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More than 3000 Homes in Tehran Damaged by U.S.-Israeli Strikes; Kristi Noem Ousts as U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, Mullin Poised to be the Successor. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired March 06, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world, you are now in the "CNN Newsroom" with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta, and it's good to have you with me.

Let's begin with breaking news on the war with Iran, and what Israel calls a broad-scale wave of strikes across Tehran.

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Dramatic video from the Iranian capital shows huge explosions and lighting up the skies overnight. And then there was this moment, live on Iranian state media.

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There are reports that the shopping district and one of the busiest streets in Tehran were also targeted. And the Iranian Red Crescent Society says more than 3000 homes in the capital have been damaged. U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaigns will only intensify.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The United States military, together with the wonderful Israeli partners, continues to totally demolish the enemy far ahead of schedule. We're destroying more of Iran's missiles and drone capability every single hour.

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HUNTE: Israel is also ramping up its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Residents have been fleeing from several parts of Beirut and its suburbs. Israel is also attacking parts of northern Lebanon for the first time in this conflict.

Right now, CNN correspondent Fred Pleitgen and his photojournalist and producer Claudia Otto are in Tehran. CNN is the first U.S. network in Iran since the start of the war, it is important to note that CNN is operating in Iran only with permission from the government. And here is Fred's report.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's certainly been quite a kinetic morning here in the Iranian capital, Tehran. There were really heavy airstrikes, I'd say a little bit before dawn. We heard jets flying around this area for an extended period of time.

There were also some massive airstrikes, and we saw thick black smoke billowing from one location, which seemed to be in the central, maybe southern central part of the city as we were driving around. That also went on for an extended period of time as well clearly a very large airstrike that happened there with that plume of smoke hanging over almost the entire city.

This, of course, happens as the United States and Israel continue their air campaign, not just here in Tehran, but in various locations around the country. They say that they're going to continue to try and degrade the Iranian military infrastructure and then also take out, as they put it, key leaders as well.

At the same time, the Iranian government is vowing not to back down, not to negotiate with the United States. And Iran's military says that it is going to continue targeting not just U.S. assets here in this region, like military bases in the Gulf states, but, of course, continue to target Israel as well. The Iranians are saying that their missile stockpiles are still very much filled and that their missiles are very capable as well.

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HUNTE: Our reporters are obviously covering all angles of this story. Eleni Giokos has the latest on the impact on oil and markets, Bijan Hosseini is in Doha, Paul Hancocks is in Dubai, and Brian Todd is standing by in Washington.

But first, let's start with Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv. Oren, thank you so much for being with me. What is the latest where you are? What can you tell us?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERU.S.ALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Ben, let me pick up from where Fred actually left off, in terms of what we're seeing here from Iran's ability to launch missiles.

Several times throughout the day and over the course of the past 24 hours, yesterday we saw a number of sirens warning of incoming missiles. And then as evening fell from the position where we are now, which is on a roof of a hotel in Tel Aviv, we could see what appeared to be Iranian cluster warheads splitting up in the skies over central Israel. A number of flaming projectiles appearing to come down with then reports of some relatively minor damage across central Israel.

[03:05:01] Israel is fully aware that Iran has missile stockpiles, but it's not the missiles that are the primary concern, although, of course, they are. It's the launchers that Israel, and with American help, that's what they're going after. The missiles don't do Iran any good if they don't have the launchers to effectively get them off the rail.

So that has been one of the key targets for Israel, frankly, since the beginning of this war, which is now its seventh day here.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out pounding strikes across Tehran, going after the Iranian regime and basically any of its arms. That is, its intelligence, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Israel and the U.S. say they've expanded air superiority over Iran, and that basically means they can do whatever they want.

And as you pointed out, we're seeing the effects of that in real time with the Iranian Red Crescent saying that some 3000 homes have been damaged, as well as a rising death toll in Iran. Nevertheless, neither Iran, the U.S., nor Israel are showing any signs of de-escalation on that front or any off-ramp, as Israel and the U.S. have made clear that this is only the beginning and they're moving on to the next phase.

