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U.S. Assessing Damage To Iran's Nuclear Sites After Strikes; Iran Warns Of Everlasting Consequences After U.S. Strikes; Iranians React To The U.S. Airstrikes On Nuclear Facilities; Aftermath Of Iranian Missile Strike In Tel Aviv; Interview With Member Of Knesset Dan Illouz; U.N. Chief: Diplomacy Must Prevail In The Middle East. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 23, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are on the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

The Pentagon is trying to learn the extent of damage to Iran's nuclear program and facilities after U.S. strikes over the weekend. The White House says the B2 bombers that carried out those strikes are now back on the ground in the United States. That is them landing there at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says it is, quote, way too early to determine definitively if Iran still maintains nuclear capabilities. President Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday night that, quote, monumental damage was done to all nuclear sites in Iran as shown by satellite images.

New satellite images do show some damage. A CNN analysis found that the attack on Fordow, the Fordow facility, very deep underground, left behind at least six large craters. They are likely from the bunker buster bombs which are designed to go deep, hundreds of feet deep underground before detonating.

There is a difference in the before and after images from Isfahan, Iran's largest nuclear complex. You could see there showing the strikes from more than a dozen cruise missiles. According to one senior U.S. lawmaker, the key question now is if Iran moved any of its highly enriched uranium before the strike. Some 400 kg of enriched uranium.

President Trump said Saturday night the goal of the mission was to end Iran's nuclear program. Vice President J.D. Vance said Sunday that the U.S. is not at war with Iran. The U.S. is at war with Iran's nuclear program.

President Trump, however, appears to have changed his position or ambition with these strikes. Posting on his Truth Social quote, if the current Iranian regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn't there be regime change?

For more, we're joined by CNN's Paula Hancocks live in Abu Dhabi. And I wonder how the region is reading those comments from the president. Do they see the U.S. end goal here now is regime change in Iran?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, there's been no direct response to what the U.S. President has said and I don't think we can really expect there to be one. But that will raise concerns even more than they already were. We know that the leaders in this region, certainly the Gulf leaders would -- were calling the U.S. President before these strikes saying, please stick to diplomacy, do not push this -- push it this far. And of course, that fell on deaf ears.

So the concern here is that this will spill over into the wider region. The word deescalation has been used consistently from all leaders saying that they want this to deescalate, they want the stress to be taken out of this situation. But of course, they are all still waiting to see what ultimate response Iran will have.

It's at the same time as you're hearing the Israel chief of staff, for example, saying that they still have objectives to complete, they still have targets to strike, and we're certainly seeing them do that overnight. We know that air defenses over Tehran were activated a number of times, and it comes as we see one missile being launched from Iran to Israeli territory. Certainly very different to the number we've been seeing in recent days. But this is very much on the minds of those in the region.

Bearing in mind, just a month ago, the U.S. President was here in the uae, in Qatar, in Saudi Arabia, and he was talking about the birth of a new Middle East. He was talking about billions of dollars of deals being done and a fresh start, effectively for this region.

We are in a very different place here now with great concerns, not only of the potential of U.S. Military targets in these countries being affected or being targeted by Iran and its proxies, but also fears of environmental contamination.

These are nuclear facilities that are being targeted by Israel, by the United States, and for the Gulf nations in particular, there are great concerns that there could be contamination from any of those strikes.

We did see that the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, very quickly come out yesterday and say there was no indication of radiation levels being elevated near these sites. And that is something that was echoed by Saudi Arabia knowing. It is what people here are very much focused on. Jim.

[01:05:00]

SCIUTTO: Enormous focus now, Paula, as you know, on the oil markets, oil prices, oil futures already rising and now concerns that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz. Is the -- what impact would that have on the region if that were to take place?

HANCOCKS: It would have a massive impact. It would have a massive impact on the world, on global oil prices and on potentially global economies. This is a relative waterway. It's about 20, 21 nautical miles wide at its most narrow point. So it's a significant choke point and one of the world's most important waterways.

Now, the estimates are anything between 20 to 25 percent of the world's crude oil passes through this area, which Iran borders. Iran is to the north of this waterway. Now they have threatened a number of times in the past to close the Strait of Hormuz. They have come dangerous close to closing it completely in previous escalations of tension and previous wars in the region.

