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CNN Teams Hear Explosions in Dubai, Abu Dhabi And Doha; Israeli Airstrikes On Beirut Kill Hezbollah Parliamentary Chief; Demonstrators In New York Call For Regime Change In Iran; Trump Administration To Give Briefing On Iran To Congress; Trump Administration to Brief Lawmakers on Iran Strikes; CNN Teams Report Explosions in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha; Fighter Jet Crashes in Kuwait, Video Geolocated by CNN Shows; Conflict in Middle East Disrupts International Travel; War with Iran Prompts Celebrations and Protests Worldwide. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired March 02, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:33]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington, and we continue our breaking news coverage from the Middle East, where the war with Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel over the weekend is quickly expanding across the region.

Just moments ago, the Israeli military said Iran has fired a new wave of missiles towards Israel, Tehran also ramping up its retaliation against Gulf states. This video captured by CNN shows the moment a projectile was intercepted above Dubai just in the last hour.

Our teams across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Qatar have heard multiple explosions within the hour. This escalation comes as Iran's top national security official said earlier that Iran will not negotiate with the US. The country's top diplomat has also accused the U.S. and Israel of violating international law in a letter to the United Nations.

Israeli forces are expanding their own attacks not just on Tehran, but also on Beirut, Lebanon. State media reports that the government is due to convene an emergency meeting this hour in response.

On Sunday, President Trump told the New York Times the conflict with Iran could last four to five weeks. It's the clearest indication yet of a possible timeframe for this war from the president, who now says Operation Epic Fury, as his administration is calling it, could last much longer than originally described and the president has said cost more lives than previously stated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Three U.S. military servicemembers have been killed in action. As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen.

And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is, likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.

Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved. We have very strong objectives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Still not clear what those objectives are to some degree. We're going to go to Dubai once again, Paula Hancocks joins us live. As we spoke last hour, Paula, you were hearing explosions, interceptions above Dubai. Are you still hearing incoming?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now at this point, Jim, there's been nothing since that time. That was about just under an hour ago. As were driving to our location. There were two loud interceptions above us. We could see the interception. There were some cars on the road, not everybody taking this shelter in place warning at this point, but certainly a lot quieter than it ordinarily would be on a Monday morning.

We have had no reports, though, of any injuries or any damage from falling debris at this point. Now, we've seen a similar situation in Doha this Monday morning as well in Qatar. They had a number of interceptions which our team there was able to see, was able to film, showing again that there is no let-up in this retaliation from Iran.

We are also hearing from Bahrain, from Kuwait that they have had incoming missiles or drones this morning. So it is a very busy, very worrying Monday morning start to the week for many of these countries, although many countries Monday is not their start of the week.

But there is anger among the governments, the leaders of these Gulf nations that they have been dragged into this war. There was a statement saying it is a reckless and destabilizing behavior from Iran. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Paula Hancocks in Dubai. Thanks so much. CNN's Ivan Watson is live in Hong Kong. Julia Benbrook standing by here in Washington.

[01:05:02]

Julia, first to you. Can you help explain to our viewers what the President has communicated in the last 24 hours in a series of interviews as to one, the length of this conflict from his point of view. But two, also what his plans are for next steps negotiations among them.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we'll start with the timeline here because President Donald Trump has given several different potential time frames saying anything from two days to through the week to most recently in an interview with the New York Times saying four to six weeks is how long this could take place.

So lots of questions still here. And this is a president who likes to talk. We often see him on Air Force One coming back, having 30, 40 minute conversations with reporters or speaking with them as he walks into the White House. That did not happen tonight. He returned from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. That is where he monitored the joint U.S.-Israel strikes against Iran. And when he came back, I mean reporters had lots of questions for him and he chose not to engage with that.

Instead he's had these social media posts. He had that eight-minute video where he announced that these strikes had taken place. He had a post where he told the world that Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah, had been killed. He has been warning Iran not to retaliate, not to take this further because the United States will only strike back harder.

