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Trump Announces U.S. Air Strikes On 3 Nuclear Sites In Iran. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired June 21, 2025 - 23:00 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.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And we're starting with the major historic breaking news that's unfolding right now. I'm Wolf Blitzer in New York.
Here's the latest -- the latest developments on this major breaking news that we're following, breaking news in Iran. American bombers have struck three, not one, not two, but three nuclear sites, major nuclear sites inside Iran. Those sites Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. They're considered the heart of Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Israeli -- Israel had struck, targeted Israel, had tried to target them in the past, but a U.S. official tells CNN that the U.S. used not one, not two, but six B-2 bombers and 12 bunker buster bombs. And that was just at the Fordow site.
And just a short time ago, the White House posted these photos on social media. They appear to show President Trump in the White House Situation Room, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Vice President J.D. Vance. Sources tell CNN that the U.S. told Iran through back-channel discussions, that the strikes would be contained, and no further strikes were planned, at least not yet.
The president addressed the nation and the world, in fact, just a short time ago. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 worlds 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, Qasem 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, 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.
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 is 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.
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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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Very strong statement from the president of the United States. Were learning, by the way, that some Republican U.S. lawmakers were in fact, told in advance about these strikes on Iran. Sources telling CNN they include the House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the Senate Majority Leader John Thune. But top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees were
kept in the dark. That's what we're told. Their Republican counterparts were briefed, even though they all are members of the so- called gang of eight, who are usually almost always notified before major U.S. military engagements.
I want to bring in right now our senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes.
Kristen, what are you learning from your sources over there about this major decision? And as I keep saying, a historic decision from the president.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT; Yeah, Wolf, I've been talking to a number of people, including people who have been briefed on what happened in the Situation Room. Just a couple of things to mention. One, he was surrounded by a lot of his top advisors and highest-ranking officials. We know his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was in the Situation Room with him when this happened, as well as the department of the secretary of defense, excuse me, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, the Vice President J.D. Vance, the chairman of joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine, all of them there when he made this very incredible and important decision, as you noted.
Now, a couple of things I want to point to that he said here, because this goes to the heart of what they are hoping to achieve tonight, in addition to doing what President Trump has said that they wanted to do, which was take out the nuclear sites, that, of course, will remain to be seen. What exactly is left. They also say these administration officials, that they are hoping that this strike is a one-time strike, and that it brings Iran to the table to have some kind of deal. And you heard this in what President Trump was saying, essentially attacking Iran over and over again, but then saying Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.
There is a belief that this strike will one have obliterated their nuclear program, but two, if that is true, bring them to the table for some kind of negotiation. The other part of this that I want to point out here is the fact that President Trump thanked Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel said that we work together as a team. It was just two weeks ago when these first strikes and missile strikes were launched from Israel to Iran, that the United States was backing away from Netanyahu, from any kind of connection to what had happened. We saw that statement from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, right after those strikes took place, saying that this was a unilateral decision that Israel informed them, informed the United States that they were going to do this. And then they made this decision to move forward. The United States had nothing to do with it.
Clearly, here we have moved on to a different page as you see him again saying this teamwork with Benjamin Netanyahu. The other part of this that has been very interesting is what we've heard from President Trump. Since there is a deep concern in the White House and the administration and among U.S. officials that Iran will retaliate. You've seen President Trump taking to truth, social posting after he gave his speech saying any retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight.
The thing to keep in mind here is that for days, the United States has been preparing for potential strikes from Iran on U.S. military assets or U.S. assets in the region. We know they have moved planes. They have moved ships. They have brought in extra blood, all in preparation for a potential strike from Iran.
There is still a serious concern that Iran will strike back on a U.S. asset. So, you can hear that here and see it from his post. But keeping an eye on now, what is the next step for this White House? Obviously, we're watching to see if Iran does, in fact retaliate. But what is the White House's plan to move forward?
They continue to stress the idea that they believe that these strikes helped the diplomatic process, in the sense that Iran will now come to the table to negotiate some kind of deal. But that, of course, remains to be seen at this hour.
BLITZER: You couldn't help but notice, Kristen, that the vice president was standing behind the president. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was there. The secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. They were all standing behind the president. I guess that's designed to underscore that this was a unanimous decision by the top national security officials over in the Trump administration.
