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Iran Launches Retaliatory Attacks After Death Of Supreme Leader; New: White House Trump Spoke With Leaders Of Israel, Bahrain And UAE; No Clear Successor In Iran After Supreme Leader's Death. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 01, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:47]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF "NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP": You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Abby Phillip in New York alongside Erin Burnett in Tel Aviv. Thank you for joining us.

Just moments ago, CNN's crew in Tel Aviv captured the moment that air raid sirens rang out over the city.

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PHILLIP: CNN's Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond reported that multiple rounds of incoming Iranian ballistic missiles came in the last hour, and Israel and Iran both launching new attacks today.

The IDF says that a short time ago, its Air Force is flying almost freely over Tehran, and this is just new dramatic video showing you an Iranian airstrike on Bahrain on Saturday in response to the killing of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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PHILLIP: This is coming today, as we just learned of the first American casualties in President Trump's conflict with Iran. U.S. Central Command says the three service members have been killed in action and another five were seriously wounded. They sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions though it is unclear how these service members were killed.

A senior White House official has told CNN that President Trump will eventually speak with the new potential leadership in Iran, but says that for now, the military operation will continue.

The country forming a Transitional Council after the Supreme Leader and major military leaders were killed in this joint U.S.-Israeli operation.

Let's go straight to Tel Aviv, where CNN's Erin Burnett is standing by -- Erin. ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, "OUT FRONT": Yes, Abby. And, you know you just heard those sirens. Of course, the way that things are here right now and this war that is affecting this entire region now, in an unprecedented and stunning way.

We are still waiting on more details about the three U.S. service members killed in action and the five others, Abby, that you mentioned, who are seriously wounded in terms of what happened and where.

U.S. Central Command says right now that they're waiting until 24 hours after next of kin for those soldiers is notified to release additional information. An incredible moment to think about, right? That just days ago, this was something many seemed would think was impossible, and now here we are, Americans have died in action in this war.

For more on what we do know, CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward joins us from Erbil, Iraq, and our Jerusalem correspondent, Jeremy Diamond is here in Tel Aviv and covering the story from here with us.

So Clarissa, what is the latest that we understand about these U.S. service members as these details are just starting to come in.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Erin, I just want to talk if you will allow me, because we have just been hearing another series of booms coming from that direction. That's the same direction where we heard explosions earlier in the evening. We then could also hear small arms fire that's an indication, potentially that it was some type of a drone attack, people trying to shoot down those drones, and it was coming from the direction of the Erbil Airport.

Now, earlier this evening, just an hour ago, when there was another series of explosions at the airport, we actually drove right close to try to get a better look and get a sense of what was going on. Take a look at what we saw. Please.

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WARD: Erbil Airport, which is one of the very few places in Iraq where you can still find U.S. service members. There appears to be some kind or have been some kind of a direct impact there, unclear what the cause of it was, potentially rockets.

We have seen a big uptick in the last few hours with not just Iran striking Iraqi Kurdistan and here in Erbil, but also Iran-backed militias inside Iraq, which have significantly escalated their attacks.

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You can smell that very distinctive, smoky kind of cordite smell. Again, we don't know exactly what was hit. We don't know if there were any casualties, but certainly we have been hearing regular booms. We also heard Air Defenses going off, and we are trying to find out more details as to what the exact target was and whether anyone was hurt as a result.

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WARD And now, Erin, after we arrived back, we did see a statement that has been put out by an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias inside Iraq claiming credit or taking responsibility for that attack on the airport.

We have also heard today, though Erin, interestingly enough, that at least four militia members of these Iran-backed militias in Iraq were killed in strikes. And certainly, there is a sense across the whole of Iraq that things are very quickly escalating, very tense and, of course, you asked earlier on about those Americans who we now know were killed in action, we are finding out some more details, but we have been cautioned that until the next of kin have been notified, we should not release any details on explaining or identifying them, or how they were killed or where they were killed -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Clarissa, thank you so much. The incredible human tragedy unfolding in so many places and so many families as we speak.