Israel's military chief-of-staff said in a briefing, or rather in a statement yesterday, that Israel alone has struck some 2500 targets already with 6000 munitions, so bombs and missiles, and that's only expected to grow here. He wouldn't give too many details about what the next phase is. Of course, there are questions about governance after this, but nobody, at least so far, has given a public answer about what that's really supposed to look like.

Turning to Lebanon for a moment here, Israel says it has carried out its 26th wave of strikes on Dahieh, that is a southern suburb of Beirut that is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. As Israel's evacuation warnings for Dahieh in Beirut, southern Lebanon, and the Bekaa Valley have forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to flee with a real question about what comes next for Israel.

It seems they're setting the stage for what could be a potential ground incursion or invasion, given the size and scale of these evacuation warnings. So we'll see what Israel has in store, whether it's on the ground or from the air, a massive bombardment campaign.

Meanwhile, Israel has already seized, as we've reported over the past couple of days, more posts along the Israel-Lebanon border. So that front, too, we expect to see much more escalation from our vantage point here in Tel Aviv.

HUNTE: Okay, that's Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much. Please stay safe out there, Oren.

And let's keep going to cross over now to CNN's Paula Hancocks in Dubai. Paula, what do you know about the strikes targeting Iran's drone operations?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ben, first of all, we're just inside at the moment because there's been an emergency alert here in Dubai, an alert which was heard pretty much across Dubai, according to colleagues. They've said due to potential missile threats, seek immediate shelter in the closest secure building. So just to explain why we're in here.

But what we did hear from Central Command in the U.S. is that they did target an Iranian drone carrier. Now, this was effectively a ship. They said that it is roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier, if that makes it clearer for you but they said that what they did is they hit it, they identified that hit and it resulted in a fire.

So the U.S. really trying to target Iran's ability to be able to retaliate significantly against the Gulf nations, the U.S. allies in this region.

Now, we also heard some figures from U.S. officials. Now, they said that there was significantly less incoming to the Gulf nations and Israel than they had seen before. They believed there was a ballistic missile drop of some 90 percent over 24 hours.

Now, this was several hours ago, this briefing. This was on Thursday. They also said there was a drop in drones of some 83 percent.

Now, interestingly here in the UAE, there had been a relative lull, or it appeared to be a lull, in interceptions overhead until Thursday night. We saw certainly in Abu Dhabi from 7:00 p.m. when the emergency alerts started all the way through for an hour. There was a fairly consistent barrage of missiles and drones, which officials say that they did intercept. We know the debris of some of those interceptions fell near residential areas, there's no reports of any casualties or any damage at this point though.

But the UAE is specifying that they are managing to intercept and shoot down well over 90 percent of what Tehran is firing into this country at this point. But the fact is, an hour ago we heard an interception. Now we have a potential incoming missile threat from authorities.

So Tehran is still able to target the Gulf nations, they still have that ability. We've seen well over 1000 drones have been fired over the past seven days into the UAE close to 200 missiles. Again, these are figures from Thursday, so that could well be updated now.

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So even though the U.S. is saying that the threat level is coming down, certainly on the ground over the past 12-24 hours there has been a fairly consistent amount of interceptions coming in. But the fact is, the interceptions are still happening. The air defense systems are working more than 90 percent success rate according to officials.

We did see those satellite images showing that Iran appears to be trying to target those air defense systems. In Jordan, for example, the satellite images showing that a THAAD missile battery radar system was hit. We understand here in the UAE that a couple of the buildings housing such facilities appear to have been hit as well.

There's no indication whether or not that has affected the ability to be able to intercept these missiles though. But the past couple of days we have heard a lot more fighter jets in the air. We know that France has sent fighter jets as well to be in the air after their military base was hit in Abu Dhabi.

