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Israel Has Carried Out A Strike Inside Iran; U.S. and U.K. Impose Fresh Iran Sanctions In Wake Of Israel Attack; Iran State Media: Air Defense Fired at a Suspicious Object; U.S. Official: Israel Strikes Iran, Target Not Nuclear. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired April 19, 2024 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:27]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And I Michael Holmes in Atlanta.

SCIUITTO: We are following breaking news this hour U.S. official confirms to CNN that Israel has carried out a military strike inside Iran. The country's semi-official FARS News reports three explosions near an army base in the province of Isfahan and an Iranian cyberspace official says its air defenses successfully shut down three drones.

The country has now reopened its airspace after suspending flights to and from major cities. Israel has been vowing to retaliate since Iran launched that barrage of drones and missiles against Israel this past weekend.

Live now to Jerusalem, and CNN's Nic Robertson. Nic, we find ourselves caught in something of an escalation back and forth between each of the countries here and unprecedented Iranian attack on Israeli territory and now an Israeli attack on Iranian territory.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DEPLOMATIC EDITOR: Indeed, and it appears at this early stage that it was a limited action by Israel into Iran overnight. And we don't really have the full scope of it. We haven't heard in detail from Israeli officials about what they believe was comprised of in the attack.

What we understand from the Iranians is that they switched on their air defenses in the early hours of the morning, because they had some suspicious activity. They also shut down their airspace, shut down their main airport in Tehran and Isfahan, unsure as major cities and put a no fly zone in effect, essentially, in the whole of the West of the country, which is the direction of course, that is really fighter jets would come in if they were flying from Israel towards Iran.

But we've heard from the Iranian saying that actually, no aircraft came into their airspace, and what they're reporting about what happened around Isfahan, that there were three drones in that area.

That at one point, the reports were that one of them had come down near an army base, or perhaps blown out some windows of some offices, there were reports that it could have been a radar base. But Iranian state media is now characterizing this, the sounds of explosions that people reported that they've heard as actually the air defense systems firing off at suspicious objects.

So the Iranian state media is playing this as not the sound of drones, or missiles impacting exploding, but actually their defense systems. And there were similar reports in at least one other town in Iran and local media, in Iran at the moment have been characterizing these drones that the Iranian state media we're talking about as little quad copters.

So really playing them down and minimizing what may or may not have happened. Again, we don't have independent verification on this of what happened on the ground. We haven't seen satellite imagery of what happened on the ground, and we don't have Israel's version of what they believe happened in Iran overnight.

I have, however, talked with a regional intelligence source, who tells me his first reading and his understanding of the situation right now, is that this tit for tat is over that this is small, and that therefore, we're unlikely to see an Iranian response.

Of course, situation may change, that could all change but that's the early read. And it does seem to comport with a picture that's being painted by Iranian media.

SCIUTTO: We did have the Iranian foreign minister on CNN last evening, promising an Iranian response to an Israeli attack on Iran. So I suppose we'll see in the coming hours and days. Nic, are Israeli officials commenting at all on what their intention was with this strike?

ROBERTSON: So far no. We know that they were under a lot of pressure from the White House to keep a narrow scale and a narrow for because not to escalate tensions in the region.

[01:05:02]

If we are what we understand has happened is an accurate reflection of what has happened, then it does appear that they have compared to the type of strain that Israel could have put on Iran. This was a much smaller, much smaller version of what could have happened, particularly when you compare to the massive onslaught of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones. 350 of them were that were fired at Israel by Iran over the weekend, it disappears. So in a way smaller response specific details not forthcoming yet. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, of course, I suppose one person's limited strike could be another provocation. CNN's Nic Robertson, in Jerusalem. Thanks so much.

Joining us now from Washington, Alex Marquardt. Alex, I wonder how U.S. officials are describing this if they also describe it as limited? I imagine there's no official comment on that. But But what are US officials telling you?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, and we should also raise the possibility that this is not the end of it that Israel could can certainly do more in the coming days. But Jim, you're absolutely right. I mean, they're being extremely tight lipped. We haven't heard anything public from anybody administration official, or the IDF for that matter.

So, I spoke with a U.S. official earlier this evening, who did confirm that this was the Israeli response to that Iranian unprecedented historic attack last weekend with more than 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles.

