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Russia Accuses Ukraine of Cross-Border Attack; USA Figure Skaters Finally Receive Gold Medals; Interview With Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren; Israel Prepares For Strikes. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 07, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:32:15]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to a special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM, where we are live here in Tel Aviv.

Sources tell CNN that U.S. intelligence now sees Iran and its proxies here in the region preparing for possible military strikes on Israel.

Joining us now Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, and retired U.S. army General Wesley Clark, a CNN military analyst and former NATO supreme allied commander.

Ambassador, the U.S. is directly asking Israel for restraint right now and rallying various allies to ask the same of Iran. Are there signs that Israel and Iran are actually listening? You know the region. You know the players.

MICHAEL OREN, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Good to be with you, Wolf. I'm honored to be with General Clark today.

Good morning.

This entire conversation for the vast majority of Israelis is very strange, Wolf. It's actually jarring, this notion of preventing war between Israel and Iran. Iran has been waging a war against Israel for the last 10 months. I just completed military service up in the north. And we were being hit by Iranian-made missiles every day fired by Hezbollah.

A young man named Nir Popko was killed just up the road from where I was serving. Where you're broadcasting from in Tel Aviv was hit by a Houthi drone just several weeks ago. A young man was killed. We're fighting a multi-war front against Iran. And all this talk of holding Israel back, to me, is just -- it doesn't reflect the reality in any way.

The message should be to Iran, if you do not stop waging this war, the United States and the West will stand up to you, pressure we put on Iran to agree to a hostage deal. I think all -- at the best, what's going to happen is we're going back to the status quo ante. And once Iran -- once again, Iran gets away with shooting at Israel on multiple fronts and even shooting at American bases through its proxies in Iraq and wounding American servicemen.

I don't see where this gets us at all.

BLITZER: Let me follow up with you, General Clark.

Do you think Iran or its proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, for example, can be dissuaded from attacking Israel right now?

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it's possible, but I don't know what's going on behind the scenes.

There's a lot of nations in the region that are talking to Iran. There's probably some bargaining going on. And, frankly, from my perspective, what's going on inside Iran looks very discombobulated. Their last strike wasn't effective. Fifty percent of the ballistic missiles didn't work.

Somehow, this -- Haniyeh was killed inside their guesthouse. So we know there were Israeli agents or maybe other forces that were operating against Haniyeh. So they're in disarray internally. So they could be dissuaded from this.

[11:35:04]

But I think the United States also has to think beyond this, because it's clear Iran is moving toward nuclear weapons. And that will change the conditions in the region. So, right now, I think Iran, Israel, the United States, nobody wants a major escalation. But there's a real problem on the horizon.

BLITZER: An enormous problem, indeed.

Ambassador Oren, only minutes ago, we learned that Iran's new president has told the president of France that, if Western countries want to prevent war, they should force Israel to accept a cease-fire in Gaza. What's your response to that?

OREN: I think the response should be that if the West and the United States and France want to prevent war, they should say unequivocally to Iran that, if you touch our ally Israel, you will pay a prohibitive price.

If you do not pressure Hamas to release the hostages, you will pay a prohibitive price. If you do not hold back your proxies in the Middle East from attacking Israel, from attacking American forces, from blocking shipping in the crucial Mandab Straits, you will pay a prohibitive price.

The way to de-escalate in the Middle East, Wolf, is to threaten Iran with massive, massive escalation. That's the only thing that's going to work. The message to Iran every single time is, you can get -- you can perpetrate this type of multifaceted, totally unsettling, destabilizing aggression and you can get away with it. You're never going to pay a price.

I don't know why anybody thinks that Iranian behavior is going to change by urging restraint and holding Israel back.

BLITZER: As you know, General, back in April, only a few months ago, Israel, the U.S., and a regional coalition, various Arab countries in the region, managed to intercept almost all of the 300 Iranian missiles and drones that were targeting Israel from directly inside Iran.

Would you expect a similar attack from Iran now or something of an even larger scale?

CLARK: I would expect that they would use more from Hezbollah today, because if you use the Hezbollah weapons there, they get less warning time if you're in Israel.

