Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Senate Expected To Vote On Resolution Over Trump & Iran; Questions Over Trump's Authority To Approve Iran Strikes; Russia Attacks Ukraine Ahead of NATO Summit In The Hague; Interview With Member Of Ukrainian Parliament Kira Rudik; Blasts Seen In Tehran After Trump Announces Ceasefire; Inside The U.S. Operation To Destroy Iran's Nuclear Sites. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:24]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all over the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. And we are following breaking news out of Israel where President Donald Trump says that Israel and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire. However, the details not clear at this point. Both sides fired missiles at each other leading up to the final minutes of what President Trump indicated the deadline would be that just over an hour ago.

And then came this. Israel says that in the minutes before that deadline, an Iranian missile got through Israeli defenses and struck a residential building in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva, killing at least three people. Air raid sirens sounded across multiple cities in Israel in just the past several hours. There were also fresh Israeli strikes on Iran overnight that before the ceasefire was expected to take effect according to Iranian state media.

On Monday, Iran launched an attack on a U.S. airbase in Qatar. No one was killed or injured. A source says that Iran gave Qatar advance warning of the attack to minimize casualties, preserve an off ramp and at that warning then passed on to the United States. President Trump thanked Iran for the early notice of that strike. CNN's Nada Bashir has been following the latest developments.

And Nada, help me understand our understanding of this ceasefire because President Trump when he announced it by tweet a number of hours ago said it was going to take effect at midnight Eastern Time. We're now an hour past that. And then -- but take effect for Iran and then Israel has another six hours, but it seems that Iran was firing missiles right up to the deadline and of course those missiles take some time to get to Israel, so missiles were striking after that initial deadline, are the parties clear here that this ceasefire is now in effect?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look at this stage, Jim, there is very little clarity. We haven't been hearing much in the way of official statements from either the Iranian side or the Israeli side. In fact, we haven't heard at all really from the Israeli side officially with regards to the exact terms of this claimed ceasefire agreement as reported by the U.S. president.

Now, what has also brought into question the timing of this is the statements and messaging we've been hearing from the Iranian side. We've been hearing from Iranian state media suggesting that Ceasefire has now come into effect. We've heard from the Iranian foreign minister saying that Iran was continuing with its military attacks on Israel up until the very last moment, in his words. And what the Foreign Ministry has also been saying in Iran is that they will only bring an end to their attacks on Israel if there are no further attacks by the Israeli military on Iran past 4:00 a.m. local time. So we are well past that now.

It's nearly or it's past 8:00 am local time in Iran. So the question is whether we see any further attacks by the Israeli military on Iran, where this agreement stands in terms of the timing as well, as you mentioned, according to that tweet, or rather the social media from the U.S. president, that should have come into effect at around 12:00 a.m. Eastern time. But again, there isn't a huge amount of clarity on those exact precise terms. And as you mentioned, we have seen those Iranian attacks being carried out right up until the last moment. We've seen that deadly attack in the southern city -- Israeli city of Be'er Sheva.

At least four people are said to have been killed. Now, according to emergency services, they have updated saying that they were able to rescue a number of people from beneath the rubble of a destroyed building in this particular area. We've been seeing air raid sirens going off over the last two hours. We're now hearing reports of more sirens in the last hour in parts of northern Israel. So there are questions as to what we may continue to see in the next hour in terms of Iran's final attacks, so to speak, on Israel.

And again, what sort of response we see from the Israeli side. We are still waiting to hear official statements. We are still waiting to see whether or not there is in fact a military response to that latest attack. Of course, four people killed, a devastating situation on the ground. We've seen that dramatic video of the blast and the aftermath of people really just looking around at the -- at the debris and the destruction around them.

[01:05:12]

So whether this sparks any sort of response from the Israeli military remains to be seen. This is certainly a fragile time if indeed this ceasefire does hold. And again, we are really relying on that messaging and statements from the U.S. president at this stage who says that he was successful in securing and mediating this ceasefire with support, of course, from Qatari officials who are mediating on the Iranian side as well. But again, if we do see a response by the Israeli military, this may again trigger a counter response once again by Iran.

SCIUTTO: And that's a cycle we are sadly very familiar with and the people of the region very familiar with. Nada Bashir in London, thanks so much.