But what we're hearing from Iranian officials and certainly one adviser to the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that this is one of their options. So it is an option that is being looked at seriously. The foreign minister of Iran also saying on Sunday it is one of the options that they have in order to retaliate.

So it is a possible option instead of going for U.S. targets in the region, either through Iran or through their military proxies and militias. This is another option that has been looked at quite seriously, at least that's what the Iranians are saying, vocally, possibly believing that by increasing crude oil prices, by putting press on global economies, that may be a way to get to the U.S. President, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thanks so much.

Well, U.S. officials are giving mixed messages, mixed assessments about the impact of the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Secretary of Defense Pete Hagseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine gave slightly differing versions earlier today about the extent of the damage that was caused by U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Secretary Hegseth said things like the strikes devastated the nuclear program, that President Donald Trump dealt the final blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions, which have been obliterated, Hegseth said. But General Dan Caine, he gave a bit more of a measured response when asked for that battle damage assessment and he said that the final battle damage will take some time and he said that it is way too early to comment on what may or may not have been done in terms of the extent of the damage caused by these massive U.S. military strikes.

Now, the Pentagon did reveal earlier today that this was a very complex and secretive operation that was carried out beginning early Saturday morning when A fleet of B2 bombers took off from Missouri and they traveled 18 hours east to Iran where they carried out the strikes on two nuclear facilities inside Iran using those massive bunker buster bombs, essentially within a time span of about 20 minutes from 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time to 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. At the same time, Tomahawk missiles that were launched from submarines

hit that third nuclear facility, Isfahan, inside Iran. And so Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the three major nuclear sites inside Iran, were all hit by either those bunker busting bombs or these Tomahawk missiles.

And it was carried out really with a lot of deception and secrecy. At the same time that these bombers were carrying out these strikes. Bombers had taken off from Missouri and headed the other direction towards the Pacific and were keeping their radio communications on and available so that anyone listening and watching could essentially see them going over the Pacific and focus on those bombers, while at the same time, the bombers that were actually headed to Iran were very quiet and were not readily available to be watched by open source intelligence analysts and reporters.

And so that was on purpose, according to military officials. And it was partly or largely, I should say, because they wanted to retain the element of surprise. And they did. Last night, President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. military had carried out these three attacks. And now the U.S. military is trying to come up with a battle damage assessment to determine just how much they have set back Iran's nuclear program.

It remains to be seen just how damaged those nuclear ambitions actually are.

[01:10:02]

But there are questions tonight about whether the U.S. military went far enough and whether its capabilities went far enough to destroy every last aspect of Iran's nuclear facilities, including those very hardened underground tunnels at the facility known as Isfahan.

And so we are still awaiting that final battle damage assessment. It could take some time. But right now the administration is essentially saying mission accomplished. And they are hoping now that they can get the Iran, given all of this military pressure, given that they have shown that they are willing to use military force inside Iran, that they hope that this finally gets Iran to the table to engage diplomatically, something that the Iranians are saying that they are understandably not eager to do at this point. Natasha Bertrand, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: For Military Perspective now joining us, Mark MacCarley is a retired U.S. Army major general, now an attorney and a consultant. Thanks so much for taking the time this night.

MARK MACCARLEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY MAJOR GENERAL: Nice to work with you again, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So first, if I could ask you to read those somewhat mixed messages from the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs from the podium there, the defense secretary echoing some of the language Trump has used, devastated, obliterated, et cetera without offering specificity as to what exactly that means.

The Joint Chiefs chairman said it's too early. And that's what I've heard from Iranian, sorry, rather Israeli sources as well. What are the facts at this point, Jim?

MACCARLEY: Jim, Dan Caine is a combat pilot and having flown multiple aircraft and multiple missions into Iraq and Afghanistan, he is very familiar with what takes place after such a bombing and attack run. And even after you dump your load, those bombs and hopefully those bombs hit target, there's no immediate way to clearly ascertain if, in fact you've hit the mark and you've obliterated that particular or those particular objectives.