And they're somewhat out of reach of ships in the Gulf and in the Red Sea. So you have got a better chance of inflicting damage on Israel. If they do that, they're going to -- they use Hezbollah, they're going to lose Hezbollah. That is the major escalation, and Israel will be bound to strike back hard at Hezbollah.

BLITZER: Let me -- yes.

CLARK: And so I think that there is a problem, Wolf, that you do have to -- in deterrent theory, you have to have escalation dominance to stop this. If you go tit for tat, it continues.

And this has been our problem really since October. We have gone tit for tat in the Red Sea and elsewhere. You have to achieve escalation dominance to shut it down.

BLITZER: Well, let me quickly follow up with you, Ambassador Oren.

Hezbollah, as you know, has hundreds, if not thousands, of missiles and drones and rockets in Southern Lebanon. They're buried underground. Would you support an Israeli preemptive strike, a bombing campaign to try to destroy that arsenal?

OREN: I know, from having spent time up north and having brought a delegation of northern displaced people to Washington -- over 100,000 Israelis have been displaced by the war in the north -- that it's totally an unsustainable situation.

And Israel has to take whatever means possible to change this totally unsustainable, prohibitive status quo, whether it means a preemptive strike or a massive counterstrike. And let's be very frank about this. No one's going back to the status quo ante of October 6. Before -- on October 6, many of these Israelis were living literally on the outside of the fence.

Hezbollah was right there within almost arm's length. No one's going to go back to those communities as long as Hezbollah is there. So not only you have to prevent Hezbollah from firing those 100, tens of thousands of rockets, and they may have as many as 150,000 or even 170,000 rockets, but Israel has to push Hezbollah back from the fence.

Whether this can be done by diplomatic means -- of course, that would be preferable. But other than that, life in the Northern Israel will become simply uninhabitable. And Israel cannot lose the northern part of its country, its Galilee here, Wolf. And you know it well.

Israel will have to take every measure possible to ensure that its territorial integrity and national security is preserved.

BLITZER: Yes, I will take that as a yes. Preemptive strike potentially is on the table right now.

Ambassador Oren, retired General Wesley Clark, to both of you, thank you very, very much.

And we will be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:28]

BLITZER: New this morning, Russia is accusing Ukrainian troops of crossing into its territory to launch what they're calling a massive attack.

They say hundreds of fighters launched an attack in Russia's Kursk region, an attack which the Russian military claims to have stopped. They also released this video, they claim, showing Russia striking Ukrainian tanks. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the claims.

But if this is confirmed, it would certainly mark the first incursion of its kind by Ukraine in this war against Russia.

CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is joining us right now.

[11:45:04]

Nick, I know you're doing a lot of reporting on this. What do we know?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, there's no doubt there's been a substantial incursion inside Russia, possibly three, four miles deep, maybe deeper towards a town called Sudzha, which is extremely important for Russia, partly because it has a key gas terminal there that feeds gas from Russia through Ukraine onto Europe.

Unclear if that's affected at all at the moment. No external signs of that. But this may be one of the motivations behind this clear Ukrainian push. Yes, Ukraine said nothing about this, but there's no other real candidate here. We don't know if, as you have seen in multiple occasions in the past, if this is Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine or the Ukrainian military proper.

But the damage and the penetration is very clear from multiple videos and from local officials talking about how Ukrainian forces are inside that town of Sudzha talking about a situation that is -- quote -- "very tense." And clearly also too the Kremlin, very aware, very troubled by this, Vladimir Putin calling it a major provocation, claiming that Ukraine is targeting Russian civilians at will, indiscriminately, a bit rich coming from a country that's been doing that inside of Ukraine with its weaponry for the past two years-plus.

But now the Russian chief of staff coming forward, Valery Gerasimov, saying, look, we have halted this advance, but there's still plenty of evidence, plenty of fear from Russian military bloggers that there are many Ukrainian forces still pretty deep inside Russia causing continued havoc.