HOLMES: That's right, Wolf, and it's really interesting to see that, because that's not generally what you see when you see presidents take to this east room to deliver this kind of address. When President Obama delivered an address in the exact same spot, announcing that the United States had killed Osama bin Laden, he did it by himself.
You usually see these kind of addresses. We've seen President Trump, who tends to do them actually in the Oval Office. He believes he has said privately he thinks that's more powerful by himself.
But as you noted, he clearly brought these three people behind him, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance.
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He also thanked the only other official that he thanked was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine, in that speech, brought them with him to show a sign of unity, but also giving us an understanding of something. When these decisions have been made in past administrations, they are usually made by a lot more large -- larger group, that includes career officials in terms of briefing, this is a very small, insular group of Trump loyalists who were in this room tonight with the president when he made this decision.
BLITZER: All right. Kristen Holmes over at the White House for us -- thanks very, very much.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has reacted very positively to the U.S. strikes thoroughly, thoroughly, without any doubt fully endorsing President Trump's decision. And the U.S. action. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Congratulations, President Trump, your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history. In Operation Rising Lion, Israel has done truly amazing things. But in tonight's action against Iran's nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It has done what no other country on earth could do.
History will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons. His leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace.
President Trump and I often say peace through strength. First comes strength, then comes peace. And tonight, President Trump and the United States acted with a lot of strength.
President Trump, I thank you. The people of Israel thank you. The forces of civilization, thank you.
God bless America. God bless Israel. And may God bless our unshakable alliance, our unbreakable faith.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: I want to bring in CNN's Anderson Cooper, who's been reporting for us from Tel Aviv.
Anderson, given what's going on, given the history, given the threats that Iran has launched not only against Israel, but against some 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, I suspect in Israel, where you are now in Tel Aviv, there's a bit of nervousness. Are the Iranians going to retaliate by going after various targets in Israel?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": It's interesting, Wolf. Obviously, this occurred in the overnight hours here in Israel. It was about just before 3:00 a.m. in in Tel Aviv that this news broke. So, a lot of Israelis dawn is just now breaking here. A lot of Israelis are waking up and hearing this news.
Now for the first time. It's now been several hours since then. It's been more than three hours. There have not been any air raid sirens going off since then. There -- this is -- it's Sunday morning here. Saturday, there were no air raid sirens as well. Friday there were two.
But -- and, thankfully, no fatalities on that day. The -- it's unclear how much of that is just how much the Iranian missile capabilities have been reduced. The IDF has said that they have already destroyed half the launchers for missiles that would have been fired from Iran.
So, I think a lot of Israelis are going to be surprised and heartened by the news when they wake up and hear it this morning. This operation by Israel is very popular here in Israel. And there's certainly a lot of people here who wanted President Trump to make this decision to go after and try to destroy these facilities remains to be seen.
The extent of the damage -- it seems like a Brett McGurk on our air talked to a senior official involved in this. They seem pleased with the level of destruction that they were able to achieve. It's likely, though, today we may learn more. Certainly U.S. officials will learn more as they have more overflights and are able to actually really assess the damage fully. Hopefully, we'll hear some more information about that.
The question remains, of course, what happens next? Will Iran try to respond by firing missiles here to Israel? Will they respond through proxy forces, though those proxy forces have been, as you well know, Wolf, very weakened, Hezbollah, Hamas as well. The change of regime in Syria.
Israel has already eliminated a lot of the air defenses that Syria had, which allowed for these flights. These flights and the continued flights by Israel a little bit easier over Iranian airspace.
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And Israel still has control over the Iranian airspace, more or less. So, it remains to be seen what levers the Iran regime decides to try to pull. They still have also the Houthis, who have made some pronouncements already that may occur today. We don't know the timetable for that. So, there's a lot of moving pieces to this.
But this is certainly something that's going to be received with a lot of excitement and appreciation here in Israel.
BLITZER: Yeah, the Israelis have made it clear officially and unofficially for days and days and days that they were really hoping the U.S. would use those B-2 bombers and those 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs to destroy Iran's nuclear enrichment program at Natanz, at Fordow, Isfahan. And there are capabilities of doing more.
And they acknowledge the Israelis -- correct me if I'm wrong, that the Israeli military did not have that kind of capability. If they were going to go and try to destroy those kinds of capabilities that the Iranians had in nuclear enrichment, they would have to do a ground invasion, which would cost a lot of potentially Israeli military lives. Is that -- was that the assessment you were getting all this time as well?