A second senior U.S. official told me that this was actually warned to the Biden administration earlier today. There were two sets Jim of high level conversations on Thursday. One was between the two countries defense ministers Yaov Gallant and Lloyd Austin. The second was actually ostensibly about a conversation about Rafah with the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan and senior Israeli officials.

So, in those -- in that communication to the Biden ministration, they were told that there was an attack coming, and that it could happen in the coming days. And it came really quite quickly.

The other thing, Jim, that we'd been told throughout the course of the week in anticipation of this attack tonight is that it would be limited in scope. One official telling CNN, that it could look something like a visible kinetic attack against a military target, which is what appears to have happened.

And in trying to figure out what happened tonight, when you hear that this was -- that this took place around the city of Isfahan, one of the biggest cities in Ira, in in central western Iran. There is a major nuclear facility there.

And so one of the big questions we had was, was that nuclear facility targeted, of course, Israel has long accused Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon that it could use against Israel.

And I was told by a U.S. official that the nuclear facility was not the target. In fact, in leading up to tonight's strike, the U.S. had been given assurances that limited scope did not include nuclear or civilian targets.

So Jim, it is clear to me in speaking with U.S. officials, they are not necessarily happy with what Israel ended up doing tonight. One official telling me, we did not green light this, we did not endorse this. But clearly Israel felt the need to try to reestablish deterrence go after Iran again, for that attack last weekend.

And very interesting what Nic was just saying there about Iran downplaying what happened tonight, perhaps that's Iran looking for a way out and not having to retaliate. Because, as you were just saying, we heard from the foreign minister right here on CNN just a couple hours ago talking about an immediate and maximum response to Israel, if they decided to attack and now they have. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And of course, now Iran has its own decision to make. Alex Marquardt in Washington. Thanks so much.

Joining me now from Los Angeles is retired U.S. Army Major General Mark, MacCarley. And Mark, in the military, you study these situations where you have rounds of escalation, one side fires at one. If we look at this latest round, that was the Israeli attack inside Damascus that killed a number of Iranian officials. Iran responded with an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory and now we have an Israeli attack on Iranian territory.

What, I mean, how do you get out of that cycle? Right. Is the first question. If you're in the Situation Room right now, what advice are you giving to us leaders as they communicate then to their Israeli counterparts?

MAJ. GEN. MARK MACCARLEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I think the most important thing for U.S. leaders to do is to gather sufficient intelligence and information concerning what essentially has happened on the ground as I was listening until you, I said to myself it's not quite time to unbutton my collar and saying that this whole matter is over.

[01:10:06]

Because there is at least, at this moment, a hesitation or a decision made by the Iranians not to counter attack. But I'm not so sure that we should jump to that conclusion instantaneously.

As we all know, the rule of the jungle in that part of the world is, if struck, you strike back, it's all about retaliation in order to show force and to maintain credibility.

So maybe we have breathing space at this particular point in time, we can take advantage of that. But certainly from the Israeli perspective, Israel must maintain its vigilance. And perhaps this thing will dissipate. But I have my doubts.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you a question just from a purely tactical perspective here, if these missiles I mean, Iran right now is saying drones penetrated this deep into Iranian territory. What would that tell you about Iranian missile defenses?

Because there were questions raised about Iranian offensive missile and drone capability, following that attack over the weekend in which 99 percent the vast majority were shot down by a combination, not just of Israeli defenses, but the U.S. participated France, the U.K. as well as Arab partners.

What would this tell you if Israel was able to strike this deal, even in a limited fashion, inside Iranian territory?

MACCARLEY: That just suggests to me that the Iranians do not have the state of the art missile defense air defense systems, that Israel has, in a lot of ways pioneered with our assistance. So if the Iranians are defending with limited batteries of S300from Russia, those appear not to have been effective with respect to this a drone attack.

Assuming we just don't know enough, we don't know the number of legit drones that perhaps were sent over by Israel. Once that information becomes clear, then we'll do sort of a battle damage assessment and a capability assessment. And that will give us and certainly it will give the Israelis a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of the total Iranian air defense system.

