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Israel Launches "Wide-Scale Strikes" In Iran After Targeting Oil Sites; Trump Calls Higher Gas Prices "A Little Glitch"; Lebanese Health Ministry: Almost 400 Killed Since War Began; Trump: "We're Not Looking For The Kurds Going In"; NYPD: Device Hurled Near NYC Mayor's Mansion Was An IED That Could Have Caused "Serious Injury Or Death"; Clean Up Underway After Severe Storms Spawned Tornadoes, Leave 8 Dead. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired March 08, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:01:18]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Warm welcome to you. Thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

At this hour, here is what we know on the U.S. and Israel's expanding war with Iran.

Attacks on Iran have entered a new phase today, with the Israeli military announcing it has begun what it calls wide-scale strikes on targets across the country, including now the city of Tehran, of course, and the headquarters of Iran's aerospace force.

Iran is continuing to lash out, issuing new retaliatory strikes at countries across the region, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite suggesting those attacks on its neighbors might end.

Iran's foreign minister says, quote, "Nobody knows who the next supreme leader is." That is after, according to multiple reports, that in fact Iranian clerics have selected the replacement for the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed in the very first hours of this war on Iran.

President Trump, however, says he will have the final say, telling ABC News that Khamenei's replacement will not last long without his approval.

My colleague, CNN anchor Erin Burnett, she is live in Tel Aviv back with us now.

Erin again, I wonder if you've heard any more of those air raid signals in the last hour.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: In the past hour, no. Although we did hear several, Jim, throughout the afternoon. And it's interesting. They did sort of come one after the other, sort of maybe within an hour or -ish apart. And you know, Jim, to be honest there was a time you might go five or six hours without them. And then all of a sudden you have several in a row that have happened and things have broken through.

We did have something very near here, Jim, hit not long ago. And an apartment that came through and was hit. People had sought shelter and so they were not killed.

And obviously at the beginning of the war this week, we did see real casualties here, but not in the past few days. Although they did have the first soldiers killed here so far in the war.

And that's obviously significant as this widens and there's this whole conversation about boots on the ground, whether they will be Israeli, whether they will be American, how big will that be?

It seems that this decision very much rest with President Trump in Washington, even as Israel is ramping up its attacks across Lebanon in this now second front of this war, which we're several days into.

But now there have been Israeli soldiers killed. And that's an important marker in southern Lebanon this morning.

Our Nick Paton Walsh is along the Israel-Lebanon border, near the location where their soldiers died. And Nick, you know, when I talked to Israeli government officials, you know, this is for them as it was for Americans, an important moment in the war when you see the first casualties, the first military casualties of the war. Obviously, civilians here were killed before that.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We don't know exactly where this incident occurred other than it was in southern Lebanon. So obviously over the hills behind me.

But it appears that a Hezbollah anti-tank missile hit a D-9 bulldozer where these two soldiers indeed were, the first fatalities of Israel's war offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, southern Beirut. 14 other injuries though have been sustained by Israel.

[14:04:45]

WALSH: There is some lack of clarity, I think it's fair to say, as to exactly how far inside Lebanon Israeli forces may be operating at this point.

Initially, they were very clear it was not a ground invasion, that they were going to be reinforcing the gaps between five positions they retained after the ceasefire in late 2024.

And no suggestion at this point that they are necessarily deeper inside, although, you know, these fatalities might suggest some kind of further involvement, perhaps.

But I think it is also fair to say that Hezbollah weakened as they were thought to have been are still potentially putting up something more resistance than previously considered.

I should say, Erin, before we joined you we've been hearing quite a lot of explosions. A lot of it potentially sounding like outgoing artillery fire, but then rumbling explosions more in the distance as well.

Some flashes behind the hill over here. Jets, possibly drones in the sky above. So clearly a very active situation where we are. And Hezbollah claims they've launched 13 separate attacks on northern Israel just today alone.