You know, our way that we came in here was, was circuitous because there is essentially -- I mean, this is a stunning moment right? No air travel anywhere in the region. It is not as if it is just going to snap and turn back on, world's busiest airport shut down in Dubai. The way to get in here is land and it took us, you know well over 24 hours.

I know, Jeremy in Tel Aviv you've done that before. But one of the things I first noticed when we actually were able to come in from Egypt into Israel was the almost pre-Gaza in terms of the busses of it was young men in military uniform everywhere at every sort of stop you could make. And I know that they are doing another huge call of reservists now here.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, 100,000 reservists are being mobilized and this signals not only the fact that this is a widening conflict and one that risks getting even wider, but also the fact that we still don't know whether some of the Iranian proxies in the region are going to join in on in this fight.

One of the big question marks remains over Hezbollah, for example which signaled last week that killing the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, would be a red line and would essentially collapse the fragile ceasefire that has existed between Israel and Hezbollah for over a year now, albeit with a very large number of violations and many Israeli strikes, in particular in Lebanon.

So, that is one of the questions, maybe one of the reasons why they are calling in so many more reservists, but certainly Israel is preparing for this to be a days' long campaign. We've heard the Israeli Prime Minister and other officials talking about the fact that this is going to continue until they get the job done. I think, there is a question mark about exactly what that means.

We know they're trying to create -- BURNETT: What is the job?

DIAMOND: They are trying to create the conditions for a regime change. Does that mean the strikes continue until regime change has been achieved, or is there some other benchmark that they will lay out there, especially as were hearing, you know, these grumblings about whether President Trump will eventually talk to the new leadership in Iran, whether there is the possibility of any ceasefire discussions there, but certainly for now, these strikes are going to continue for days. And that also means that Iran's strikes here are also going to continue.

BURNETT: Yes, yes, as we've heard and of course, as you point out, you know, the IDF quick to say how many they've eliminated, what they say, 48 leaders which would almost sound as if there is no leadership. But of course, the Iranian President is still alive, perhaps the former Supreme Leader's son. Right? It is just extremely unclear who is in charge, what the power vacuum is. We don't know.

All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much. And of course Jeremy here in Tel Aviv has been indefatigably covering this.

I want to go now to the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, CNN's senior military analyst, Admiral James Stavridis, also a partner of Carlyle Group, the international investment firm.

So, Admiral Stavridis, I want to start here in -- obviously, this is a moment where you are just seeing, you know, it is unprecedented. It is stunning, it is across a region. It is even more than a regional war, obviously, at this point, United States involved. But now you have American soldiers dead, which could be a transformational point.

How do you see this?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: First and foremost, I think the strikes are going to continue for some number of days, if not weeks. Clearly, you were just discussing quite correctly with Jeremy, the idea of what is the job we are trying to accomplish here? And pretty clearly at this point, it is regime change.

[15:1004]

Whether there is an off ramp, Erin, to at least talk to whatever the new leadership looks like remains to be seen, but point one plan on continuing strikes. Point two, the Iranians are going to try and close the Strait of Hormuz, right in the center of the map you're showing, that's 25 percent of the world's oil that goes through there, so look for oil prices to go up significantly.

And point three, the Iranians will not only seek to close that Strait, they are going to continue to expand their inventory, their ballistic missiles against the targets that you are dodging yourself personally in Tel Aviv. So, that's kind of the predicate.

Final thought: In some ways, if there is going to be regime change, it is not going to be the direct result of these strikes. It is going to require the brave people of Iran to come out and face this rotten theocratic regime and when that happens, are we going to see Tiananmen Square and protesters shot down, or are we going to see the French Revolution, a successful national movement that gets rid of the old?

So, there is much more to follow here, and I am above all, holding those American service men and their families in my thoughts and prayers.

BURNETT: Yes. You know, it is so hard to understand, not just through the opacity with which we cannot see into what is really going on in Tehran right now, the question marks, but also, Admiral, what damage has really been done physically? Right?

There is a lot of embellishment. There are some facts. There is bellicosity and it is very hard to tell the difference between the three, right?