SCIUTTO: Is it possible and I suppose I'm asking you to speculate here as a military man, that a limited strike that still penetrates Iranian air defense systems, and notably, in and around Isfahan, which is the location of many of Iran's nuclear sites, though they did not appear to have been struck in this attack, but that the limited strike here that penetrates those air defenses was perhaps part of the message. In other words we can get through.

MACCARLEY: I would absolutely incorporate that statement as true. I think that there was a very deliberate -- deliberate thought process on the part of the Israeli war cabinet. Israeli is had to retaliate, but at the same time, within that retaliation is a message was a message and that is yes, we can get through. Don't do it again. If you do it again, then all heck will break out.

SCIUTTO: I feel like that's a statement we've heard repeatedly in both directions in recent days and weeks. Retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley, thanks so much.

MACCARLEY: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: And we will have more on our breaking news coverage of the Israeli strikes against Iran, and just to had insight from an expert on counterterrorism, Please do stay with us.

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[01:18:22]

HOLMES: All right, let's have a quick recap of the apparent Israeli strikes on Iran. Israel's military refusing to comment hours after Iranian media reported three explosions in the Isfahan province. A U.S. official confirming to CNN that Israel launched attacks but said nuclear facilities were not the target. And Iranian news agency says the explosions happened near an army base where fighter jets are stationed. But the report also says the target could have been a nearby military radar.

Iranian media says the nuclear facilities in the region are quote, completely secure, citing a reliable source.

Now, just a few hours before we started hearing these reports of explosions in Iran, that country's top diplomat warned of a decisive response to any Israeli military actions. Iran's foreign minister delivering that message to members of the United Nations Security Council and in an exclusive interview with CNN's Erin Burnett.

The diplomat describing Saturday's drone and missile strikes on Israel as defensive countermeasures. But he says Iran is capable of much more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSSEIN AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Our response to the Israeli regime was limited and stayed within a minimum of frameworks, whereas we could have given a much harsher response to the Israeli regime.

Following that, we announced that this response is within the framework of legitimate defense according to international laws.

[01:20:07]

We will not continue however, in case the Israeli regime embarks on adventurism again no takes action against the interests of Iran, then next response from us will be immediate. And at a maximum level, it will be decisive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Key seven foreign ministers will be meeting again in the coming hours to discuss the back and forth between Israel and Iran. Already the U.S. and the UK are slapping new sanctions on Tehran, the U.S. targeting Iran's drone program, the U.K. hitting Iran's military leaders and institutions. E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged caution on Israel's part.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEP BORREL, EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: We have to ask you to err for restraint answer to the Iranians attack, we cannot escalate. You cannot go step by step answering every time higher to original war. I don't want to generate but we are on the edge of a war, at regional war in the Middle East, which will be sending shockwaves to the rest of the world and in particular to Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And we're joined now from Tel Aviv by Miri Eisin, the managing director of the International Institute for Counterterrorism and a colonel in the IDF reserves as well.

Nic Robertson has been reporting that, you know, that tensions may even lessen now that points have been made. And it appears initially that Israel strike was indeed measured. What's your read on what we know?

MIRI EISIN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COUNTERTERRORISM: When we look at Israel's alleged response, because in this case, look at the difference. Israel did not say what we have done, the IDF has not given any kind of response. And on Saturday, and at this case in this arena. It was early Sunday morning, Iran at the same time that they openly attacked Israel. They started the same information war that I was just hearing right now from the continuation of the Iranian foreign minister. He just threatened Israel. Did I just hear him say, live on CNN, that

they will do a decisive strike? What does that mean, when Iran says a decisive strike against Israel? In this case, what they're talking about is a kind of strike against an Air Force Base. What Iran did openly was attack in Israeli Air Force Base.

So in that case, I could say if it is us, it is measured. There's a very great importance here to the Additional Information Warfare that's going on. To me that's the main arena.

HOLMES: It as it does appear, Israel has struck targets within Iran, that clearly shows a problem with Iran's air defenses, vulnerability, if you like, is that your reader? Does Israel militarily learn something from this?

EISIN: So Michael, I'm all about words. And I'm going to say Iran vulnerable. Iran is the destabilizing factor throughout the Middle East, all of the region is trying to make sure as I've been reading in all of the headlines not to poke the hornet's nest.