CNN's Brian Todd is with me here in Washington live this hour. And can you help us what we know about the Trump administration's diplomatic maneuvering to get this claim ceasefire over the finish line.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim, we do have new reporting this morning on just how we got to this point. As you and Nada were discussing, both Iranian and Israeli media outlets are reporting that the ceasefire there has begun, but they're not giving many details. We do have actual details on how we got to this point. CNN reporting this morning from our colleagues Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Alayna Treene, Jeff Zeleny and Zachary Cohen, they're reporting Donald Trump and his top diplomatic and security teams were working furiously behind the scenes to try to broker a peace deal, and this took place in the hours just after Iran launched that missile attack on a U.S. base in Qatar that was on Monday. Trump, according to our reporting, communicated directly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This at the same time that Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff were communicating with the Iranian side through both direct and indirect channels. This is according to a senior White House official who spoke to our colleagues. Also, we can report that in these critical hours of Monday and even before this, the government of Qatar played a key role as an intermediary in this maneuvering. President Trump at one point on Monday, according to our sources, speaking directly with the emir of Qatar, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. So that is all going on Monday.

But just hours ago, President Trump posted on Truth Social that it was the Israelis and the Iranians who came to him. And here's a quote, "Israel and Iran came to me almost simultaneously and said peace. I knew the time was now. The world and the Middle East are the real winners. Both nations will see tremendous love, peace and prosperity in their futures."

That according to a post on Truth Social by President Trump saying that the two key sides came to him and not vice versa. Our reporting of course is that President Trump and his team were themselves working very furiously behind the scenes. The Iranian state media of course is claiming something contrary to what President Trump says. Here's a quote from a news anchor in Iranian state media. Quote, "in a begging like manner of urging, Trump requested the initiation of a ceasefire in the imposed Zionist enemy war against our country."

So Jim, this morning it is a battle over messaging and the messaging over who can take credit for this ceasefire. But again, as you have been reporting and our colleagues in Israel have been reporting with that attack in Be'er Sheva, the ceasefire is indeed very fragile at this hour. Unclear whether it's going to hold.

SCIUTTO: Brian Todd in Washington, thanks so much. Well, Iran's air defense has remained active following the ceasefire announcement. CNN's Fred Pleitgen, he's in Tehran and he filed this report from the Iranian capital as he witnessed those air defenses take shots at missiles coming in. FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we're seeing right now is extremely intense anti-aircraft fire over the skies of Tehran. If we look at through here, you can see the tracer fire going up from those anti-aircraft guns. We've also heard some blasts. But as you can see right now, the skies over the Iranian capital absolutely illuminated with anti-aircraft fire.

Now the Israelis have issued an evacuation order for the part of Tehran where we're seeing that anti-aircraft fire right now. It's unclear whether there's any strikes taking place, but we have also heard some thuds seemingly coming from that direction. This comes after a day where we saw intense bombardment here of the Iranian capital, especially central areas of Tehran. Right here in the location that we are, there was an airstrike very close to us that rocked the building that were in. We took cover, then came back to film the aftermath and there was a thick plume of smoke in the skies.

[01:10:02]

The Iranians also firing with multiple missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, saying that that was in response for the United States attacking several Iranian nuclear installations. And there again you can see the fire in the skies over Tehran. That is that anti-aircraft burst fire coming from Iranian air defenses and we've been seeing that happening over the past couple of minutes as clearly they are targeting something that is in the skies.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

SCIUTTO: Our thanks to Fred and his team there in Tehran.

Still ahead, Russia's latest aerial assault destroys a five story residential building in Kyiv. We're going to have an update on Moscow's newest expanding wave of attacks across Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:15:16]

SCIUTTO: Just in the last several minutes, President Trump has made a new posting to his Truth Social media platform regarding the ceasefire. We're going to put it up on the screen here, the ceasefire is now in effect, he says. Please do not violate it, exclamation point, signing off as he has several of his recent tweets, Donald trump, President of the United States. Perhaps the president is aware of the fire that's been going back and forth between Iran and Israel over the course of the last couple of hours, even past the midnight eastern deadline that President Trump said the ceasefire was going to take effect. One of those strikes by Iran in southern Israel has killed a number of people in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva.