And of course there are more commercial flights that are still managing to get out of the UAE. Ben?

HUNTE: There is so much going on right now. Paula Hancocks in Dubai, thank you to you and your team, we appreciate it. Please stay safe.

For more analysis, we're joined by Maha Yahya, the Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. She's joining us from Beirut. Thank you so much for being with me.

Just to kick off, maybe you can help us to understand the scale of what we're seeing right now. Iran has now launched strikes that have hit across multiple Gulf States. How dangerous is this moment for the entire region?

MAHA YAHYA, DIRECTOR, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: Extremely. Good morning and thank you for having me. It's extremely dangerous.

Frankly, I think it's the most critical moment for this region, at least in the last century. It's definitely in the 21st, maybe since the end of World War II. It could be a transformative moment.

We're looking at the prospect of a region-wide conflict, which has already begun. Multiple cities are being targeted, cities that we thought were oasis of calm. So until the dust settles, we're not sure where things are going to be going.

But what is clear is that we're entering into a new regional architecture, if you like, a regional set of dynamics. And it's a wait-and-see game.

HUNTE: We are also seeing economic ripple effects. We're seeing oil shipments disrupted, global energy markets reacting. From where you are, is this becoming an economic crisis as well as a security one, do you think?

YAHYA: Absolutely. No, absolutely.

I mean, the Gulf region was perhaps the one positive story, in a sense, at least economically, for the rest of the region. As you've seen, we've been saying for a while now that the region has been moving at two different speeds. You have the Gulf region, which is flying at 90 miles an hour economically.

There's growth, there is a different kind of diversification, looking at ways to move away from the hydrocarbon. I mean, we're moving into a new economic era of prosperity in the Gulf region, whereas the rest of the region was paddling backwards in many ways. Conflicts in places like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, even places in North Africa, Libya, Tunisia. I mean, they're being mired and literally paddling backwards economically and often politically, as well as in terms of human development because of conflicts.

Now it's the entire region that's become engulfed in this tragedy that is unfolding. And this will have significant consequences, it's not just about rebuilding.

Prior to this latest conflict, World Bank and international estimates indicated that the region needed somewhere close to $650 billion to rebuild what had been damaged in Gaza, in Libya, in Yemen, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq. Now we have to what is happening in the Gulf, which is that's one part of it, but also additional damage in Lebanon now with the ongoing war, but also in Iraq. I mean, it's just horrific and no one's come to that.

There isn't a Marshall Plan. There is nothing in the works that indicates that the necessary investment will be put in place.

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And my fear, frankly, is that much of the economic gains, much of the economic prosperity that Gulf countries may have are now going to go into increased defense spending because the confidence has been shaken, if not shattered, people are very careful.

The outcome of the conflict in Iran will determine much of how things go forward. So if this regime stays in place, that's one story, if there is chaos within Iran, that's another story. It will have immediate impact on its environment, its surroundings and that includes Gulf countries as well as Central Asia.

HUNTE: Okay, well, thank you so much for that. We really appreciate it. That's Maha Yahya.

Thank you.

And there's more news too, Secretary Kristi Noem is out at the Department of Homeland Security. What all of this means for the currently shut down agency, that's coming up ahead. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

There's been a major shakeup in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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President Trump has fired Secretary Kristi Noem amid a DHS shutdown and growing scrutiny over her conduct as secretary. Trump plans to replace her with Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. He says Mullin will take over at the end of this month, though he will need to be confirmed by the Senate first. As that process kicks into gear, Mullin says he will work to earn everybody's vote. Listen.

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SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at not a complete surprise, but it came at a little bit of a surprise for us.

And so the President, as you guys know, we're great friends, and we get along great working with him and his cabinet. Of course, we still got to go do this little thing called confirmation.

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HUNTE: As for Noem, she will remain a member of the administration. She will serve as special envoy for a new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere called the Shield of the Americas.

We're joined now by a CNN senior national security analyst and former assistant secretary of Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem. She's also a professor at Harvard University.