COOPER: Yeah, I think they tried to be kind of opaque about their capabilities. You know, you would -- when you would ask Israeli officials this, they would say, well, look, you know, we've thought through these operations, we're not dependent on the U.S. There's things we can do. They never really went into details.
You know, there was an operation that they conducted against a facility in Syria in the not too distant past using commandos, a very different kind of operation. But there was some suggestion that they did have some capabilities, but certainly the these -- they did not have these kind of munitions, which the U.S. is the only power that has them. And also, the only planes that could actually carry bombs that are 30,000 pounds and also multiple ones that we now understand have been used.
So, certainly, there's a lot of relief, I think, by people here that the United States -- that President Trump made this decision remains to be seen what the follow-on actions are going to be by Iran, but that -- this regime and I think here its widely acknowledged this regime in Iran is weakened in a way that none of us will -- if you've been reporting on this region for a long, long time, none of us have seen for a very, very long time the proxy forces that they do have access to are greatly weakened. And again, remains to be seen how much power they can project and where they choose to strike, if that's what they choose to do.
BLITZER: And, President Trump, as we all heard, minced no words at all. He called it a spectacular military success for the U.S. in this struggle against Iran's nuclear program.
Anderson, we'll stand very close touch with you. Thanks again for your excellent reporting. We appreciate it very, very much.
I want to go right now to CNNs security correspondent, Kylie Atwood, who's in Washington for us.
Kylie, update our viewers what you're hearing.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, one significant thing that we have learned tonight is that the United States made sure that Iran knew after these strikes through back- channel communications, that this was a contained strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. And there were no further strikes that were planned. That's significant because what it demonstrates is that the administration really does not want Iran or Iran to retaliate here. They want them to come back to the table diplomatically.
We heard from President Trump in his remarks saying that for Iran, this is going to be peace or tragedy. But he also went on to say that there are many targets left. So, holding on to the possibility that there could be further U.S. strikes against Iran if they don't come back to the table to continue those diplomatic discussions that had halted because they had not had any success and led to what we are now seeing this military conflict between the U.S. and Iran, between Iran and Israel.
One thing I do want to note, Wolf, is that as we are speaking, there is a drawdown of U.S. diplomatic personnel at the U.S. diplomatic missions in Iraq, in Baghdad and in Irbil. This is something that actually started to happen ten days ago, even before Israel started carrying out its strikes in Iran, because U.S. officials were seeing that that was a possibility. They wanted to start to draw down nonessential personnel from those missions.
Now, there is an even further drawdown of those personnel. It's not a complete drawdown. I'm told by sources familiar with this process. We have to watch and see what happens here, not just at the U.S. diplomatic missions. Of course, in Iraq, which shares a border with Iran, but also in the U.S. diplomatic missions, the U.S. embassies in the entire region.
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And there's also many Americans who are in the region and obviously concerned tonight that this could turn into a wider conflict. We don't know if that will be the case, but we'll have to watch and see if the United States makes any moves to provide any evacuations for Americans who are in the region. We know that that effort is underway when it comes to Americans who are in Israel.
We don't know exactly how many Americans have left, but that was a process that actually started today. According to the ambassador there, Mike Huckabee.
BLITZER: And I thought it was significant, Kylie, and I'm anxious to get your thoughts that in his speech, in his address to the nation, and as I said, indeed to the world, he was making it clear that the United States and Israel, the current government in Israel, the Trump administration, they are both on the same page. He was praising what Israel has been doing and promising to work closely together with Israel down the road.
I thought that was significant. What was your reaction?
ATWOOD: It's very clear from President Trump's remarks tonight that this was lockstep. The United States working with Israel. We know that Israel was given a heads up before these strikes occurred tonight on Iran's nuclear sites. Those three nuclear sites inside Iran.
We know that after these strikes occurred, according to senior administration officials, President Trump spoke on the phone with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
And we should note that it is a drastic shift in terms of the response that we saw from the administration following the first Israeli strikes on Iran that started just over a week ago. That night -- we only heard from the secretary of state, who said that the United States was not involved in those strikes, that it was a unilateral effort on behalf of the Israelis. And so, there has been quite a shift from the administration over the last week or ten days or so with regard to becoming much more aligned with Israel right now.
