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CNN's Breaking News Coverage on Israel's Assault to Iran. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired April 19, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ANNOUNCER (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, welcome to our viewers watching all around the world. I'm John Vause, live in Atlanta. We're following breaking news this hour.

After days of deliberation and despite overwhelming international pressure to stand down, a U.S. official tells CNN Israel has carried out a military strike on Iran, apparent retaliation for an unprecedented Iranian missile attack just over a week ago. At least three explosions have been reported not far from a military airbase in the province of Isfahan in central Iran.

According to Iran's Fars News Agency, defense systems on the base were activated in response to what may have been a drone attack targeting the base's radar.

In the city of Isfahan, it's believed to be the home of Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program, as well as the country's biggest nuclear research facility, which operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors. All flights to Isfahan, Tehran and Shiraz have resumed after being suspended for several hours, according to a spokesperson for Iran's airports.

One U.S. official confirms to CNN an Israeli strike inside Iran, adding the target was not nuclear, and Israel informed the White House on Thursday an attack was just days away. Iranian officials say air defense systems in several regions were activated and explosions heard in Isfahan were outgoing fire from those air defenses.

For the very latest, CNN's Paula Hancocks standing by live in Beirut, but we'll go first to CNN's Nic Robertson in Jerusalem. Nic, you have new reporting on Iran's response to this Israeli strike. What have you been told?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Iran's response from what we've seen in their media and what the state media and the local media are reporting is it appears to play down the strike. We've heard that from the Iranian media that they switched on their air defense systems in the night because of a perceived threat, but they actually saw no aircraft coming into their airspace and there were only these three drones that were spotted in the vicinity of a military base near Isfahan.

But the explosions there were, they say, the air defense systems firing in the air, so really sort of playing down. And certainly some of the local media in Iran is characterizing these drones as very small, as quadcopters, as relatively insignificant.

I've spoken with a regional intelligence source who will be understanding and informed about this situation and the information that he has and his understanding at this time is that Iran is not going to respond to this strike by Israel, that they will not perceive this as crossing a red line. Look, anything can change and we know that the dynamic of how Israel reads Iran's red lines and how Iran reads Israel's red lines has changed. It's gone through a paradigm shift.

But this night after this military action inside of Iran carried out by Israel, there does not appear to be a follow-up coming from Iran.

That could change, but that's how it looks at the moment. This is reading between the lines from Iranian media, how they're characterizing it, nothing to the scale of the big 350 missile attack they launched at Israel over the weekend, nothing in scale of that and the readout from intelligence sources, unlikely to be follow-up from Iran.

VAUSE: And Nic, if that is in fact the case, if it's three drones and no real threat to Iran, what's the message then that the Israelis are sending to Iran? Is this a message of deterrence?

ROBERTSON: That's the message that they want to send. That's been the basis of their defense over the past number of decades to countries like Iran, who they perceive as an existential threat. And this is what we heard Iran saying in the reverse last week, that they were changing the equation, that they were the ones now putting down a deterrence to Israel.

And the deterrence factor here would be, if this is the message that Israel is sending, and this is what it appears to be, by choosing Isfahan, which has a nuclear facility that converts yellowcake uranium, the sort of raw or second-staged product of mined uranium, turns that yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride, which is then can be put in centrifuges and then turned into more pure uranium, if you will, enriched uranium, that part of the process, it will be sending a signal that we can reach into the very town where you do this and where you store some of the enriched uranium.

[03:04:44]

And of course, the concern is, and a concern that Israel has been saying and other countries have been saying for some time, is that despite the 2015 JCPOA Iran nuclear deal, where Iran was going to limit its enrichment of uranium to less than 5 percent, it has enriched uranium at the moment, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog has enriched it to 60 percent, which is way above those thresholds, takes it much closer to turning that enriched uranium into a potential weapon. So the message from Israel would be, where you are performing this enriching uranium, we can reach you. That would appear to be the message. Now, does Iran move facilities? Does it change tactics? That's not clear.