Now, he's -- he uses a term, we used it all the time. And this is called battle damage assessment. It's not just one shot. What it requires is analysis on the part of a whole staff of individuals, most probably at Al Udeid, which is the Air Force command headquarters down in Qatar, before we get something definitive.

But I do want to look at the tools that we have available to make that assessment. The first, of course, is the satellite imagery. And all sorts of spokespeople have said, yes, we hit, we made contact or we did not. And then you have a seismic analysis. You look at whether or not you actually created something like a mini earthquake when you reach that depth. And then, of course, radiation, if in fact some type of radiation, albeit not dangerous, as some have repeated has sort of permeated or leaked out of that cavity.

But at the end of the day, the best way of understanding whether we achieve this objective is what we call human. Human is you get somebody on the ground and that person has to verify it.

SCIUTTO: Yes, well, let me ask you this, because it's quite clear they don't have a definitive BDA at this point. Based on what you saw of one, the extent of the targets and what we know of them, the depth of those targets, and this one strike, quite a comprehensive strike, we should say, using some of the most powerful weapons in the U.S. arsenal that never had been used before, these GBU-57 bunker busters.

Is it likely that the president gets what he wants here? Right. Which is a one and done. That appears to be his intention to at least significantly damage Iran's nuclear program and perhaps destroy it. Does it look like there was a sufficient, I mean, can it all be done in one go in effect?

MACCARLEY: Yes. And I suppose this looks, not only are we discussing the military aspects of that attack at Fordow, but also as well, the consequences politically. Meaning you have this attack, has that attack caught the attention of Khamenei and the leadership of the Iranian establishment, and do they appreciate this capability and will they faced with what took place, move immediately or as quickly as possible to negotiating table?

Now, that is the big question. And right now, from what I'm looking at, I don't think that there is significant progress on the part of the Iranians or perhaps anybody in going from we're in the attack mode.

[01:15:05]

We're going to retaliate and moving from there to let's sit down at the table and start talking.

SCIUTTO: I know in my own experience of covering these things that misdirection is often a part of military operations. Right. You want to surprise the enemy. It makes sense. However.

MACCARLEY: Yes.

SCIUTTO: When you look at the misdirection that appears to have taken place in the last several days, you know, a president saying publicly I want to negotiate, the White House press secretary reading a statement from the president saying, you know, there's hope for negotiations while they were in final preparations, this administration for a strike on Iran. Is that -- have you seen such misdirection and is such misdirection acceptable?

MCCARLEY: My concern is this, we had what I call this moment of hope on Friday and that was we've got two weeks, maybe a bit longer to come to the table and negotiate. And that was a representation sent around the world.

A whole lot of world leaders and those of us who are very interested in what takes place in the Middle East saw this and felt maybe indeed there's a glimmer of hope didn't pan out. And so to give the administration a little credit from a tactical perspective, but not from a diplomatic.

The administration has stated, well, we got confirmation earlier that day that the Iranians have no interest whatsoever in unconditionally surrendering their nuclear capability. That violates the whole premise for negotiations. So therefore we're going to attack.

Well, the consequences of that down the road in terms of the reliability of the statements made by the United States in the context of diplomacy, I have my concern.

SCIUTTO: Mark MacCarley will be assessing this for some time, I imagine so. I'm sure it's not the last time we discuss. Thanks so much for joining tonight.

A quote, betrayal of diplomacy. The spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry says his country has a right now to self-defense in the wake of the U.S. strikes. We're going to hear from him ahead.

Plus, Iran is urging the U.N. Security Council to address the strikes by the U.S. and Israel. How the UN is now responding. Just ahead.

(COMEMRCIAL BREAK)

[01:21:15]

SCIUTTO: Iranians are rallying around their government following U.S. airstrikes on the nation's nuclear sites. Some in Tehran told reporters they believe there should be a firm Iranian response. Others criticized the U.S. President and the U.S. for its actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Today the United States are doing this to gain more leverage. Their goal is to extract concessions while we're engaged in negotiations. They want to show their strength, saying we can demand anything from you and you'll be forced to come to the negotiating table. But it shouldn't be like that. We negotiate, yes, but within the framework of laws and principles, not under the shadow of force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining me now is Behnam Ben Taleblu, Senior Director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thanks so much for joining. Behnam.