So, we have satellite images that we've just gotten in that shows significant damage at multiple military bases in Iran. Then you have Trump coming out and talking about how the Iranian Navy is on the floor of the sea and essentially eliminated. How much can you see what the reality is right now? I mean, we also hear that Iran has thousands of missiles that it can still fire, and it could, if it continued to use them appropriately, it could overwhelm U.S. missile defenses, if it is able to do so over a certain period of days.

You know, what really is the situation here as you see it?

STAVRIDIS: When I put my Commander's eye on this thing and I think back, for example, to the 2011 war in Libya in which as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, I directed 25,000 strikes. We hit and serviced 6,000 targets. What I am seeing is a very comprehensive campaign across the spectrum of military targets, military, industrial complex and naval forces, the latter being most important to take out in order to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

Erin, we are going to do, I'd say, another 24 hours plus of strikes, and then I think you'll see a pause for Battle Damage Assessment. CNN and other outlets are on top of this, looking at satellites, but our U.S. military satellites are even more precise. So, look for a real evaluation, probably 24 hours from now. It is a lot of damage.

BURNETT: Yes, and we have yet to see the full range of the capabilities. There was, you know, one comment today from the Foreign Minister in Iran that I found a bit startling, sort of saying, well, the units that are making the decisions about where to strike, right, as if it was coming unit by unit from the Iranians, as opposed to any sort of functioning full, you know, command and control. That was the implication of what he said. It is unclear if that's exactly what he meant.

There is so much uncertainty about exactly who is dead, right? Some we know for sure, Admiral, some we don't, right? You'll see reports that Khamenei's likely successor, his son was killed. That does not appear to be true from everything that we've learned. So where do you think this goes? I mean, they've got a process where there is a Leadership Council and you form that, and they did that, and then you name this. And is any of that functioning?

STAVRIDIS: The original set of actors, I think are no longer part of the Board. So, what is happening now in U.S. Intelligence centers? Literally, there are screens with the faces you are showing right now with big red Xs through them and that next level that's coming up are going to become the targets set. And if you think back to our global war on terror against al-Qaeda, we were always after Osama bin Laden, of course, but we were methodically killing the deputies, the operations officers.

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We used to say the most dangerous job on the planet is being the COO of al-Qaeda. We killed him 25 times. It shows you that groups will continue to surface talent. There will be opportunities for promotion. But our folks are pretty relentless, and I think they will continue to drive down those numbers.

BURNETT: All right, Admiral Stavridis, I always appreciate your time. Thanks so much from us. We appreciate it.

And our breaking news coverage continues from here in the Middle East around this region. A dangerous escalation in this war. Iranian strikes targeting American military assets now have killed three American service members.

And President Trump tonight coming out, and his former National Security Advisor, John Bolton will join us. So, does he support this? Is this nation building and regime change? We will be back.

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PHILLIP: In the back and forth of threats today, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard posted this: "The most ferocious offensive operation in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces will begin at any moment." Shortly after that, at midnight in Mar-a- Lago, the President posted this on Truth Social: "They better not do that, however because if they do, we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before."

I want to bring in President Trump's former National Security Advisor and former U.N. Ambassador, John Bolton.

Ambassador Bolton, the day started with that exchange of threats, but by the late morning, as President Trump has been calling around to media outlets, he told "The Atlantic" that the new leaders in Iran, "Want to talk." And on top of that, Oman's Foreign Ministry also says that Iran is open to any serious efforts at de-escalation.

So should the U.S. work with the remnants of the existing Iranian regime similar to what they have done so far in Venezuela? JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Of course not. It is a mistake in Venezuela, it would be a mistake in Iran. I have no doubt that whatever is left of Iran's top leadership is perfectly happy to talk to the United States, to play for time, to stop us and the Israelis from pounding them.

Their word is no good. The threat that they pose to us remains unresolved. Their behavior is not going to change. That's why the President has selected the correct objective here, which is regime change. We are less than two days into it. We need to have patience and not listen to those that will do anything say anything to get us to stop.

PHILLIP: Yes, but I think people are also eager to get a sense of what is next. I mean, as you know, the late Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, has been suggesting that he is the person who could lead Iran. Do you think that he actually has the support, the power, the infrastructure to do that?