And then and he's had these videos that have been more prepared, more scripted. And in one of those recently, he said that this was going to continue at full force, the combat efforts until the goal was achieved here. But he didn't really go into details on exactly what that was. He did say our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.

And as far as hearing from Trump publicly soon, I was taking a look at his schedule tomorrow. It doesn't seem like there's going to be this option for just repeated reporter questions where they can build on each other and we can learn more.

But we do expect to hear from top officials for the first time. The Pentagon is holding a briefing at 8:00 a.m. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth he'll be a part of that. And one topic that could come up, some reporting from our colleagues here at CNN showed that Pentagon briefers acknowledged when briefing congressional staff that Iran did not have plans to strike U.S. bases and forces in the Middle East unless Israel struck Iran first. And that statement does contradict some things that we have heard from this administration when they said that Tehran posed an imminent threat here.

SCIUTTO: Julie Benbrick, thanks so much. Ivan Watson, you've been covering the expanding ripple effects of this war. Give us the latest. What have we been learning the last couple of hours as to new fronts opening up?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The newest front would be Lebanon, Israel's neighbor to the north. The Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is backed and closely allied with Iran, announced overnight going into the third day of this expanding regional war that it was sending a series of drones and missiles to target an Israel military post south of the Israeli city of Haifa.

The Lebanese government has come out protesting against what this militia has done. The president, Joseph Aoun, has said that Lebanon should not be a platform for proxy wars. The Lebanese prime minister has said that we will not allow dragging the country into new adventures. We will take necessary measures to stop the perpetrators and protect the Lebanese people.

Israel has swiftly retaliated with strikes in southern Lebanon and in southern Beirut, the predominantly Shiite neighborhoods that have long been considered a Hezbollah stronghold.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health says at least 11, sorry, 20 people were killed in the strikes in southern Beirut and some 91 injured and at least 11 people killed and 58 injured in the south of Lebanon. The Israeli military has demand, has ordered evacuations of at least 58 villages and towns in the south of Lebanon and has vowed to continue and intensify its strikes into Lebanon.

This has created scenes of panic as in the middle of the night, people were fleeing both from the south of Lebanon and from the southern suburbs of Beirut.

[01:10:03]

And Jim, I was in Beirut in December with my family, and parts of the city are still very much damaged from the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2024. Another area that has seen deadly ripple effects as a consequence of this war is Pakistan, where you had on Sunday a crowd attack the U.S. consulate in Karachi. According to officials there and rescue workers, at least 10 people were killed there on Sunday. There was also unrest in the north of the country in Gilgit, where Shiite protesters attacked a UNDP office and a U.N. militaries observers group. At least 12 people killed there and 80 more wounded.

So, we're talking about inflamed passions in areas that aren't even in the target zone or the combat zone, even as Lebanon has now, I would say, much of the population and the government been unwillingly dragged into this rapidly expanding war. Jim.

SCIUTTOL Ivan Watson, thanks so much. Julia Benbrook as well. Joining me now, retired Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus. He's a former spokesperson for the IDF, now Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jonathan, good to have you back.

LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS (RET.) FORMER IDF SPOKESPERSON, : Good morning from Tel Aviv. Good night to you.

SCIUTTO: So we're three days in. Can you give us an assessment of where the war stands from Israel's perspective?

CONRICUS: Yes. So I think where we stand is roughly according to expectations in the sense of what Israel has done in terms of the objectives that have been struck and achieved, and in terms of what the Iranians have done. I'll say that I'm slightly surprised by Iran's relative inability to fire large volleys of missiles. We thought that there would be more and also surprised by their lashing out against Gulf countries, which you just reported on. We thought that would come a bit later. But what we're seeing is Iran taking the steps that we thought now

confirmation that Hezbollah has decided to drag Lebanon into the fighting. And that's, of course, bad news for northern Israel, bad news for Lebanon. IDF will be, I think, very swift and powerful when it comes to meeting those threats against Hezbollah.

