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Trump Announces Air Strikes On 3 Nuclear Sites In Iran; Soon: Trump To Address Nation At 10PM ET After Strikes On Iran; U.S. Told Rain That Airstrikes Would Be Contained, And Nothing Further Is Planned. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired June 21, 2025 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

BRETT MCGURK, FORMER MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA COORDINATOR, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Just a little bit what you were just talking about, Anderson. I mean where does he see this going? His theme is peace through strength. He's done this unprecedented operation, and then where does he see it going? I think we will hear him say he still wants to deal with Iran. He like he has no animosity towards the Iranian people. But you know, a president as powerful as he is, I got to step back. He will not be in control of the events here over the coming days.

Decisions made in Iran, whether they're coordinated decisions, whether they're one-off decisions by some other proxies could set a course of events. We have to be ready for that. But I suspect he will emphasize as we just heard from Natasha, this was a limited operation with a specific objective, and that's it.

And then call for diplomacy and a peaceful Middle East. I assume that's what he'll hear. I hope that's where this goes. But as I said, we got to be prepared for the worst while hoping and working for the best. And sometimes if you get in the middle, that's not bad. But that's -- these next few days will be quite something. These are unprecedented times.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: They certainly are. We'll talk to you after the President's address. It is 10:00 o'clock in the east coast of the United States. It's 5:00am here in Tel Aviv. We got word of this attack through the President's social media post which occurred just a little bit more than two hours ago. Remarkable given the diplomacy that we saw take place on Friday in Europe which didn't seem to go anywhere. Whether this was the President's plan all along in setting within two week window, it certainly has apparently according to the US been an effective strike. We're going to hear from the President now momentarily and we'll have more reporting as soon as he's done.

We're waiting for the President to speak here with Jeremy Diamonds as well as Clarissa Ward. This is a talk which is not only going to be here's the President coming now. Let's listen.

(BEGIN LIVE VIDEO STREAMING) DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. A short time ago,

the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise.

Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.

For 40 years, Iran has been saying, death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people. And hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate. In particular, so many were killed by their general, Qassem Soleimani.

I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue. I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team like perhaps no team has ever worked before. And we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel.

I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many decades.

Hopefully, we will no longer need their services in this capacity. I hope that's so. I also want to congratulate the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Razin Caine. Spectacular general. And all of the brilliant military minds involved in this attack.

[22:05:01]

With all of that being said, this cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.

Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. But if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight. Not even close. There has never been a military that could do what took place just a little while ago.

Tomorrow, General Caine, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will have a press conference at 8:00 a.m. at the Pentagon. And I want to just thank everybody and in particular, God. I want to just say we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East, God bless Israel, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.

(END LIVE VIDEO STREAMING)

COOPER: President Trump speaking from the White House. Want to bring in Jake Tapper on the phone. Jake, a remarkable turn of events over the last two hours here.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER: It is indeed. And now, of course, the big question is what happens in the next 48 hours? The individuals I've spoken to over the last hour or two who are either in the Trump administration or close to the Trump administration, say the next 48 hours is key to see what the Iranians do.

Obviously, President Trump, from the remarks we just heard, is hoping that this will be the end of it. But as is said in the military, the enemy gets a vote as well. And some of the things that they'll be looking for the U.S. observing the Iranians are, first of all, even though President Trump did describe the strikes on the three sites, Fordow, Nathanz, and Isfahan as having been completely and totally obliterated, really, it's a question of how accurate that is. Is there any of this weapons program left at all?

Obviously, the strikes in Fordow and Isfahan in particular are more difficult, are more easier said than done in terms of total destruction. The Fordow facility, obviously, underneath a mountain. And so the question that a lot of people in the administration are wondering is, was this in fact a complete and utter success? And if there is any material left, any nuclear material left, does the strike embolden and empower the hardliners within the Iranian regime to then continue with their nuclear weaponization program in even more haste? So that's one thing they're going to be looking for.

Beyond that, obviously, is the question of what about military retaliation by the Iranians the Israelis have degraded to a great extent, my sources tell me, long-range ballistic missiles that Iran has, but that does leave many short and medium-range ballistic missiles. So the question then, does Iran continue to attack Israel? Does Iran attack U.S. Troops, U.S. service members in Iraq, in the UAE, in Qatar? Do they go after any American service members with the 5th fleet? Do they do so with missiles? Do they do so with sleeper cells, which are obviously throughout the regime?

That's something else that people will be looking at. Will the Iranians look to destabilize the region by attacking the Saudis or the Emiratis, as has happened in the past? Will they try to close off the Straits of Hormuz? So these are some of the questions. And obviously, people in military planning and in the White House are already talking about secondary, tertiary, and on.

