and other countries had already reached that conclusion. The plane crashed just a few hours after Iran launched missiles at military bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops.

HOWELL: Also, we want to show you dramatic new video. It shows the moment that the plane hit the ground. We warn you before you see the video. It is graphic. Some may find this disturbing.

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ALLEN (voice-over): It was taken from a surveillance camera on a building not far from Tehran's international airport. There's the bright light and the fire, everything goes white as the plane hits the ground and explodes. You can see the flaming debris. Hundreds of pieces of the plane strewn across the area.

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ALLEN: CNN is covering this major development with our teams throughout the region and beyond. Fred Pleitgen is live this hour in Tehran with more on what the Iranian government is saying. HOWELL: Our Ben Wedeman standing by in Beirut with a look at how new

sanctions against Iran could play out in the region where U.S. faces demands to withdraw troops following the military leader Qasem Soleimani. Let's start in Tehran with our Fred Pleitgen.

Fred, give us a sense of what you're searing with officials.

What more are they saying, now that they're doing a 180 on this?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're hearing a lot from Iranian government officials, political leaders, religious leaders and military leaders as well.

Actually as we speak right now, we're waiting for a press conference from the head of Iran's aerospace defense forces. That is the unit in charge of the surface-to-air missiles so we'll give you an update after that.

But we're hearing from the Iranian president, the foreign minister, the supreme leader as well. Apparently the supreme leader was informed about this incident. That's according to Iranian state media yesterday.

He then called in a meeting of the Security Council. He was informed of this accidental shooting down of the aircraft. In that meeting, apparently -- I'm paraphrasing a statement by them -- the principal of the incident, he said, and the result of the investigation will be told to the people honestly and frankly.

Now we're having Iranian officials come out and actually give quite a bit of information on what exactly happened, at least according to their account. They say this obviously happened during a phase of heightened tension after the Iranian strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces.

They say they had a bunch of radar activity on their screens, obviously fearing that the U.S. might strike back and, in all of that, they say they mistakenly shot down that plane, mistaking it for possibly being an adversarial plane that could be dangerous to one of their military sites.

The Iranians say they're going to launch a full-on investigation. They claim they're going to hold those culpable, they're going to hold them accountable. They say there's possibly even a military court taking place.

Iran's president has come out and was highly critical of the shooting of the plane. He called it an unjustified mistake. He issued apologies to the Iranian nation and so did the Iranian foreign minister and, of course, to the countries that had the other passengers on that plane, where they came from.

Of course, many of them are dual Iranian citizens. So this is a big tragedy for this country as well as the other countries. But many Iranians, of course, perished on that plane. And that's certainly something that hurts a lot of people here a great deal. You can really feel the city in mourning.

A few hours from now, three or four hours from now, there's going to be a candlelight vigil all around Tehran for the victims of the shooting down of this aircraft, mistakenly, the Iranians, say, by their military -- George.

HOWELL: Fred, the initial denial, why the denial, some are asking?

Why the denial?

And now, we understand, this about-face?

PLEITGEN: It's very difficult to say why these denials took place. Whether or not there was any malice involved is really unclear. Part of it could stem from possible miscommunication between the military and civilian authorities.

The denials we were hearing came from the civilian authorities, including the head of the civil aviation authority. In fact, we spoke to them several times.

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PLEITGEN: The denials, you wouldn't imagine it would have been a missile that took that plane down. He believed that the debris field would be a lot larger than it was.

Then when you hear the supreme leader's statement from today, that he was informed by the military yesterday about what happened and then immediately ordered that this be made public or at least that there be as much transparency as possible, it almost seems as though -- and this is just me trying to connect the dots here, I have to say-- it almost seems as though there was this official investigation going on.

And parallel to that it seems that the military conducted its own internal investigation until it came to the result. I'm not sure how much communication there actually was between the civilian investigation going on, which, of course, the Ukrainians are also a part of and Iran's military investigation.

It's not clear why these denials were issued for such an extended period of time, rather than leaving it open what happened to the plane when authorities didn't know exactly what brought the plane down -- George.

HOWELL: Our Fred Pleitgen live in Tehran. On the story, Fred, thank you.