BEHNAM BEN TALEBLU, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF THE IRAN PROGRAM, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Great to be with you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You and I have followed numerous protests in Iran through the years against their government treatment of women, et cetera. And many Iranians not happy with all the money that Iran spends, not just on its nuclear program, but on Hezbollah, on Hamas.

I wonder how do they view these attacks now? I mean, and is there a national pride around the nuclear program despite misgivings about where the government's focus is?

TALEBLU: Well, it's an excellent question, and it's a question that the Islamic Republic itself, I think, is hesitant to answer because it's invested billions of dollars into this atomic enterprise that provides the country's electric grid with less than 2 percent of the electricity.

No one has asked what do you intend to do with the uranium that you keep enriching for every single day since April 2006 and put into storage? And has this question ever been put to a vote before the population.

No doubt the population is a significantly nationalist population, but it's one that increasingly, if you just look at some of the commentary coming out of Iran, particularly some of the commentary coming out of social media, has been able to distinguish between national interest and regime interest and mostly, I would say exclusively, but mostly been seeing this atomic enterprise in the category of the latter and not the former.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk now about possible Iranian responses. There's been much discussion of the possibility of shutting the Strait of Hormuz. And we know that would have enormous economic consequences. 20 percent of the world's oil goes through there. Send up the price of oil, enormous economic consequences.

Could Iran do that? Could it block it? And then what would the expected response be from the U.S. and Israel?

TALEBLU: One of the unspoken about elements of the Islamic Republic's deterrent apparatus that we haven't discussed in the post-10-7 Middle East that much is the capability to engage in maritime aggression. We saw how successfully the Islamic Republic was able to export this from the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz to the Bab el Mandev and the Red Sea. And they're in one area where it's high traffic. About 20 percent of the world's oil goes to the regime is still believed to have a significant anti-axis area denial capability.

Now there's no doubt, just like in the tail end of the Iran Iraq war that the U.S. could have anti-mining activity, could signal resolve by striking naval and a whole host of even oil infrastructure to get the regime to knock off what it's doing.

But it'll be costly and it'll buy time and time is a real weapon here. And the question will be whose time -- whose side will time be on the regime or America or some kind of international coalition that'll have to engage in some kind of de mining operation to open up the straits.

[01:25:02]

SCIUTTO: Behnam Ben Taleblu, thanks so much for joining this evening.

TALEBLU: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Moscow on Sunday. According to Iranian state media, he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This of course, following the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran and Russia become quite close in recent years with Iran supplying weapons drones principally to Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Despite the Kremlin's ongoing invasion there, Russia's Foreign Ministry has condemned the U.S. strikes on Iran as quote, flagrantly violating international law.

A spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry has spoken exclusively to CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Iran after the U.S. strikes there over the weekend. He called the attacks a quote, betrayal of diplomacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESMALI BAGHERI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTERY SPOKESPERSON: Now we are facing a situation after two or three months of negotiations, five rounds of negotiations with Trump administration, suddenly we came under a surprise attack by Israel.

Instead of Americans trying to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu, now they are joining hands in attacking Iran's nuclear installations. That would be a detrimental blow to international law, to the United Nations. And by the way, the United States is a founding member of the United Nations. The United States is a permanent member of the Security Council. The United States is the headquarter of this organization. Now they are attacking a non-nuclear weapon state inclusion with each

other. And I think that would have detrimental consequences for international law, for international peace and security and for the generations to come.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What is going to be Iran's response?

BAGHERI: I'm not going to talk about our reaction. This is for our military people to decide. But what is completely sure is that Iran is entitled under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter to exercise its right of self-defense. And we will do that for sure.

PLEITGEN: President Trump came out in a statement after the attack and called on Iran to make peace and also threatened that there would be an even tougher response if Iran fires back. What do you say?

BAGHERI: I think this is complete bullying. You attack a country and then threaten it again with more attacks. I think this is a manifestation of systematic institutionalized bullying at the global level.

PLEITGEN: How does this inflame tensions in the Middle East?