Juliette, thank you so much for being with me. How are you doing?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SR. NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, AND PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me.

HUNTE: It's so good to see you.

Let's start with the basics then. From her social media posts celebrating a new role as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. It looks like Kristi Noem is actually talking about a big promotion instead of reacting to being fired. Can you just help me to understand what actually happened here?

KAYYEM: So, I have to say this has been expected for some time. Kristi Noem testified the last two days before the Senate and the House. It was disastrous testimony.

She was unable to answer basic questions, allegations of fraud, no bid contracts that went to friends of hers. This comes on the heels of a horrible performance by her and the incidents of the shooting of two Americans.

So, this was sort of a long time coming. She had lost a lot of friends within the Trump White House, but also within the department.

So, she gets fired. There's no question about it, but for whatever reason, because we know Donald Trump tends not to fire people, he just sort of moves them around in this administration. She's given a title that literally no one can tell you what the title is.

It sounds like a Marvels movie, what she's supposed to do, but apparently it has something to do with some attempt for Donald Trump to have some sort of coordination amongst the Americas and countries in North and South America. It is a demotion and it was a firing. She's trying to spin it, but no one believes it to be true.

HUNTE: Noem had been widely seen as one of Trump's most loyal cabinet members, though. So, what message does her removal send to the rest of the administration, do you think?

KAYYEM: So, it is, I mean, look, he doesn't really value loyalty. We've seen it across the board. I mean, he will throw various people under the bus to ensure that he doesn't get into trouble.

I think, in particular, there's a couple of reporting, there's some reporting that suggests the combination of the relationship with Corey Lewandowski and how he wasn't a chief-of-staff, he was sort of a special advisor, how they sort of managed the department, started to get a lot of criticism from the White House.

The second is, of course, Donald Trump's point on the issue that she is in charge of, immigration and the border, plummeted over the course of the last three to four months because of the aggressive tactics that her department is using. You can blame other people, certainly I would, Stephen Miller within the White House, but she, of course, became the easy target for the President.

So, it's a combination of things. I will say the thing, I think, that has legs is the corruption. No big contracts that go to your friends is very hard to defend.

The White House won't defend her and I believe that we haven't seen the last of Kristi Noem because if there's a change in leadership in the House, there will be hearings about this contract. It's so indefensible at this stage, the corruption, someone's going to have to take account for it.

HUNTE: She also made a point of putting herself front and center in immigration enforcement rights, appearing alongside agents at the border. Do you think that this signals a shift in Trump's immigration strategy, or is this simply a change in who's going to be delivering it?

KAYYEM: I think it's going to be, there's not a significant shift by this White House, at least not publicly. They will continue to feed the narrative that they are tough on immigration, but they are not stupid.

They see the polling. Americans do not like these abusive, aggressive tactics within the interior, what we call interior enforcement.

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And they will probably, as we've seen in a variety of sort of drawdowns by this administration, they will begin to recede. But make no mistake about it.

Immigration reform and all the failures of it that have occurred in the last year are because of Stephen Miller. Kristi Noem's mistake is she believed that Stephen Miller would have her back if things went bad.

HUNTE: Trump has now tapped Markwayne Mullin to lead the DHS. Operationally, what does a leadership change like this actually mean for the department?

KAYYEM: It's hard to know. He's never run a major institution. He has, as we know, a background in wrestling and then ran a family company until he, or he led a family company until he ran for Congress and then ultimately Senate.

He has been on air 24/7 all the time in this administration, basically completely defending it. So I don't think there's going to be a substantive ideological change. I think he fits an image that Donald Trump generally likes in terms of the sort of very strong male image that he likes with a variety of his cabinet secretaries.

He feels more comfortable in that realm. But it is almost impossible to know what his management or leadership, the senator's management or leadership style is because he has not had a job like this. But I don't anticipate much will change in terms of policy, I do believe there will be changes in terms of, I would say, orientation or in terms of focus as we hit the midterms.