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ALLEN: From Perth, Australia, joining me now, Geoffrey Thomas, the editor in chief and managing director at airlineratings.com.

I want to start with the question that our reporter just asked.

Geoffrey, why would a commercial airliner be operating during this time?

GEOFFREY THOMAS, AIRLINERATINGS.COM: That is a very good question. And right to the point here, one hour earlier than this tragic shoot down, Turkish Airlines flight TK-873 took off from the same airport en route to Istanbul. And it took exactly the same flight path as the Ukrainian plane.

Now there are other aircraft as well that took off, Iran aircraft and a Qatari aircraft took off as well. And so planes were taking off up to an hour, an hour and a half, before this Ukrainian aircraft took off. So clearly the authorities thought that it was safe and all these planes took off safely.

All of a sudden, this Ukraine aircraft takes off, as exactly what the other aircraft had done, but it gets shot down. So you know, to sort of say it was an accident doesn't really ring true because other aircraft had been operating in exactly the same manner as this aircraft had in the previous hour.

ALLEN: And issuing a statement that perhaps the transponders would have been off if it was a military plane that they had been confused with. So that doesn't make sense. And they just said that their air defense systems are very accurate, so, yes, questions about how this would happen.

Go ahead.

THOMAS: And the transponder was on, because flight radar 24 picked it up. And was tracking it until it was blown out of the sky at 8,000 feet. So if they are suggesting that the transponder was turned off on this aircraft, again, that is wrong as well.

ALLEN: I misspoke. I meant to say if it was an incoming military plane, that would mean that their transponders were turned off.

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THOMPSON: -- if it was a threat, that aircraft would probably be below radar. So it doesn't ring true, no matter which way you slice and dice it.

ALLEN: So they finally have come clean and said, yes, this is what happened. So that is something else that they will have to deal with.

What do you think, as far as in situations like this, is it typical that commercial airliners are -- well, that countries stop their commercial flights?

THOMAS: That is a very good point. It seems almost bizarre that any airplane was allowed to take off after that missile strike on the Iraqi bases because one would naturally assume that you would have incoming missiles targeting Iranian defense installations, which are around Tehran airport.

So why the authorities allowed airport to fly is perplexing. It doesn't -- again, it doesn't ring correctly. And then the other thing about this is that the FAA and the United

States has banned U.S. airlines from flying over Iraqi and Iranian airspace.

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THOMAS: And one would presume other countries would follow suit.

But in actual fact, they haven't. There are a lot of airplanes flying over Iraqi airspace right now and there is a lot of airplanes flying over Iranian airspace right now. So it really is perplexing how airlines deal with these issues and how authorities are dealing with these issues, because there is obviously a clear and present danger to passengers.

ALLEN: Yes, certainly is, thanks for bringing that up. Questions that we continue to explore. Thanks so much, Geoffrey Thomas from Perth, Australia, we always appreciate your insights.

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HOWELL: The Trump administration has announced new sanctions on Iran. This as Tehran admits to downing a Ukrainian passenger plane.

ALLEN: We'll have more about it, when we come back.

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ALLEN: Breaking news; Iran now admitting that a Ukrainian passenger plane was targeted and shot down unintentionally on Wednesday. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani says in a tweet, he deeply regrets the disastrous mistake and vows to prosecute those responsible for downing the plane.

HOWELL: That crash killed 176 people on board the flight. Iran isn't taking all responsibility; the armed forces HQ blames increased radar activity and fear of aggression for the mistake.

Let's talk about more live in the region with Sam Kiley in Baghdad, Iraq.

Sam, Iraq is caught in the balance of this thing. And there's a blame game going back and forth on what happened with the plane, this indirect downing of the plane, mistaken downing of the plane.

How does that play into the broader tension?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, really, George, it's sort of tragically symbolic of the dangers, of the casualties that will follow from any escalation in this region to innocent lives. In this case, it was an accidental downing of a jet. And in other

cases, it will be this term, collateral damage, civilian casualties that have flowed in tens of hundreds of thousands in the region since the U.S.-led invasion back in 2003. In that context, of course, we've had this tit-for-tat exchange.