But so far, I think a good, strong opening campaign by Israel. And now we understand that we have to settle in. We civilians and the security organizations have to settle in and create this battle tempo because this war is going to go on for a while and especially with the Iranians saying that they're not going to negotiate.

SCIUTTO: President Trump gave a timeframe today that we hadn't heard before, that this could last four to five weeks, though at other times he said perhaps if he found a way to negotiations, that it might last a few days. What Israel's timeline for this war?

CONRICUS: Yes, I think it's slightly different from the American one because of how Israel views the situation with regards to the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective here isn't just to downgrade the regime, isn't just to get some political concession out of them.

I think Israel deep down really wants to achieve meaningful long term change and really get rid of this regime once and for all. And as such, I think that the perspective here is different and Israel will try to achieve more while the U.S. since it has, so to speak, less skin in the game. It's not U.S. civilians that are exposed to Iranian missiles as it Israelis.

Maybe there's more tolerance and more willingness to actually go for a deal if and when the new whoever person in charge or committee in Iran will make that, you know, smart move and actually stop producing missiles, stop with the nuclear program and maybe stop funding terror organization.

But that isn't a fork in the road that we have encountered yet because the Iranians are saying they're not going to negotiate. And I understand that so far there are no negotiations. But when we encounter it'll be interesting to see how Israel differs from the US. I think Israel wants to see this through all the way and to really make meaningful long term strategic changes to our security in the region.

SCIUTTO: But does Israel's desire for long term change to the leadership in Iran require the Iranian people to in effect, finish the job?

[01:15:00]

I mean, you hear President Trump encouraging the people to rise up against the government. As you know, that's a dangerous gamble for the people of Iran given, you know, they paid in blood for protesting this government just a few weeks ago. Does Israel's plan for achieving that objective require popular uprising?

CONRICUS: I think there's no other way. You know, the future of Iran as a nation is something that only Iranians will really determine. There can be external influence, U.S., Israel and others. But at the end of the day, the future of Iran is in the hands of Iranians.

And we've seen that Iranians, even before Israel and the U.S. struck the regime, they were aware of these threats, and they chose out of their own conviction and their own belief and their own despair to take to the streets and confront this oppressive regime. And they have been demanding freedom, calling for the death of the dictator that has now happened and calling for the removal of this regime and wanting their freedoms and wanting a different future. So I think, yes, the U.S. and Israel have responded to that, in a sense.

And at the end of the day, we've seen in history and we've seen it all over the world, only the people on the ground eventually are the ones who chart the path towards the future. Israel is providing external help, but at the end of the day, the Iranian people will do it.

I think I have faith, based on my communications with Iranians inside Iran and outside Iran, of the intensity of the desire for the Iranian people to actually have a different future. And I think that if they're given the help, little bit of help they need, that can and probably will happen.

SCIUTTO: As you know, the U.S. lost three servicemembers in Kuwait. Of course, Israelis have been killed since the start of this new war. And President Trump said in his comments, well, I should say Sunday now, yesterday, that the American public should expect more Americans to lose their lives in this war. Do Israeli leaders have a similar message for their own people?

CONRICUS: Yes, I think it's been kind of a mirror image here. And, you know, even if they haven't said it, unfortunately, Israelis are. This isn't our first rodeo. We've been here before. We've, you know, had a lot of missiles fired at Israel over many years. Undoubtedly, Iranian missiles are bigger, more lethal, have tremendous yield and explosives. You know, just -- I saw the impact site in Beit Shemesh yesterday. You know, entire houses were just obliterated by the impact of one Iranian ballistic missile. And we had nine Iran Israeli civilians murdered there yesterday.

And, yes, Israelis anticipate that there will be additional casualties. But you know what the Israelis are doing, seeking shelter. Most people are disciplined. They rely on the fact that there's active air defense, the Iron Dome, not so much, but really the arrow and of course, that our pilots are flying 6, 700, 800 miles away and actively suppressing Iranian fire.

Which I should say when we compare the current situation two days into the fighting to how the situation was last year in June 25, Operation Rising Lion, there were far more Iranian missiles fired at Israel per day than it is today. Every missile fired is, of course, a lethal threat to Israelis.