For example, you heard President Trump there threaten that if this isn't the end of it, there's more that's going to come that could come to Iran. One such target might be Kharg Island, right off the coast of Iran, which is about 80 percent of Iran's fuel goes through that site. So that's something else that they'll be looking at.

For those who are curious about how this squares with Trump's promise to not get involved in Middle East wars, the domestic politics of that in the United States, sources in the administration say that President Trump does not view airstrikes like this or missile strikes as the same type of thing, an extended protracted war in the Middle east as we had in Iraq or Afghanistan, in fact, has long been urging his military to do more, to strike the Houthis in Yemen, for example.

[22:10:03]

So I don't know that this actually is at odds with his pledges in the past, but that is something that will be debated by his coalition. And lastly, I guess Anderson, is the question as to why now? Why did President Trump feel the need to do this given the fact that his own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified in March saying that the conclusion of the intelligence community was that Iran had not made the decision to go forward with its nuclear weapons program?

Well, the understanding I have is that a lot of Israeli intelligence has contradicted that, especially in the last few months, especially at the Fordow and Isfahan nuclear sites and as it was described to me, the Iranians. Even in the midst of negotiating, Anderson, even in the midst of negotiating, the Iranians had their pedal to the metal, as it were, in terms of the nuclear enrichment program.

And so the feeling was inside the White House, they just could not take that risk. And that's where we are.

COOPER: Yes, certainly a lot of concern on the speed with which and also obviously the more recent comments by the IAEA, though the IAEA certainly is not calling for any kind of military intervention. They were calling for diplomacy. But they certainly raised concerns about the speed of the nuclear program, the enrichment of the -- up to 60 -- 60 percent enrichment and the speed with which that could become 90 percent weapons-grade enrichment.

Jake, we're going to check back in with you. Kristen Holmes is standing by at the White House. Kristen, it was a -- Kristen Holmes, it was a short speech, but what stood out to you?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that what he said, what President Trump said there is exactly what we have been hearing behind the scenes of the conversations he had been having with his advisers in the moments leading up to these strikes, talking about the diplomatic side of this. We know that he said he wanted to stop the nuclear threat. That's why he had to do that. We have been hearing that in the last couple of days, U.S. officials had begun to believe that this was a necessary action. But the other part of this that I really want to point out here was when he said Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.

We continue to hear, even in this late hour, even after the strikes, that President Trump and the administration is seeking a deal with Iran. They believe that these strikes will help bring Iran to the table.

Obviously, we have differing beliefs among other military officials, but that is the belief of the administration and of President Trump himself that this could be a singular strike getting in, getting out, and then getting Iran to the table here. And there's a couple pieces of context that I want to give about where President Trump was and what this speech looked like, because it was very interesting that he stood there in the East Room. President Trump tends to like to deliver these kind of addresses by himself in the Oval Office. But if you'll remember, the East Room is where President Obama delivered the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. That is the place where we have seen some of the biggest presidential announcements of all time.

But also interesting who he had with him. He had his Secretary of Defense. He had Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. He also had JD Vance, the Vice president. These are all people who we have been told have been working with him nonstop. And you have to remember, Anderson, when we talk about this administration, it is so different from other administrations in the fact that they are so insular to the people who are around them and their political beliefs. They are not having the same kind of big meetings with career officials that you saw so many of these past administrations having.

A lot of these decisions are being made among a very small group of people who are Trump loyalists, Trump elitists. You even heard him there saying at one point that he thanked his Joint Chiefs of Staff as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine. The other part of this that stood out to me was him talking about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said, we worked as a great team. We worked as any team could be. He is clearly putting them both forward in doing these strikes. And that had been something that, as we have been reporting, I mean, the day after Israel struck Iran, the first time, I think, was two weeks ago, we saw that statement from the secretary of State distancing themselves from Benjamin Netanyahu, distancing themselves from Israel, saying that we had nothing to do with this. This was a unilateral attack.

Clearly now this has all changed. It has all evolved. And he is saying that he did this essentially with next to the prime minister of Israel.

Now, of course, the question is what happens next and where do we go from here? And that's what we're trying to get these administration officials on the phone to tell us what they believe the next steps are.

COPPER: A lot of concern, obviously, about what Iran is going to do next. And all eyes waiting for that. We'll check back in with you a little bit. Fareed Zakaria also standing by.

[22:15:01]

Fareed, I mean, this is moving very quickly. There's a lot of questions remain. Benjamin Netanyahu is going to be addressing people here in Israel. We've yet to hear anything official out of Iran. What are you expecting?

FAREED ZAKAIRA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKAIRA GPS: Well, the president's speech was quite striking and very different in tone from the way he has been talking about this conflict for weeks, maybe months. You know, for much of the time that he's been talking, he's talked about how he doesn't hold anything against Iran. He thinks of it as a great nation and a great people. He wants it to prosper. They just can't have nuclear weapons.