BOLTON: Well, we don't know whether he does or anybody else does and I think it is a mistake to focus on who the next leader of a non- Ayatollah led Iran will be. Once we have a non-Ayatollah led Iran, then we can worry about it.

As Jim Baker always used to say to me, keep your eyes on the prize. And the prize is bringing down this regime. I think the most likely outcome, certainly probably the best outcome, would be a regime led by the Iranian military, not the Revolutionary Guard, but the conventional military that understands that its role is limited and that it really, they need to set up a process for Iranians in country and for people from the -- who have been exiled to go back and participate.

But to try and do it in advance, I think, is putting the cart before the horse.

PHILLIP: Let me play what President Trump had to say to the people of Iran. Listen.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

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PHILLIP: I am curious what your reaction to that is and also how? How would that be done? How can the regular Iranian people take over their government at this stage?

BOLTON: Well, it is remarks like that and one other thing he said in that speech that that leave me worried that we have not coordinated effectively with the opposition inside Iran, it doesn't have enormous structure or leadership, but it is the dissatisfaction with the regime has never been more widespread. The regime is weaker now than it has been at any point since it was founded in 1979, and it won't be, I think, a transition from an Ayatollah-led regime or really a Revolutionary Guard led regime. I think it is the Guard that is really in control in Iran to the people.

There will be intermediate steps.

The Ayatollahs have been in power for 47 years. They're not about to go quickly and I think we need some persistence and some patience here. I hope the administration is ready for that. I hope they make the case better than they have so far to the American people that this could take time.

[15:25:10]

It is not time involving boots on the ground, but if we are successful as it appears that we are well on the way to doing of having complete air dominance over Iran, meaning we can take our time, that we shouldn't be pressed by eight days, nine days. Is it going to be over in ten days? It will be over when it's over. If that's our real objective, if regime change is our objective, we should have known going in, we cannot predict at the outset how long it will take.

PHILLIP: All right, Ambassador John Bolton, thank you very much for joining us.

BOLTON: Glad to be with you.

PHILLIP: Iran's retaliation targeted popular tourist destinations like Dubai, which are usually considered safe.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria is here to talk about that and much more, ahead.

Before we go though, here is a look at the Flight Radar over the Middle East where you can see commercial flights actively avoiding the Persian Gulf and the Iranian airspace. Many flights in and out of countries in that region have been cancelled or are facing serious delays. We will be right back after a short break.

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BURNETT: Welcome back.

I am Erin Burnett and I am here in Tel Aviv, and you may notice if you're watching, we've just moved our location a little bit because we've just gotten another warning that there may be incoming missiles. So, we are going to be awaiting those sirens to see.

Obviously, these are missiles coming from Iran, cruise missiles. So, it is very different than what Israel has experienced in some of the past conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah, so as we await for that, I want to go to Fareed Zakaria.

Fareed, you know what we are experiencing right now is something that people are experiencing across this region, right, in an unprecedented moment where you have images of the world's busiest airport damaged in Dubai. You have images of some of the iconic buildings in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, damaged -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and as this back and forth continues between Israel and Tehran, it is about 10:30 local time here at night as we anticipate possibly more missiles coming in.

Fareed, where does this go from here?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Well, it really depends on whether the United States and Israel have as their main goal what President Trump said, which was that the Iranian people should overthrow the regime. If regime change is the goal, this war is going to continue, because that's going to be a very hard thing to achieve from the air.

I don't know of any time in history it has happened and the best you can do is massively degrade the regime bombing after bombing, facility after facility, so that you hope that you so weaken the regime that people would have the chance to take matters in their own hands and somehow rise up you know, protest, organize, maybe in some way or the other.

But that's going to take a while. If the goal has been to degrade Iran's military capabilities and its nuclear program, frankly that was done last June. Iran's program was, as Donald Trump used to keep reminding us, obliterated.

So right now, the real question is, what is the objective of the American military mission here? Until that's clear, it is impossible to tell when they will stop because you don't know whether you've achieved success.