Israel clear it's hit 100 targets. So just another, I think sounded like a quite a distant blast behind me here. Incredibly strong wind making it hard to tell at times.

But Israel continuing to persist and hitting targets over the border here, but also inside Iran as well, where they are clearly in what they call the next phase of their operations.

That has caused the thick black smoke. My colleague Fred Pleitgen has seen over Tehran after an oil storage facility was indeed hit. And also to Israel today talking about a strike that was in southern Beirut last night. The Ramada Plaza Hotel hit.

They now say five senior Hezbollah members there, IRGC members, hit in that one strike. It didn't occur in the area in the southern part of the city that had been under evacuation order, about a kilometer potentially north along the coastline from there.

But a sign of pinpoint operations, I think it's fair to say. And also how we're now seeing this moment for Israel to take the war again to Hezbollah, causing another front to escalate here, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much. And of course, when Nick gives those distances, he spent many years living in Beirut, knows the area better than anyone.

And of course, countries across the Persian Gulf have now endured yet another wave of drone and missile strikes today. We have seen that throughout the day.

You've got Kuwait social security headquarters, according to state run media there, hit by a drone strike. We've geolocated this image that you see or video that you see with that building on fire. It's a 22- story building.

Saudi Arabia has released new video of one of several drone strikes there, they say, that they've experienced in recent days, one of which, of course, successfully targeted the United States embassy. The one that you're looking at here is showing an interception that the Saudis say of a drone.

Our Nic Robertson joins us now from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia which is reporting its first deaths of the war. Casualties now, Nic, we talk about civilians here in Israel. Emirati officials telling me for there now casualties where you are. What do you know about those? And what do you know about the level of strikes that Saudi is taking from Iran right now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. These are the first fatalities that Saudi Arabia has announced. They were overseas workers, a Bangladeshi and an Indian. And 12 Bangladeshis injured as well in this missile impact, not an interceptor missile impact, in the town of Al Hajj which is just outside of Riyadh here and very close to the Prince Sultan Air Base, which has been the focus of multiple Iranian drone, cruise missile, ballistic missile attacks over recent days that the Saudi authorities, the MOD here, say have all been intercepted.

But this was the first missile that we understand that not only got through, but caused fatalities.

Saudi Arabia has now taken the step, as you mentioned, of, releasing video of drone intercepts, dramatic drone intercepts over the desert here. The drones being shot down.

What we have witnessed since yesterday when there was that sort of moment in the Gulf where there was a sense that what the Iranian president, Pezeshkian was saying, an apology to the Gulf states for hitting them. A warning: we won't hit you if you don't involve yourselves in attacking us.

There was a moment there. There was a feeling that possibly there had been some level of diplomacy going on.

It didn't happen. What we witnessed around Riyadh last night were more than 25 drone and other missile attempts around the capital here. That was a focus on the capital that we haven't seen so far.

[14:09:45] ROBERTSON: Also, at least one drone we understand targeted again the diplomatic quarter where the U.S. embassy is. And as you said, four drones one night a few days ago impacted there.

We're also beginning to sort of get a, you know, a better picture of the impact of Iran's tactics hitting civilian commercial aviation fuel storage depots at a major airport in Kuwait, hitting a government building in Kuwait, hitting desalination in Bahrain, hitting a university in Bahrain.

But what is emerging out of all of that, and in the context of all of these strikes, is an effort by the GCC and Jordan to bring a resolution to the U.N. Security Council, CNN has seen a draft of it, that will be expected to go to the U.N. Security Council this coming week that will offer strong language against Iran.

It will very likely as well be read as a way to isolate Iran, but it will also potentially be read as a potential route -- long route to a diplomatic off-ramp.

And that's something new that's happening here.

BURNETT: And important, important to talk about that. And you know, Nic in Riyadh talking about the GCC.

Jim, you know, I know obviously you're talking to so many of your sources, talking to mine in leadership in GCC countries, including the UAE. You know, it is amazing, Jim that initially they did not want the conflict. They didn't support it. They actively discouraged it.