But the situation today is better from a tactical perspective. And that is something, of course, that I think Israel will try to deepen and create more and more difficulties for the Iranians to fire missiles at Israel. But undoubtedly Israelis know that there will be more casualties.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I was there in the midst of one of those Iranian barrages. Jonathan Conricus in Tel Aviv, please stay safe. And thanks for joining.

CONRICUS: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still to come, sources tell CNN that the Trump administration will soon face members of Congress who expect to hear not just an explanation, but a plan for the war with Iran. We'll have an update.

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[01:22:52]

SCIUTTO: There was a crowd in New York chanting support for President Trump calling for a regime change in Iran. This as polling shows that the American public is divided over Trump's decision to go to war against Iran. According to a Reuters Ipsos poll, 43 percent of those surveys disapprove of these strikes. 29 percent support them.

It is important to note those figures came in before the deaths of U.S. servicemembers were made public. The Trump administration is expected to brief the Gang of Eight and other top lawmakers on the strikes later Monday. Sources tell CNN that the full House and Senate will be briefed on Tuesday. Lawmakers today have been speaking out about the strikes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYEN MULLIN (R-OK): We're never going to allow the number one world sponsor of terror to be able to get a nuclear weapon. There's no question they were trying to develop a weapon that would reach the United States. And in that case, it wouldn't have been a matter of if, it would be a matter of when.

REP. SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE (D-CA): I would hope that Congress would want to reclaim and retain our sole authority to be the entity that can declare war and snatch that from the president. You know, as we've known in the past, especially with the Venezuela resolution, the administration was working the phones, asking Republicans to continue to abdicate their responsibility. I can only assume that's happening right now. And hopefully Republicans will stand firm with Democrats in reminding the president that it is our authority to send this country to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Democratic Senator Tim Kaine is urging colleagues to back his War Powers Resolution, which would rein in President Trump's ability to continue military action without congressional approval. Joining us now, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst, Bloomberg opinion columnist. Good to have you, Ron. Thanks so much for joining.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Jim. Yes, good to be here. SCIUTTO: So, reading your piece, you make an interesting point. You

say that while military action against Iran is not popular, that if the war is short enough, the damages is surmountable. Can you explain your thinking?

[01:25:05]

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, there is no sympathy for the Iranian regime really, anywhere in the American political spectrum. But I still think that President Trump is starting this war on an extraordinarily narrow ledge. I mean, if you look at the polling going into the conflict, most Americans did not want to use military force in Iran. And in polling as recently as a couple of days ago from AP NORC, 56 percent of Americans, a solid majority, said they did not trust President Trump's judgment when it comes to using military force abroad.

Now, if the costs to the U.S. remain low, in casualties, in damage to our bases and to our allies, and even to oil prices, I'm not sure that coalesces into severe pressure on him to pull the plug quickly. But I think he is operating with very little cushion if things begin to go in an adverse direction. There just simply isn't a lot. There was not a lot of support in the country for doing this before he did.

He made, as I think we both can agree, we have never seen as little effort from the president to try to explain to the public before major military action why he was doing it, or to bring in Congress or to consult them, or in any way to act as though he accepted any necessity to convince the governed that this was something that should be done in their name.

So I think that as long as things seem to be relatively costless and we are eliminating, you know, key assets of the Iranian regime, I think he can move forward without a lot of political fear. But I think if the costs start to rise, it would not be surprising to me if he tries to declare victory and an early exit.

SCIUTTO: I mean, so it sounds like you're saying that the best case, it's a push, right? Because, I mean, for instance --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I remember in CNN's poll on the State of the Union when viewers listed what they wanted to hear most about from the president, certainly affordability at the top, et cetera. But I remember foreign policy was 2 percent. No one seemed to care about it. So in terms of helping him from the weak position he had in terms of approval rating and approaching midterms, not a -- he shouldn't be expecting a help from this, you're saying?