Just hours before the president announced the ceasefire brokered between Israel and Iran, Iran struck a U.S. Military base in Qatar, or at least fired at a U.S. Military base in Qatar, the Al-Udeid base. CNN's Natasha Bertrand reports the U.S. had gotten advance warning of that strike. NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Iran launched over a dozen short and medium range ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where thousands of U.S. forces are stationed but they were all shot down by Qatar's air defenses as well as by U.S. Central Command. And as of right now, there does not appear to have been any casualties or any deaths resulting from this missile attack by Iran. The president, of course, is saying that he believes that this was just an attempt by Iran to get it out of their system. Of course, this retaliation to the U.S. attack on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend, something that Iran had vowed to retaliate over. But it's important to note that the U.S. military had been preparing for this for several weeks now, ever since Israel began its bombing campaign in Tehran, making sure that U.S. bases and assets and facilities across the Middle East were fortified and that U.S. forces were on high alert should Iran or its proxies decide to launch missile or drone attacks on U.S. forces across the region.

And so the U.S. had been prepared for this. Many assets, including sheltered aircraft that had been at Al Udeid Air Base, they had been moved. And so there were no exposed aircraft at that -- at that base as of Monday when Iran launched that attack. And there were also U.S. Naval assets in Bahrain that had been moved prior to any kind of Iranian retaliation because the U.S. anticipated that Iran might decide to try to strike back here.

And so for now, U.S. officials saying no reports of any casualties from these Iranian strikes, but of course they will continue to remain on high alert given the ongoing tensions in the region.

Natasha Bertrand, CNN, at the Pentagon.

SCIUTTO: We should note it is truly remarkable that Iran gave advance warning to the U.S. of those missile strikes via Qatar. Remarkable development in a series of remarkable developments in the region. Though a ceasefire is in place for now, at least announced for now, some Senate lawmakers are moving to try to stop President Trump from taking future military action against Iran unless those actions are authorized by Congress. CNN's Manu Raju has more details on that plan as well as reactions from lawmakers on the president's recent attacks in the Middle East.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Even as Donald Trump announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran, there is still a push for Congress to have a say if the president were to call for additional military action against Iran. In fact, there are two resolutions that are moving through the Senate and the House to try to constrain the president's powers and actually say that Congress needs to be declaring an act of war against Iran if this situation were to escalate in the days and months ahead. There's an effort to force a vote this week in the United States Senate. That effort led by Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. He has support from at least one Republican senator, that is Rand Paul of Kentucky who is pushing this measure.

But they need to have 51 votes in the Republican led Senate in order to be adopted and then it has to get approved in the United States House. How it plays out in the House still is uncertain at this moment and whether they could have enough votes to move ahead, especially in the actual (ph) on the President's announcement of this so called ceasefire deal that he said was reached.

Now, despite all of this has exposed a divide within the GOP, particularly among some of Donald Trump's more MAGA aligned supporters. People like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told me that she opposed Donald Trump's decision to call for those military strikes against those three nuclear facilities in Iran.

[01:20:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We promise no more foreign wars, no more regime change. They also voted for President Trump on those promises. And I've been very vocal. We don't belong in foreign wars.

And so many Americans are very wary when all of a sudden the news comes on and it starts saying why we're attacking a country. When most Americans are walking around, they're not thinking about Iran, they're not worried about a Houthi, and they don't even know what a Houthi looks like, they're not worried about what Russia is doing, they're very much focused on their American life and their American problems. And that's exactly what they should be focused on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And despite Greene's concerns, Republican leaders are by and large falling in line behind Trump on this issue, which is why we don't expect this resolution to try to tie his hands on Iran to go very far. This all comes as the House and Senate are poised to have their own classified briefings on Tuesday about everything that happened over the last several days here and what the weeks and months ahead may look like and whether Iran still has any capability to build a nuclear weapon.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

SCIUTTO: Joining me now is Ron Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst and Opinion Columnist for Bloomberg.

Ron, good to have you on this late. Thanks so much for joining us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Jim. Sure.

SCIUTTO: So listen, you and I have been around for a while, and every time a U.S. president orders military action abroad without congressional approval, which every president in recent memory has done of both parties, and you can count -- you can count them on -- well, you need more than two hands to count those instances.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And every time that happens, there's some discussion in Congress and sometimes bipartisan about, well, we got to reign -- we got to reign, we've got to rein the president in, reclaim congressional authority to declare war, et cetera. Does this one have any more legs than previous ones did?