But once it started, they became of the mind of -- they knew would happen exactly what's happening, right? That they would be hit. And now they are the ones saying it must be finished.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BURNETT: I think, I think a way to describe the sentiment would be you can't be half pregnant right? That now you've seen how on the front lines we are, that this needs to be dealt with.

And there is an anger, a furiousness directed at Tehran still defensive on their part, right, that they're still not offensively involved. But you know, it is palpable the anger that they feel.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, they are literally on the front lines. They are now suffering casualties --

BURNETT: That's right.

SCIUTTO: -- right, because some of these weapons systems are able to get through not just economic costs, right, but human costs. And that pushback is happening against I mean really the opposite force from what we know from public comments from the U.S. and Israel.

And not just public comments, by the way, the expansion of their attacks on the ground that seem to be willing to expand their attacks, but also their ambitions as to what the goals are.

I mean, you have the U.S. president at least leaving the option open of U.S. troops on the ground which would be a remarkable escalation both in military force and risk for the U.S.

But also, Erin, you've talked about this. We've talked about this on the air, an expansion of what the president's intentions seem to be with this war, right.

From delivering a message now to, right up to and including choosing the next leader of Iran. I mean you know, we've talked about mission creep in many conflicts that we've had to cover in recent years. And one can see that here.

BURNETT: Yes. And you know, Jim, also talking to some of the -- what I would say the businesses on the front line -- energy companies, right. We've seen U.S. energy companies already, whether it be Halliburton or KBR, both of which are oil services companies, drillers right near Basra, the port in Iraq. They've been targeted by Iranian drones. But also companies on the front line in shipping.

And what I'm hearing there, Jim, is an incredible sense of frustration and uncertainty from them as to whether the political decision makers right, as in the White House, understand what they believe is an urgent imminent and potentially catastrophic situation when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz and a sort of point that they don't pretend to know where it is, but they think we're really close.

But there becomes an economic catastrophe on the other side that cannot be contained, right.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BURNETT: And as to whether they're right about how urgent that is, I don't know, but they certainly feel that. And right now they feel a void in terms of whether their basic security is going to be addressed by the U.S. Navy specifically with the Strait of Hormuz.

SCIUTTO: And, you know just one more thought, Erin. I remember in the early days --

BURNETT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- of the Ukraine war. You had similar voices, right, saying hey, the war started. We didn't want the war. Let's find a way to get out of this. Let's limit the cost. Let's you know, open diplomatic channels.

You know, I'm not saying this is the Ukraine war, but four years later, those conversations are still happening. That war is still very much. Or even in the early days of the Afghanistan war, Iraq war -- these things can get a life of their own and that's something to keep in mind.

BURNETT: Yes. Yes.

SCIUTTO: Erin Burnett in Tel Aviv, thanks so much. We're going to continue to check in with her and her team as well throughout the hour.

Still ahead, black smoke just choking the skies in Iran after Israel's onslaught expands against Tehran's energy sites.

[14:14:51]

SCIUTTO: Our Fred Pleitgen, he is in the capital city.

And gas prices continue to surge here in the U.S. as the war disrupts the world's oil supply. We're going to tell you what President Trump just said about the prices you and I are paying at the pump now.

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[14:19:51]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what Tehran is waking up to this morning. The sky above the city is covered in very thick, black clouds. You can see that everywhere. That's the west of the city over there. And this is the north of the city.

Normally, if you look to that direction, you could actually see the Alborz Mountains. But now all of that is also covered in clouds.

It's also raining, but you can see that the rain -- the rain water is actually black, also saturated it appears with oil. And then if we look over there, you can see that the water that's running down here also is black. So that's what's coming down this morning, this sort of oil-filled rain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Raining oil in Tehran. That was our Fred Pleitgen there earlier today.