This time it was a much tougher speech, much tougher on the Iranians talking about state sponsorship of terrorism, killing Americans, roadside bombs. So it seemed that the president had decided, having used military force, he now wanted to, you know, to amp up the pressure to force an Iranian series of concessions, if not, in fact, some kind of surrender.

And what strikes me about it is with Trump, you really do see the, you know, the emotional temperature changing. When the operation began with the Israelis, he was distancing himself from it. When he saw it succeed, he decided to pile on, and he jumped in. And now that it's gone well, he is trying to extract maximum concessions, as you say. The most important question is, how are the Iranians going to react to all this? This was a very tough speech.

It was basically saying, give up or else. And there was a threat in there, which is if you don't concede, if you don't do what we tell you, there will be more strikes and there will be more targets. And the implication was very clearly that the United States will do it. So this is not the end of the American campaign. This is a pause waiting to see how the Iranians respond. And we don't yet know, you know, how they're responding.

One final thought about all this, Anderson, is, of course, it's also worth noting that the president used military force in a situation that cannot really be described as preemptive. There was no danger of an Iranian attack to the United States. And as many senators and congressmen have pointed out, including Republicans, the power to go to war against another country is lodged in the Constitution with Congress. And what President Trump has done, and he's done this in a variety of places, is really try to unshackle the executive branch from any constraints that he believes it operates under.

This was the case of the President of the United States essentially attacking a foreign nation in an unprovoked way, without any congressional authorization, without even not even a congressional resolution or motion, which sometimes, you know, presidents seek, even when it's not a formal declaration of war. So it'd be interesting to see whether there's any congressional reaction to all this.

COPPER: Fareed, and we were told that he had given some advance notice to some members of Congress, not sure how many involved, but to your point, not perhaps what many in Congress wanted him to do and said and spoke to that. Fareed, thanks very much. I'm here with Jeremy Diamond, Clarissa Ward, it really is now a

question of, I guess, what Iran chooses to do, what Israel continues to choose to do, and it remains to be seen.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I just thought it was so striking. You know, Fareed talked about it as a threat. I mean, essentially President Trump was saying to Iran and to the Iranian regime and to the Ayatollah, if you want to survive, you take this one on the chin and you come back to the negotiating table. This is your chance now to survive. If you're going to fight, then we're going to have a problem. I mean, he said it's peace or tragedy. That's the choice that's being given.

And I think it's worth just for our viewers who are not poring over the minutiae of geopolitics every second hour of the day to go through the different sort of proxies that Iran has at its disposal. The nearest one to hear, of course, is Hezbollah in Lebanon, significantly weakened and degraded, did not get involved when Israel began its operations against Iran. Do they now feel pressured to do something, to respond in some kind of way? Because, by the way, Iran has been very clear that if the U.S. got involved, every American citizen and every American soldier in this entire region is a legitimate target in the eyes of Iran. Then you have the Houthis in Yemen.

Obviously, they had cut a deal with the U.S. previously. All bets are off there now. So that's another one.

[22:20:06]

Then you have one that we haven't talked about as much, Qatar -- Hezbollah, which is one of the proxies inside Iraq. I thought it was interesting as well that President Trump brought up those roadside bombs back in the days, the early invasion of Iraq. You had Muqtada al-Sadr, the famous Shia cleric, with his militia would attack U.S. soldiers with these EFPs, these molten copper roadside bombs that were absolutely lethal and wounded and killed many American soldiers. The very fact that he's bringing that up again, reminding us all of the various different proxies across this region who could well now be mobilized in a coherent or maybe sort of ad hoc way.

And, you know, it's an extraordinary moment. It's incredibly risky moment, not to mention the whole sort of international law component of this, which we haven't even been able to get into. But it feels honestly akin to the sort of U.S. Invasion of Iraq, not in terms of the scale of it, but in terms of the significance.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: And we should also step back for a moment and just think about what has happened over the course of the last week, because this is an earthquake moment for the entire region. I mean, we have heard Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I've spoken with a lot of Israeli officials who have talked to about this idea of reshaping the Middle East post October 7th. I mean, they have effectively neutered the threat of Hezbollah, which at this very moment would be playing an enormously significant role in any kind of Iranian retaliation. We have seen what has happened to Hamas in Gaza. And now we have also

watched as the Iranians have, you know, carried out ballistic missile strikes in Israel. But, but certainly, you know, perhaps not to the level that Israeli officials had anticipated and expected. 50 percent of Iran's ballistic missile launchers have now been destroyed. And now Iran, entire nuclear program, according to the president, at least, has now been destroyed. And the potential threat of any kind of decision by the Iranians to weaponize that nuclear program has now been taken off the table, at least for the time being.