So what are we supposed to be doing? Talking about vulnerable Iraq, Iran --

HOLMES: No I'm talking about their air defenses. Doesn't show that their air defenses are vulnerable? That was the question.

EISEN: All right. So in this case, I would say that Iran wants to be in a war, that is not done on Iranian territory. And if Iran does not know how to defend itself, when it is the one that is exporting all of the different capabilities throughout the Middle East, Iran should look at itself as a country, 90 million strong that is trying to get to nuclear capabilities, they should know how to take care of themselves in the world should know how to isolate them.

HOLMES: One presumes that even if this round of tit for tat stops with this, the actual simmering conflict between Israel and Iran or its proxies will continue. Would you agree with that?

EISIN: I definitely think that we have been at war that's my own take Iran against us for many years. Most of the time, it's something that you would call a covert war as opposed to overt like we saw early Sunday morning.

And in that sense, I think that what we need to be looking at is that Iran and to tweet out what the foreign minister said what the supreme leader says, because when they say decisive, the supreme leader calls Israel, the cancerous tumor of the world.

And if that's what they're saying about Israel, and they talk about decisive, we all should take no, Iran is the destabilizer. It is a regime that everybody should be isolating as the world is trying to do right now.

[01:25:00]

HOLMES: Israel is, of course, continuing to fight in Rafah in Gaza. It is preparing to move into Rafah, it's fighting on its northern border with Hezbollah in Lebanon. And now there's sort of direct involvement with Iran cross border. How difficult is it to fight on so many fronts be spread out like that militarily?

EISIN: No, my I'm sitting right now at my house in Tel Aviv. It's a Friday, which is the early day in Israel. And most people around the world don't understand that here in Tel Aviv. We're not a war zone. But we're all at war. We still have an immense amount of reserve troops that are called up.

On Monday night it's the Passover Seder. That's a very big holiday, Jewish holiday, family holiday. So what we're seeing right now is something that impacts us both domestically and regionally.

And what I want to call clearly is that this is not about Israel against, it's about the difference. Iranian lead in this case, voices that call for our destruction call for our annihilation, and don't believe me, go into their websites into their tweets, their Telegram channels and see what they have to say about Israel right now. We are definitely in a multi front war, and we should not be standing alone about this.

HOLMES: Miri Eisin, appreciate you making the time thanks so much.

EISIN: Thank you that we should all be safe.

HOLMES: While reports of explosions in Iran sent oil prices surging nearly 4 percent. U.S. oil prices climbing above $85 a barrel. You can see now they've come down under that 4 percent that they were earlier, just under 2 percent up for Brent crude. WTI crude up over 2 percennt.

Keep an eye on that as the day progresses.

Meanwhile, the news drove U.S. stock futures lower with the Dow Futures sinking 480 points earlier. Dow Futures currently at and you can see that three quarters or so of a percentage point down the NASDAQ down nearly 1 percent and the S&P futures down just over three quarters of 1 percent. And again, we'll see how that goes when the markets open and we get more clarity on what this attack has actually been this Israeli attack inside Iran.

Meanwhile, still to come on the program, those explosions and possible scenarios as to what could happen next, we'll have a live report from the region.

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[01:32:01]

HOLMES: Welcome back. I'm Michael Holmes in Atlanta.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto in New York.

An update on our breaking news: reports of an Israeli strike inside Iran. Israel is not commenting on that strike at all, as is often the case, but a little while ago Iranian state media said that the sound of a loud explosion could be heard near the city of Isfahan in the central part of the country. They say it was caused by quote, "air defense firing at a suspicious object".

It is unclear at this point what that object was. But an Iranian military official reportedly said there was no damage from the strike.

HOLMES: Now earlier, Iran's FARS news agency said the explosions were heard near an army base in Isfahan Province, where fighter jets are located. That caused flights to be suspended at several Iranian airports. But we're hearing Tehran's two major airports have since reopen.

SCIUTTO: Let's go now to Beirut where CNN's Paula Hancocks is. And Paula, there's been enormous concern in the region about an expansion of the war that's already been going on for some months in Gaza.

We've had these strikes traded between Israel and Iran now. What is the level of fear there now that this apparent Israeli strike retaliation once again against Iran, could lead to something bigger.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Jim, that is the concern, certainly here in Beirut and elsewhere in the region as well.