We should note that CNN can only operate in Iran with the country's government approval. Video shows just massive plumes of smoke that followed those strikes on oil storage facilities, generating that rain, that smoke, those clouds over the capital.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told our colleague, Jake Tapper, the U.S. was not involved in these strikes you see here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WRIGHT, U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY: There are no plans to target Iran's oil industry, their natural gas industry or anything about their energy industry.

These are Israeli strikes. These are local fuel depots to fill up the gas tank, you know, in this neighborhood in Tehran. The U.S. is targeting zero energy infrastructure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well -- someone is.

CNN correspondent Julia Benbrook is covering the president this weekend.

Julia, listen, the numbers are not good on a key benchmark that the president has repeatedly used about the health of the economy. And that is falling gas prices. Those gas prices are now going in the opposite direction. So what's the White House's answer to all that?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is one of the impacts that Americans are directly feeling.

And President Donald Trump has said that he is not concerned about the rising gas prices. In fact, in recent days, he told Reuters, if they rise, they rise. When he was on Air Force One yesterday, he referred to the ongoing operations in Iran as an excursion, adding that his administration knew that these gas prices would go up, but that he was confident that they would come back down.

His most recent remarks were to ABC in an interview published this morning. And in that he reiterated that point.

I want to pull up part of those comments for you now. He said, "I think its fine. It's a little glitch. We had to take this detour. I knew exactly what was going to happen with the detour. But the nice part is we sank 44 of their ships, which is their entire navy."

Now, one of the reasons for this spike in prices at the pump is that 20 percent of the world's oil travels through the Strait of Hormuz, and that has come to a near-complete halt since the war began due to Iranian threats.

The Trump administration has said that the U.S. navy has offered to begin escorting oil tankers through the strait.

And in that interview you referenced earlier with CNN's Jake Tapper, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, he was pressed on this. What would that look like? When would it start?

I want you to take a listen to part of his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: A large tanker went through the Gulf about 24 hours ago, through the Strait of Hormuz.

So we're still focused right now on continuing to attrit their missile and drone capability, to reduce their ability to disrupt traffic, to attack their ten neighbors that they have been attacking. And that -- that work is going tremendously well.

Their missile launches are down by 90 percent, well over 80 percent reduction in their ability to fire drones. So Jake, we're not too long away, I think, before you'll see -- you'll see more regular resumption of ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:24:48]

BENBROOK: Now Wright acknowledged that one tanker going through is nowhere near normal traffic. But when he was pressed on what he meant when he said that we're not too far away from getting back to that, he said that he was talking in weeks, not months.

SCIUTTO: It's a long time for those prices to be high. Julia Benbrook in Florida, thanks so much.

Just ahead, Israeli attacks on Hezbollah inside Lebanon have been expanding once again. And now the first casualties for Israeli military forces from counterstrikes by Lebanon. Live report from inside Beirut as our coverage continues.

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BURNETT: Israel also ramping up its attacks on Lebanon tonight. So far, nearly 400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel launched strikes on the country over the week with this new front in the war. And that is according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Israel says the attacks on its northern neighbor are aimed at eradicating -- the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah, which of course, has said that there are now some coordinated attacks between Hezbollah and Iran.

We have seen some evidence of that here on the ground of Israel, which of course, is a significant statement about the IRGC's ability to communicate and command and control.

Our Matthew Chance is in Beirut, Lebanon tonight. And Matthew, you have been in there forced to flee at times with almost no warning due to strikes. What is the latest on the situation that you're seeing?

[14:29:46]

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes I mean look, I mean, it's incredibly tense across Lebanon, in Beirut as well where there have been sort of almost, you know, a constant barrage of intensifying airstrikes in various parts of the city being carried out by Israel and what it says are sort of Hezbollah related targets.

[14:30:01]

That's been continuing across the country, with Israel saying that, you know, it's carried out a hundred or more airstrikes in the course of the past 24 hours. Hezbollah, the Iranian backed militia, has also been, you know, sort of saying it's been carrying out multiple salvos of rockets and drone attacks as well on Israel there seems to be quite a lot of fierce fighting taking place in south Lebanon, where Israeli ground operations appear to be underway as well.