BROWNSTEIN: Probably not. I mean, the military action here I think is more significant than we've seen a president undertake, I think in almost any instance without more consultation with Congress. I mean, the fact that they only notified the Republican leadership, not the Democratic leadership before, and really takes this to an entirely new level, but very much, you know, in tune with the kind of the overall approach of the second of the Trump presidency. I doubt it. I mean, you know, I think, you know, you know, Donald Trump, I think in this action really is revealing what we are seeing on so many fronts in domestic and international affairs which is that he feels, and he is governing as if any of the constraints that he faced in the first term have eroded, if not been obliterated entirely, whether in domestic politics, whether from the Supreme Court, whether from other countries, he is acting as though he believes he is completely unbound and unfettered.

And, you know, that is leading him to do things that are bigger swings and bigger risks and eventually that can come back to haunt you.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, listen, the number of things that are happening in such a short period of time, I mean, it's really just hard to -- it's hard to keep up with. I wonder, there's been some polling done about what Americans feel about this military action against Iran. It seems that majorities, large majorities oppose it.

Does that matter in the current environment? I mean, the reason I ask is because this is a president who does feel unrestrained, certainly far less restrained than he did in the first term. Does he listen to that? Does he listen to that kind of criticism and questions?

BROWNSTEIN: To the extent he worries about kind of the politics of his actions, I think, like Republicans have been generally for the last 25 years, he's more focused on what it does -- what it means for his base than he is for the electorate overall. And obviously there was a lot of resistance to this among many vocal elements of his base. But as, you know, as you heard him say in the lead up to this action, you know, I America First. I what America First means. And he felt confident in his ability to move his coalition in his direction.

And in fact, you know, I mean, what you've seen -- what you saw going in was opposition from a bunch of outside voices, but almost none except from the usual suspects, kind of the libertarian isolationists in the Republican elected official ranks, right? I mean, there was just basically no one except Thomas Massie or Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who raised objection here. And, you know, the tip off I thought was an interview Steve Bannon did with the FT of, you know, London where he said before, we'll fight this till the last minute, but if he does it, we will fall in line. And I think that's what Trump expects and therefore he's not as worried about concern in the broader public.

[01:25:06]

The other thing he had going for him, Jim, is that although there was a lot of, you know, unease in the public about the U.S. entering in this broad way the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon had 80 percent support among Democrats, Republicans and Independents in Chicago Council on Global Affairs polling this spring. So, I mean, it isn't as if he defied public opinion to do something the public didn't want. He kind of defied public opinion to do something the public agreed with. And I think that's less inherently dangerous for president.

SCIUTTO: He took a gamble, right? The gamble being that maybe we could do this military action, do a significant amount of damage and not have a broader war. And at least where we're sitting right now, possible at least that the gamble might pay off.

BROWNSTEIN: We won't know for a long time. Obviously, we don't know what they did with their facile material. We don't know what this is going to mean in terms of terrorism down the road. But that to me is the real point.

Look at everything Trump has done since he's taken. I mean, he not only pardoned January 6th rioters, he pardoned the ones who attacked police officers. He not only sent the National Guard into L.A. over the objections of a governor, he sent the Marines, the active duty Marines, into an American city. He not only, you know, proposed tariffs on China, but on our closest allies across the board. He is behaving as if he believes all of the constraints he faced in his first term have simply fallen away.

He is taking a lot of big risks. And as you say, this one may work out. But when you're taking big risks like that every day, it's hard for them all to pay out in your direction. I mean, that's why the people, as they say, why the people who own the casinos go home in limousines, not the people who gamble there. And that's what he is doing. He's really, as a book said about Reagan, gambling with history day after day after day.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you just a non-foreign policy related question. You have this --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- quote, unquote, Big, Beautiful Bill attempting to work its way through the Senate --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- and it looks like it's going to get trimmed down, at least from the House version. Does that get through eventually in some sort of trimmed down form and the goal is to do so before July 4th?

BROWNSTEIN: I don't know about July 4th, but look, the first year of a Republican president, the Republican controlled Congress, or even a Republican controlled Congress, in practice, they cut taxes. That's what they do, Reagan '81, Bush '01, Trump '17, so in the end, they will do this bill. And I think that this bill will be the action of Congress that has the most impact on the 2026 election.