BROWNSTEIN: No. Yes, well, look, we didn't see that. You know, the Venezuela operation went very well. The bombing of Iran last year apparently went very well, and neither one produced a durable improvement in his -- in his approval rating.

You know, you have 2/3 of Americans in an earlier CNN poll in January and replicated in other polls saying they do not believe Trump is focusing on the most important issues facing the country. He was elected, above all, unequivocally, unambiguously. In the exit polling, the people who voted for him said their top priority was they felt their cost of living was out of control under Joe Biden.

And for many of those voters, they have Trump over these 15 months focus on almost anything else. You know, these wars of choice internationally, tearing down the East Wing, prosecuting his enemies, you know, turning loose ice in unprecedented ways.

And so, you know, this kind of reinforces that narrative, I think, for some of those voters. And I do believe the downside risk is higher than the potential upside benefit. I mean, unless you think that the regime is going to collapse from air power alone, which is not something that I believe we have really seen, certainly of a country of this magnitude, and that he can unambiguously show that he has brought it down, you know, the more likely outcome is something equivocal, you know, where the regime is damaged but not fully dislodged. And I think at that point, at best, it's a push.

And if there are significant costs, I just don't think there's going to be appetite in the country for significant costs here because there was so little enthusiasm for doing this in the first place, even if they applaud some of the outcomes.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. We don't have much time. Is it your impression then, that the president, who's very aware of polling, even though he says he doesn't care about, he's very aware of polling and he's aware of the approaching midterms, et cetera, that perhaps he's not focused on that he's looking at legacy achievements now, or what he imagines to be legacy achievements, to say, I'm the guy who brought down the Iranian regime, I'm the guy who brought down the Venezuelan regime.

BROWNSTEIN: Certainly, I agree, but I think the President has a very keen sense actually of political vulnerability. You know, on the one hand, as I said, he has not -- he has made only the most cursory effort to sell this to the Congress or the country, he has basically renounced or said it doesn't apply to him, the responsibility to explain to the governed why you are launching a war in their name.

But he's not sending in ground troops. He's not doing the things that would actually increase the chances of his stated goal. He is trying to achieve the goal at solely at minimal cost.

[01:29:46]

And I do think that is revealing that he understands there are political limits here. And I think he will be very conscious of the costs. And if the costs begin to mount higher than he expects, or in ways that show clear pushback from the public, he may declare victory and get out.

You know, one former Republican national security official said to me, the president may be in Minneapolis, where he went in again without any consultation with local officials, defying the traditional structures of kind of democratic accountability. But when there were a different kind of casualties on the ground,

those two American citizens were killed and an intense backlash, he changed direction and has significantly reversed.

(CROSSTALKING)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Remarkable comparison -- Minneapolis and Iran.

Ron Brownstein, thanks so much for joining.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Well, the war's impact on oil markets and global stock markets has been swift. Oil futures have surged in the initial trading since fighting began.

Looking at Wall Street U.S. futures, they remain in the red to start the trading weak, down a little bit more than they were last time we took a look.

Still to come, the war with Iran throws Middle East travel into chaos. How flight cancellations and delays are affecting travelers not just in the region but around the world. Just ahead.

[01:31:21]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: It is now day three of the war with Iran, Israel and the United States. The conflict is spreading now across the wider region.

CNN teams in Doha, Abu Dhabi heard explosions just over an hour ago in Dubai. Witnesses heard what sounded like jets flying overhead, along with back-to-back blasts, perhaps interceptions -- missile interceptions.

This comes as President Trump is warning that the war, in his view could last weeks. He also warned that more U.S. Service members might lose their lives.

So far, three U.S. service members were killed in action in Kuwait since the start of the war.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorized the U.S. to use its military bases in the war against Iran, that's new. Starmer described the decision as being for limited defensive purposes.

Bahrain's government is calling Iran's attack on a U.S. military base in Bahrain treacherous. According to state media there, an Iranian missile hit a large naval base in Manama, Bahrain late Sunday. It is just one of many attacks Iran has launched throughout the region.

