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Israel and Iran Launch New Round of Attacks; Trump Weighing Strikes on Iran Nuclear Sites; Trump Demands Iran's "Unconditional Surrender". Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 18, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Well, hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and around the world. I'm Becky Anderson live from our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi, where the time is 12:00 p.m. It is 11:30 a.m. in Tehran. 11:00 a.m. in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the 18th of June.

The conflict between Israel and Iran showing no signs of slowing down as the two sides unleash fresh attacks against one another. The Israeli military says more than 50 of its fighter jets carried out a wave of strikes overnight in the Tehran area. They targeted Iranian centrifuge and missile production sites, according to authorities. Israel issued an evacuation order for part of the Iranian capital on Tuesday, and many of its residents have been fleeing north.

Meanwhile, President Trump is debating whether to enter the conflict by striking Iranian nuclear facilities, specifically sites that Israel has not been able to reach. Even though he swore off foreign war, sources say he is warming up to military action and souring on the prospects of a diplomatic solution.

Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader promising a strong response to what he called the terrorist Zionist regime. He posted this blunt warning on X, the battle begins. The Israeli prime minister's office says Iran has launched more than 400 missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel since last Friday when it initially unleashed the barrage of strikes on Iran. Some have these incoming strikes into Israel have breached the Iron Dome and hit 40 sites inside Israel.

Well, it is 4:00 a.m. in Washington, D.C. or just after -- D.C. And President Trump earlier demanding Iran's unconditional surrender in a post on social media. He also had a warning for the country's supreme leader, calling him an easy target, but saying the U.S. won't take him out, at least for now. CNN's Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes has more.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House confirming President Donald Trump and prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke on the phone on Tuesday. However, they would not give any indication of what the two leaders spoke about or when that call was. The timing of that call is particularly important, particularly given the fact that Donald Trump sat down with his National Security Council, with its heads of cabinets, as well as top advisers for an hour in the Situation Room. And what we were trying to glean from the White House, from sources familiar was when the call with Netanyahu took place, was it before or after? But they're not offering any information here as to you to talk to these White House officials who say everything is just too sensitive.

Now, one of the things that we have been reporting is Donald Trump's shift away from this diplomatic avenue that he originally wanted to take. Donald Trump had been incredibly wary of getting the United States more involved in what was going on between Israel and Iran. But the president in recent days has started to shift towards this understanding, towards this posture that the United States might need to be involved.

Now, one of the things that I've been told by administration officials that they are watching for is if Iran strikes any U.S. assets, any military bases, anything that has -- any place that houses American citizens, that would lead to an almost immediate retaliation. But what we're not quite sure of is the United States or has President Trump come to a place where he will agree to have the United States strike first, to be actually more participatory in this fight between Israel and Iran?

As we've said, there are so many factions within the Republican Party and within Donald Trump's closest advisers, some urging him America first policy, do not get involved. Others saying, Israel can handle it themselves. And others still saying that it is the United States' duty to get involved and to protect Israel.

One of the things I'm told is a big consideration for the president and for the White House is how long this would actually take to be done. Is this -- if the United States did enter into this conflict, is this something that would be incredibly drawn out or could be concluded in a matter of days? Donald Trump, president, he is insistent that anything that happens, whether he's involved or not involved is a short runway. They do not want to be tangled up into something in the Middle East for years to come.

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One of the things of course he promised on the campaign trail was there would be no wars when he became President.

Kristin Holmes, CNN, The White House.

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ANDERSON: Well, as we await further details on U.S. intentions, Paula Hancocks has been keeping a close eye on the minute by minute, unrelenting strikes and on day six. What's the latest from or on military action from authorities on both sides? PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, starting on what we've seen from Israel overnight and the early hours of today too, Iran, they specified that they had about 20 targets that they were hitting. In particular, they say centrifuge production sites. So, very much focusing on the nuclear program, making sure that they can take out as much as they can above ground at this point.

And also making sure, according to the military, that they have disabled or at least lessened Iran's ability to retaliate. So, we know that aerial defense systems are being taken out. The ability to produce missiles is being targeted.

The military itself is saying that they believe they've had some success in this. Just looking at the amount of missiles incoming to Israel on Monday, for example, you had hundreds, and then, of course, yesterday and this morning, there are far less.

Now, at this point, we don't know if that is because they have managed to dismantle a lot of these launchers, for example, or whether Iran is actually trying to hold something back so that they have something to go forward with. But when it comes to the other side, when we're looking at what Iran has managed to achieve militarily in Israel, according to the military of Israel, some 400 plus missiles have been launched and at least 40 of them have actually impacted sites. So, not all of these missiles are being intercepted.

And one key one, Iran is claiming that it did manage to hit an Israeli intelligence center in Tel Aviv. Now, Israel hasn't specifically commented on that, but they have, according to an official said, there have been hits on military targets. So, acknowledging that Tehran is doing some damage in Israel.

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Paula. Thank you. Paula Hancocks here with me in Abu Dhabi. Yaakov Katz is a senior columnist at the Jerusalem Post. He's a fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. He's with us from Jerusalem.