Look, he's a politician who is well aware of the election cycle coming up this year. And I think he will protect the White House to the extent he can in that.

HUNTE: Okay, well, another wild news day. And, Julia, you're there with us. So thank you so much for that.

Republican Representative Tony Gonzales is ending his reelection bid. This all comes after a Texas congressman admitted to an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzales says he plans to finish out the rest of his term.

The announcement came just hours after Republican Party leaders called for him to withdraw his candidacy. He was set to face Brandon Herrera in a runoff for the Republican primary in Texas' 23rd district on May 26th.

Okay, still to come, after war broke out in the Middle East, thousands of airline passengers were left stranded. But now they're starting to return home. Just how they're navigating all of this travel there next.

See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Ben Hunte. Let's check some of today's top stories.

The U.S. military says it is ramping up its attacks on Iranian targets. Central Command says American forces struck an Iranian drone carrier on Thursday as part of their mission to sink the entire Iranian Navy. CENTCOM did not say where the strike happened.

Large-scale evacuations are underway in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces are bombarding what they call Hezbollah strongholds in and around Beirut. And for the first time in this conflict, Israel is also striking the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

President Trump says he guesses Americans should be concerned about retaliatory attacks in the U.S. He said he thinks about that all the time and his administration is planning for it in case it happens. Trump reiterated that when you go to war, some people will die.

Fire and smoke were seen rising over an airbase in Kuwait that hosts U.S. forces and this video was filmed by a witness and posted to social media just a short time ago. It shows the aftermath of an explosion as raging fires send plumes of smoke into the night sky. Iran has been launching drones and missiles at U.S. bases in the region since Saturday, when the U.S. and Israel started striking Iran.

CNN senior producer Bijan Hosseini is monitoring developments for us and he's joining us from Doha, Qatar. Thank you so much for being with me, sir. How have things been where you are and how are you and your CNN team dealing with what's happening over there?

BIJAN HOSSEINI, CNN SR. PRODUCER: Hi, Ben. Yes, we heard from U.S. Central Command yesterday that Iranian ballistic missile attacks had decreased by 90 percent and that drones were -- they had decreased by 83 percent since the start of Iran's retaliation seven days ago.

But clearly a different story this morning as Iran has launched attacks against at least five Gulf countries. We know in Kuwait that the army on X saying, they were working to intercept what they called hostile drone and missile attacks. We know in Saudi Arabia, they successfully intercepted three ballistic missiles that they say were headed to Prince Sultan Air Base this morning.

In Bahrain, the country's Interior Ministry saying a hotel in two residential areas were hit and that a fire took place after that that was later contained. And in the UAE, residents in Dubai just over 30 minutes ago getting an alert to seek shelter on their phone.

Here in Qatar, we, our team here, we woke up to alerts on our phone at 345 in the morning saying the security threat level had been elevated. 15 minutes later, we received another alert saying that that threat had been eliminated.

The Ministry of Defense here just a short hour after that, confirming that interceptions took place of missile and drone attacks against Al Udeid Air Base. That's the latest that we've heard from here in Qatar.

HUNTE: Well, thank you for that. We really appreciate your reporting. Please stay safe out there, Bijan Hosseini. Since the start of the war with Iran, over 11,000 flights have been

canceled and that's left passengers stranded and caused chaos at airports too. But the lockdown is slowly starting to clear up. Governments are chartering evacuation flights and airlines have resumed limited flight schedules.

As CNN's Lynda Kinkade reports, many passengers are still left scrambling to find their ways home.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Relieved to finally be home, but it was a chaotic journey out of Dubai for this British couple. First traveling by bus to Amman and then booking seats on a commercial flight out of Moscow.

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UNKNOWN: Yes, there was an absolute chaos.

KINKADE (voice-over): There are tens of thousands of stranded tourists across the Middle East. Many stuck for days with little to no information trying to find a safe way out.