But in terms of the building escalation because of what's happened over the past two and a half weeks between Iran and Israel, at the moment it appears to be on pause. There are plenty of other points of contact with Iran's proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, for example, both still actively involved in firing missiles, drones, et cetera, into Israel.

So there are plenty of points of conflict. But this face-to-face between the state of Israel and the state of Iran firing into each other's countries, which hasn't been seen before, that phase of it may at least for now not be about to go through the roof, if you will, for want of a better expression.

VAUSE: Nic, thank you. Let's go to Paula in Beirut. So, Paula Hancocks, to you, if there is in fact no Iranian response to this attack by Israel, it would stand in stark contrast to what the Iranian leaders have been saying for days now.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's right, yes, John. I mean, you can see the Iranian state media downplaying what has happened. And yet over recent days, you have heard some very fiery rhetoric from Iranian leaders. In fact, just hours before this attack took place, we heard from the Iranian foreign minister speaking to CNN, saying that if Israel carries out an attack on its assets, then the result would be an immediate and at a maximum level, saying it would be a decisive response.

We heard from President Raisi as well, saying that if there was another response from Israel to what they did over the weekend, those more than 300 drones and missiles launched at Israel, then there would be an even greater and more resolute response from Iran. So, the public messaging that we heard from Tehran itself was that if Israel responds, there will be a bigger response in retaliation. Now, whether or not this is posturing, whether it's messaging, it's threatening, potentially some of this is also for a domestic audience.

But that is certainly a very different public view that we have been hearing from Iran. In fact, we also heard just yesterday from the Revolutionary Guard commander who's in charge of the nuclear assets and in charge of securing the nuclear assets in Iran, saying that if Israel does target any of its Iranian nuclear sites or if it threatens to, then pointing out that they could change their nuclear positioning, their nuclear policy.

Now, they've maintained at this point that they are having a peaceful nuclear program, which many countries do not take it as that, but that is what Tehran has said. And they have said that they know where Israel's nuclear sites are as well and could target those.

So, what we're seeing now from state media, and of course, we are waiting to hear from a more official source within that, is that they are downplaying this, they are showing images of where these drone strikes or the drones were apparently taken out, showing a very peaceful situation. They've said there was no ground explosion, there is no issues on the ground and no damage at this point. So, you're right, two very different messages that we're hearing here.

VAUSE: And very quickly, one of the major players in the region in all of this is the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, where you are. Has there been any reaction from Hezbollah that would indicate that there would be some kind of reaction from the Iranians, or is it all quiet on the southern front?

HANCOCKS: All quiet at this point. It certainly hasn't been quiet this week. We've seen an uptick in the cross-border targeting between Israel and Hezbollah, but they have not responded to this directly at this point.

And to be honest, I don't think we expect them to necessarily interject themselves into this direct retaliation between Israel and Iran. Of course, we could see more of the proxies stepping up in the days to come and taking on the fight once again against Israel. John.

VAUSE: Paula Hancocks in Beirut, Nic Robertson in Jerusalem. Thanks to you both for that. We appreciate the reporting.

And joining us now on the line, CNN's chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour. Christiane, thank you for being with us. Just your assessment right now of where this stands.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (on the phone): John, this is pretty much what we expected. This has been telegraphed for a while, ever since April 1st, when the first Israeli attack, well, in this round, took place on the Iranian facility.

[03:10:05]

And from then, we have heard from the Iranians that they would respond. They have talked about being proportionate. And very interestingly, in their comments to CNN, the foreign minister last night, basically just before Israel responded, although Israel hasn't commented on it, basically said, we carried out a minimum response, even though it was pointed out they used, you know, hundreds of projectiles.

They said it was geared towards two military bases, the Nova Team Air Base in Israel and an intelligence and information center from which the attacks on us took place.

So the Iranians said we didn't target any Israeli economic, financial centers, civilian centers, only two locations from which F-35 aircraft were flown, took off from, and targeted the embassy building in Syria. So that's from their perspective. And as you've heard, they have said that if they get this retaliation, they'll retaliate.