BURNETT: And Fareed, I mean what is the visibility as you see it, into what is actually happening in Tehran? I mean, I just think about it, even as journalists, right? Individuals that we may deal with there, many of them are still doing their jobs and they are still operating. And yet you've had mass evisceration of many people in the military leadership, yet you still have strikes and you still have missiles.

You know, what -- is there an assessment at this point? I know Admiral Stavridis was talking a few moments ago about how well it will take another 24 hours or so before they can do the first, "Battle Ground Assessment." But where are we right now in terms of knowing what damage was truly done to Iran? To its military installations and to its leadership, and then its next layer and its next layer and its next layer of potential hard line leadership?

ZAKARIA: Well, we know for sure that there has been enormous damage because they can't respond. I mean, if the retaliation that they are doing is pretty small bore, it is a drone here, a drone there. Some of -- many of them are being intercepted. The UAE and Israel both have very strong you know, shields of various kind of air defense systems.

But what we do know is that the Iranian leadership is very institutionalized. It is not one person who is running things. It is not ten people who are running things. And so my suspicion is, if we are searching for that moment, that critical moment where we have in some way or the other, you know, kind of cut the head of the snake or decapitated the regime, that's going to be very hard to achieve because its institutionalized, they have layers and layers of people working there.

And look, Iran is a country of 92 million people. It is not like they are going to run out of people to run these things, and as for hardliners, one thing we can say, during a war, the military rules.

So my guess is what's going to happen is the Revolutionary Guard, which is the most feared part of the Iranian system, has become more powerful, not less.

[15:35:10]

Because they are the ones running the show when you're at war.

BURNETT: And Fareed, is that something you believe that Trump expected, right? Or did he expect that somehow when you took out the Supreme Leader, that the replacement would be something very different? I mean, what do you think his analysis, his understanding of reality was versus where we are?

ZAKARIA: I think American presidents in general tend to over personalize foreign policy. Trump does that to a much greater extent than most people and there has always been a tendency to think, if we just get rid of Saddam Hussein, if we just get rid of Gaddafi, somehow, you know democracy will flourish in these places. If we get rid of Mubarak under the Obama administration --

In none of those cases was that true? And as I say, in Iran's case in particular, it is it is a highly institutionalized regime. So I suspect that President Trump was hoping for some kind of you know, immediate collapse. You can tell this by the fact that he has already, to be quite honest, he is already backpedaling. He is already talking about off ramps and how he can negotiate with the new leadership and how he can perfectly imagine a new nuclear deal.

Well, all that was possible, frankly before the war. They were negotiating. They were offering concessions. So some -- you know, I suspect that President Trump was expecting an instant collapse of the regime which has not happened.

BURNETT: Which has not happened and, Fareed, you know, as you were speaking, I don't know if you could see. But, you know we were panning over because while we have not -- we did not hear those interceptions, we did see interceptors go up and we saw some in the distance here over Tel Aviv.

So, we were showing some of that and I just -- in the context, as we are still waiting to see whether there will be sirens and more, I want to ask you how you see Iran's capabilities right now, because I keep seeing discussion about the ratio between U.S. missile defense and THAD and what was used last summer and what's still here, right? The whittling down of that arsenal compared to what IRAN really has, right? A couple thousand ballistic missiles or what they have.

How much visibility do you think the United States and Israel have into that ratio right now?

ZAKARIA: I think a pretty strong visibility, because first of all, as you pointed out, they destroyed most of it eight months ago. All the nuclear programs, they destroyed a large number of the anti-aircraft, the anti-missile batteries. That's why Iran is basically -- it lacks any air defenses, that's why both Israeli and American pilots can fly freely into Iranian airspace.

Now, they are going after the ballistic missiles, the ballistic missile sites, the ballistic missile production facilities, the Navy, so I think Iran is very weak and is going to get much, much weaker. That doesn't mean the regime will collapse. Just remember Saudi Arabia and the UAE helped by the united states on occasion bombed Yemen. This tiny country, for seven years, the regime did not collapse.

BURNETT: Yes.

ZAKARIA: They are two different things. You can degrade the capacities of a regime, but Erin, if I can say one thing, I don't think this is about degrading Iran's capacities.

Prime Minister Netanyahu explicitly explained in a video, this is about his 40-year dream of getting rid of the Islamic Republic altogether.