MALGORZATA MARKIEWICZ, POLISH CITIZEN STUCK IN DOHA: We want to go back home. So we think about we're thinking about going to Riyadh and then taking plane to Warsaw. But we don't know if transport is safe.

KINKADE (voice-over): Governments across the globe are ramping up repatriation flights to evacuate their citizens. Many of the initial flights transport sick and as well as children and families. This German woman says she felt lucky to be on board.

BITA ALAVI, EVACUEE (through translator): We have two children and one that's due in eight weeks. If I hadn't got out within two weeks then I wouldn't have been able to leave anymore and would have had to have the baby there.

KINKADE (voice-over): And there was a joyful reunion in Kenya after a group of school children arrived safely in Nairobi after being stuck in Dubai. The school's director says they could see missiles being intercepted in the air.

OLIVE TINDIKA, EVACUEE: It was scary. Every day you get alerts and the children lose it and 'are we going to die?' Because we are not used to that, so it was a very traumatizing experience.

KINKADE (voice-over): The U.S. State Department says it's also coordinating charter flights for its citizens. That move coming after the U.S. was heavily criticized for failing to have an evacuation plan in place when the strikes were first launched. The administration claims the situation unfolded too quickly.

But even as governments work to arrange flights there isn't a seat for everyone who wants one. Some commercial airlines have resumed limited services but snagging a spot on any flight remains difficult. And for some a safe return home may still be days away.

Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

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HUNTE: The logjam of people trying to get out of the Middle East is starting to clear. Thousands of people have already managed to leave the region as the conflict intensifies and flight schedules are in disarray. But airlines are resuming some flights and governments around the world are organizing charter planes to evacuate their citizens.

The first chartered flight of U.S. citizens arrived back on American soil on Thursday afternoon. It flew from Abu Dhabi and arrived in the Washington D.C. area, another flight from the UAE arrived at New York's JFK airport. Passengers described the chaos of trying to get home and the relief upon arriving.

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UNKNOWN: We reached out to a lot of just you know Senate and then representative offices as well. It seemed like organizationally there just wasn't really a plan.

UNKNOWN: We could see the U.S. consulate in Dubai from our window and for three days I'm looking at it. I'm like okay it's right there that's kind of cool. We ended up actually checking out that morning and then that same night actually there was a drone attack on it.

UNKNOWN: I spent the first night huddled on the floor next to my bed worried about like the windows exploding. So you know it's you hear alerts going off you hear explosions in the sky and it's hard to know what's going on but it's really unsettling.

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HUNTE: Some awful stuff there but let's go live now to Washington and CNN's Brian Todd. Brian thank you so much for being with me. What are you hearing about how quickly that backlog of people trying to leave the region is actually easing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the backlog, Ben, seems to be easing at least a little bit. You know 24 hours ago when we were talking about all this there was still a state of confusion.

A lot of Americans were stranded, a lot of them are still stranded but 24 hours ago all we had word of was there was one evacuation flight that was arranged by the State Department to take Americans out of the region. We didn't know where it was leaving from, we didn't know where it was landing, we didn't know what time. Well now some of that has been resolved.

We do know that that first State Department arranged evacuation flight of Americans left Abu Dhabi and flew to Washington Dulles Airport where it landed on Thursday afternoon according to a State Department spokesman there were hundreds of Americans on board that flight. What's interesting also is that the State Department has basically given an order for operational security to those Americans and their relatives regarding these flights.

Many relatives of the evacuees told CNN that while they were able to be in contact with their loved ones who were traveling they were told to keep the evacuation flight a secret and were not given any information such as a flight number to track so the State Department counting on people on this flight and their relatives to maintain secrecy about that flight about where it was taking off from where it was heading to and when it was landing.

We do know that some of those on board that one flight from Abu Dhabi included embassy workers and their families and tourists who were stranded in Abu Dhabi.

[03:40:01]

One of them who landed a gentleman named Bruce Immel of Pennsylvania he alluded to some of that confusion in those early days right after the war started and the lack of communication from the U.S. government.