The fact that this response was expected despite the U.S. and other allies that had helped in the defense of Israel against those last weekend's attacked by Iran, despite the fact they were all asking for this to be put to rest for Israel not to respond to de-escalate the situation, there was an expectation that Israel would not listen to that. That they would go ahead and carry out some kind of strike against Iran.

Now of course, it's difficult to speculate how great the concern should be of a wider regional conflict. Before we know exactly what was targeted, exactly potentially what was hit, we do know that Iranian state media and some of the official state media is appearing to downplay what happened in the early hours of this morning, saying that there is no damage, saying there had not been a ground explosion at this point. But of course there is a concern that this retaliation from Iran could materialize.

[01:34:40]

HANCOCKS: We have heard certainly publicly, very publicly over recent days from the Iranian foreign minister on our air, just a few hours ago from the president saying that if Israel does strike Iranian assets then there would be a greater response than what we saw last weekend against Israel.

Now of course, some of this may be posturing some of this may be a verbal threat even for domestic consumption. But it does raise concerns that there could be some kind of response. And remember that Iran last weekend said it was responding to Israel at the beginning of this month striking a diplomatic compound in Damascus. So that in itself was a retaliation.

And Iran said that they believe the matter was concluded, that it had finished, and they had responded and they were trying to draw a line under it. Israel did not see it that way, given the unprecedented nature of the drone and missile attack and did feel that it had to give some kind of response.

Of course, the question now is was the target of Israel's strike something that Iran can live with? Is it something that Tehran can put to rest now and not feel the need to retaliate.

And of course, it's not just the direct retaliation that we're looking for from Iran. There are many proxies in the region here in Lebanon, of course, Hezbollah, Iranian-backed could carry out further strikes against Israel. We have seen an uptick in those cross-border strikes just this week alone, Jim.

SCIUTTO: And it's been repeated this reading between the two sides of each other's intentions, their limits, et cetera, and that of course is a concern throughout.

Paula Hancocks in Beirut, thanks so much.

Michael, back to you.

HOLMES: All right. Jim, thanks.

Let's get some more analysis on the situation in Iran.

Hasan Alhasan is a senior fellow for Middle East policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He joins me now via Skype from Manama in Bahrain and thanks for doing so.

I guess it was massively significant that Iran took action with its missiles directly at Israeli territory not through proxies. Even if this Israeli attack turns out to be limited in many ways, how significant is it that Israel hit Iranian territory directly? It certainly feels like a lot of red lines have been crossed.

HASAN ALHASAN, SENIOR FELLOW, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES: Yes, we do seem to be in an action-reaction-counteraction dynamic here.

But at this stage, there is obviously much that we don't know. We don't know what the intended targets of Israel's latest strikes on Iran were. We don't know the scale of that attack, or the nature of the military tools and instruments that were used to achieve it.

But I think the tentative conclusions that we can draw from the limited reports coming out of Iranian state media and some of the footage circulating online that reportedly shows Iranian air defenses intercepting some of these missiles perhaps, and others perhaps landing somewhat successfully.

It seems as though Israel has opted for a less than proportionate response to Iran's attack last weekend, heeding the U.S.' call, not to further escalate the situation in a very significant way.

HOLMES: Yes. I guess it remains though that it's retaliation, you know. And then its retaliation and now it's more retaliation. How concerned is the region that if not now, but at some point one retaliation goes too far and that long-feared regional war actually does happen.

ALHASAN: Indeed, the chance for error in miscalculation, catastrophic success, even is always on the horizon.

It's going to depend I think looking forward as to how Iran decides to respond to this latest Israeli attack. So from the Iranian perspective Israel began this latest round by striking its consulate in Damascus. Iran responded and attempted really to draw a line under that.

But for them again it's a question of how do you respond to this latest attack? So either Iran brushes this off and suggests that this was a failed attack that Iran intercepted many of the incoming missile strikes. And this would be supported by some of the (INAUDIBLE) way the Iranian state media has been reporting about this, clearly trying to downplay it.

Or Iran could perceive this as a yet another very significant provocation and seek to respond in a muscular way along the lines that its officials have been warning over the past week.

HOLMES: I'm curious though if Iran does choose to put a lid on this for the moment and doesn't respond militarily. What else might it do? I mean, could it perhaps ramp up uranium enrichment to bomb grade levels. Is that an area of leverage for Iran?