And this is just an entire reshaping of the Middle East, of the way in which Israel and the United States would be able to operate in such a region without such a significant threat from Iran. And President Trump, as you rightly point out, Clarissa, has now said to the Iranians, if you want to survive, you will come to the table and you will end this and important to note. He also told them that he needs to -- they need to do it quickly. And so how long is the president going to give the Iranians now to address this issue, to form a kind of agreement here, and to be able to move forward and survive if that's the choice that they make?

WARD: You know, we're talking about this idea of reshaping the Middle East. I mean, I don't want to be a giant Debbie Downer here, but we've seen this movie before, right? And it did not end well. And I'm not saying in this case that's what's going to happen. But we need to keep in mind recent history, and the possible ramifications of this are huge.

COOPER: There's a lot of moving parts to this. Barak Ravid is also joining us. Barak, I'm wondering what you made of the president's remarks sending a very clear message to Iran. Essentially, you have a choice to make, and saying that the U.S. would keep attacking if they make the wrong one.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: And I think the reason President Trump said that is because there's a real concern that now the Iranians will retaliate. They said several times in the last few days that if the U.S. joins this war and attacks their nuclear facilities, they will retaliate against U.S. Forces in the region, against U.S. Interests. And there are a lot of those.

There are U.S. bases in Qatar, in the UAE, in Saudi Arabia, in Bahrain. They are all in the range of Iran's missiles and not even the long-range missiles. And there and the Iranians have thousands of short-range missiles that can reach those U.S. bases. And I think this is now the number one question, are the Iranians going to launch this retaliation? Question number two, are the Iranians going to close the Strait of Hormuz? This is another threat they made. And closing the Strait of Hormuz would influence the entire commercial shipping in the Gulf. Much of it is oil and natural gas.

This will get energy prices up. This will influence the entire world's economy. We're talking about 30 percent of the world's oil exports are moving through the Strait of Hormuz. This is a very serious situation that can develop out of this military strike tonight. [22:25:00]

COOPER: It also, the president has said very clearly that U.S. Airspace completely and totally obliterated. Those were his words, are having them on the screen, the nuclear sites. Do you think it's too soon to know that for sure? I mean, will it take, I mean, daylight is just now breaking here in Tel Aviv. Is it going to take a while to really assess the damage?

RAVID: So I'll tell you. I asked a senior Israeli official who was sitting in the Israeli cabinet bunker while the US Bombers bombed Iranian nuclear facilities. And he said that first, it's too soon to know exactly what the results of the strikes are. But he said something more interesting, in my opinion is that everything that happened in the last 10 days, the Israeli strikes and now the U.S. strikes, has taken the Iranian nuclear program several years back. And even if the Iranians will try and rebuild it will take time. And this senior Israeli official told me if they try to rebuild it, we will come back again.

And if we need, we will come back again. The same way Israel is doing in Lebanon against Hezbollah, same way it was trying to fight Iranian military entrenchment in Syria. That's the plan right now.

The Iranians will have to choose if they're trying to rebuild the plan, this nuclear program, and then face potential strikes in the future to destroy it again.

COOPER: So, Barak, if you are Israel today, do you continue air operations over Iran or do you wait and see?

RAVID: I'm not sure it's needed at the moment. Again, I don't know if, I mean, the IDF always has more targets in Iran. They need to take out more and more missile launchers because the Iranians are going to retaliate. And there is a race between the number of missiles and missile launchers the Iranians have and the number of interceptors that the Israelis have. Therefore, I think the Israelis will continue to hunt down those missile launchers.

But when it comes to, you know, nuclear facilities or other targets, I think more or less the big things the Israelis wanted to do, they did. And what they did not do, the U.S. did tonight.

COOPER: Isn't there concern about, or, I don't know if you're hearing concern about the location of plutonium, the location of nuclear material. I had read that there were possibilities that a lot of that had been moved to sites that the IAEA may be unaware of, and that, you know, the U.S. and Israel may be unaware of.

RAVID: I think that's a major concern you're talking about. It's not. The problem is that we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium. This is not, you know, some small amount of uranium that you put in a suitcase and take somewhere. We're talking about big stockpiles that I'm not sure that anybody who's not the Iranians know where it is right now. And this means that for a long time, we might not have clear information about where is Iran's enriched uranium. And to enriched uranium from 60 percent to 90 percent, which is what you need to build a nuclear bomb, you don't need thousands of centrifuges. You need a dozen centrifuges in some secret location somewhere in order to do it. That's, I think, the biggest threat. If the Iranians are capable to find a secret location where they can take the or in which uranium, they still have to take some centrifuges that they might still possess, put it all together and try to dash for some sort of a nuclear device that they can detonate and show that they're capable.

And obviously, if they will be able to do that, then the world will see, will look completely different afterwards. So I think that's the biggest question right now. If the Iranians are going to, you know, pull the brakes now and say, okay, want to cease fire, or on the other hand, push the gas and say, we're dashing for a bomb.