As I wrote this week, you know, they haven't -- it's been 30 years since they did what they are doing in this bill, which was the Gingrich Congress where they married big spending cuts with big tax cuts into the same bill. And the result is that all of the analysis say that most Americans below the median income will come out net losers from this bill, while the people in the top 10 percent will come out big winners. I mean, that's kind of, you know, the way Republican economics has often worked. But it is a different coalition. There are a lot more blue collar people that the Republicans now depend on who rely on these big social programs that they are cutting, particularly Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Sixteen million people will lose coverage from this bill, the biggest number in any single bill in American history. So it is again, another major risk, part of this general trend, I think, that we're seeing in Trump's second term.

SCIUTTO: Yes, hospitals too will be impacted. Some will have to close without that Medicaid funding.

BROWNSTEIN: Rural hospitals, yes.

SCIUTTO: Ron Brownstein, thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: We do continue to track the latest developments in the Middle East. Israel says Iran is still launching deadly missile attacks, at least right up to the imposition of the ceasefire hours after Donald Trump announced that agreement. We're going to have the latest on the conflict just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:33:40]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back to our viewers all over the world.

I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. And you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

As world leaders prepare for the NATO summit in the Netherlands, which gets underway in just the next couple of hours, Russia has been ramping up its aerial attacks across Ukraine.

The Ukrainian air force says Moscow launched more than 350 drones and 16 missiles in the past 24 hours. Those strikes, killed at least two people, wounded a dozen after one of the missiles hit a school in the southern Odessa region.

Russia also continues to target Ukraine's capital. Officials say Russian strikes there killed at least nine people when a missile hit a five-story residential building -- a residential building.

Kira Rudik joins me now from Kyiv. She is a member of the Ukrainian parliament.

Thanks so much. Good to talk to you again. KIRA RUDIK, MEMBER OF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Hello, Jim. Thank you so

much for having me. And thank you for keeping focus on Ukraine. We really need it.

SCIUTTO: I wonder if you think Russia, with these latest strikes, was deliberately attempting to take advantage of the world's attention being focused on the Middle East, right now.

[01:34:54]

SCIUTTO: Assuming, perhaps, that the U.S. president and others might not pay attention.

RUDIK: That was absolutely 100 percent their plan. We know that. And moreover, we have been warning all our partners about this. Because this is exactly what has happened last year with the intensifying situation in the Middle East.

There are two questions here. First, how is it possible that Russia is still able to increase their attacks and manufacture weapons, given all the sanctions that they have been under for at least the last three years? Which is again, proof that sanctions are not working properly and need to be intensifying.

And the second question is, with the ramping up these attacks, we definitely need more air defense systems and we need to get them right now because it's basically a matter of life and death for our people.

And we are not getting that. And we are still in attempts in getting support from the United States and it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

SCIUTTO: President Trump, as you know, has repeatedly threatened additional sanctions against Russia. And there was a moment a few weeks ago when he said, well, I'll decide in two weeks, of course, that deadline, if you want to call it that, has passed.

In your view, does Russia view that consistent and continuing delay as weakness on the part of the U.S.?

RUDIK: They absolutely do. And I think right now the attention of Russia, Iran, China and North Korea is at the actions of American president and in his ability to execute on the threats that he is making.

And so I'm absolutely sure that Russia was looking at the delays, trying to say, oh, it's both sides war, et cetera, et cetera as a chance for themselves to continue the terror.

Iran was doing that and other authoritarian regimes as well to be respected at their geopolitical level. To continue being a leader of the democratic world, you need to put your actions where your words are.

And this is why here on the ground in Ukraine, people are both worried, but also actually hopeful with the fact that if there were strong actions by the United States towards Iran, that it gives us some hope that there could be strong actions towards Russia.

However, right now nothing is pointing towards this and I'm just keeping it for Ukrainian people like saying, well, look, the hope is still there. But it's very hard, Jim. It is very hard, especially given how people spending more and more times in the bomb shelter, less and less times with their normal lives.

And can you just imagine like 300 drones with constant explosions in the sky, like not knowing when it's going to end? It's just terrifying. And it is a terror as it is.

SCIUTTO: As you know, the NATO summit begins today in Europe. Do you expect -- do you have hope for any strong statement of support, but also action to support Ukraine from NATO? Or do you fear that NATO is becoming divided on the issue of supporting Ukraine?