He said they struggled at the beginning to get any information from the State Department. Here's his quote: "It was tough at first but then they started getting it figured out."

Now we have inquired with the State Department in the last couple of hours just asking some general questions about you know have there been any flights since that initial flight that evacuation flight arranged by the State Department, has the State Department arranged other flights since then, how many Americans have been able to leave since those early days of the war and will they be surging more flights into the region.

We have not heard back from them on that and again they are maintaining some real operational security regarding these flights. They don't want word to get out, Ben, when and where these flights are taking off from and where they're landing because those flights of course could be vulnerable to attack.

HUNTE: Well thank you for that and a bit of a switch but while you're here. President Donald Trump told NBC News earlier he believes the U.S. may need to play a role in shaping Iran's next leadership. How significant is that comment because it's a bit of a faraway but how might it be interpreted in Tehran and the entire region.

TODD: Well it's extraordinary it's extraordinary you know given what he has said basically Donald Trump has earlier on Thursday he told Axios that he has to be involved in the selection of the next Iranian leader. Then later he told NBC News this, he basically the U.S. is watching people who he thinks could be good options to run the country and here is his quote to NBC. "We want to go in and clean out everything-- we don't want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period."

Also very extraordinary Trump telling NBC that his administration is taking steps to ensure that the people who he thinks should be leading the country that those people actually survive this war. He said the U.S. government is tracking them, they're watching them, they're trying to make sure that those people survive.

That's pretty extraordinary especially given the fact that Trump himself admitted a few days ago after those initial strikes that many of the people who they thought could be feasible leaders of Iran after this war is over were already killed.

So he's now weighing in saying we have to go out and clean out everything we don't want someone who's going to be like the mullahs who were in power earlier who's going to rebuild and he's trying to take measures to make sure that the people who the administration wants to lead Iran will actually survive the war.

HUNTE: There is a lot going on. Brian Todd in Washington. Thank you so much for keeping us up to date, I appreciate it.

Well speaking of President Trump, he's suggesting that Cuba may be next on his administration's agenda once the war of Iran concludes. Speaking at an event Trump said he wants to fix the island nation. He also suggested it was only a matter of time before Cubans who fled their country would be able to return home.

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TRUMP: What's happening with Cuba is amazing and we think that we want to fix it first but that will be just a question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba hopefully not to stay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Okay, the war of Iran has all but shut down the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and it is driving the price of oil up to new highs. Why the U.S. President says he's not concerned though? Just ahead, see you in a moment.

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[03:45:00]

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

Days into the war of Iran, oil prices are hitting their highest levels since President Trump started his second term. Brent crude had climbed to $85 a barrel, that's the highest intraday level since the final days of the Biden administration. And right now it is settling at around $80 a barrel.

Our Eleni Giokos joins me now with more, Eleni thanks so much for being with me. Drivers already seeing prices tick up at the pump. If this war does escalate or even drag on, just how high do you think gas prices could go? ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the estimates, Ben, are about $120 a barrel. But what's interesting is and I've spoken to a lot of analysts over the last few days is they're really concerned in terms of what we've seen in just a week where you've seen about WTI increasing 20 percent and Brent crude up around 20 percent.

And the prognosis is and they're basically counting on what Trump and his administration is saying that this is going to be short lived and around four weeks.

That is being priced into the market. But at the end of the day you're also seeing massive disruption on critical infrastructure. You're seeing energy infrastructure that is being targeted across the Middle East.

And just yesterday we saw a refinery in Bahrain that was struck. That fire is now under control. We don't know how much capacity has been taken out.

And of course the supply constrains the logistical issue through the Strait of Hormuz that is currently halted. We know that there's insurance guarantees that President Trump has announced naval vessel escorts.

The industry is just not convinced it's going to work because there's still a lot of fear and it's about security. So maybe the insurance issue has been solved. But the shippers I'm talking to saying the safety issue has not been resolved as yet.