That's where we are in a bit of an unknown territory now, because Israel apparently has responded, definitely according to the United States, but on the scale of things, it is very minimal. Everybody seems to be right now bending over backwards to say we have

to do something, but we are not headed to all-out war. I spoke to a senior former Israeli general this week who had been the head of intelligence for the Israel Defense Forces who told me that Israel probably had to respond, but it must not respond in a way that causes disproportionate damage and could lead to a full-on disproportionate confrontation between the two.

Having said that, as you've been hearing, since last Saturday when Iran responded, this shadow war that has been conducted for years now, Israel striking targets in one way or another inside Iran, Israel consistently conducting bombing raids inside Syria on Iranian targets, even with, as you remember, during the beginning of the Ukraine war, the Israeli prime minister talked to the Russian president, Putin, to get his permission or his acquiescence to use the skies over Syria to keep pounding Iran and other targets. So this has been going on for a long, long time.

And you can say, as others have said now, that there has been a series of dramatic miscalculations, that clearly Iran miscalculated when it never responded to Israel's covert action over the last several years, and Israel, it said, miscalculated by not figuring what Iran's response would be to the attack on its embassy and the killing of its military officials.

So we have a situation where the two biggest powers in that region, Israel and Iran, are in some kind of shadow dance that's in the open now, at a time when there's a big war going on between Israel and Gaza, and when there's another war going on between Russia and Ukraine.

So the entire region there is very, very precarious, and now it's going to take very serious leadership to pull back from this brink.

VAUSE: One thing that happened in the wake of the Iranian missile strike on Israel over the last weekend, the Israelis said that they needed to send back a strong message of deterrence because the rules of the game had changed, that now it was acceptable for Iran to continue to launch missiles from their own territory directly at Israel.

If this de-escalates, does that now mean that it sort of goes back to the status quo before last weekend, or are we still at that point where direct strikes by Iran on Israel and vice versa are now part of the, are acceptable in a way?

AMANPOUR (on the phone): Well, look, I think we have to wait and see if Iran makes good on its threat to respond to an Israeli response. So imagine this, a strike, a retaliation, retaliation to the retaliation, and then another one. So this is a cycle that some leaders have to be able to break.

But in direct answer to your question, on, you know, last weekend, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said that their action, these words, completely changed the equation of what's been going on between the two of them, that in the future any more Israeli attacks will be met by direct Iranian attacks. So this is not a confidence- building thought, and it will take very serious interventions to get both sides to declare that they have now re-established deterrence, they've told each other what they can do, and that they don't want to have a full-scale war.

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I think it's important to note, I was speaking to the former U.K. intelligence chief, MI6, Sir John Sawyer, who pointed out that, and others have, that of course Israel was helped hugely by many allies in the skies last Saturday night to intercept 99 percent of the Iranian cruise missiles and drones.

But remember, there were also Iranian ballistic missiles that were fired at Israel, which only the U.S., based with their ship-based anti-ballistic missile system, were able to down. These ballistic missiles are very different to cruise and drones. They're much faster, they're much more strong, they're much more difficult to react and to intercept.

So the question remains that if this continues, does Israel go it alone? Does the United States help it if it's continuing this situation? And then how many more actors get dragged into this?

So I think it's certainly been telegraphed wide and loud that nobody wants this to escalate beyond what's happening, but nobody can tell because there aren't actual guardrails in place to have any kind of discussions. And then a final point, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was backed exceptionally by the entire U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China, that international agreement gave a forum for discussion over, obviously, the nuclear issue, but potentially any such further difficult issues.

That doesn't exist anymore because of President Trump spurred on and encouraged by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulling out of it in 2020. So we're here in a situation without really formal avenues of interconnection, although Iran does speak to the United States via the Swiss and telegraphs, certainly in this regard, telegraphed to every possible foreign minister and leader about what it was planning to do last weekend.

VAUSE: Christiane, so good to have you with us. We really appreciate your insights and your analysis as well as the reporting. Thank you.

Joining me now from Los Angeles, retired U.S. Army Major General Mark McCarley. General, good to see you. It's been a while.

MAJ. GEN. MARK MCARLEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Good to see you, sir.