RUDIK: We are afraid that NATO may go towards some statements which will not be then converted into actions and actions is what we are craving for, is what we are desperately needing here.

So no matter what the statement is, we hope that NATO countries understand the threat and will be able to increase long term planning and manufacturing of the weapons and supplies that will allow us to kind of live through potential decrease in the support from the United States.

Because I think we have been talking a lot about what would happen if Ukraine wins. What would happen if Russia stops. But we have not been talking enough of what would happen if Ukraine loses.

And I think this is a threat that everybody needs to be counting on. And this is why working not to save Ukraine, but to save itself, to save NATO.

I want to remind everyone that NATO's goal was actually to deter the Soviet Union. And now to deter Russia. And Ukraine is the only country that actively is doing that.

So what would happen if we stop? What would happen if we fail?

SCIUTTO: Well, Kira Rudik, I know that given that you live in Kyiv and you've survived your own share of Russian attacks, these last few hours must have been harrowing. I'm glad you're safe. And I wish you continued safety.

[01:39:50]

RUDIK: Thank you. Thank you, Jim, and glory to Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: We do continue to follow developments in the Middle East, where Iranian and Israeli media channels now report that a ceasefire between the two nations has taken effect. President Trump also confirmed that. And just in the last several minutes has been urging the sides not to violate the ceasefire.

Just hours ago, the president claimed the countries had reached out to him, in his words, almost simultaneously about peace.

Those comments came as sirens blared though, across parts of Israel after Iran fired more missiles toward Israel early Tuesday morning in the minutes just before that ceasefire was meant to take effect.

Israeli officials say one strike killed at least four people as a missile -- an Iranian missile hit a residential building in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Both sides fired off missiles before -- just before the ceasefire was set to begin.

Iranian state media reports the country is moving closer to suspending cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. On Monday, the parliament's national security committee approved the outline of a bill that would take that step.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament says they are looking to suspend cooperation until the IAEA provides concrete guarantees regarding its, quote, "professional and unbiased conduct". The bill still needs to clear two more hurdles before becoming law.

Joining me now, Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi. She's an associate fellow at Chatham House and a senior analyst with the global consultancy group Control Risk. Thanks so much for coming on.

ANISEH BASSIRI TABRIZI, ASSOCIATE FELLOW, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: I wonder first if you could give your view of the significance of that Iranian parliament move to suspend cooperation with the IAEA. The IAEA has provided at least some oversight of Iranian -- of Iran's nuclear program. Without it, what would be -- what would be the effect?

TABRIZI: Well, I think it would definitely be concerning. We already know that despite the strikes they have been conducted over the past few days, including those conducted by the U.S. against Fordow and Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities, we don't know the state of the stockpiles of enriched uranium. We don't know where Iran put those, and we know that with the lack of cooperation, with the lack of presence of the IAEA inside Iran, it would be much more difficult for the international community to assess the state of the Iranian nuclear program and also identify and verify any kind of diversion to a weaponized nuclear program.

SCIUTTO: A word now about the ceasefire. All the parties have some incentive to abide by a ceasefire now, one could argue. Iran is reeling from a series of deeply damaging attacks. It could use a breather. Israel can claim a series of victories here given the damage its done to Iran's nuclear program, but also its missile batteries, et cetera. And President Trump seems to want to avoid a broader war.

However, there are strategic interests here that are lasting. Do you see a ceasefire holding? And if so, for how long? How long is realistic.

TABRIZI: It's a great question. I think the situation remains volatile at the moment. I think the escalation between the U.S. and Iran might be basically ending. I don't think it's in neither interest to continue the escalation that we have seen, especially from the weekend onward.

But I think the tensions between Iran and Israel are likely to continue.

The question is, are we going to go back to the kind of gray zone confrontation that we had before everything started on the 13th of June, or are we going to continue these direct attacks between Israel and Iran in each other's territories continue over the next hours and weeks?

I think it very much depends on what's the end goal here and what are the signaling from both sides. I think if the focus was to curtail Iran's nuclear and military capability from the Israeli side, that mission has largely been achieved and not completely, obviously, because as I mentioned, we still don't know where some of the nuclear material is.

And in fact, we could argue that the recent escalation might give even more an incentive for Iran to move towards a weaponization of its program.