And so, fierce fighting, chaos, bloodshed. You mentioned those casualty figures, 400 people in Lebanon nearly killed according to the Lebanese health ministry, 1,100 or so injured. All this as thousands, hundreds of thousands of people across Lebanon are on the move after receiving, you know, kind of notice from the Israeli military that they should leave their homes as soon as possible evacuate them.

It means that hundreds of thousands of people in Hezbollah strongholds in the south of Lebanon, here in Beirut, in the Bekaa Valley, in the east of the country as well have decided to uproot themselves and flee to areas that are safer, like some areas of Beirut it's placing an enormous strain on the local authorities here, even with the backing of international aid organizations, to try and find these people enough food and accommodation to shelter them during this crisis period.

The Lebanese military is also coming under renewed public pressure as well, because there's a lot of anger politically that it is not doing more to crack down on Hezbollah, to curb that organizations, which is a very heavily armed organization, remember. To curb its military activities. While many Lebanese are blaming Hezbollah for this current crisis and for dragging the country even deeper into this Iran war.

And so, yeah, a country on edge with a lot of bloodshed and a lot of hardship.

BURNETT: Yeah. Matthew Chance, thank you very much, live from Beirut for us tonight.

As our coverage from across this war continues, President Trump is now refusing to rule out putting American troops on the ground in Iran. And I think you know, as Jim has referred to it repeatedly as we've been hosting these hours, for you, it would be a remarkable, remarkable development.

Now Trump has also said that he does not want Kurdish forces. And there had been reporting that there had been a lot of work by the CIA to potentially get Kurdish forces involved in the war to go in to Iran and foment an uprising. Trump now says he does not want that. Here's how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not looking to the Kurds going in. We're very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don't want to make the war any more complex than it already is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Clarissa Ward is in Erbil, Iraq, which of course is home to a large Kurdish population. It is a broader Kurdistan. Iraqi Kurds and Turkish Kurds and Iranian Kurds, and the area where Clarissa is has been experiencing waves of drone and missile attacks since the conflict started.

In fact, Clarissa, there was a direct focus on drone strikes being aimed at the hotels where Americans could be staying, whether it be journalists or contractors or members of the military. And I know there have been so much reporting earlier this week where you were reporting about CIA efforts to perhaps get Iranian Kurds involved in this war. But now, President Trump saying, oh, actually, no, we're not asking the Kurds to do that. What are you learning?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think here a lot of people have whiplash, Erin, because it was just a few days ago that President Trump said it would be a beautiful thing if Iranian Kurdish opposition fighters joined the fight. Then last night, as you just played for our viewers, he completely changed course and said that he would not like to see them joining the fight, that it would get too complicated and could risk many Iranian Kurds being killed.

Now to the leadership here in Iraqi Kurdistan, that has been met with relief. It takes a lot of pressure off them. They were coming under huge pressure from Iran, constant threats that if any single Iranian Kurdish fighter cross that border from here in Iraqi Kurdistan, that there would be hell to pay for it. And certainly, we have seen a steady stream of drone and missile strikes on those Iranian Kurdish camps.

So, they will be sighing or giving a sigh of relief. But officially, the sort of response has been quite muted and when I asked one official here why that was, he said, quote, "Because it's President Trump, and every hour he says something different."

So, the anticipation is that perhaps it's possible that President Trump might change his mind again. Now, we've also been in touch with several of these Iranian Kurdish groups who were going to be part of this potential ground offensive. Suffice it to say, there's a little bit of confusion on their end, although they also underscored the slightly mercurial nature, let's say, of President Trump with regards to these kinds of proclamations.

[14:35:00]

But they said also that they are still preparing themselves and reserve the right to go in if and when the time is right.