VAUSE: So we're still in this tit-for-tat cycle, possibly, with Iran and Israel. It just seems it's been put on hold for a time. If this does continue, even if there is this de-escalation for a moment, it seems we're still just one miscalculation away from some kind of major conflict here. Is that a fair assessment?

MCCARLEY: I think that absolutely is. All we have to do is assess the capabilities that the Iranians demonstrated with their 300-odd missile and drone attack three days ago.

It's something of great concern. So this is not a situation in which tonight or this morning, as the case may be, we can stand down and say that the situation has returned to normal. It has definitely not done so.

VAUSE: Clearly, the response by Israel was limited. Where would you put the biggest factor in all of this? Was it the U.S. influence on the Israelis essentially sitting this one out? Was it capability by the Israelis not to land a major blow without the U.S.? Or was it Benjamin Netanyahu looking for some kind of reprieve here?

MCCARLEY: I think all of those proposed explanations make sense.

I think that this was a shrewd calculation on the part of Netanyahu and his war cabinet. He made a demonstration. If it were three drones or perhaps more, those drones came very, very close to the center of Iranian nuclear development.

And it's a statement. And it's a statement that says, if this matter continues, we have targeted your facility. And if the time comes to escalate and severely jeopardize or destroy that emerging nuclear capability.

So Netanyahu gets a lot out of this. One, it appears that he has listened to some degree to advice from the United States and other Western allies. And by the same token, he has made that statement to Iran that if Iran attacks, we attack and we're going to attack much harder the next time.

VAUSE: The Israelis have often said that they can fight a war on a number of fronts. They already have one going in Gaza. They always have an ongoing conflict in the north, which is practically a war right now with Hezbollah. It certainly has been a significant uptick since October 7. Can they fight that war with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as a direct confrontation with Iran?

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MCCARLEY: That's one of the most difficult strategic questions to answer. But it's perhaps the most important because just several hours ago, some of us were speculating that the response on the part of the Iranians would be the igniting of a renewed and much more forceful engagement by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

We might see increased activity by the Hamas. And then, of course, Iranian attacks via ballistic missiles and drones. And then you have the potential disturbances that can erupt on the West Bank. So collectively, these things would constitute a multi-front war for Israel.

And while Israel has an acknowledged capability, a history of success in several wars in which it faced off against multiple opponents, I just have to remind myself that in 1973, which was the Yom Kippur War, and Israel faced three opponents, one, of course, being Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. And in that particular instance, Israel ran out of weapon systems.

Literally, too many of its tanks were destroyed.

And but for the intervention of the United States flying in big C-5s, multiple M1 tanks, the final disposition of that war might have been dramatically different. So the takeaway from all that is Israel might have some space to conduct multi-front war, but it has to assess not only the response of the world, but from a very operational standpoint, it's got to ascertain whether it has the logistical support, the weapons, and even the personnel to continue that type of very complex and demanding military activity.

VAUSE: Let's hope they never find out. Army General, Major General Mark McCarley, thank you, sir. It's good to see you.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, reaction to the explosions in Iran. Look at what could happen next. A live report in a moment.

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VAUSE: Welcome back. Returning to our top story now, a U.S. official tells CNN that Israel has carried out a military strike on Iran. Apparent retaliation for the Iranian missile attack just about a week ago. Flights have resumed in Iran after reports of explosions in the region of Isfahan.

The city of Isfahan is believed to be home to Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program, as well as the country's biggest nuclear research facility, which operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors. Iranian media say the nuclear facility in the region is secure, while the U.S. official says those facilities were not the target.

Still no comment, at least official comment, from Israel's military. Reports of explosions in Iran sent oil prices surging up nearly 4 percent, with U.S. oil prices climbing above $85 a barrel. Prices sort of recovered a bit, but right now Brent crude sitting at $87 or $88 a barrel, practically, while the world benchmark is at $83 a barrel, just up by about 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the news drove U.S. stock futures lower. Dow futures went down 480 points. They still are down by about a third of 1 percent. NASDAQ futures down by half of 1 percent, and the S&P futures also down by about the same.