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KILEY: The United States killing Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force of the IRGC, with retaliation from Iran, mercifully not causing any casualties, either civilian or military in attacks on U.S. bases.

But in that context, during these heightened periods, this kind of an accident has occurred. Now what is the problem here in Iraq, over the next couple of weeks, is the Iranian-backed militias, the hardcore militias and the government say now is the time for U.S. to retire from these bases on Iraqi soil.

Other groups, Sunnis, moderate Shias and of course, all the Kurds say, no, we want the Americans to stay because the fight against the Islamic State is not over. But the Shia militia is saying it's a matter of perhaps less than weeks before they start using violence against the United States forces in order to force them out.

The government here, prime minister saying, in a phone call with Mike Pompeo, U.S. secretary of state, that he's asked Americans to begin discussions on withdrawal from Iraq.

That is not how Mr. Pompeo said he would characterize the phone call. But nonetheless, it is clear that is the focus of diplomatic engagement between the U.S. and Iraq because the danger is it could become a literal military engagement on the ground. And again, inevitably, there will be tragic civilian casualties if that were to occur as well.

HOWELL: Sam, in the background of all of this, the concern about a resurgent ISIS. Tell us more about where that stands and if the U.S. were, you know, to leave, if the U.S. presence were to change there.

How would that play into this?

KILEY: Well, the U.S. contribution here -- and they're not alone; there are British and German and other troops but the overwhelming majority of them are American -- are in a training capacity. And they have been throughout the campaign against the so-called Islamic State on the ground.

In the air, though, it's the U.S.-led coalition that's been absolutely critical in destroying the capability of the so-called Islamic State to hold ground, to establish and then to hold its caliphate.

That is now over, the ideology. And part that is, sustaining the attacks on the Iraqi troops just a couple of days ago, two Iraqi soldiers were killed here by the Islamic State, that's a roiling environment there on the frontier between Iraq proper and the Kurdish control of the country.

Particularly, the Sunni population don't want to see the back of U.S. troops, because it would open up an opportunity for the Islamic State to return.

And in fact if the Shia, it would be open season on foreign troops and the concern is for ISIS as well. That is a chaotic security situation that these militant groups would inevitably seek to exploit and keep or return the levels of bloodshed to the catastrophic levels that we saw a few years ago -- George.

HOWELL: And the reporting and context from Sam Kiley, live in Baghdad, Iraq. Thank you for your report.

ALLEN: Here's another angle to the story. The Trump administration announcing new economic sanctions on Friday against Iran. For more on this CNN foreign international correspondent Ben Wedeman is live in Beirut.

How might these sanctions, Ben, affect Iran?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, it's difficult at this point to say how they would affect Iran, given that the United States has imposed a series of ever more draconian sanctions on Iran.

This latest round includes the metallurgy and textile sectors, as well as eight senior military and security officials.

But for quite some time now, most analysts say that Iran is sanctioned out. There's not much left that can be affected by these U.S. measures.

This is part of the maximum pressure policy of the Trump administration, which has been really the -- par for the course for U.S. policy towards Iran, now since May of 2018, when President Trump announced that the U.S. was going to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.

The problem is, as the sanctions go ahead, the Iranian economy is ever more crippled, which puts Iran in a corner.

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WEDEMAN: So it's difficult to say how this latest level of sanctions is going to do anything more than simply increase the heat, when it comes to relations between Washington and Tehran -- Natalie.

ALLEN: If it can get any more heated, yes, it probably can.

Well, let's pivot to a new story that broke overnight, the death of the sultan of Oman. He was so important in the region, Ben, and also in dealing with Iran.

WEDEMAN: Yes, the sultan was in power in Oman since 1970. And what was remarkable about Oman was that it somehow managed to steer clear of the proxy wars that are ripping the Middle East apart.

He maintained very warm relations with Iran and with the United States. And he was critical in mediating between the two when it came to the Iran nuclear deal, which is sort of the mediation began in 2013, and resulted in the 2006 Iran nuclear deal, which, of course, is now in tatters.