COOPER: Barak, as somebody who has reported on this for so long and knows its region so well, can you just. And, you know, there's a lot of folks watching who don't follow this as closely as you have over the years. Just how extraordinary is this moment right now?

[22:30:06]

RAVID: I think it's, you know, regardless of whether you support a strike U.S. strike in Iran or you oppose a U.S. strike in Iran, there is no doubt that this is a historic night. There are I think at least four US Presidents that faced this moment of saying what am I going to do with the Iranian nuclear program? Am I going to use military force to stop was Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is the only one of those presidents who decided to take military action. And this will definitely be a major part of his legacy.

COOPER: Barak Ravid, thank you very much. Brett McGurk, your comment, your thoughts after hearing from the president again, you have worked on this for a long time.

MCGURK: I think, Anderson, I've been reflecting on it, and Fareed is right that the statement up top about Iran and what this government is and what they've done, the number of Americans they've killed, I thought was right. I think it's important to remind the American people of that. Then it was kind of just stock thanking our allies. I think the level of coordination with the Israelis we've been talking about. I think it was really hand in glove that was in the statement.

But really the most important thing here is a message to Iran. I mean this was a very tough reflective of what I think the private messaging has been. This could be it. But if you respond, the president literally said we have many targets left. And I just say one final thing here.

If anyone tells you, Anderson, they know where this is going, the good optimistic case or the most pessimistic, they have no idea what they're talking about. Nobody knows. I just think we got to step back, prepare for the worst, but work diplomatically for the best possible outcome and contain escalation. Overall, I do, I have to say I think it's a good thing for the world if Iran does not have these enrichment facilities, if this was successful.

This has been a problem that's vexed us for so many years. We have to see. But you're right there in the heart of it, Anderson. And Iran is going to have to make some decisions now over the next couple days, and those will be truly faithful decisions.

COOPER: If you were in a situation room and you are watching what you're looking at the range of levers Iran has to pull if they want to attack the United States, attack Israel, respond in some way negatively to this attack, what levers do you think most likely given the degradation we've seen in Hezbollah and Hamas and the change of regime in Syria.

MCGURK: So they have three. And we know what they are. They're missiles, militias, and then terrorism, hostage taking. And that can go on for many years. Again, that's not new, something we've been dealing with for Iran for decades. But on the missiles, Anderson, it's the short-range missiles of our personnel in the Gulf.

Again, I think if Iran tries that, I suspect we have an immediate counter and we have defenses in place. But that would be a go to for Iran and the militias, particularly in Iraq. They have a lot of proxy militias in Iraq. They've been in a ceasefire over the past year or so I mentioned earlier. After October 7th, those militias came after us. Three Americans were killed about a year ago. We had to fight back, we had to strike back, and they declared a ceasefire. But it's missiles, militias, and then they're acts of terrorism and hostage taking. That's their go to.

And Barak said something right, there might be hardliners in the regime saying we should continue down that path. I suspect there's going to be other voices in Iran, particularly President Pezeshkian, who's a more moderate guy, saying, you know what guys, maybe we have not been on the best strategic course here. So they're going to have a debate within their system, what's left of it right now, about how to proceed. But that was a very tough message from the President.

Basically, this can end here. There can be peace or tragedy for Iran. That's what he said. And I suspect Iran will have to do something. But the kind of full-scale response that some might be predicting, I think it's going to be difficult for Iran to muster that. And what's so unprecedented here is that Israel controls the skies over Iran. So whatever Iran tries, we can honor significantly. It's (inaudible) the message --

[22:35:04]

COOPER: Well, let me ask you about that because the IDF said a couple of days ago they've eliminated half of the launchers for missiles. I don't know if that's the ballistic missiles, the long-range missiles. I don't know if that includes also the shorter-range missiles which you're talking about, which is what they could use against U.S. forces in the region. I guess my question is those shorter-range missiles, are they easier to launch? Do they require the kind of transportation and in some cases these longer range missiles, these ballistic missiles require because Israel has effectively destroyed the trucks that carry missiles to the launchers, these shorter range missiles, is that something that Israel controlling the air can target and continue to target?

COOPER: Yes, Anderson, and I suspect that's been going on the past eight days. You know, let me say something about this, and I'm going to be careful because I was involved in this not long ago, but this war plan against Iran and the strike that was done tonight had a number of elements to it. One of the elements was you have to eliminate the air defense the best you can and you want to eliminate missile capabilities to degrade Iran's ability to respond. I think Israel's been doing a lot of that work over the last eight days. And I expect as we learn more, the level of coordination between the Israeli military and ours on targets and everything, because we've been working on this problem for years has been quite high. So I don't know exactly what Iran's capabilities are.