And we'll have to watch and see if that turns into any future agreement with Israel about what the end state will be, because many questions about the U.S. and Israel potentially being on different pages when it comes to questions about regime change inside Iran.
BLITZER: And in contrast, as you correctly point out, the first few days after Israel began launching airstrikes against various military and nuclear targets inside Iran, the U.S. was then distancing itself from Israel, but no longer. The U.S. and Israel, according to the president of the United States, are on the same page in their struggle right now.
Kylie Atwood, over in Washington for us -- Kylie, thank you very, very much.
I want to bring in retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander.
Right now, General Clark, thanks so much for joining us. Give us immediately your reaction to what we heard from the president.
MAJ. GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: First of all, a very tough message. Right on target, as far as I was concerned in terms of laying it out very clearly to the Iranian government that they have really no choice. They're either going to get with the program, do the negotiations, not quite sure where that's going. Thats an open ended or there will be an escalation of strikes by the United States, not sure what Israel is going to do during this period.
Look, Wolf, I think one of the great things I heard from a military standpoint is six B-2s, 12 -- 12 of those massive penetrators on the target in Fordow. That's the kind of decisive impact that we should always apply.
When we go after a target, especially one that's important, don't spare, don't try to cut it close. Use the decisive force on it, and we apparently did that. So, I'm very hopeful we really did take that -- that out.
BLITZER: These B-2 bombers and you're familiar with those B-2 bombers? They were flown from the United States. They were refueled in the air, and they eventually hit their targets. The three nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and it's a very, very complicated, sophisticated operation. The B-2 bombers and those bunker buster bombs, what, 30,000 pounds each? This is not an easy assignment, is it?
CLARK: No, it's a tough flight. And you know, these crews, this is what they practiced. This is what we did. We use these the first time in the Kosovo operation in 1999. They flew out of Missouri and they get refueled and they turn around and fly back.
So, the crews are used to a 30-hour missions. That's probably what this was, if not longer. And that's what they trained for.
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It's a great airframe. It's done great work. Weve got a new stealth bomber coming in, but this is a real workhorse.
BLITZER: And those B-2 bombers have, what, a two member crew in each one is that right?
CLARK: That's right, two-member crew. They come out of Missouri.
BLITZER: Aerial refuelers that are making sure they have enough fuel to undertake a thousands of mile operation along these lines.
CLARK: That's the mission. They keep them in the United States. They're protected, and from the environment. And when we need them, they're ready to go.
So very impressive performance by the U.S. Air Force. The TLAMs supposedly or reportedly 30, fired at Natanz and Isfahan big warheads, not necessarily the right warhead to penetrate deep. So, we don't know really what's behind or underneath Isfahan. But surely, that's enough explosive power to have really done damage on top of what the Israelis have already done to it, to both those sites.
BLITZER: As you know, Iran has vowed and promised, in fact, to retaliate if the U.S. got directly involved in this conflict. So, what kind of response should the U.S. expect? And where do you think that response will come? Because as we all know now, the U.S. has some 40,000 troops stationed throughout the Middle East region, especially closer to the Persian Gulf.
CLARK: I think the Iranian regime, and nobody knows. Wolf. This is just speculation, but I don't see them doing the maximum potential response. I don't see them blocking the Straits of Hormuz. I don't see them going after all of the U.S. forces. A few missiles maybe lobbed at a couple of bases, maybe in Iraq, maybe militia strikes at some bases in Iraq.
But I don't see a major response. This Iranian regime calculates. It's very careful to understand where it wants to go. It will have to make some kind of measure.
But what we're not hearing yet is what they're doing domestically, you know, all we've heard is they've been really scouring Iran to collect these Israel spies. They've arrested a few people, but you can be sure this is an authoritarian regime. It's cracking down and it's cracking down hard on the people in Iran.
And the real issue here is whether the United States and Israel are going to be satisfied with essentially kicking the can down the road. Youve obliterated the major facilities. Sure. Maybe they've got stuff out there. You've delayed the nuclear program for six months, 18 months. Who knows?
And Iran's got a bloody nose. Is it enough? Because really, we've gone over through 40 years of this of a -- of a country whose whole purpose is to destroy another country in the 21st century? The world shouldn't permit that.