But certainly, Oman managed to steer this middle course with very low- key diplomacy, bringing together all sorts of enemies to the very recently and, therefore, the passing of Sultan Qaboos does remove a man who played a critical role in trying to lessen the possibility of the war in the region.

Now his successor has already been named. It's his cousin, a man, he was the minister of culture. He also had a position in the foreign ministry. Perhaps he will continue this middle road followed by Oman over the years -- Natalie.

ALLEN: We'll see, thank you so much. Ben Wedeman for us. Thanks, Ben.

HOWELL: Let's get some context now with Joost Hiltermann, the Middle East and North Africa program director at The Crisis Group, joining from us Brussels, Belgium.

It's good to have you with us.

JOOST HILTERMANN, THE CRISIS GROUP: Thank you.

HOWELL: First, I'd like to get back to the breaking news we're following. Iran now doing a 180 on this plane that was shot down by the Russian-made missile.

The question here, why the 180, do you figure?

And why the denial from the start?

HILTERMANN: Well, I don't know when exactly the Iranians realized -- or the Iranian leadership realized that it was their side that had caused this. But they certainly needed some time to figure it out and to figure out among themselves who was going to take the fall for this.

And in the end, the top leadership decided that it was inescapable, that they had to take responsibility for this. But the Western pressure, immediately, the Western intelligence agencies saying it was your own missile that may have pushed them on the defensive.

And it was the Ukrainians who said we'll send a team to investigate; let's not jump to conclusions. That may have helped Iran to actually take this course and now to take the blame for it.

HOWELL: This speaks to the broader conflict between United States and Iran. This particular incident, an indirect incident, nonetheless, is being pulled into the blame game. Both sides blaming each other for the heightened tensions.

The question is, where do you see that broader conflict going from this particular point?

HILTERMANN: Well, I think for the Iranians, this is a serious setback because, after they fired the missiles at the Iraqi air bases where the U.S. troops were collocated, a couple days ago, you know, it wasn't clear this would be the last step they would take.

In fact, it was pretty clear that there would be further ones but maybe down the road at a more suitable time and maybe not as overtly as these attacks were.

Now they need to think twice because this clearly has internal repercussions; people widely mourned the passing of general Soleimani. But they don't necessarily support the regime and everything it does.

And when they make a mistake like this, a blunder, the regime have to be how it plays in the local scene, especially in light of the protests that we've seen earlier, you know, in the last couple of months.

HOWELL: So there's the 180 that we're covering with Iran. And then there are the questions here in the United States about the word "imminent." We've heard the secretary of state Mike Pompeo say that there was an imminent threat.

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HOWELL: We've heard that from U.S. president Donald Trump, even suggesting there were several targets that could have been in play here. But no direct evidence to back this up, just the word of these politicians.

HILTERMANN: Yes, that's just what it is. And everybody outside the United States, I think, is skeptical in the extreme that this was -- and maybe many in the United States, too -- that this was a true story and there in fact there was an imminent attack.

I mean, General Soleimani played many roles in the Iranian establishment. He was not a rogue military guy, terrorist, this or that, whatever you call him. He had serious military and diplomatic responsibilities, which he was carrying out.

So, you know, it's possible that another attack was being planned. But it's also possible that, in fact, he was trying to negotiate a better solution for the Iraqi situation, which was very difficult for the Iranians.

So you know, there's all kinds of speculation. But this is the problem. In the heat of war, when everything is, you know, at a trigger level, these guys -- accidents happen and people, military action is undertaken against people, when in fact, you know, they may not even be justified by what is in reality going on the ground.

HOWELL: We appreciate you taking time.

HILTERMANN: But they escalate it.

HOWELL: Go ahead, please.

HILTERMANN: No, I said, and that raises the risk of escalation that is inadvertent and this is what we --

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HOWELL: Heightened tensions in that region, for sure, on a hair trigger with what can come next. Joost Hiltermann, we appreciate your time, thank you.

HILTERMANN: Thank you very much.

ALLEN: Next here, we get the view from Tehran. We'll go there live to talk with our Fred Pleitgen. Stay with us.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

HOWELL: We are following the breaking news for our viewers in the United States and around the world. Iran now admitting to shooting down the Ukrainian passenger plane unintentionally. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN: And I'm Natalie Allen.