BURNETT: Yes.

And that, of course, is something that -- you know, it puts a level of emotion in it that is so central.

Fareed, thank you very much.

Fareed Zakaria, as we are here in Tel Aviv and we just showed you some of those interceptions, and have not heard the sirens that usually come after the warnings we have. So we are keeping a very obviously close eye and ear on that as we are standing here with skyline in Tel Aviv.

We will be back in just a couple of moments with our breaking coverage continuing here with myself and Abby Phillip.

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[15:43:39]

PHILLIP: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the Iran strikes.

Three American troops were killed during these attacks on Iran and the President remains with his National Security Team in Mar-a-Lago. I want to bring in now CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes.

So Kristen, what are you hearing?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just heard President Trump respond to the deaths of these American troops for the first time. He has been conducting a series of these five- minute phone interviews with various outlets and finally has responded to these deaths.

He said two things here. He said at one point that we have three, but we expect casualties. But in the end its going to be a great deal for this world. He said that his team has been in touch with the families of those who were killed and that he would talk to them at the right time. He called them outstanding and great people.

We also got a little bit of a different timeline from President Trump than we've heard before. He said at this point that it would take roughly four weeks, the bombing would continue for four weeks, that it was always going to be a four week process. And then he went on to say four weeks or less.

This of course, is different than what we heard yesterday in which one point he said that it could be as short as two days. He could withdraw at any time. Then, of course, that he released a statement saying it would be a full week of this bombing. Now it sounds like, it is going to be closer to four weeks there.

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The other thing I want to point out here is the reasoning behind why he decided to launch this attack, because yesterday I spoke to these administration officials who essentially said that there was intel, U.S. intel that showed that Iran might launch a preemptive attack on Americans with missiles.

And we had other intel from other sources who are familiar with it saying that that was not something that they had heard. That's also something we heard from Senator Cruz today, that there was no imminent threat from Iran.

President Trump saying a different reason why he felt it was time to attack Iran, saying they weren't willing to stop their nuclear research. That was one of the things he said about those ongoing negotiations, we know Steve Witkoff had been involved in, as well as Jared Kushner. We had heard from those administration officials that they had kind of devolved into games and stall tactics. That's what The White House was saying at the time.

But here, he is pinning this solely on the nuclear research and then going on to say they weren't willing to say that they will not have a nuclear weapon. So, there is going to be a lot of clarity after we hear the actual administration officials involved in this briefing in Congress. We hear what they are saying when they present this to the American people.

Right now, we are hearing a lot of different variations as to why this was necessary now. PHILLIP: And, Kristen, how unusual is it that we haven't seen or heard from any other administration officials on television in the last 24- plus hours? You mentioned President Trump has been all over in the phone in interviews but no one else has.

HOLMES: No one else did any of the Sunday shows. No one else came out there. We talked to some White House officials who said they wanted to let these lawmakers go out there and be the voice of this. We also know that there was one administration official who has spoken, and the person was Mike Waltz who, of course, as you know, is the head of the NSC and then was ousted after his Signalgate episode. Now, he is the Ambassador to the United Nations.

He spoke about Iran and the U.S. position, but we have still not heard from anyone else. And it is quite striking, and the reason it is so striking is that even going into these attacks, we didn't have a clear understanding of why exactly the United States was doing this.

President Trump had spoken on this very briefly in his State of the Union, The White House, saying he was giving a detailed approach, but it wasn't really that detailed. It talked really in vague terms and was very quick part of that speech.

I even went back and read it after a White House official said, well, he laid it out there. He hadn't. So, this is strange given the fact that it does feel like this is going to be a prolonged involvement for the United States.

PHILLIP: Yes, certainly is unusual for this administration.

Kristen Holmes, thank you very much.

And our breaking news coverage continues in just minutes. We are talking to a global affairs analyst about who is actually in charge of Iran right now, after its Supreme Leader was killed in this weekend's shift, and what it could mean for the region.