And Iran is crucially weakened right now. I hope that when we do the negotiations, when we talk to them, it won't just be about enrichment. If they want enrichment and nuclear power, give up the mission of trying to destroy Israel, live in harmony in the region. That's what -- that's what the real negotiations should be about.
And I think President Trump has unique leverage at this time -- leverage no previous U.S. president has had to press Iran to change your spots, change your spots, or worse is going to happen. This is the end of the line for that kind of policy.
BLITZER: And very quickly, before I let you go, general, the U.S. military Central Command, which is in charge of all the U.S. troops in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf area. And as we point out, they have about 40,000 U.S. troops who are stationed there. What I'm worried about are some of those U.S. troops that are close, very close to Iran right now.
For example, in the United Arab Emirates or in near Doha, Qatar, camp Azalea, the air base. I've spent a lot of time at those facilities. There are thousands of U.S. troops there. How concerned should the U.S. military be that Iran might seek to attack those U.S. troops?
CLARK: We should be very concerned. They've got shelters. Weve got anti-missile defense. Weve got anti-drone defense.
We've got radars. We've got early warning. We've got aircraft in the air. So we're taking all the precautionary measures we can take. I think we will get some early warning if they do.
But as you say, they're very close missile flight times a few minutes across the gulf there.
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So, it's not like you're going to get 20 or 30 minutes warning. So yes, there's no doubt we've got troops that are at risk.
But Iran has to appreciate the fact of what U.S. power is and Iran should ask itself very, very carefully whether it wants to prolong this or whether it wants to recalibrate, back off and try to live in harmony in the region.
BLITZER: And if the Iranian leadership had any doubts about what President Trump might be doing, those doubts went away tonight with his decision to go ahead and launch these B-2 bombers against these various nuclear targets inside Iran.
Major General Wesley Clark, as usual, thanks very much for your expertise. Thanks very much for your service. We appreciate it very much.
And we have much more on all the breaking news coverage coming up here on our special CNN coverage.
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the breaking news unfolding in the Middle East right now.
I want to bring in our CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. He's been reporting live from Tel Aviv. He's in Tel Aviv right now.
What are you hearing there, Nic, from Israelis about this U.S. strike? A very dramatic, powerful strike on Iran.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, we're hearing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in a meeting with all his top officials for five hours during the U.S. strikes.
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And we're also getting a sense of Israel putting itself at a greater readiness than it has been over the past few days, when its been exceptionally ready for the possibility of Iranian strikes. The home front command has issued more -- an updated instruction as of about 2 or 3 hours ago. That will be something people are waking up to calling for -- you know, going to an exceptional level. So, people only should be people should only gather when it is essential.
Obviously, no schools, workplaces. People should avoid those. So no, no big public gatherings. People should only gather for essential work activities. That's what's being described at the moment.
And the other detail we're learning about, of course, is about the airports here. We know that the airports and the airspace in the country has been essentially closed for about the last 9 or 10 days.
There had been an effort to try to get 1 or 2 aircraft in and out, bring -- bring Israelis back in the country who have been trapped out of the country outside the country.
But right now, the airports authorities here are saying that flights in all flights are canceled, all flights out are canceled. The land border to Jordan remains open as a travel option for American citizens and others who may want to leave Israel, but the airspace is closed.
We've heard from Hamas now that has condemned this and said the United States will be responsible for the for the dangerous repercussions, as it says that will come from this. I think its worth recognizing that as a military entity, Hamas is mostly a spent force, but that's their position.
The Houthis are saying that the United States will bear the consequences. And of all of Iran's proxies, outside of those in Iraq, it is probably the Houthis that are in a stronger position to have an effect on U.S. and other shipping in the red sea. And the possibility, of course, that they could work in conjunction with Iran to try to shut down both through the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, on one side of the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula to shut down and stop, try to stop oil exports reaching the world -- these important oil tankers moving vast amounts of oil for consumption around the world, out of the region. That hasn't happened. But that remains a potential there.
And I think the other key thing, as reflecting on conversations I've had just in the recent days with former Mossad officials and they, Mossad, and of course, the CIA and other intelligence agencies will be trying their best to understand what is happening in Tehran, to try to predict and understand their next moves, which will be difficult, but it will be made more difficult because the supreme leadership there has been denied some of its most trusted military lieutenants that they will have been dealing with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will have been dealing with these commanders for many, many years and will have come to rely on them. They have been targeted and killed in Israeli strikes, and the other
thing that Mossad will be considering and looking at the tensions that exist in Iran, the internal power dynamics, will there be elements that see the current leadership as weak and wanting to take control.