Bahrain's government says its armed forces are ready to respond to further aggression threatening its security. Senior producer Bijan Hosseini joins us now live from Doha. Bijan, I

know the streets have been quiet there because of the risk of Iranian strikes. What have you been seeing in the last couple of hours?

BIJAN HOSSEINI, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Yes Jim. It's 9:30 a.m. here in Doha. We -- about a little more than an hour ago, we experienced what was the first wave of day three of Iran's retaliatory strikes. I think you all have video of that.

We saw six -- seven explosions above us. What we believe were Qatar's Patriot air defense systems intercepting Iranian missiles headed towards Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. A reminder -- houses the U.S.' largest air base in the region. Normally some 10,000 personnel are stationed there at any given time.

We received an alert on our phone again. This is the third day we've received a similar alert asking all individuals to strictly remain in their homes or in a safe location.

You mentioned Bahrain's response to those attacks. We also heard from Qatar's government saying that they have the right to respond as well.

But last night on X, Qatar's former prime minister went on to urge and to caution GCC countries, Gulf Cooperation Council countries, to not get drawn into a direct confrontation with Iran, even though Iran has violated their sovereignty. He said a regional escalation would drain resources and open the door to outside powers exploiting the crisis.

We also saw overnight the U.S. embassy here in Doha changing its travel advisory, setting it to a level three, urging Americans to reconsider traveling to the region. They also said that the State Department authorized the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and their families, citing the ongoing crisis and retaliation from Iran.

We also got confirmation from the U.K. ministry of defense yesterday, and the Qatar armed forces that fighter jets were involved in helping intercept some of those missiles yesterday.

The U.K., the Royal Air Force and Qatar's armed forces operate a joint Typhoon Squadron. So we saw those in action yesterday.

On the ground here, everything still remains closed. Schools are closed until further notice. The airspace is still closed. All events have been canceled and we just sit and wait to see what happens next, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, keep yourself safe there, Bijan. Thanks so much for keeping us updated for more perspective now on the broader war, we're joined by Malcolm Davis, senior analyst in defense strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Malcolm, thanks so much for joining.

You've argued the war could last weeks. Now the president is saying the war could last weeks. Tell us what it looks like. Does it expand further? MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE:

I think there's a real possibility that it does. We're already seeing ongoing Iranian attacks against the Gulf Cooperation Council states. We've seen Iranian drones attacking Akrotiri Air Base in Cyprus.

And there's a real possibility that the Iranians could be tempted to escalate this if they see they have nothing to lose. They could attack, for example, the oil infrastructure in the Gulf Cooperation Council states, in addition to trying to close the Strait of Hormuz.

So, yes there's a definite possibility that this war could expand. It certainly will go on for weeks. I don't see an off-ramp leading to some sort of diplomatic solution.

[01:39:52]

SCIUTTO: That's concerning. I mean, President Trump has said he's still open to the possibility of negotiations, but Ali Larijani, one of the few remaining senior Iranian officials, former adviser to the Supreme Leader, has said that Israel -- rather that Iran has no interest in negotiating with the U.S.

Do you see a real realistic possibility of negotiations, given that the senior leaders keep getting killed, right? I mean it raises a quite practical question. Would they consider it safe to negotiate with the U.S.

DAVIS: Well obviously, I mean sort of a negotiation would have to occur into in a third-party country. And I think that, you know, the question must be asked, negotiate about what.

If the goal of the Trump administration and indeed the Israeli government is regime change then any negotiation is going to be effectively a zero-sum outcome for either side.

If it's from the American and Israeli perspective, they would certainly want Iran to give up any nuclear weapons program, give up all their ballistic missiles, and, in effect, step down from power and as President Trump put it, allow the Iranian people to take their country back. That would be unacceptable to the Iranians.

From the Iranian perspective. They want everything their way. They want to keep their nuclear weapons program. They want to keep their ballistic missile capabilities. They want to maintain absolute control.