Let's bring in Scott McLean. He's live in Istanbul, Turkey. Scott, for months now, tensions across the region have been soaring on fears that there could be some kind of major escalation of the war in Gaza. Without this Iranian response to the Israeli attack, there does seem to be a reprieve, but it's only a reprieve, right? So there are still those ongoing concerns that this situation still remains tense and volatile.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're exactly right, John. And look, a lot of countries in this region will tell you that, ultimately, the source of all of this is the war in Gaza, and that to bring down the temperature in this region, you need to solve that problem first, and not just get a ceasefire, but also try to restart some kind of peace talks to bring about a lasting peace to that part of the world and to the wider region.

A lot of countries here, obviously, worried about escalation, because you're already seeing war not only in Gaza, but you have seen frequent strikes, perhaps a shadow war, you might call it, between the Iranians and the Israelis already. Many of the targets there that have been hit have been Iranian proxy groups in Iraq and in Syria. You have the U.S. striking the Houthis in Yemen. You have the Houthis striking commercial shipping in the Red Sea. You have a back-and-forth between the Lebanese and the Israelis along that border. I shouldn't say the Lebanese, Hezbollah, and the Israelis along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

And so the Middle East, broadly speaking, is united in its calls to bring down the temperature.

After this specific attack, John, what's maybe surprising, though, is that there has not been really much in the way of public reaction to what's happened. Obviously, we're still waiting to hear more from the Israelis and the Iranians and to get more detail on precisely what happened. But we have just gotten what seems to be the first or one of the first diplomatic reactions to what happened, and this is from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Oman.

The statement said that it condemns the Israeli attack today, condemns more broadly Israeli attacks in the region, and really appeals to the international community to get to the heart or get to the source of the conflict in the first place and try to solve it through diplomatic means and also to try to get some kind of a lasting ceasefire and peace agreement in place in Gaza, which, of course, continues to inflame things.

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There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity over the past few weeks, especially, John, in the wake of Israel's strike on April the 1st against that Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus, and to try to send messages to the Iranians and the other way.

Turkey has been amongst the countries that, at least prior to the Iranian attack, had been a sort of go-between between the Americans and the Iranians. It's not clear what role they have played here, but there has certainly been some frustration on the part of many countries that, look, they're shuttling messages to the Iranians to cool their jets, but the message is not being heard very clearly from the Israelis to do the same, or at least the Israelis maybe are getting the message from their Western allies, but they're not necessarily listening. John? VAUSE: CNN's Scott McLean in Istanbul. Thank you for the live update.

We appreciate it.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, reaction from the U.N. nuclear watchdog to Israel's attack around nuclear facilities. More in a moment.

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VAUSE: 35 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Vause. You're watching "CNN Newsroom".

A quick recap now of the Israeli strike on Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency is confirming there's no damage to Iran's nuclear sites.

Iranian media report three explosions in the Isfahan province hours ago. A U.S. official told CNN Israel launched attacks on Iran, but Israel's military, still no official word. Tehran's two airports now back up and running. Flight suspensions across Iran have been lifted.

Let's go live now to Jerusalem and Yaakov Katz, senior columnist and editor with the "Jerusalem Post". It's good to see you.

YAAKOV KATZ, SR. EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, JERUSALEM POST: Hi, John.

VAUSE: What's your assessment, first of the strike by Israel? And what about Iran's decision, it seems, not to respond?

KATZ: I think Israel has been trying to balance everything at once, which is not always easy. On the one hand, it felt the need to retaliate to the weekend attack of over 300 drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles.

And it wanted to hit something that would get a message across to the Iranians that attacks of that kind will not be tolerated, but not to lead to a wider escalation. The fact that the Iranians are staying also a bit quiet about what was attacked, and they're trying to downplay the significance, is also their attempt to try to contain it. So I think everyone has an interest right now. It seems so far, and in the Middle East we know, John, that things can change very quickly.

But so far, it seems that both sides want to call it a day, say, we got in our blows and now we can move on.