I know they are certainly far less than they were nine days ago, but they still have them. And you know, we have good missile defenses and we've moved a lot of personnel as we talked earlier. But again, that's the go to for Iran. It's missiles, militias and terrorism. And this is the Iran we've been dealing with for some time. But they have a big choice to make because the president was very clear this can be it or we already have the targets picked for a more destructive response. So this is that escalation ladder that you're always on at something like this, and military parlance sometimes talked about turns.

One side takes a turn, another takes a turn. This is a big turn from the United States of America. Iran has to choose. Is it now going to make another turn? And if they do, I suspect the United States military is prepared with a fairly significant counter. But let's hope that can be contained, and you don't start going up that ladder. And that's where this diplomacy we mentioned earlier in the night, Anderson.

And I think it's borne out from what you and I discussed a couple hours ago. Immediate message was sent to Iran saying this is about the nuclear facilities, this is it can end here. Or if you make the wrong choice, it won't. But that message is being repeated by regional partners who are in touch with the Iranians. I understand. And the objective is to counter and contain that escalation risk.

COOPER: Brett, just one final question. The decision-making supreme leader has oversight and big picture given I assume his security requirements right now of trying to not get killed, and probably making communication difficult. How long do you expect? I mean who makes those decisions? And it's not like they can all go to the Situation Room and now just discuss it like they would at the White House. I assume this is more laborious now to communicate between the supreme Leader and the various people in the Revolutionary Guard and elsewhere who are still alive. How long do you think it takes to make a decision?

RAVID: Yes, that's why I understand that the kind of a coordinated full spectrum response from Iran I think is very unlikely. But you know, they have planned for this too, so they probably have some immediate responses. But again, I'm going back to missiles that probably the missiles are degraded, have already been hit. Their militias in Iraq might have broad freedom of maneuver now to take some shots at us. But you're absolutely right. I mean this is what is so extraordinary.

First, the president made clear something Clarissa basically mentioned earlier, that the Supreme Leader is only alive because Donald Trump has chosen to keep him alive. That's something the president said a week ago. I bet that was very a coordinated message.

And they have eliminated the commander of the Iranian military, General Bagheri, the commander of their missile force, General Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, General Salami, the commander of the Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, and so on and some of their deputies. So the whole structure has been removed over the last nine days.

[22:40:12]

So the idea that Iran is going to meet and and then, you know --

COOPER: I'm sorry, Brett. I got Fred Pleitgen on the phone from Tehran again. It's just hard to get communication. So I just want to jump into him.

Fred, we heard from the President. I don't know if anybody in Iran heard from him. I don't know if that would be carried. Probably not carried on Iran State TV. What are you seeing? What are you hearing today right now?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTL. CORRESPONDENT IN TEHRAN: Yes, first of all, it wasn't carried on Iran state TV, but the Iranians now coming out with condemnation. First of all, acknowledging that these strikes took place, Anderson and the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency came out and condemned this in the fullest, called it a savage attack. They also vowed to continue their nuclear program. That's sort of one of the big messages that they're trying to send. They call this against international law. They also accused the International Atomic Energy Agency being complicit in all of this. But the big key line from Iran's Energy Atomic Energy Organization is they are vowing to continue Iranian atomic energy and their nuclear program as well.

And we've also heard from several regional officials who have confirmed that attacks have taken place, that there were incursions, as they put it, into the airspaces over all three of those nuclear facilities, forgot Isfahan and Natanz. And right now, of course, it's still the early morning hours. We have heard since the last time we spoke a couple of thuds around the Iranian capital. So it's unclear whether or not there might still be other airstrikes going on by the Israeli military and maybe the Iranians responding to that. Of course, over the past night there has been a noted increase in air activity here over the Iranian capital.

We've heard the air defenses and seen the air defenses, quite frankly, a jump into action numerous times in the night hours. We've seen bursts from anti-aircraft guns in the skies as well. So it certainly did seem as though there was more going on above the Iranian capital. But of course, no one could have known that this mission ordered by President Trump was going to happen.

The Iranians, so far the government has not made a statement. It's just been the energy organization so far. But the governors, the local governors of the regions where these nuclear facilities are located. Those governments there have put out statements confirming that some sort of attack has taken place, obviously condemning those attacks as well. As the Iranians have said that there could be major consequences to that. The Iranians of course, also saying, Anderson, I think it's a key point that despite the fact that a lot of people from their military leadership had been taken out by the Israelis over the past couple of days, that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps does have a propensity and a capability to renew their ranks.

There were replacements were put in place very quickly. They say their military is functioning. They keep pointing to the fact that there are still a lot of missile attacks going onto Israeli territory. They also say that the fact that it's fewer missile strikes that are going on by the Iranians is due to the fact that they're using higher quality missiles instead of larger quantity. But they certainly do say that those missile forces are still capable and that their military leadership is still very much in attacked. Anderson.

COOPER: Hey, Fred, just the headline. Who was it or what organization within Iran it was saying that they will continue their nuclear program.