That would be unacceptable, certainly to the Israelis and the Americans. So I don't see what they're going to negotiate. I think that this war will need to play on for a number of weeks and ultimately will be decided militarily.

The big challenge, of course, is that the Americans are saying we're not going to put boots on the ground. We're going to count on the Iranian people to step up and come out and take back their country.

SCIUTTO: Yes. DAVIS: If that doesn't happen, then the U.S. and Israeli strategy falls apart very quickly. So I think at that point, the challenge might be emerging whereby negotiations might become possible.

SCIUTTO: Yes, there's a lot to ask of the Iranian people given the violence that they faced when they stood up to their government just weeks ago.

Please stay with me, Malcolm, because we do have breaking news coming in to CNN.

And that is that a fighter jet crashed over Kuwait near a U.S. air base there. This, according to video geolocated by CNN, which first emerged online on Monday. The video -- we're going to show it to you -- shows a jet on fire falling to the ground.

Our Ivan Watson has been following this. Ivan, what do we know? And I imagine, what don't we know at this point about this crash?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, let's try to show you these images that our team here in Hong Kong have been working very hard both to geolocate this and to verify where exactly this was filmed in Kuwait, believed to be around ten miles, 6.2 kilometers away from the U.S. Ali Al-Salem base.

This, given the twin engine aircraft that we're looking at in this tailspin, we believe would either be an F-15e or an FA-18 fighter jet. We do not know whose air force this belongs to. We do know that Kuwait also has in its arsenal FA-18 fighter jets.

But what this clearly depicts is one of these warplanes plummeting from the sky. We don't know why this happened, but it is taking place at a time of a widening regional war where Kuwait itself says in a single day it has shot down multiple drones and missiles that have been fired at it. And we know that there's a tremendous amount of air power in the sky right now as well.

There are other images and videos that seem to show the similar incident that we're still working on. We're not going to show any of this until we're absolutely sure that this is real, it's not some kind of A.I.-generated image.

But important to note that what we see here is a fighter jet plunging from the sky, an indicator of just the kind of what is taking place as this air campaign is being waged against Iran. And Kuwait is one of the countries that has been hit repeatedly by drones and missiles fired from Iran.

And in the midst of this violence and the munitions that are in the air, we're seeing images of this fighter plane. Again we do not know who was operating this aircraft or what happened to the aircrew on board plunging from the sky, don't not know what the circumstances were for what would have brought it down.

We have reached out to U.S. Central Command for comment on this incident, and we'll bring you more when we find out more, Jim. [01:44:49]

SCIUTTO: All right. Thank you, Ivan.

I believe we still have Malcolm Davis with us. Malcolm Davis, are you still there?

DAVIS: I'm here.

SCIUTTO: Malcolm. Listen, we'll find out more about exactly how this happened, but it's a reminder, is it not, that there's a lot of fire and crossfire in the air right now over multiple countries in the Middle East.

Missiles coming in, interceptors going up, jets flying, shows yet one more danger of escalation.

DAVIS: Absolutely. I mean, when you're looking at modern combined multi domain operations, like what we're seeing over the Middle East, it's a very complex, fast-moving environment where there's a lot of confusion and potentially risk of what's known as friendly fire.

Certainly the imagery I've seen on social media this afternoon suggests it was an F-15e Strike Eagle. They have a two-person crew.

The information I've seen is that both got out ok. But we don't know the cause of it. It could have been friendly fire. It could have been hostile fire. But certainly this does seem to indicate a loss of an aircraft. But luckily, the crew seem to have survived.

SCIUTTO: Indeed. Malcolm Davis, thanks so much for joining us.

SCIUTTO: Still to come --

DAVIS: My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: -- we are tracking travel disruptions across the Middle East and even more broadly. We're going to have the latest on how travelers, airlines, airports are adjusting just after the break.

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[01:49:51]

SCIUTTO: The war with Iran has led to travel disruptions across the Middle East, rippling out further around the globe. That includes in Dubai, where the airport has been crippled amid the ongoing conflict with travelers unable to enter or leave.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me now from Hong Kong with more on the travel complications facing travelers worldwide.