[01:44:50]

TABRIZI: Given that its deterrent capability, its missiles, its drone, its axis of resistance, the proxies that have been in the region for decades now have proven not to be enough to deter the enemies of Iran from attacking its territory.

So I think it's really volatile at the moment. But what we know is that President Trump seems to want a ceasefire and definitely an end of the confrontation, at least for now. And until that's the case, there will be some pressure for both sides to hold fire.

SCIUTTO: As you know, for years, the possibility of a U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear program has been discussed in such a way that it would be catastrophic. That if it were to happen, there would be war and the U.S. would be in that war.

The president carried out this strike, granted a one-off, as he described it, and you have a ceasefire in effect, and at least for now, not a broader war.

Does that surprise you? And does that indicate to you that it's possible the gamble paid off?

TABRIZI: Well, I think obviously there are different layers of escalation that could happen, right? Like, yes, the U.S. conducting strikes against Iran, but it didn't really conduct strikes to destabilize the regime or go for regime change or attack broader sites or even a military or political sites.

I think that would have probably trigger a different reaction from the Iranian side. Also, the involvement of Iranian proxies, and that could have led to a longer-term escalation and broader confrontation across the region.

I think the signaling between the two countries has been surprising and in a positive way. I think the U.S. has warned Iran that it was going to strike on Sunday. The Iranians have warned the U.S. that they were going to strike.

So I think there was a lot of messaging, a lot of attempt to steal, to maintain these to a contained level. Again, this is very volatile, has been only a few days, like 13 of June and we are here. So things could change rapidly still.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Volatile is the word of the day and probably for some days.

Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, thanks so much for joining.

TABRIZI: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: And we'll be right back.

[01:47:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: President Trump is calling U.S. strikes on Iran a complete success, though we still do not have a clear picture of exactly what damage those massive bunker buster bombs did to Iran's nuclear facilities.

Still, the highly complex and secretive mission took place without a single Iranian shot fired at those U.S. aircraft.

CNN's Tom Foreman walks us through the timeline.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A minute past midnight in Missouri, a fleet of B-2 bombers takes off, a portion heads west as a decoy. But the rest --

GEN. DAN CAINE, CHAIRMAN, U.S. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: The main strike package comprised of seven B-2 Spirit bombers, each with two crew members proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications.

FOREMAN: Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Steve Basham flew such planes.

LT. GEN. STEVE BASHAM, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET): These pilots, They know their mission for the first maybe 17 hours is to do the best that they can to not be detected.

FOREMAN: The stealth aircraft are refueled in flight repeatedly as they cross the Atlantic, their mission dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer.

The two pilot crews check every system and review their training of the coming attack, likely studied on detailed computer models. They have food, restroom facilities, even a small space to stretch out.

But

BASHAM: I Would venture to guess that these pilots had so much adrenaline that, quite honestly, none of them were able to sleep.

FOREMAN: As the bombers streak into Iranian airspace, they are joined by more decoy planes and fighter jets suppressing any potential defense systems.

And at 2:10 in the morning, Iran time, the first bomber drops its pair of 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrators, the first operational use of these weapons by the U.S.

BASHAM: And when that first bomb releases from the lead aircraft and then the subsequent six aircraft come in and drop their -- drop their weapons, it is probably the greatest relief ever.

You have a pretty good idea when the weapons hit the ground, based upon what you're probably doing, that they actually went into their -- into their target.

FOREMAN: The bombers hit two nuclear sites, two dozen tomahawk missiles from a U.S. submarine slammed into a third. It all takes less than a half hour with not one shot fired at the American planes.

CAINE: Iran's fighters did not fly. And it appears that Iran's surface to air missile systems did not see us. Throughout the mission, we retained the element of surprise.

FOREMAN: U.S. intelligence officials are still assessing the full impact of the damage, even as the Pentagon claims success.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We devastated the Iranian nuclear program.

[01:54:50]

FOREMAN: While others with more than 125 U.S. aircraft involved are marveling that such a large mission was pulled off in such secrecy against a foe that surely knew it was coming.

BASHAM: Amazing. Is that not remarkable?

FOREMAN: Simply put, this all went pretty much the way military leaders wanted it to. Now, political leaders are watching the follow up developments and hoping they will end well too.

Tom Foreman, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much for watching this evening. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

Our breaking news coverage continues with my colleague Polo Sandoval right after a short break.

[01:55:30]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)