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Israel Strikes Iran In High-Stakes Retaliation. Aired 11a- 11:11a ET

Aired October 26, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:31]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Jim Sciutto, live in Jerusalem.

The region now bracing for any next step in this conflict following Israel's strike overnight on Iran. Iran is now assessing damage. It says two of its soldiers were killed, but it describes the damage to its facilities and these targets as limited.

Israel is saying it carried out what it described as a precise military strike on multiple military targets. Sources tell CNN it did not strike energy or nuclear infrastructure.

Iran is now saying it has a right to defend itself. It is entitled to do so. And that these strikes were clear violation of international law.

Joining me now is Matthew Chance with me here in Jerusalem.

Matthew, this has been long expected since Iran launched that massive missile barrage on Israel just over two weeks ago. It happened last night without warning as expected.

Is it safe to say that this was a more limited military strike than some expected in this country.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I think it's true to say that it was more limited than it could have been. I mean, there has been a lot of speculation that Israel was going to target a much broader spectrum of facilities including energy infrastructure, targets like oil facilities, things like that, but also nuclear research facilities as well. That's what many Israelis want to see taken out in the Islamic Republic.

But of course there has been a lot of pressure on Israel not to do that. The United States, the Biden administration has been, you know, applying whatever pressure it can to encourage Israel to step back from the brink.

And it seems that, you know, Israel has done that. It really pursued a very narrow group of targets, military targets only. And that may have an impact when it comes to what response (INAUDIBLE) from Iran.

SCIUTTO: And of course, as you're watching us here, you can hear the call to prayer. There's a mosque just behind us here in Jerusalem.

The U.S. Had encouraged, cajoled, perhaps offered some additional risk support, military support and defense in return for not expanding the strike and therefore expanding the risk of expanding the war.

Iran -- Israel -- the Israeli military is saying it struck purely military targets. Iran is saying the damage was limited. To date that's the only assessment we have as to what was struck and how extensively and what damage was done.

When do we expect it to hear what targets were actually hit and if Israel does consider this a successful strike.

CHANCE: Well, I mean hopefully we're going to get a battle damage assessment at some point soon from the Israelis. At the moment they're limiting -- what they're saying publicly to look, we destroyed air to -- surface-to-air missile sites, missile production facilities, aerial installations, things like that.

But we've not -- I noted from the Iranian side, they're trying to play this down. They -- you know, kind of let schools go back. The sports minister has announced that sports games are going to be resuming.

So they're getting a sense that they're playing this down perhaps to save face. I think the real question though, is to what extent has this strike restored deterrence between Israel and Iran? And this is only the latest in a series of for tit for tat --

SCIUTTO: Right.

CHANCE: -- strikes between the two countries.

SCIUTTO: And we never know precisely, right? Because one side's definition of what is proportional might not meet the other side's definition of proportional.

Iran right now, is saying as it did prior to the attack, that it would have a right -- right to respond. But as you say, the coverage in Iran is notable in that even the state media was focused on traffic reports this morning as opposed to the effects of these strikes.

Do you see that as Iran signaling that perhaps it's had enough and that, you know, you say save face, but also signal that perhaps for now, there won't be a massive retaliation.

CHANCE: Well, I think it's probably safe to say that Iran does not want to be dragged into a full-scale war with Israel potentially bringing in the United States as well.

It's not clear it would be able to withstand that kind of pressure. So for the moment perhaps, yes, this may well be a tactical and a line drawn under those tit for tat attacks that we've seen over the past several months.

[11:04:48] CHANCE: But longer term strategically, the trajectory of the sort of conflict between Israel and Iran just seems to be getting worse. There's no sign that that's easing off or any of the outstanding issues between the two countries are being resolved.

SCIUTTO: And we shouldn't forget the ongoing wars in Gaza. Of course, there has been quite significant Israeli military action. There was significant casualties among civilians and expanding military activity in strikes inside Lebanon against Iran's proxies in those countries, Hamas and Hezbollah.

One difference in this case that we haven't seen before, and you and I have discussed and covered a lot of Israeli military activity in the region, is that Israel unusually is admitting that it carried out a strike in Iran. For instance, it did not say so publicly after the attack that killed Ismail Haniyeh, for instance, a number of weeks ago.