And now, that you've had a few days of people being forced into shelters as well as some casualties, can you just describe the mood where you are?

YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST, JERUSALEM POST: Well, Becky, in Jerusalem, actually, we've been a little lucky over the last two nights. Sirens have not been going off here. It seems that the Iranian missile assaults are very much focused at the moment on the center of the country, on the north, some of the more strategic installations. We know that, for example, an Iranian missile hit and oil -- a gas refinery plant in the City of Haifa in the north.

So, the missiles, for now, seem to be very focused on that coastal line that you know very well, from the north of Haifa all the way down to Tel Aviv and a little further south, as well as some of the air force bases that they keep trying to hit further south in the Negev desert near the City of Be'er Sheva.

So, it's still very anxious. People are concerned. I could tell you, just personally speaking, my brother, sister-in-law and two nieces who live near Tel Aviv have moved into our house here in Jerusalem to get out of the rockets way. Here, it's a little safer, as much as we can call it, Becky.

ANDERSON: Yaakov, U.S. intelligence officials believe that Israel's attacks have set back Iran's nuclear program, but only by a matter of months. The head of the IAEA says that Iran's nuclear enrichment capabilities have been severely impacted, but not wiped out completely, speaking to CNN in the past hours. He did say that one key site in particular has suffered significant damage from your sources. From those of you are speaking to in authority in Israel, how do you assess Israel's sense of success to date?

KATZ: Well, the success needs to be looked into at three different categories. The -- there's -- first the skies of Iran. Israel has pretty much opened them up. There's no real threat today to Israeli aircraft, and that gives Israeli aircraft the ability to operate quite freely over Iran today, a country that is nearly 2,000, 1,500 kilometers away from where I am.

The second category is the missile -- the ballistic missiles. Yes, they still are able to fire some, not at the level that we initially anticipated. It is also true that about 10 percent do land. There is no such thing as a hundred percent missile defense, but when considering that 90 percent of the missiles are intercepted by Israeli and Americans interceptors, that is also quite a significant accomplishment.

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But to the third category of the nuclear program, this is something that is still time is needed for. Israel has caused some extensive damage at Natanz, which is the main enrichment facility. There are still questions of whether Israel has penetrated the lower chambers where the main centrifuges and those halls of cascades of centrifuges were locate located. But there are indications that by hitting the electrical plant that supplied the currents of electricity to the centrifuges, they might have caused some irreparable damage. And the IAEA has said so much that it -- to those facilities and to those centrifuges at Natanz.

But the big one, Becky, the big question mark is Fordow, and that is buried about a kilometer deep inside a mountain, near the Holy City to the Shia Muslims called Qom. That is the facility that Israel alone cannot penetrate, and that is what everyone is talking about, whether Donald Trump will send those B-2 bombers with the MOP, the Massive Ordinance Penetrator, a 13-ton bomb and whether he will do so to be able to once and for all really set back the Iranians in a way that Israel cannot do on its own.

ANDERSON: And the U.S. president's decision as yet unconfirmed. He -- his rhetoric, unconditional surrender, for example, which is what he posted to the Iranian regime overnight on Truth Social, indicates at least that the U.S. could get involved in this fight. CNN reporting that Israeli officials are optimistic on that point, what are you hearing? KATZ: Look, Israeli officials, I think, very much would like to see a more active U.S. role in this, and that really if the American military were to take on some of these more hardened targets, whether it's Fordow and some others, and what's left remaining of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, it can finish up business quite quickly. And it would really decimate what the Iranian regime has left for its military.

But with that said, this is going to be a U.S. decision, and I think it's 50-50 at this point. It could be that what we're seeing with those tweets from the president is a lot of brinksmanship, saber- rattling all meant really to get the Iranians to willingly dismantle, to come back to the table and say, we're willing to get rid of our enrichment. We don't need that anymore. Which was true, they never really needed a uranium to 60 percent. There's no civilian use. It's only for military purposes. And if that were to happen, that would be a potentially ending for all sides.

ANDERSON: If the U.S. gets involved, the nuclear program will presumably be their target, but Israeli leaders have made no secret of the fact they wouldn't mind if this regime fell in the process. What is Israel expecting were that to be the case on a day after?

KATZ: I really encourage a lot of humility back here in Israel when talking about potential regime change. We've had too many examples throughout -- even recent history where the Americans have tried this in different countries. Israel had a bad experience back in the '80s in Lebanon. Regime change is not something that is easily done, and it doesn't always end up the way you want it when you're thinking about doing it.

I think what we see happening is that Iran is much more of a paper tiger or a spider web than we initially thought. It's not as strong, it's not as resilient, and the people are not united behind their very oppressive regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And that does create an opportunity for some sort of change or a public uprising.

We've seen, Becky, and you've reported on this for years, the protests within Iran, whether it was the women who no longer wanted to have to cover their hair or the green movement back in 2009 during Barack Obama's presidency. There is that movement. There is that feeling on the ground that things can be better for Iran. And Israel has always made a distinction, our problem is not with Iranian people, our problem is with this regime that calls for our annihilation.