The admission comes after Iran initially had denied it shot the plane down. CNN international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is live this hour in Tehran.

Fred, what is the latest on what Iran is saying about this?

PLEITGEN: Hi, Natalie, well, we do have some new information for you. There was just a press conference, either still going on or just ended, about the head of Iran's aerospace defense forces, a member of the Revolutionary Guard, a high member of the Revolutionary Guard.

And the Revolutionary Guard says it takes full responsibility for the downing of that airliner. They did offer new information; remember, we've been saying throughout the morning that the Iranians were in a heightened state of alert because they had just conducted the strikes on military bases that house U.S. troops.

And they feared there could be a counterattack by the United States. They say their entire air defense systems were on a high state of alert, a wartime footing, fearing attacks were going on.

They say they had information that there might be cruise missiles on their way to Iran. And apparently, the operator of this surface-to-air missile system mistook the plane that was flying for a cruise missile that may have been coming in and shot the plane down. We're still translating that information, we're getting a lot more of that as we go on.

But that's the latest that we're getting from the Iranians right now. Of course, they've also been saying there have been apologies issued by the Iranian leadership and by the foreign minister of this country.

The president of the country, Hassan Rouhani calling this an unjustifiable mistake. Iranians say there is going to be justice. There might be a military court, they certainly are going to hold those, erroneously, they say, shot down the plane, they're going to hold them accountable.

The supreme leader has said he wants transparency in all that and a full investigation. And the Iranians are also saying, Natalie, that they are definitely going to look at their procedures for surface-to- air defense systems, going to refine those systems, to make sure an incident like this does not happen again like this -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes, time like these when mistakes do happen. And a lot of questions about why they were continuing their civilian flights there at the airport during this time. Thanks so much, Fred. We appreciate it.

Over to George.

HOWELL: Getting new details from Iran and now let's go to Kiev, Ukraine, where CNN's Scott McLean is standing by for what is a news conference that is expected to start.

Scott, tell us what we're expected to hear there.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, George, the press conference starts in less than 30 minutes it will be with the CEO of Ukraine International Airlines. He's been on the job for five, six months or so.

So, now, he is dealing with the first fatal crash in this company's history. The airline held a press conference on Wednesday after the news first came out. But they have said precious little since then. They haven't returned calls or made comments.

There are plenty asking questions about why this aircraft was allowed to take off in the first place, given the tensions between Iran and United States at the time and missile strikes in Iraq on U.S. targets just hours before.

When he was asked about that on Wednesday or when the airline was asked about that on Wednesday, they said, look there was no indication of danger. If they knew there was even a shred of a possibility that something would have happened, they would have kept that plane on ground.

The foreign minister yesterday, when he was asked, gave a very similar answer, saying they've analyzed the flight path. That airplane was in the corridor where it was supposed to be, where other planes had gone previously. And again, there were no indications of danger. But just given the

tensions, it will be interesting to hear the decision-making, now that we know for certain that this was, in fact, the missile, as to whether or not there will be procedures changing in the future or what exactly the decision-making process of this airline is.

Now here in Ukraine, George, there's been plenty of reaction to this. It may not come as a surprise to Ukrainian officials, though, that this plane has been shot down.

We know that yesterday the foreign minister told CNN that they had gotten some intelligence and information from the Americans and the British, that they said was very solid, that seemed to indicate this missile strike. It may not come as a surprise to many of the families and friends that we've been speaking to of the flight crew who was on board.

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MCLEAN: They could not say enough about the professionalism of the crew and the vast experience. So, at least in their mind, there was no chance this could have been pilot error or some kind of a technical error.

President Zelensky will have a call with Iranian president Rouhani. He's insisting on an official apology and also insisting on compensation paid to the victims of this crash -- George.

HOWELL: Scott McLean live in Ukraine, where a news conference is set to start. We'll stay in touch, Scott.

ALLEN: Also, in the shifting stories over what led to the killing of Iran's second most powerful official, we take a closer look at the Trump administration's inconsistencies in the death of Qasem Soleimani. That's next.