And what they also said is that they believe this needs to happen, this is one specific group in the coalition. This window of opportunity really will only last as long as this war is still going. So still seemingly reserving that option for themselves.

And the last thing I would say, Erin, we know that the U.S. is now saying they wouldn't support this, but Israel is still a question. Israel potentially working with some of these groups as well and pushing them to join this offensive, though obviously we don't know exactly in what incarnation that might look like, Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah. So much ambiguity, and frankly, it appears uncertainty even among decision makers from Clarissa. Thank you very much, Clarissa Ward, in Erbil, Iraq, for us where she has been since the beginning of this war.

And the war with Iran, not just threatening stability, of course, here in the Middle East, massive region, but now around the world. And there's an ominous new warning from a top diplomat in China and the possible repercussions that this war could have for the United States, for the entire global economy.

We'll be right back.

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[14:40:57]

SCIUTTO: The U.S. and Israel's war with Iran is raging, even expanding less than a month before President Trump is set to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. And now, China is ramping up calls for a ceasefire, as the country's top diplomat warns against, quote, the spread of the flames of war.

Where is that spread leading? Joining us now to discuss, Shamil Idriss. He's the CEO of search for common ground. He and his organization have worked to end conflicts in dozens of countries around the world.

Shamil, thanks so much for joining.

SHAMIL IDRISS, CEO, SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND: Jim, thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: So, you might have heard my colleague Nic Robertson report just earlier this hour that there is some effort by Arab nations to present a U.N. resolution that would condemn Iran, but also perhaps create a pathway for an end to this conflict.

I wonder, would you consider that a serious effort and one that might -- might bring this to an end?

IDRISS: I'm sure it's a serious effort. The question about whether it could bring this to an end is really all about the will of the Americans, the Israelis and the Iranians at this point. One of the troubling things we've been in touch with our teams around the region over the last week. And it's your previous segment was talking about China. We can talk about the threats to Europe from opening up some of the sanctions to Russia. This is metastasizing both in the region and around the world in a way that's very difficult to control.

So, I'm sure the diplomatic effort is a serious one. The question is really, where is the political will of the main belligerents?

SCIUTTO: Yeah. You have made the point that the U.S. in this case seems to be attempting an entirely military solution here and make reference to previous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, where military efforts had great success early on but weren't able to create stability after the initial phases of the war.

And I wonder if, as you look at the U.S. administration here as they carry out this war, that perhaps they learned the wrong lesson from those wars? It strikes me that their approach is use more military power, more in a more devastating way right. And I wonder what recent history has taught.

IDRISS: Yeah. So -- yeah, I think it's important for viewers to step back and consider the fact that the United States has not won a war in 35 years, since the First Gulf War, despite the fact that the U.S. has been in almost perpetual warfare since then. And by win a war, I mean achieving the objectives that the U.S. itself sets out. So this is not just about the Trump administration or one political party. This is over successive generations, going back more than three decades.

And one of the reasons is because modern conflict dynamics and technology, compared with just how interdependent and mutually vulnerable we all are to one another, makes it impossible to achieve full security through military might alone. I mean, we're just five years after, if you recall, that tanker turned sideways in the Suez Canal just for six days, and grocery prices went up around the world. That's how mutually vulnerable and interconnected and how stressed our supply chains are and in that kind of world, it's really impossible to achieve, you know, your own security and economic welfare of your -- of your population just through military might.

And I will say one other thing. You know, it's also the nature of the fighting. As our weapons get smarter, our brutality seems to get higher. UNICEF reported even before this last major offensive that they documented 20 Iranian schools and 10 hospitals that have been destroyed. One of the first Iranian attacks destroyed a synagogue in Israel where people were sheltering.

The worst thing that you can do is destroy hospitals, places of worship and schools. And we seem to be doing more and more of this in wars in recent years.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. As we reported earlier, it's a CNN analysis. And CNN is not alone in this that that strike on that girls school was most likely a misdirected U.S. strike. The president, President Trump, he has been known to course. Correct. Right and while his goals for this war have moved from limited military action, now right up to seemingly controlling the outcome of a new leadership in Iran, he might stop or scale back at some point and declare victory.