We were talking about this last hour, Kristie, but these things, I mean they have ripple effects -- one -- effects -- one airport gets affected and that affects flights all around the world, I imagine.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, absolutely.

The conflict here has triggered global travel chaos, and that's affecting tourism, logistics, markets, global business as well. We have major airports and hubs across the Middle East that have shut down or restricted. We have major airlines canceling and rerouting flights, scores upon scores of passengers now stranded.

In fact according to Australia's foreign minister, they're saying 115,000 residents are now stuck abroad. We've also been monitoring social media video coming out of the Dubai International Airport where we've been seeing and witnessing scenes of crowds and chaos -- just crowds of passengers there stuck with nowhere to go.

Earlier, there were scenes of manic (ph) evacuations in the airport after the reported Iranian strike took place, which injured about four people there.

Elsewhere, the Abu Dhabi International Airport, a drone strike there has taken the life of one person, seven staff members were injured.

There have been also drone strikes on the Bahrain main airport, as well as the airport in Kuwait.

As you can imagine, passengers have been expressing shock, dismay and concern. I want you to listen to this account from one traveler from Qingdao, China who was on a flight, was forced to go back to its origin city because of the situation happening across the Middle East. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZIYING ZHOU, FLIGHT TO CHINA TURNED BACK: And at first I was just really shocked because I never thought things like this, like war, would be kind of so close to me.

I always just thought it's something that is just something you read in the news. But then actually getting on a long-haul flight and almost made it like kind of halfway there and then started to turn around all the way, it was just really shocking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Airspace has been closed across the Middle East. Just bring up Air Radar 24, and you can clearly see how the skies above Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and elsewhere are virtually empty.

And we're adding to the list of airlines that are canceling and rerouting flights because of what's happening because of the conflict. And they include Emirates. This is the world's largest international airline. As well as Etihad. You have Qatar, Lufthansa, Air France, Air India, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air India, Turkish Airways, Cathay Pacific -- the list goes on.

In a statement released from Cathay Pacific, they announced that they have canceled all flights, including freight and passenger, to the region, citing concerns over safety, safety for their crew, safety of course, for passengers as well.

So meanwhile we have hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded in cities all over the world, stranded in Frankfurt, Paris, Daca (ph), airports across India.

As for when they'll be able to return home, that's an open question. It all depends on the trajectory of this conflict and when that airspace is going to open up again.

Back to you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, thanks so much.

STOUT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: There have been some demonstrations in support of the Iranian regime, this one in Iraq, following the killing of the Supreme Leader. In Iraq, mourners marched with symbolic coffins honoring Ayatollah Khamenei.

Police in Baghdad fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protesters outside the Green Zone near the U.S. embassy there.

In the Iranian capital of Tehran, thousands filled city squares on Sunday to mourn the late leader as well.

From Canada to Asia to the Middle East, others are taking to the streets after the start of this war against Iran. Some celebrating it, while others, like we saw in Iraq there, protesting the war and even mourning the late leader, Supreme Leader of Iran.

In Pakistan, there was violence outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi. Ten people were killed after protesters breached the facility's security barriers.

Thousands of mourners then attended the funeral of those ten protesters, as the death toll across Pakistan rose to at least 23, with a day of widespread, violent demonstrations.

[01:54:45]

SCIUTTO: Pope Leo says he is following events in Iran with deep concern. Speaking as part of his weekly address in Vatican City, the Pope called on leaders to, quote, "assume moral responsibility" to prevent further conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): I am following with deep concern what is happening in the Middle East and Iran at this dramatic time. Stability and peace cannot be built through mutual threats or with weapons that sow destruction, pain and death.

They can only be achieved through reasonable, genuine and responsible dialog. Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I address a heartfelt appeal to the parties involved to assume moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much for joining. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

Our breaking news coverage continues with my colleague, Becky Anderson, in Abu Dhabi right after a short break.

[01:55:44]

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