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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So if you are looking for imminence, you need to look no further than the days that led up to the strike that was taken against Qasem Soleimani.

It was imminent. This was an intelligence based assessment.

There is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks that were being plotted by Qasem Soleimani.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Secretary Pompeo, what is your definition of imminent?

POMPEO: This was going to happen.

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HOWELL: That is the question; according to the U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo, it was an imminent threat to justify the killing of Qasem Soleimani.

ALLEN: It comes as Iran has been admitting, as we've been saying, it shot down the passenger plane unintentionally, killing all 176 on board. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said it was human error and has vowed to prosecute those responsible, calling it a terrible mistake.

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ALLEN: However, the foreign minister is also blaming U.S. adventurism. The Trump administration keeps switching its story on why it killed Soleimani. CNN's Jim Acosta looks into that.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Still in search of a justification for taking out Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, President Trump now says Iran was plotting to attack multiple U.S. embassies.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies.

ACOSTA: That's more than what the president said one day earlier.

TRUMP: We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy.

ACOSTA: And that capped a week of mounting consistencies, as top officials insisted that an attack was imminent, even though they couldn't specify the time and place.

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks that were being plotted by Qasem Soleimani. We don't know precisely when and we don't know precisely where, but it was real time.

QUESTION: But time and place?

ROBERT O'BRIEN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It was imminent. You never know the time of place of these things with perfect particularity.

ACOSTA: In the rarely used White House Briefing Room, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tried to do some cleanup.

POMPEO: We had specific information on an imminent threat. And that threat stream included attacks on U.S. embassies, period, full stop.

QUESTION: So you were mistaken when you said you didn't know precisely when and you didn't know precisely where? POMPEO: No, completely true. Those are completely consistent thoughts.

ACOSTA: Pompeo claimed lawmakers were briefed on the allegations of an imminent Iranian threat. POMPEO: We did.

QUESTION: You said -- so the senators are lying when they say that...

(CROSSTALK)

POMPEO: We told them about the imminent threat. All of the intelligence that we briefed, that you have heard today, I assure you, in an unclassified setting, we provide in the classified setting as well.

ACOSTA: But Democrats say it's all news to them.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not one word of that was mentioned. So is it true? I don't know. But we didn't hear it.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): I have no idea where he got that from, but that's par for the course for this president.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Consistently, in the multiple briefings, I have received on this, they have not shown imminence.

ACOSTA: The president touted the killing of Soleimani at a rally in Ohio, where he said there was no way he was going to brief House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the strike.

TRUMP: We got a call. We heard where he was. We knew the way he was getting there. And we had to make a decision. We didn't have time to call up Nancy, who is not operating with a full deck.

ACOSTA: The inconsistencies could become a major headache for Mr. Trump, who once told CNN Wolf Blitzer former President George W. Bush should have been impeached for lying about the war in Iraq.

TRUMP: Bush got us into this horrible war with lies, by lying, by saying they had weapons of mass destruction, by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true.

ACOSTA: As for the Iranian threat, the Trump administration is still revealing new details, with one U.S. official confirming to CNN that, on the same night of the Soleimani strike, American forces targeted a separate Iranian military official in Yemen.

But that mission was unsuccessful. And there is one another problem for the White House, as the Iraqi prime minister is requesting a timeline for an American withdrawal from the country.

POMPEO: We are happy to continue the conversation with the Iraqis about what the right structure is. Our mission set there is very clear. We have been there to perform a training mission to help the Iraqi security forces be successful and to continue the campaign against ISIS. ACOSTA: The Trump administration announced new sanctions on Iran, aimed at further punishing that country's economy, and senior Iranian officials. The White House hopes the new sanctions will somehow prod Iran to get back to the bargaining table over its nuclear program.

But it's hard to imagine that happening, as Iran appears to have closed the door on sitting down with the Trump administration to talk about much of anything -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

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ALLEN: Well, let's talk more about this story with Inderjeet Parmar, a professor at City University and visiting London School of Economics, joining us from the London studios.

Good morning to you, Inderjeet.

INDERJEET PARMAR, CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Good morning, Natalie.