PLEITGEN: That was the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization that put out a statement calling this a savage attack, saying that it was against international law, saying or calling the International Atomic Energy Agency complicit in all this and also vowing that this will not deter, as they put it, nuclear energy and the development of Iran's nuclear energy program in the future. Of course, the Iranians, and it's something we have to stress because they stress it all the time. They continue to say that their nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. They believe that it is a right that they have that no one can take from them. And they have been vowing to continue that nuclear program no matter what the United States does.

So this is something, you know, we've been here on the ground over the past couple of days and every single official that we've been speaking to says the same thing, says this program will continue in some way, shape or form, that they'll definitely pick up the pieces. They believe it's their right.

And even when you, when I speak to officials now, when I ask them, you know, the Trump administration says that Iran can't have nuclear enrichment. They continue to now even say that is a red line for them, that enrichment will continue even if it's on a much lower level, of course we have to see what the reaction to these strikes is going to be. But the Iranians certain saying that for them the nuclear program is a red line enrichment is also something they say that they will continue to do in the future. Anderson.

COOPER: I guess the question now of course is what are their capabilities to do that. And also, where is the location of some of the nuclear material? Was it still in these facilities or was it spread out around the country? We don't have answers to that.

[22:45:11]

I understand we have some new photos from inside The Situation Room, if we can put those up. Seeing these for the first time. This is -- there, you see Marco Rubio, see President Trump, see Pete Hegseth there on the left. Vice President Vance. We're not sure at what stage of the operation these photos were taken, but these now just being released by the White House.

Clarissa and Jeremy Ddiamond here with me in Tel Aviv. Dawn has come. No air raid sirens so far here in Tel Aviv. That's good news. Hearing from Fred that the atomic organization is pledging to continue their program. That's probably not encouraging news to the White House or to anybody.

WARD: No, I mean, I think we have to be realistic that there will be some bluster and some braggadocio in the coming days, and we don't necessarily need to take it all literally because some of that will be intended for domestic consumption within Iran. We've also heard, I should mention, from the Houthis, the militant group in Yemen, they've said, quote, "that Trump must be the consequences." Again, not clear what those consequences would be, but we have seen them firing ballistic missiles towards Israel. We have also seen them hijacking ships and the Red Sea.

I did read this very interesting commentary from Karim Sajapur, who you probably know well, he's one of the real experts on Iran, works with the Carnegie Endowment. And he talked about, and I think we've, we've hit on it again and again this evening.

But just the extraordinary thing about this moment is how little we know about what comes next and how it could literally go in either direction. He wrote, you know, what happened tonight could either entrench the regime or hasten its demise. It could prevent a nuclear Iran, or it could accelerate one. But one thing he said, which I would be inclined to agree with, that I also thought was worth mentioning, is this idea that it is more likely to open a new chapter than to end it. So as much as the White House is projecting this idea of we're going to draw a line under it now. Right? New chapter, new page. Let's start again.

I think realistically, even if this does end up in the long-term having a positive impact on some level, this is a new chapter now, and we have no idea what it entails.

DIAMOND: And you also have to think about the years and the millions and hundreds of millions of dollars that the Iranian regime spent on this nuclear program.

WARD: How much civilians?

DIAMOND: How much they have staked on this program, even just from a domestic politics standpoint. I mean, this is an incredibly embarrassing moment for the Iranian regime to see these three sites, according to President Trump, at least destroyed in one fell swoop with these strikes. They are going to need to find a way to save face here. And does that entail these significant attacks that we have been anticipating potentially against U.S. troops in the region? Does it entail significant attacks against Israel, where we are right now? And how do they move forward?

And so this is an incredibly volatile moment. As much as were talking before about the way in which this is, you know, earth shattering and changing the face of the region potential, we don't know which direction things are going to go in. And this is a very delicate moment for Israel and also for U.S. troops and civilians in the region as well.

COOPER: Kylie Atwood is standing by. Kylie Understanding of new reporting on U.S. Diplomats in the region.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so what we're learning as you guys are talking about the potential Iran retaliation, we don't know what that will look like or when it will come. But the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, both of those are undergoing a pretty dramatic drawdown as we speak. There are flights that are leaving Iraq earlier this evening they were actually halted for some time because there are questions right now about the airspace in this area, as you can imagine, Anderson. But as the United States is drawing down its presence from the U.S. diplomatic posts in Iraq, we should note that they're not completely drawn down. There is set to be still a skeletal diplomatic presence, I'm told, that will be left there.

This began 10 days ago. That was when the United States made moves. President Trump said it was because the region could become dangerous that they started drawing down their non-essential personnel who were based in Iraq. So there was already some indication when that happened that the United States had reason to believe that something was coming here. This was obviously before Israel started its operation against Iran.