VAUSE: There was some reporting that Israel was ready to strike Iran on Monday, but it was sort of postponed or called off because of operational issues. That's all we know. I'm just wondering if this limited strike was sort of plan B, if you like.

KATZ: Well, Israel, we know in the security cabinet, there have been some debates over the past five, six days of exactly what the appropriate response should be.

And I can tell you that within Israel there were people who looked at that attack this past Sunday morning as the justification, essentially, for Israel to finally go after Iran's nuclear industrial complex, that threat that we've been hearing about for so long, as well as other key facilities in Iran. And there were others who didn't want to see a response at all.

Add to that the pressure that this government was under from President Joe Biden, from the U.K., from the European officials to basically what they were calling take it a win of what the interception of that Iranian assault was. Even though it was just a defense, it was not no win. It was just a successful interception.

But Israel felt that it did need to do something. And I think that this is probably, like you said, the compromise. It is a way for Israel to get a shot across the bow at Iran and show them that something has been done. Don't learn a bad lesson from what you did on Sunday. But also, we in Israel don't want this to go any farther right now.

VAUSE: I mean, there's two views of what happened on Sunday morning. Either there was an overwhelming failure by the Iranians because everything got shot down, essentially, from ICBMs to the drones, and Israel stood firm. Or it was a message by Iran that was limited in scope because they say they did not target population centers. I mean, the common sense answer is it was the former, not the latter. And that actually sort of played into this decision by Israel for a limited strike. How do you see it?

KATZ: Yeah, I mean, you know, just because you have a good defense doesn't mean that that is necessarily a victory, right? Israel was able to intercept all of those missiles and drones that pretty much 99 percent that were making its way together with that regional collective partnership that involved the Americans, the British, the French, the Jordanians, the Saudis, and possibly others. That's a great success, but it's not a victory.

And I think that the way to really look at this is just actually tend to look at it, John, as we should view every single one of these missiles and drones as if they actually landed, damaged, and even killed people. Because just because something was shot at you and didn't hurt you doesn't mean it wasn't shot. It was, and there's an intention by Iran to, as we know because they clearly stated, they want to wipe Israel off the map. They've been supporting proxies throughout this region.

Hezbollah, which has fired since October 7th almost 5,000 missiles into Israel. Hamas, of course, in Gaza. The Houthis in Yemen.

Israel is the most attacked country today in the world, and we can't contain this. Those days of where we just pretend just because it was intercepted that it didn't really happen, well, it did happen, and it needs to be met with force, I think.

[03:40:04] VAUSE: On the other side of the equation, though, the Iranians would be looking at that weekend attack as a complete and indivisible colossal failure.

And then comes this counterstrike by Israel. Clearly, there has to be a calculation there that they don't want to get into a wider conflict with Israel right now because the strike on the weekend was a failure.

KATZ: On the one hand, it was a failure because most of it was just intercepted. On the other hand, they could say we struck Israel's air force base. We know that some of those missiles landed at this base where the F-35s, Israel's most advanced fifth-generation fighter jets are based, and they could claim that they actually penetrated and were able to strike inside that base.

And even though most of it was intercepted, it did get Israeli air sirens going. It got Israelis into a week of mass hysteria, John.

Israelis were in fear of their lives, I would say, in a way that we haven't been in a long time. Unfortunately, and this is not a good thing, but we've gotten used to rockets from Gaza. We've gotten used to rockets from Lebanon. Getting fired at from Iran after all these years of hearing of how strong and powerful and dangerous they are did not make Israelis feel safe. And there still is a lot of concern of what comes next. So I don't think that necessarily they view this as a failure. Not yet.

VAUSE: Yaakov Katz, as always, good to see you, sir. Thank you for your time.

KATZ: Thank you.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, the attacks on Iran comes as G7 foreign ministers are wrapping up three days of meetings in Italy. We are live in Rome with the latest from the G7. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

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[03:45:00]

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VAUSE: For the past few days, foreign ministers from the G7 have been meeting in Capri, Italy, discussing action to be taken against Iran over its weekend missile attack on Israel. Already, the U.S. and the U.K. are slapping new sanctions on Tehran, the U.S. targeting Iran's drone program, the U.K. hitting Iran military leaders and institutions.