ALLEN: Let's talk about this shifting story and the meaning of imminent when it comes to the killing of Soleimani. Their reasons have changed.

What do you make of it?

PARMAR: Well, I think the issue of imminence is very, very important in international law. Any state is only allowed, under international law, to launch a military attack on another state, where its assets, if there's an imminent threat to its own assets or forces or people.

And that's why I think the issue of imminence is so important. The problem is that imminence has to be proven as well. And as a result of its being difficult to prove, Iraq has gone to the U.N. Security Council, the secretary-general, to make a complaint about this particular actor and the killing, which is illegal, of General Soleimani.

[05:45:00]

ALLEN: That's an interesting angle that we'll continue to explore there. And then there were the lawmakers, who say they were not briefed. Mike Pompeo says they were. No clarity there.

But what if they were not?

PARMAR: Well, the key issue here is that, normally, under the War Powers Act, if you like, at least the resolution way back from the 1970s, the Congress is supposed to be informed, they're supposed to be consulted. And there should be some decision-making which is shared, at least, between the president and the Congress.

This clearly did not occur. You have cited some Democrats, who said they had not really told any details. Senator Rand Paul said effectively the same thing. He said we were told about certain things but we could have picked those up from the newspapers ourselves. So I don't think any real detail was provided. What this to me

suggests, contrary to the chaos theory about President Trump and the decision-making is actually there was kind of a wider set of attacks going on, which were by Yemen, as you said in your report, but also by Israel on the Popular Mobilization Forces to follow the Iraq army linked with the Iranian forces as well and so on.

So I think there's more than imminence going on here. This is kind of a general military campaign by the U.S. and at least one ally to weaken Iranian positions. So I think imminence was needed as a device to say we were within the international law. But I think it's also something which they have failed to prove adequately.

ALLEN: Let's pivot to impeachment because Nancy Pelosi now says the wait is over. She will bring articles of impeachment to the floor next week and that would start the Senate trial.

What do you make of her decision now?

PARMAR: Well, I think in the end, there are two things; one was, you delay in order to basically try to find out exactly what the rules of the game, in terms of the trial, were going to.

Second was to try to wait for further information to be leaked from within the White House. And the hope was that it would be leaked -- it was -- and there would be impact on public opinion.

Now nationally speaking, not much of a shift in public opinion has occurred in regard to witnesses to be called. And documents which had been previously withheld by the White House, to be released.

But as I understand it, when morning consults (ph), recent poll, in six battleground states, there's a two-thirds majority of voters saying they want witnesses to come forward, to be called in the Senate trial. And they want those documents, which are withheld by the White House, to be released to the Senate.

I think that's what Nancy Pelosi was effectively waiting for, to try to weaken the Senate's political position and to try to negatively message against it in public opinion and hope there will be some sort of a result on that front.

ALLEN: She certainly has shown her expertise as a technician, has she not. We'll wait to see what happens. Inderjeet Parmar, thank you always. We appreciate your insights.

PARMAR: Thank you very much.

HOWELL: We continue to follow the breaking news out of Tehran. Iran's military saying they shot down a passenger plane by mistake.

Plus, Australia is getting a rare reprieve after months of fires. But danger still remains. Derek Van Dam will have the latest on that for us.

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[05:50:00]

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HOWELL: In Australia, officials have reopened several beaches and tourist areas in New South Wales as bush fires ease.

ALLEN: Cooler temperatures and some rainfall are giving firefighters a chance to get the upper hand on the massive fires.

HOWELL: The firefighters in New South Wales are still fighting 136 of the fires, dozens of them are uncontained and citizens are warned they are still at risk.

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[05:55:00]

ALLEN: We want to emphasize our top story yet again, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani apologizing for what he calls a disastrous mistake. An armed forces investigation has concluded that missiles fired unintentionally brought down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 on board.

HOWELL: Iran's president Hassan Rouhani is vowing to prosecute those responsible. The crash came just a few hours after Iran launched a barrage of missiles in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed.

ALLEN: Thank you for joining us these past three hours. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. Breaking coverage continues here on CNN with "NEW DAY" next.

ALLEN: See you later.