In the meantime President Trump saying prices could go up slightly but when this is over they're going to fall. I want you to take a listen to what he said.

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TRUMP: And yesterday, my administration announced decisive action to help keep down the oil prices including offering political risk insurance for tankers transiting into the Gulf. As you know pretty dangerous territory. Further action to reduce pressure on oil is eminent and the oil seems to have pretty much stabilized.

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GIOKOS: So he also said and if they rise they rise but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit. So I think he's contending with the fact that we are going to see a short term spike. What I'm hearing in the industry overall that you know we don't know when this is going to end.

There's already throughput in terms of jet fuel prices that are soaring. And this is a real big issue because you're going to see anyone trying to book an airline ticket right now that's going to cause an inflationary impact. And even if this war does end in four weeks it's already going to have a big impact.

You know the likes of the LNG in Qatar that has declared force majeure. It's not like a tap that you could turn on and off. It's going to take a couple of weeks to get back online.

So you've got natural gas issues, you've got the logistical issues, you've got tankers that are waiting to get through to markets and everyone is trying to find alternative sources.

HUNTE: Well thank you so much for that update. Sounds like a lot of people are going to be struggling in the near future. Thank you for now Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi.

[03:50:00]

Okay. A family's fears for a British couple who were sentenced to a decade in a notorious Iranian prison. CNN spoke to their son who is now looking to Downing Street for help. See you in a moment.

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HUNTE: Welcome back.

The son of a British couple recently sentenced to 10 years in Iran's infamous Evin prison says he's terrified about what could now happen to them. Lindsay Foreman's son says he was speaking to his mother when bombs began falling near the prison. CNN's Christina Macfarlane talked to him about what is going on there.

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JOE BENNETT, SON OF DETAINED BRITISH PRISONERS IN TEHRAN: In that mad hysteria everybody when the bombs you know physically shaking the prison they were trying to scurry to safety and my mom defiantly said well you know if it hits the metal frame bunk beds aren't going to be what saves us.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Craig and Lindsay Foreman are currently incarcerated in Iran's notorious Evin prison after being arrested last year while traveling through Iran on a round the world motorcycle trip.

BENNETT: At the moment I'd say there is a sense of optimism amongst the anxiety.

[03:55:00]

You know people are petrified they're scared that one of these bombs was close enough that it blew the windows out in the prison and plaster coming down from the ceiling so you know they were scared for their lives and waiting for something to happen.

MACFARLANE (voice-over): The couple are facing a 10-year sentence for espionage, a charge they firmly deny. Now they are stuck behind bars in a war zone.

MACFARLANE: Is your mom seeing any changes inside the prison with regard to who's running the day-to-day there?

BENNETT: All they do is hear things and that there has been a changing of the guards into more armed police. You know you hear reports that the IRGC are taking political prisoners to IRGC strongholds effectively using them as human shields and then Craig on a phone call is telling you he may be transferred to a different prison and you know your alarm bells start ringing you panic.

MACFARLANE: What action have you seen from the U.K. government so far have they offered you any advice thus far?

BENNETT: No this is the -- and this is the big pet peeve for me is that we haven't had any contingency plans from them at all for the situation at hand. Advice you know the advice that we've got is for them if the opportunity presents itself for them to do a risk assessment, that is the genuine advice that I got through.

MACFARLANE: If they were to escape the prison to do a risk assessment?

BENNETT: Try and find a safe place but this is bigger than politics in it for me and you know the U.K. and U.S. allies. I suppose, you know, I'm asking President Trump to use his leverage to protect detainees and secure a safe return for them all. It's a plea as a son to a father as I know President Trump is, you know, just to do the right thing and try and keep them as safe and get them home as soon as possible.

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HUNTE: Well that's all I've got for you, thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta and I will see you tomorrow. Our breaking coverage of the war in Iran continues with my colleague Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi after this short break, see you tomorrow.

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