And all of that, of course, will fragment and make more difficult the leaderships decisions on how to respond to the United States and how to respond to Israel. All of that. I think these are the key things that people will be watching for at the moment, particularly as there has been no immediate military response that we've seen so far from Iran.
BLITZER: And it's now, as you know, a Sunday morning already in Israel, in Tel Aviv, where you are normally its a regular work day. In Israel, schools are open, but now everything seems to be shutting down. Schools are closed. People are being told to stay home, basically. They want to, on the side of caution and be prepared in case the Iranians do start launching significant ballistic missiles towards Israel.
Is that right?
ROBERTSON: It is right. I drove down from Haifa in the north of the country, just as the sun was rising, and there was plenty of commercial trucking out on the road. So that the country -- I think it's important to say, Israel is still very much functioning and things are going on, but it's the essential activities that are happening.
You know, over the last few days, people have taken a slightly more relaxed posture.
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The government has said it was okay to for people to gather in workspaces as long as the shelter was nearby, was okay for people to gather in workspaces as long as the shelter was nearby, was okay for people to gather in groups of up to 30. Now it's a step back from that.
But in all other ways, the country is functioning. You might find some stores that are closed, some cafes and restaurants that are closed, perhaps slightly fewer people out on the streets. But in a commercial sense, what we witnessed this morning, the country is very much acting as normal in that regard, Wolf.
BLITZER: But schools are basically closed, at least for the time being. All right. Nic Robertson, thank you very, very much, Nic, in Tel Aviv.
I want to bring in David Sanger right now. He's a White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times". He's also a CNN political and national security analyst.
David, give me your reaction to these historic U.S. strikes on these three main Iranian nuclear facilities. DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Wolf, it's a remarkable evening. I think it was pretty clear in the past 72 hours that the president was headed this way. But I'd say that there were probably three notable parts of this. The first is the president avoided the risk that something could go wrong here, that they would lose an airplane, that a crew would end up in captivity in Iran, and so forth. So that was a -- that in of itself was a big win.
The president says these sites were completely obliterated. It's going to be a little while before we know that about Fordow, particularly, which is the most deeply buried one and the hardest one for everybody to get at. I don't have any doubt that Isfahan was completely obliterated. And that's a very important site, because it is where the Iranians were keeping their near bomb grade nuclear fuel. So, we have to figure out the short term, whether he got at the program.
And then finally, Wolf, there's the big question of did the United States engineer this well enough that the Iranians can't respond? And it's going to be a long while before we quite figure that out?
BLITZER: Yeah. And the Iranians, if they do respond, not just the U.S., but the Israelis will know where those missiles, those rockets are coming from. And you can anticipate a very strict and very speedy U.S. and or Israeli retaliation. Is that right?
SANGER: I think that's right, but actually, it's a different kind of retaliation that I'm concerned about. The missiles will see acts of terrorism, hostage taking, cyber attacks. Those are all going to be the harder thing for the Israelis or for the United States to see.
Obviously, it's the U.S. that the military leadership in Iran is going to want revenge against. They can't reach the U.S. with missiles. They can reach U.S. bases, and they can, of course, reach the continental United States with cyber.
I thought it was really interesting that the president's tone was not -- look, we were just going after the nuclear program, and we're going away now. It was if you don't give in completely on all of our demands, we're coming back.
BLITZER: Yeah. He said, specifically, we know there are many more targets to go after in Iran. And if you don't give up and accept our demands, those are going to be targeted as well. Very strong statement from the president of the United States.
David Sanger, as usual, thank you very, very much.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen was the first Western journalist to enter Iran after the conflict with Israel began. He's in Tehran with Iran's early reaction to the U.S. strikes.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf. We are getting some official reaction from the Iranians. Now, Iran's atomic energy organization came out and condemned what they call these savage attacks on their nuclear facility. They also called them against international law. But they also said that all of this will not deter their nuclear program, which they say is very peaceful, and also which they say that they have a right to.
Now, as you can see, it still is the early morning hours, the crack of dawn here in Tehran right now. The skies over the Iranian capital are fairly quiet. However, what we've seen in the overnight hours was the air defenses here very much active. We also heard some thuds which could have come from airstrikes, but could also have been outgoing air defense systems as well.