[01:39:46]

ALHASAN: So one thing we could see is a dynamic of less than proportionate responses. So Israel's attack on Iran was arguably less than proportionate by comparison to Iran's attack last weekend. And we could see Iran respond in a similar way in a less than proportionate way and eventually this fizzles out.

We could also see horizontal escalation along the lines you just mentioned, meaning that Iran tries to use other tools such as seizing more ships in the Strait of Hormuz, for example, as it did last weekend.

Or tried to saber rattle with its nuclear program in order to signal its displeasure and obviously try and restore some of that deterrent equilibrium.

So Iran has several tools at its disposal and its obviously very difficult to predict at this stage which ones its going to use.

HOLMES: One presumes that even if this round of tit for tat does stop with this, the actual conflict, this simmering conflict in the sense of Israel and Iranian proxies. Thats not going to stop. Would you agree with that?

ALHASAN: I agree because it's ultimately linked to the dynamics in Gaza and as a matter of fact, if anything we're poised to see an escalation in Israeli activity there what seems to be Israeli preparation to launch a larger assault on Rafah.

And so I think that ultimately so long as we don't see a ceasefire in Gaza. And so long as we don't see Israel complying with the U.N. Security Council resolution, then the broader escalation, the broader regional spillover isn't going to stop any time soon.

HOLMES: Israel's obviously a sovereign nation and they can do what they like, but it's been interesting over the months, over the last six, seven months, perhaps longer when the U.S. tries to urge either restraint or to ask Israel to not do something, be it in Gaza or be it in this situation, which by all accounts the U.S. asked Israel not to do this, Israel does it anyway.

Do you get a sense that Israel is not listening to the U.S. anymore. What does it say about U.S. efforts to dissuade Israel.

ALHASAN: So Israel is a sovereign nation, but like any other sovereign nations it's bound by international law, which it has repeatedly flouted. And I think Israel not heeding U.S. requests and U.S. efforts is partly a function of the way the U.S. has decided to approach this relationship, pretty much by offering unconditional support and clearly not being willing in any significant measure to impose real costs on Israel for not heeding U.S. warnings and requests, but also to flout international law, including the U.N. Security Council Resolution and the ICJ.

So I think Israel's behavior is partly a function of really the U.S.' failure to exercise leverage over Iran. And obviously the U.S. -- over Israel, pardon -- and obviously the U.S. has significant amounts of leverage that it could exercise if it wanted to over Israel. But I don't think there is the political will to do so on the part of the Biden administration.

HOLMES: Hasan Alhasan there in Bahrain, really appreciate it. Thanks for the time.

ALHASAN: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. More on the breaking news on the explosions in Iran after a quick break.

We'll take a look at regional reaction and the latest development. That's when we come back.

[01:43:13]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Let's have a quick recap now of an apparent Israeli strike on Iran. Iran has now lifted suspensions of civilian flights that were imposed after reports of explosions in the Isfahan region, central part of the country.

A U.S. official confirmed to CNN that Israel launched attacks hours ago on Iran. Israel's military is still not officially commenting. HOLMES: An Iranian news agency says the explosions happened near an army base where fighter jets are stationed. But the report says the target could also have been a nearby military radar.

Iranian media says nuclear facilities in the region are secure. The U.S. officials say those facilities were not the targets.

All right. For more now on CNN's exclusive interview with the Iranian foreign minister, He spoke with our Erin Burnett just hours before the Israeli strike on Iran about the tit for tat attacks between the two countries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSSEIN AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Our missiles and drones did reach our two intended targets. The attack was known to have come even though they didn't know the precise time, but they knew that it would occur fairly soon.

It was a successful operation and a decisive response and a clear message to the Zionist regime.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: So just to be clear, you intended for it to perform as it did. So there were -- 99 percent of them were intercepted, a couple went through, there was no significant damage done. That was the intent of the strike?

AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN: Our objective was to warn, our objective was to have taken equal action. And so as to send a clear message to be received by the government of Israel and to let it know that we do have the means to respond.