[22:50:10]

And so now what we're watching for is what the United States does with its other diplomatic posts in the region and also if it offers any support to Americans who are concerned about what this could turn into and want to leave. We know that the State Department is providing some support for Americans who are in Israel right now to actually leave the country. We don't know exactly how many of them have actually gotten on those flights, but this is a very dynamic situation. And rest assured that people at the State Department are really monitoring every single intelligence tidbit that they get to make these decisions about what the force posture, what the diplomatic posture should look like in the region.

COOPER: Yes, I can tell you there's a lot of Americans who are very frustrated right now here in Tel Aviv and I'm sure elsewhere in Israel, who would like to get out, who are finding it very hard to get information out of this embassy. People literally coming up to me on the street asking me for advice on how to get out. It's very difficult for people, it seems like, to get straight answers and to get flights organized or even boats, whatever it may be. There's a lot of concern about Israelis traveling, people with dual citizenship traveling through Jordan or traveling through Egypt overland for understandable reasons.

I want to bring in General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. General Clark, your thoughts on this operation, what we've learned about it. The questions that still remain about is President Trump correct that this has been completely destroyed? Exactly what may remain. How do you see it?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER (RET.): Well, no surprise about the B2 strikes in terms of their ability to hit the target. Of course, we don't know what they have actually done to the target. Natanz, Isfahan, seems like they could well have obliterated it. We don't know about Ford, or maybe they have. We also, as you all were saying, Anderson, we don't know about where the nuclear materials really are.

The Iranians have said they've already taken them out of these sites. They're distributed around the country and so forth. So we just don't know.

If it is, as Clarissa Ward was saying, a very volatile and uncertain time. I just hope that the president will use the momentum and the dominance that he has achieved to really push this regime. I hope we're not going into another argument that we had on Friday with the Europeans of, you won't enrich. Yes, we will enrich. No, you won't yes, we will. Because this really isn't about enrichment, is it? It's really about a state that has dedicated the last 40-plus years to the destruction of another state in the region.

And this is the chance to really push for a redefinition by Iran of their purpose, whether that's a regime change or just backing away from what they previously said. But it should go deeper than simply trying to avoid escalation, dominance, and hope we can restore the situation that we had before. It's about trying to move to, as Clarissa said, a new chapter. And that new chapter needs to be that Iran has given up trying to destroy Israel. If we can get to that point, so much in the region can be made so much better.

And President Trump has a unique opportunity that no president has had before to really affect dramatic change in the region. The U.S. Military is very competent. Sure it has those targets. I don't expect the military to do anything in the next 24 or 48 hours. We are going to have to wait probably on the Iranian response. But I do hope that we have people working underneath this, talking to lower-level people inside Iran and getting their sense of things. And maybe there are people inside Iran who say, enough of this old regime. Let's change the direction of Iran now, save the civilization that we have and move forward in harmony with the rest of the region.

COOPER: General Clark, I appreciate your time tonight in the minute or the two minutes or so we have left. I just want to go Back to Brett McGurk.

Brett, you have worked on this in government through multiple administrations. And I'm just wondering on a personal level, what is it like to see what's happened tonight and to think about what lies ahead?

MCGURK: Big question, Anderson. My immediate thought goes back to where you're standing and what happened in Israel on October 7th. And in those days and hours it was so fraught, and honestly as Iran joined this multi-front campaign against Israel, I mean Israel's existence and how it was going to come out of this was very much at stake.

[22:55:13]

We went to Israel with President Biden about a week after that attack and just an incredibly difficult. I just can't -- it's hard to find the words right now. But what has happened from then until now has been a human tragedy on so many levels. We mentioned Gaza, we have to get that ceasefire in place, get the hostages out, but also what Israel has done. And frankly, yes, the U.S. supported Israel and its defense throughout this entire period.

I believe strongly were right to do so. And it has now led to, I think where we are, which is extraordinary with knocking out Hezbollah, mentioned the Assad regime, everything else. And now Iran being where it is, with Israel effectively controlling Iran's skies.

However, that's all very tactical. The strategic equation is open. And I think Karim's tweet thread that was just mentioned on air is excellent, and it gets to the point I mentioned about five minutes ago, if anyone tells you they know exactly where this is going, they don't know what they're talking about. But I do believe that the world is a safer place without these enrichment facilities in Iran.

And Iran made these terrible decisions in putting these advanced central forces into fordo and basically telling the IAEA we're going to continue to escalate our program no matter what you say. I told Iranians in talks to Iran, if you keep this up guys, it's going to be taken care of one way or the other. And here we are.

So, this is a lot of blowback decisions Iran has made over the years.

COOPER: And Brett, I appreciate you being with us over these hours and these last 10 days. We were on the air together when this all began. I'm Anderson Cooper in Tel Aviv, CNN special live coverage continues right now with Wolf Blitzer after a quick break.

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