BAGHERI: It is unprecedented dangerous because now everyone thinks perceives this as a success for Benjamin Netanyahu in dragging the United States into his war. And I think the whole region is alarmed. We have very good relation with our neighbors, Islamic countries, Arab countries. They have been unified condemning this act of aggression by Israel and by the United States.

No one knows what will happen next. But what is sure is that the responsibility for the consequences of this war must be borne by the United States and by its ally, Israel.

PLEITGEN: Is this the end of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran?

BAGHERI: Diplomacy never ends. That's a rule. That's a principle for Iranians. We have never left the negotiating table. But now I think what is written -- we are witnessing a betrayal of diplomacy by the Trump administrations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Our Fred Pleitgen speaking with a spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry. While B2 bombers return to their base in the American Midwest after their attacks on Iran. You see them there?

A look at the damage left behind at three key nuclear sites and remaining questions about how far that damage goes. Plus, an Iranian ballistic missile struck the city of Tel Aviv on Sunday. Still ahead, CNN visits a residential building now in ruin to hear from the people who call it home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:32:54]

SCIUTTO: Back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

The U.S. is now in the process of assessing the damage to Iran's nuclear sites following U.S. strikes over the weekend. President Donald Trump took to social media Sunday to thank the pilots of the B- 2 bombers for a quote, "job well done", as he announced their return to the U.S.

The bombers launched from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on an 18-hour, one-way journey to Iran, where they then dropped massive bunker buster bombs on two Iranian nuclear facilities, those at Natanz and Fordow.

A CNN analysis of satellite images found that the attack on Fordow left behind six large craters. The photos also show damage at Isfahan, Iran's largest nuclear complex. An assessment by the Institute for Science and International Security says the complex was heavily damaged.

Israel and Iran continue, however to trade blows on Sunday. A residential community in Tel Aviv suffered heavy damage after the city was hit by an Iranian missile strike. One of those missiles got through Israeli defenses.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond visited the scene of the attack.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: A few hours after those U.S. strikes in Iran, a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles came raining down on Israel.

And this right here is the destruction that was wrought by just one of those ballistic missiles here in Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: More than 20 people were injured in this strike, which sheared off the side of this residential building, laying bare the lives of those who once lived here.

As cleanup crews push piles of debris, survivors return to grab what they can. Many still shaken by what they have just survived and all they have lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe I do need to take some of this -- these things.

[01:34:49 DIAMOND: Half a block away from where the missile struck, Jeremy Zetlin (ph) has spent the day picking through the debris of his childhood home.

JEREMY ZETLIN, RESIDENT: We used to put the DJ up there, and we used to have parties here. Our friends.

DIAMOND: Moving from one destroyed room to the next, Jeremy has been trying to separate the things that matter from those that don't.

ZETLIN: It's just things.

It's nothing. This is not important, but it's just too --

DIAMOND: And in that moment, he is reminded of what is.

ZETLIN: Who you are. The people. And so that's what's important.

This is not important. But it's just a symbol of how we're holding ourselves to be strong. It's hard.

DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Joining us now from Tel Aviv is Dan Elias. He's a member of the Israeli Knesset for the Likud Party. He joins me now, I should say, from Jerusalem. Thanks so much for taking the time.

DAN ILLOUZ, MEMBER OF THE ISRAELI KNESSET: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: First, in response to the U.S. attack on Iran, you posted shortly after that the answer now should be complete surrender, unconditional surrender. Can you describe what that looks like in your view?

ILLOUZ: There are two options. I mean, first of all we need to understand that the regime in Iran is no different than the Nazi regime. It is a different ideology. But when it comes to the destruction that it can bring to the world, it's exactly the same thing. It's a regime with genocidal ambitions that. wants to take control of the world, and that believes that mass destruction and mass murder is a way to get to this control of the world for its radical ideology.

So when you're faced with such a regime, the only option is surrendering -- is surrender from this regime. And the two options are either the regime agrees to stop its ways of trying to reach nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, or all of these other things. Or the Iranian people might see the opportunity that's right now in their hands, and they might stand up and ask for their freedom.

Because we have to remember the first victims of this extreme regime are actually the Iranian people. The missiles that are that are thrown at Tel Aviv right now are thrown by the same people that are shooting bullets at the Iranian people whenever they dare to dream about freedom. And so those are the first victims.