Well, let's go more now to Rome for CNN's Barbie Nadeau. I can't talk right now. I guess now that we've had the Israeli attack and the non- response for the time being from Iran, how will that play into discussions there today?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, you know, it's going to be interesting. The leaders are meeting for their very last roundtable in about an hour and a half. We're expecting some kind of a press conference and likely statement coming out of it. You know, yesterday, the word of the day was de-escalation. And now it's going to be interesting to see if they consider that they're urging Israel not to, some restraint was seen as a success.

But yesterday, they also talked a lot about sanctions and targeted sanctions. And one of the things that's, of course, obvious, you know, we've got, the G7 is geopolitically difficult for them to come together when it comes to sanctions. For example, the Italian foreign minister who's leading this meeting was talking about how they'll have to be part of the European Union sanctions. Let's listen to what he had to say, how he explained how Italy and other countries will approach sanctions.

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ANTONIO TAJANI, ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): This is not the place to formally decide what to do, because every country has its own rules for imposing sanctions. The idea is to send a strong signal to Iran so that what happened is not repeated. A political message, which is then turned into concrete action. But here, we've only taken a political decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NADEAU: And, you know, it is a complicated situation. You've got all these geopolitics at play. And so on Monday, the European Union foreign ministers will be meeting, and then they can come up with their own language for, and decisions on how they'll apply these targeted sanctions.

But, you know, this summit has been very, very important, given everything that's going on in the world, especially with regard to Ukraine and additional funding. That was kind of the topic of the day yesterday. All of this, of course, leading the way to the major G7 summit, which will be held, President Biden will be coming to Italy, will be held in the southern region of Puglia in June.

And, you know, it's hard to imagine what these various crises, how they look now are going to look in that period of time when that summit happens. John?

VAUSE: I guess the reason, or the issue here is that sanctions really only work when they're applied by every country, and they all agree to them, and they all enforce them together, I should say. So if we get to the point where some countries, some members of the G7 don't want sanctions, and some do, where do we go from there?

NADEAU: Yeah, you know, that is the question of the day. Also because a lot of the European countries have relationships with Iran that are very different from what you have between the United States and Iran, obviously.

And those interests all play here. And, you know, as you said, they only count if everybody does it. But, you know, we saw the same thing really with Russia, you know, when there were sanctions by some countries and kind of a blind eye by others, you know, in terms of also, you know, taking assets of the Russian oligarchs and what to do with that money.

All of these things are geopolitical. And even you've got the G7 foreign ministers together, they can't necessarily agree on how to go forward. John.

VAUSE: Barbie, thank you for the reporting. Thanks for the update. Barbie Nadeau, live there in Rome.

More breaking news on the explosions in Iran after a very short break. The very latest developments is next. Stay with us.

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[03:50:00]

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VAUSE: Welcome back. Here's the latest on our breaking news.

A U.S. official confirms Israel's counter strike on Iran. Iranian officials say three drones were successfully shot down and state media reporting explosions near Isfahan. Iranian state media report the situation in the city is normal and nuclear facilities are completely secure. Iranian airspace has now reopened. Flights to and from major cities were suspended. The attack follows Iran's unprecedented missile and drone barrage on Israel less than a week ago.

Just a few hours before we started hearing reports of the explosions in Iran, the country's top diplomat warned of a decisive military response to any Israeli action. Iran's foreign minister delivered that message to the United Nations Security Council and also during an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett.

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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. We will not continue. However, in case the Israeli regime embarks on adventurism again and takes action against the interests of Iran, the next response from us will be immediate and at a maximum level. It will be decisive.

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[03:55:10]

VAUSE: Israeli foreign aid will be on the agenda when a vote is scheduled in the U.S. House Saturday. A number of other countries are on the agenda as well for foreign aid, not just Israel, but Ukraine as well as U.S. allies in the Pacific. A source told CNN if the bill goes through, the Senate will pass it by the middle of next week.

Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause. Breaking news coverage continues with Max Foster in London after a very short break. Thanks for watching.

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