So, if something can change, I really think it has to come from within and that we should just be humble and approach this with humility, not think that we can orchestrate from afar what is best for the people of a country of 70, 80 million people.

ANDERSON: It is not clear at all what that change might look like, i.e., who might lead that change either. You know, somebody who is outside of Iran at present or, you know, people inside. And there is obviously significant concern that is Iran could descend into civil war or instability at this point without any stewardship or leadership in place for a day after. [04:15:00]

You and I will continue to discuss this, Yaakov. It's good to have you on. Before I let you go, we've learned this morning that Israel has launched a program to repatriate citizens stranded abroad by flight cancellations. And you've written, quote, "Why Israelis are trying to escape from holiday beaches back to a war zone." Can you just briefly explain that drive?

KATZ: Well, I was on a flight Thursday night back to Tel Aviv, and we were supposed to land just as the attacks began. My flight was diverted, an LL flight to Cyprus where I was stuck for about two days. And all those two days, every Israeli I met in Cyprus was doing the same thing, how do we get back home to our families who were hunkering down in bomb shelters to one of my daughters who's an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces?

And two nights ago, Sunday night, I was able to find a spot on a tugboat, Becky, and we sailed 17 hours from Limassol back to Haifa. And I'll tell you, one really crazy moment was as we're setting sail off in the distance heading towards Israel, we see interceptions. And that just made it clear, this is -- we're moving into war zone. But there wasn't a single person among the nine passengers with me who said, no, we should turn back. It just -- it strengthened the resolve to get back to our country in its hour of need.

ANDERSON: Yaakov Katz in Jerusalem, thank you for joining us this morning.

KATZ: Thank you.

ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson. You're watching CNN. Still to come, Iran has been launching waves of strikes against Israel. And some experts believe they may be depleting their arsenal. More on that is up next.

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ANDERSON: With the Israel Iran conflict now in its sixth day, U.S. intelligence officials believe that Israel's attacks have set back Iran's nuclear program, but only by a matter of months. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran's nuclear enrichment capabilities have been severely impacted, but not wiped out completely. Rafael Grossi did tell CNN though the one key site in particular has suffered significant damage.

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RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: To the facility I would say that the one that has sustained the worst, I would say, damage is one, which is called Natanz. The aboveground facility was wiped out, was completely destroyed. And on top of that, the entire electrical power installation on which the whole compound operates was also taken out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, that was Rafael Grossi is speaking to CNN in the past hours. Just how long Iran can continue launching missile strikes on Israel as it has done overnight, again, into what is it sixth day depends on the size of its arsenal, of course, which in many ways remains a mystery. CNN's International Security Editor Nick Paton Walsh tells us what analysts believe Iran may have.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): The loudest clock ticking is how long this intensity of conflict can go on. Iran under greatest pressure, may reach a breaking point first. They're estimated to have had a stockpile of up to 3,000 missiles between two and 1,000 of them able to reach Israel.

BEHNAM BEN TALEBLU, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: The best estimate we have is at best a back of the envelope calculation of anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000 medium-range ballistic missiles.

WALSH (voice-over): But those stockpiles were challenged before this phase of the conflict. Iran fired about 120 at Israel on the 13th of April, 2024, and then another 200 on the 1st of October that year. And in the last five days have fired an estimated 380. 700 used in a year, and at very best 1,300 left. Others less optimistic.

EYAL PINKO, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MIGRATION AND SECURITY RESEARCH: Take into consideration that they fired around 400, 500 in the last four days, and Israel destroyed some of the arsenal of what they had, I believe they stayed now with 800, 700 more.

WALSH (voice-over): But Israel has claimed success in hitting the missile launchers, releasing this graphic of targets, including at least a third, they say, of Iran's surface-to-surface launchers.

PINKO: Israel is trying now not only to hit or to defend the missiles in the air, to intercept them, but also to destroy the vehicles before launching, because this is the -- this is the weakest part of the chain.

WALSH (voice-over): Israel has claimed Iran could make 300 ballistic missiles a month, like this Fattah-1, apparently used in the recent attacks. But on October the 26th, three waves of retaliatory strikes by Israel hit Iran's air defense and missile production, in which the U.K. defense chief said, only a hundred bombs took down nearly the entirety of Iran's air defense system. It has destroyed Iran's ability to produce ballistic missiles for a year, he said.

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TALEBLU: I don't even think they want to go below four digits. But it's certainly a bind that the regime finds themselves in. You know, for the Islamic Republic quantity has a quality of its own. And having to expend these ballistic missiles during a time of war rather than a time of crisis precisely puts it in this bind.

WALSH (voice-over): The mystery number of how many missiles Iran has left dictating its actions and the outcome of this defining conflict.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

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ANDERSON: Well, you're watching our special coverage of the conflict between Israel and Iran now in its sixth day from our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson. We will take a look at what the IDF says it was targeting in Tehran overnight. That is just ahead.

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