If they see the opportunity, they can grab their freedom. But that's up -- up to them because no foreign force can really do that job for them.

But if they want, they have now an opportunity. The door is open. All they have to do is go through that door.

SCIUTTO: Are you saying the goal -- the end game should be regime change in Iran?

ILLOUZ: So I said it very clearly. There's two options. There's the option that the regime will stop its ways, will stop trying to build nuclear weapons, will stop trying to build ballistic missiles, which in large numbers are exactly -- can bring the same destruction as a nuclear weapon.

The numbers that they wanted to get to would have brought destruction at the same level as nuclear weapons. So it's the same type of existential threat. That's the one path.

The other path is that this war will continue until the regime will be slowly dissolving. And I believe that the Iranian people will demand their freedom at some point.

And so those are the two options that are in front of the regime.

SCIUTTO: Do you believe with these strikes, the U.S. has, in effect, joined Israel's war with Iran?

ILLOUZ: The U.S. has been very clear. They said that they're fighting against Iran's nuclear weapons program. That's also, by the way, what Israel is doing, fighting against the two things, the nuclear weapons program and the ballistic missiles program.

If Iran changes its ways and becomes a normal country that doesn't want world domination, that doesn't finance terrorism, that doesn't send missiles to freedom-loving countries, that doesn't try to get to nuclear weapons, then Iran can continue living normal -- normal life.

But as long as the regime does these things, then we will have to fight this regime. And again, I want to be very clear. We re fighting the regime. We're not fighting the people of Iran.

I saw you just showed pictures of Tel Aviv. When the regime sends missiles at Israel, it targets civilians. It targets hospitals, it targets daycares, it targets buildings where civilians live.

When Israel targets Iran, it targets only the regime military infrastructures and only things that are military targets.

[01:39:49]

ILLOUZ: That's the difference between a free world country that follows international law and Iran.

I also heard your interview with the foreign affairs minister of Iran, who accuses Israel of going against international law and America. That's a joke. You have a regime that doesn't even recognize international law, targets civilians.

That's the very basis of international law. The difference between civilian and military targets. And you have this regime that doesn't believe in international law at all. And then it comes to international law following countries and tries to use international law against those countries. This would be a tragedy if we let that happen. International law

includes the right to self-defense against an imminent threat. And that's exactly what Israel did.

SCIUTTO: Does Israel have its own bomb damage assessment as to the extent of damage from U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities?

ILLOUZ: So we are still learning this information. I have to say that it's a little too early to speak about this, but all signs point to something very positive.

And hopefully as soon as we can see that the job has been done when it comes to the nuclear weapons program being destroyed and the ballistic missiles also being destroyed, then we can start trying to look at a way to wind down this war, because, again, Israel is not a country that likes war.

Since October 7th, we've been at war, but it's because it's been forced on us. It's not something that we want to. Everyone in Israel serves in the army, so it's very personal for us. Also, the risk that were taking when we're going to war.

And so it's not something that we want to go on forever.

SCIUTTO: Dan Illouz, member of the Knesset, speaking to us from Jerusalem. Thanks so much for joining.

ILLOUZ: Thank you.

S2A: Still to come, the U.N. Secretary General's message to the U.S., Israel and Iran and why he believes it is now important for those countries to return as quickly as possible to negotiations.

[01:41:52]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: -- United Nations Security Council to condemn what it calls the United States and Israel's acts of aggression. Tehran also dismissing the offer of diplomacy that has been on nuclear talks scheduled for June 15th as an effort to mislead the international community.

The U.N. Secretary General warns that the U.S. attack, quote, "marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling". He says negotiations are the only alternative.

The U.S. argues Iran must come to the table in good faith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I have repeatedly condemned any military escalation in the Middle East.

The people of the region cannot endure another cycle of destruction. And yet we now risk descending into a rat hole of retaliation after retaliation. To avoid it, diplomacy must prevail.