Now, Wolf, the context here is important, because this is a rare headline, frankly, of Ukrainian battlefield success on the front foot. In the past weeks, we have been hearing very troubling news about the losses of territory around key towns in the Donetsk region, the focus of so much of the fighting, with Russian forces getting closer day by day, very slowly, very incrementally, but very importantly, towards a Ukrainian military hub.

A lot of questions about Ukraine's manpower, its ability to hold that line and new questions from Ukrainian observers even today on the merits of this advance, what resources were used to perform it, how sustainable it is and what its overall goal may end up being, but still, Moscow certainly taken off guard here, a remarkable breach of Russia's border security -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And very quickly, nick, do we know if U.S. weapons, U.S. weapons supplied to Ukraine were used in this Ukrainian incursion inside Russia?

WALSH: No, not for sure. There have been some videos perhaps suggesting that weaponry that may have emanated from the United States might have been near this area, but nothing confirmed.

And, as you say, it's clearly a key part of Ukraine's plan moving forward. The best weapons have come from their NATO allies, but we have no evidence of this stage from the videos we have seen that they have been involved in this particular advance here. Still nothing from Ukraine at all, I should stress, but there's no other real candidate for an incursion like this, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Nick Paton Walsh reporting for us.

Nick, thank you very, very much.

And, once again, we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:37]

BLITZER: In Paris, Team USA is delivering a dominating performance. Here's a look at the latest medal count.

The U.S. is now leading in both overall and gold medals. Take a look at that, that medal haul boosted by swimming superstar Katie Ledecky, who finishes the Paris Olympics with two golds, one silver and one bronze, becoming the most decorated U.S. female Olympian of all time with -- get this -- 14 Olympic medals.

CNN sports anchor and correspondent Coy Wire is on the scene for us in Paris. He's joining us live right now.

You had a chance, I understand, to talk to her earlier today. How did that go, Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes.

And I have a special message from Katie Ledecky for you, Wolf. "Greetings to Wolf from Paris." She loves the show, Wolf.

Nine Olympic golds now after tearing it up here in Paris. She talked about the sacrifices her family made, Wolf, early mornings, 4:00 a.m. wakeups in middle school. Parents would take her to -- drive her to the pool, sacrifice in sleep. But she said they never made it feel like sleep.

Now she joined us here at our WBD House studios beaming. After not having family around to celebrate in Tokyo, Paris has been incredible. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE LEDECKY, 9-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: It's great to have family and friends back at the Olympics after not being there in Tokyo. It's just been a great environment, great atmosphere, and very special to share the moments after competition with all of them, get to celebrate and soak in a little bit of Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, also, what a wild story.

The stars of the USA figure skating team joined us here at our WBD House studios this morning, all smiles. After not having any medal ceremony 2.5 years ago in Beijing due to a Russian cheating scandal, they're finally getting golds here at the Summer Olympics, Wolf.

I asked them what part of not having their special moment at the Winter Games hurt the most. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADISON CHOCK, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I think just missing out on the medal moment with our families and our friends and just celebrating all the hard work that we did in that moment.

But, I mean, now we get to celebrate it at an even greater stage. I never could have in my wildest dreams imagined that we would be in Paris receiving our Winter Olympic medals.

NATHAN CHEN, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: We didn't have family in Beijing, so to be able to have our families here, to be able to have all our friends and all the celebration, this grand celebration, it really means a lot to us.

WIRE: A long overdue celebration.

So, on the count of three, whatever noise you want to make, let them hear it from the rooftops of Paris. One, two, three.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:55:05]

WIRE: Now, that was before they received their medals, Wolf.

But just moments ago, they got those golds at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Even better, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the IOC teamed up to fly their families to be here for this moment that is long overdue.

Wolf, if we keep, the U.S., racking up these medals, I'm going to be working Wolf Blitzer hours trying to fit everyone in, in our show here for you from Paris.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: You got a great assignment over there in Paris.

And give our love to Katie. If you see her again, tell her we totally appreciate everything she and all of these Olympic stars have done for the USA team.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Coy Wire, in Paris.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining me. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting today live from Tel Aviv.

I will be back later tonight 6:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM." We will have a special report from here in the Middle East. Right back here tomorrow, of course, 11:00 a.m. Eastern in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts right after a short break.