[23:45:00]
And of course, it's unclear whether or not that could have been related to the fact that the U.S. was flying these strike missions, but it was definitely something that we noticed in the overnight hours.
As the morning progresses here in Tehran, Wolf, there are some parliamentarians who are coming out and also condemning the U.S. action. Theres one senior member of parliament who came out a couple of minutes ago and said that the U.S., as he put it, can bomb installations but cannot bomb knowledge, obviously saying almost the same thing as the energy organization, saying that the Iranians are going to continue their nuclear program, are going to continue enrichment as well.
Of course, the Iranians, Wolf, have threatened that there could be and would be retaliation if the United States gets involved in the standoff between Iran and Israel. I was speaking to the deputy vice president just yesterday, and he came out and he said, look, Iranians have so many different possibilities to confront the United States here in this region. One of them, of course, being some of those militias that they control and that they're on Iran's side in the region.
But the Iranians also say that there are other things as well. And the Iranians have also said that despite the fact that the last couple of days, of course, have been quite difficult for them with parts of their military leadership having been taken out by Israeli strikes, that all of that is already replenished and that Iran's military is still very capable and also capable of striking back, for instance, at Israel, but of course, at other places as well, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Fred Pleitgen reporting for us from Tehran -- thank you, Fred, very, very much.
CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton is joining us right now.
Colonel, thanks very much for joining us.
Give us your reaction to what has happened. How significant has -- have these U.S. strikes on Iran been?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Wolf, they've been very significant. This is the first time that we've actually gone after the Iranian facilities. And it's also the first time that we've used the massive ordnance penetrator, that 30,000 pound bomb in combat in any type of combat operation. And when you look at the total of the ordnance, it was 360,000 pounds that were used against the Fordow facility by itself. And then another 60,000 pounds on Natanz.
So, when you take all that together, 420,000 pounds of ordnance, that is a massive show of firepower against two of Iran's nuclear facilities. Then you add the tomahawk missiles, about 30 or so, as General Clark I think, had mentioned previously, that is a significant show of force, and it is pretty clear that the goal of what both the U.S. and the Israelis was were trying to do is to actually do their best to cripple, at least for a time, the nuclear program that Iran has right now. So, this is a significant milestone in the whole issue between the United States and Iran when it comes to the nuclear power and the nuclear weapons aspect of things.
And it's also a show of force that the United States has used against the Iranians. And that is something that has not been as overt as this particular operation was.
BLITZER: Colonel, how much capacity does Iran still have right now to make good on its threats to retaliate against the United States for these military strikes?
LEIGHTON: So that is an open question right now, Wolf.
BLITZER: We do know, of course, that Iran continues to have a large number of missiles. The Israelis say that they have destroyed about 50 percent of Iran's missile launchers, but that still leaves, you know, somewhere between 1,000 to 1,500 potentially missiles that they could use in, in, you know, in Iran itself.
Now, many of those missiles will not be capable of reaching targets in Israel, but they may be capable of reaching targets along the western shore of the Persian Gulf. And that would mean the potential to strike U.S. military installations in places like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or Kuwait, or Bahrain. All of those are possibilities.
But I think the U.S. is very carefully looking at those possibilities, and there will probably be some defenses that the U.S. has established already that will make it much harder for the Iranians to go after these particular installations.
So, it is possible that the Iranians are going to do this. But it's going to be, I think, a long time coming. We can look at more asymmetric threats, as David was mentioning, such as cyber attacks and assassinations and terror attacks as being something that they might try to do. But again, their capacity will be limited in the -- in the immediate aftermath of these attacks.
BLITZER: What do you think, colonel, that this U.S. strike, what do you think it means for Israel's military campaign against Iran going forward?
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LEIGHTON: I think it actually helps. Interestingly enough, pave the way for even more Israeli attacks. The Israelis kind of paved the way for the American attacks in in some respects, because they took out a lot of the Iranian air defenses, a lot of the radars associated with those defensive operations, and that is absolutely significant. The B- 2 has a lot of stealth capabilities. And it was a very much a low observable aircraft as the -- as the terminology goes.