DOROTHY SHEA, ACTING U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: To fulfill its core mission of maintaining international peace and security, this council must call upon the Iranian regime to end its 47-year effort to eradicate the state of Israel, to terminate its drive for nuclear weapons, to stop targeting American citizens and interests, and to negotiate peace in good faith for the prosperity and security of the Iranian people and all other states in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining me now, Sahar Razavi, director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center at California State University, Sacramento. Sahar, thanks so much for joining this evening.

SAHAR RAZAVI, DIRECTOR, IRANIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES CENTER, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: First, let me ask you, is diplomacy a viable path right now? You have White house officials saying that President Trump deliberately misled on his interests in negotiations as a ruse to cover planning for military strikes.

Would Iranian leaders, even leaders following devastating attacks on their country, nuclear facilities, et cetera, be interested in sitting down now? Would they trust nuclear talks?

RAZAVI: Coming on to the -- to any program, I've been asked this question several times and the bottom line is always trust, mutual trust building measures are absolutely necessary for any kind of negotiation.

And I think your question strikes at the heart of what's at stake here. When you say even after attacks on their country, especially after attacks, unprovoked attacks on their country, they are even less likely to come to the table.

Having said that, in the past ten years, Iran has come to the table three times with the United States over the objections but the eventual acquiescence of the Supreme Leader Khamenei.

He has said each time you can try, but it's not going to do any good because the West can't be trusted. And each time, unfortunately, he's been vindicated, much to the chagrin of the diplomatic community who had watched aghast as these diplomacy measures have been either reneged on or completely turned away from, or in this case, missile strikes have been deployed in the middle of each time.

SCIUTTO: What are Iranian options now in terms of retaliation? Because, of course, they could strike U.S. forces in the region. There's discussion, some discussion of shutting down the Strait of Hormuz with the economic consequences that would lead to -- that said, Iran has been struck quite deeply and its military resources have been damaged.

Does it have the capability now to strike back, especially given how it might expect the U.S. And Israel to respond?

RAZAVI: Functionally speaking, it does have the capability to strike back. Iran has a military force between its regular armed services and the IRGC forces of about a million people, and that is quite a strong military force of its own.

But it also has proxies all across the region that it has been building relationships with for decades.

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RAZAVI: So it does have the functional capacity to strike back at the 40,000 to 50,000 U.S. military troops and assets that are stationed at different bases around Iran.

That said, I believe that both the United States and Iranian authorities have signaled a willingness to sort of find an off ramp from this escalation.

At this point, neither side wants a full-scale intensification of a war between Iran and the United States. And they are looking for ways on both sides to take an off ramp without complete humiliation at this point, given the rhetoric coming from both the United States and Iran.

SCIUTTO: Would Iranian leaders tend to believe right now that regime change is actually the goal now, not just of Israel, but of the U.S.?

I mean, you have the U.S. president openly discussing that possibility.

RAZAVI: The Iranian authorities in power right now have every incentive to either believe it or present themselves as believing it for public consumption, because this is, in Iranian eyes, just another instance of a violation of their sovereignty by Western powers.

So the clerical establishment in Iran knows very well the history of violations of sovereignty by the West. And they know that that is -- that is very likely to elicit strong nationalistic sentiment from Iranians. And they will use that to their advantage.

If they actually believe it or not, that's beyond the scope of what I can know. But it certainly is plausible, especially because we have seen diaspora figures like Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah of Iran, the last Shah of Iran, who was ousted in 1979, establishing stronger ties with Israel and outright at this point approving of these attacks on Iran and encouraging Iranians to rise up and overthrow the regime, presumably so that he could have a place in a post regime Iran.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's --

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RAZAVI: So plausible, but not necessarily inevitable.

SCIUTTO: Sahar Razavi, thanks so much for sharing your views. RAZAVI: Thanks for having me on.

SCIUTTO: And we will be right back.

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SCIUTTO: Oil prices now on the rise in the market's initial reaction to the U.S. airstrikes on Iran. U.S. Oil futures jumped nearly 2 percent trading just under $75 a barrel. Global -- the global benchmark, Brent Crude, seeing a similar spike now near $78 a barrel.

Economists concerned Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the strikes, potentially disrupting the flow of oil and, more broadly, trade in the region, something we'll continue to watch very closely.

Thanks so much for joining us this evening. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

Our breaking news coverage continues next right here on CNN with Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi.

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