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[15:51:57]

BURNETT: Inside Iran, mixed emotions as this milestone in the nation's history continues to unfold in this history that we are all now watching. Some tell CNN they are joyful that Ayatollah Khamenei is dead. Others say they can't believe it, others, of course are worried and angry about the future and the threat of instability.

Mohsen Milani joins us now. He is a Political Professor at the University of South Florida and has written a book called "Iran's Rise and Rivalry with the United States in the Middle East." And really appreciate your taking the time.

I guess, Professor, you know, as Fareed was just talking about that there is 92 million people in Iran, right? So, that there is always someone who could take over a spot that has been vacated. Right? But another way of looking at that is just the incredible depth and size and power of the nation, and that for 92 million people, life has forever changed. It has been since 1981 that that the Ayatollah Khamenei has been president or Supreme Leader of Iran.

You left Tehran for the United States in the 1960s as a teenager then came the revolution in 1979, and you couldn't go back. So now, here you are at this point in your life, watching this happen. How does it feel?

MOHSEN MILANI, POLITICAL PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA: Well, thank you for having me on your show. It feels very strange because I have to be honest with you, I am very worried about the future of the country because we are going through perhaps the most, volatile and the most dangerous period since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

We have this war with the United States, the greatest military power in the world with Israel, the greatest military power in the Middle East. And then at the same time, the leader of Iran, who had ruled Iran for 37 long years, has been killed and therefore, now there is not only we have a crisis in terms of Iran's military confrontation with two great powers. There is also internal turmoil as the country has to decide who is going to replace Ayatollah Khamenei.

Moreover there are a number of people who operate outside the governing elite in Iran, some of them inside the country and some outside of the country, who now see the opportunity to try to shape the future of the Islamic Republic.

Adding to all of this is that we have the U.S., who seems to have a short term plan to force Iran to come to the negotiating table. We have Israel that has a longer plan, because the Israeli plan seems to be to really degrade Iranian military capabilities, and then we have the policy or the strategy of Iran, which wants to make this war as long as possible to make it as costly on the United States as possible.

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BURNETT: So, President Trump -- I mean, the -- and I don't know whether you think it is an oversimplification, but there has, you know, sort of been initially the feeling that was put out there was the U.S. and Israel will take out the Supreme Leader and then leave the rest to the Iranian people. So the runway has been cleared for the Iranian people to rise up and take over and ride into the sunset. And you know, I am obviously oversimplifying, but that is the feeling out there for some.

"New Yorker" columnist, Robin Wright was reacting to Trump's comments on CNN last night when he talked about the Iranian people now taking over for themselves. Here is some of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBIN WRIGHT, "NEW YORKER" COLUMNIST: The Iranians have many young Nelson Mandelas but they don't have the kind of African National Congress you had in South Africa that had years to form an infrastructure to define what the alternative to apartheid might look like, and who would be its leadership. And Iran doesn't have any of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I remember being in Iran for the election of President Rouhani and seeing, you know the way they would open up mosques for voting, right? That there was a voting process, but it was completely controlled, right? Completely controlled by the regime.

Do opposition leaders in Iran right now have any sort of an infrastructure or a path to power?

MILANI: Well the literature -- the academic literature is very clear that air power alone is not going to overthrow a well-fortified revolutionary regime like the Islamic Republic. You need to have people inside the country who have weapons, who have financial support, and above all, who are organized.

At this time, to be honest with you, I do not see anyone with the capability to immediately take over the government. However, as I said, there are contenders outside of Iran and inside Iran who believe they can actually change the regime.

At this time, it seems to me the odds are against those who want to immediately overthrow the Islamic Republic because, as I have said, numerously and I have written about it, the Islamic Republic has proven in the past 48 years that it is not a government that is good at economic prosperity, in bringing economic prosperity, in governing, but it is an extremely effective government for suppressing people and for survival.

And the idea in Tehran, the idea that is a unifying everybody who has one way or another worked with the Islamic Republic is that they have entered an existential moment precisely because the President of the United States has called for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic.

So, it is going to be tough.

BURNETT: All right, well professor Mohsen Milani, I appreciate your time, and thank you very much. Much more of our breaking news coverage continues here as we head into the darkest hours of the night in the Middle East. We will be right back.

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