But the key thing here is that it made it even the Israeli actions, it had even safer for the U.S. B-2s to go through with their mission to carry out their mission. The fact that the U.S. took out, at least as far as we can tell, took out these three missiles, the three nuclear sites, that is significant and that it diverts resources from the Iranians, potentially, and allows the Israelis to continue their operations not only in the western part of the country, which they've done quite well, but potentially they could extend that even further into the central and even the eastern part of the country, if they so choose to do that.
BLITZER: Retired Colonel -- Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, our CNN military analyst, as usual, thank you very, very much.
And joining us now, CNNs senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem. Juliette is also a Harvard professor and former U.S. assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
Juliette, thanks so much for joining us.
How much concern should there be about Iranian retaliation? And I'm specifically worried, and I'm sure you are. And other U.S. officials are, about the potential of Iran launching domestic U.S. terrorist attacks here in the United States.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think that the threat has definitely gotten higher, and it's worth having these sort of second order discussions. Tonight, honestly, was about tactics. And now we have to think about what the strategy will be for the United States as well as Iran.
The biggest threats to the United States are more likely than not abroad. Those include the Straits of Hormuz. We have about 50 oil tankers as of tonight trying to get out of there. They are, let's just be clear here, they are nervous and I would anticipate the market is going to respond on gas and oil -- with gas and oil on Monday.
Secondly, you have the homeland security concerns that don't have to be physical. You have cybersecurity concerns in particular, but you also have our troops, U.S. interests, European interests, European countries and American tourists abroad.
We now know that Americans are not even able to get out of Israel, that there was no plans for that. So, the fact that we haven't really heard a discussion about sort of what are going to be the protections is worrisome.
And finally, we have a Department of Homeland Security created in the wake of 9/11. And the horror that happened here, whose focus has been, as we've been reporting for a couple weeks now, has been on immigration. And so, it's cybersecurity, it's counterterrorism efforts have been
either eviscerated or being run by people who don't have a background in the kind of threats that we should be worried now.
I know there's -- we've had a lot of military analysts on about the potential of success and a transformative nature of what this could be. I'm a little bit less optimistic because one, we don't know the transformative nature of this military attack yet, but I think we have to be eyes wide open about Iran being a superpower in the Arab world and its capacity to respond. One can say it's worth it, but it's a discussion we should be having.
BLITZER: So, but what I hear you saying, Juliette, correct me if I'm wrong. The U.S. should preemptively take a bunch of steps right now. Worried about a worst-case scenario, Iranian terrorist attacks against various U.S. targets, either in the United States, domestically or around the world.
KAYYEM: Right. So, one is what's our true protection looking like right now? And we haven't seen anything publicly. Second, will the Department of Homeland Security move it's massive focus on these ICE raids? Honestly, and this is not political. We know the rest of DHS has been eviscerated because of this focus by the -- by the Trump administration into cybersecurity. It's cybersecurity agency is basically on fumes right now, as well as counterterrorism, which is being run by people who are really not from the world of counterterrorism.
Next is intelligence. We've had challenges with our allies. Donald Trump is suspicious of them. We know that there's a debate about what our own intelligence was telling us. What is our intelligence telling us, and are we going to act on it?
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All of those pieces are part of a strategy for what the secondary, the next phase responses could be. It could be Iran is, you know, begging to get to the negotiating table. That would be your best-case scenario. I am, as you know, your worst-case scenario person.
In terms of have we thought through what the second order impacts are, the military tactics tonight, brave soldiers doing -- a brave military doing something that the president commanded them to do successfully. We don't know the consequences of that yet. We don't know whether this was a historic strike or was this just something that's going to delay Iran for a while?
But we do know that that planning for such a military action also requires a defensive posture by the attacking country. We are no longer a, you know, I guess an honest broker, right? I mean, everyone people know that we support Israel, people in the Arab world and people in Europe know that we support Israel.
We've taken a step tonight in terms of becoming the aggressor, so to speak, becoming the actor that changes our capacity to move things around in terms of both our diplomacy but our defensive action. This is not -- none of us on air today know which way this is going to go, but it is worth spending some time considering what those consequences could be if this action was not as successful as we've been told tonight.
BLITZER: Well, the stakes are clearly, clearly enormous. Juliette Kayyem, excellent analysis. Thank you very, very much.
I'm Wolf Blitzer in New York. Thanks very much for watching.
Jim Sciutto picks up our breaking news coverage of the U.S. strike on Iran right after a quick break.