I will repeat again. We never seek the expansion of chaos and warfare intentions in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:49:54]

HOLMES: Now last Saturday Iran of course, launched hundreds of drones and missiles on Israel. It was in response in turn to an Israeli attack on Iran's Damascus consulate, its embassy compound on April the 1st that killed at least seven officials, including a top Iranian commander.

SCIUTTO: For more on the reaction from the region we're joined now from Istanbul by Scott McLean.

And Scott, the region has been on tenterhooks for some time about the prospect of a broader war here. Now we're seeing repeated back-and- forth between Israel and Iran.

And I wonder where those concerns are right now in the wake of this apparent Israeli attack on Iran.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jim, I think it's fascinating because at the moment you can sort of hear a pin drop in the Middle East, there has been really no reaction that I can tell to what took place in Iran just now.

Perhaps countries are wanting the dust to settle, wanting to know all the facts before saying anything because as you rightly point out, this is a very volatile part of the world right now.

And as of course, you know, there are many dividing lines in the Middle East between countries, tribal divisions, religious divisions, you name it. But the thing that has really united countries diplomatically over the past couple of weeks has been their response to this back-and-forth between the Israelis and the Iranians? Virtually all countries in this region, save for the ones that are directly involved, have been calling for restraint, calling for everyone to take a breath, dial down the temperature, and try to figure out how to resolve this peacefully because you have already seen in the wake of the war in Gaza, an expansion of the conflict.

You have seen regular strikes on Iranian proxy groups and others in Iraq and Syria. Of course, you've had the U.S. striking targets in Yemen in response to what the Houthis are doing there. You've had a back-and-forth between the Israelis and Hezbollah in Lebanon. And so nobody wants to see this expand even further and surely, when we do start seeing more reactions Jim, there will be some eye rolls in there because many countries in this region, Egyptians summed it up after the last Iranian attack on Israel saying that look, we saw this coming. This is something that we -- you know, the attacks, the sort of proxy war in the region has not helped the situation in Gaza, has only enflamed tensions in the region.

That's a similar message to what the Turks have been saying that look, this war in Gaza is sort of putting everyone on edge as has the back- and-forth between Iran and the Israelis. The Turks, by the way, have been working as an intermediary, had been working as an intermediary between the Americans and the Iranians leading up to the Iranian strike on Israel.

And so while the U.S. is using countries in the region to get a message to Iran not to strike back, a lot of countries in this part of the world are sort of cynical about why the West can't deliver the same kind of message to Israel that look, we are telling the Iranians to cool it. But the U.S. and the West has not been able to successfully convince the Israelis to do the same, Jim.

SCIUTTO: I wonder in previous instances, that there was some reporting that Iran communicated through Turkey in effect, to Israel and the West its intentions prior to that weekend drone and missile strike. Was there any communication in the other direction via Turkey.

MCLEAN: We don't have any confirmation of that, but that is the natural question that we're going to be asking. In the wake of the Iranian missile barrage on the Israelis, the Turks took a very long time to say anything at all, and they haven't said anything thus far either.

And so it's been really interesting to see how Turkey has been utilizing its position as sort of a go-between, between the West and the Middle East to be effective. And obviously the Americans recognize that unique role that Turkey has.

And now we're also seeing the Turks trying to be more useful when it comes to making peace between the Israelis and Hamas. Of course, Hamas has a presence here in Turkey. The Turks have a good relationship with Hamas. They do not consider them a terror group, but a liberation groups, something that the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made abundantly clear.

And so there seems to be some diplomatic movement as of late to get the Turks more involved in trying to bring some kind of piece to Gaza. And perhaps they can also be useful in trying to broker some kind of agreement between the Israelis and the Iranians as well, Jim.

[01:54:49]

SCIUTTO: We talk of Qatar, perhaps retreating from that role.

CNN's Scott McLean in Istanbul. Thanks so much.

And thanks so much to all of you for watching. I'm Jim Sciutto in New York.

HOLMES: And I'm Michael Holmes here in Atlanta.

Our breaking news coverage continues with John Vause next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:59:55]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause with CNN's breaking news coverage of Israel's counterstrike on Iran.

It's 2:00 a.m. Friday here in Atlanta; 9:00 a.m. in Jerusalem and 9:30 a.m. in Isfahan in Iran.

Well, after days of deliberation and despite overwhelming international pressure to stand down.