What's the significance of that?

CHANCE: I think it's because after the large-scale missile attack that Iran launched on Israel back in early October, you know, there was a lot of pressure from the Israeli public for the Israeli government, Netanyahu's administration to do something spectacular to show that it was not going to stand by and be hit in this way. Because it had to do this in a very public way and so part of this attack was a symbolic -- a symbolic gesture.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CHANCE: They had to show that they were doing something, they wouldn't tolerate this. Trying to stall --

SCIUTTO: Information officer, part of any military operation, right? We're seeing some of that it seems from the Israeli side and perhaps some from the Iranian side --

CHANCE: The practical aspects of it as well. The Israeli military saying they also struck these military targets, these air defense targets, these missile production targets so that if they have to go in next time, if they have to go in again, then that capability and around will be eroded.

SCIUTTO: No question. And that was one of the - one of the questions prior to this was could this be a first phase attack to some degree. For instance, if a principal target was, for instance, air defenses, would that then soften the target for a potential more extensive strike even against nuclear facilities at a later date.

Of course, we don't know what Israel will decide on that.

Matthew Chance, thanks so much.

I do want to go to Washington now. Our Julia Benbrook, who is at the White House. Julia as the U.S. and Israel -- they've been in quite close touch for weeks regarding Israel's possible response, including some pressure, I think we can reasonably describe it as from U.S. officials for Israel not to expand this war, to limit the scope of its response.

Do you have a -- have you gotten a sense from White House officials whether they're satisfied with what Israel carried out today?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well of course, they're being careful with everything that they say, but we know that President Joe Biden has been briefed multiple times following the strike and is following developments.

They're also calling for calm and de-escalation. A senior administration official had said that Biden had encouraged Netanyahu do to design an attack that would defer any future attacks against Israel.

And for weeks now, the United States had urged Netanyahu to exercise restraint and to avoid attacking Iran's oil and nuclear assets. And the decision to not attack oil and nuclear sites could lead open the possibility for de-escalation. Of course, we will see how Iran, or if Iran will respond to these latest attacks.

I do want to pull up a statement from a White House national security spokesperson he said, Israel has announced that their response to Iran's ballistic missile attack on October 1st is now complete. As the Israelis have stated, "Their response was an exercise in self-defense and specifically of weighted populated areas and focus solely on military targets, contrary to Iran's attack against Israel and targeted Israel's most populous city."

So they are referring to this attack as targeted, precise, and very carefully prepared. They're now calling on Iran to seize any sort of a response and put an end to this cycle of fighting.

SCIUTTO: Of course, U.S. military officials have been in quite close touch with their Israeli counterparts in recent weeks and months. Certainly regarding the possibility of this Israeli strike on Iran.

How is the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin -- how is he reacting to this overnight attack?

BENBROOK: similar response to what we're hearing in some of those quotes. We know that he did speak with the Israeli defense minister following the attacks and he posted some of what that -- happened during that conversation. We'll pull some of that up for you now.

He said, quote, "I reaffirmed the ironclad commitment to the United States to Israel's -- of the United States, excuse me, to Israel's security and right to self-defense."

[11:09:44]

BENBROOK: "I made it clear that the United States maintains an enhanced force posture to defend U.S. personnel, Israel and partners across the region in the face of threats from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist organizations, and is determined to prevent any actor from exploiting tensions of expanding the conflict in the region."

So any comments that we're getting from the administration are clear that the focus is on de-escalation. And Jim, we know that President Joe Biden has been very focused on foreign policy, on peace in the Middle East in these final months of his presidency.

He'll be speaking at a campaign event later this afternoon. No word on if he will mention this specifically, but could be an opportunity to hear from the president himself.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And of course, the White House was quite concerned about potential effects on the election with that just -- just about a week- and-a-half away here. And perhaps they're breathing something of a sigh of relief based on the reaction we've seen so far here.

Julia Benbrook at the White House, thanks so much.

We will have much more at the very top of the hour. Until then, after a short break. We will return to THE AMANPOUR HOUR here on CNN.

[11:10:56]

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