[14:45:11]

If the U.S. were to do so. And by the way, it's already inflicted enormous damage on Iran's military capabilities, do you see a path towards negotiation moving forward? For instance, negotiation on the nuclear program, limitations on Iran's nuclear program?

IDRISS: I mean, I will say one of the things about President Trump that we saw in the first Trump administration -- I mean, he is nothing if not a convention breaker. Some of those conventions are really frankly, terrible to see broken, but others, it's refreshing to see broken, one of which has been that more so than previous presidents, his administrations have been willing to negotiate directly with all the belligerents, whether they're non-state actors or state actors.

Now, those negotiations, if they're done in good faith, can be very successful. I will say that, you know, to your point, the notion that this war started because negotiations failed is patently false, at least if you judge the negotiations that were underway and being mediated by the Omanis by what had been stated as the objective of negotiations. The day before the strikes were launched by Israel and the United States, the Omani foreign minister went public with just how far the concessions had already been achieved and gained from those negotiations from Iran.

And even -- I'll point this out, even if you look at the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA that was negotiated under the Obama administration, that agreement was being abided by fully by Iran before the Trump administration in its first iteration, pulled out.

And your viewers don't have to take my, my judgment for that. The IAEA reports -- that was the body that was monitoring the compliance -- bear this out to be true up until 2018 when the U.S. pulled out.

So yes, negotiations absolutely can succeed. And one of the things that the Trump administration has demonstrated is that it's willing to negotiate with whoever it needs to.

SCIUTTO: I suppose the question is, who survives the war, right? Because each new leader becomes a new target.

Shamil Idriss, thanks so much for joining.

IDRISS: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: Just ahead, in New York City, police now say suspicious devices were thrown by protesters outside the home of Mayor Mamdani. We're going to bring you what the NYPD just said about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:11]

SCIUTTO: We are continuing our breaking news coverage of the war with Iran. There are other stories breaking right now as well.

Two people are under arrest after an incident outside the home of the New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Just moments ago, the NYPD said that one of the devices that was ignited during a clash between opposing protest groups was, in fact, an improvised explosive device capable, the police say, of causing serious injury or death.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

SCIUTTO: That was the moment there. The NYPD says an 18-year-old man lit and threw the device. You can see it there as it lands on the ground. It struck a barrier before it then extinguished itself. The commissioner of the NYPD, Jessica Tisch, says the man then retrieved and lit a second device from another man, but he dropped that one on the street officers later took both men into custody. That clash happened as two separate protest groups, one anti-Islam the other made up of counterprotesters, faced off Saturday afternoon.

Mamdani was at Gracie Mansion at the time of the incident. However, the police commissioner said there was no immediate threat to the mayor. The FBI continues to investigate the matter.

And in a new setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge has ruled that Kari Lake did not have the legal authority to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media since she never received Senate confirmation. The judge said that Lake, a Trump appointee, also broke the law when she ordered mass layoffs at the Voice of America. Lake called the Reagan appointed judge an activist and said the agency planned an appeal voice of America staffers who sued her to save their jobs say they feel vindicated.

New today as well. People are cleaning up after powerful tornadoes -- Wow. Looks like a movie there -- devastated parts of Michigan. Video shows the moment that tornado kicked up debris swirling in the air like a scene out of "Twister". At least eight people were killed during those storms.

Now, neighbors are pitching in to help each other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECKY WILLIAMS, LIVES IN TORNADO DAMAGED NEIGHBORHOOD: It's heart wrenching to see your home that you've worked hard for in the condition that it is, but we'll get through it. We're here. We definitely are going to support anybody that we can. If we can find chainsaws, whatever it would be, and we definitely, we love our neighbors.

AMBER JASEPH, SAW TORNADO HEAD DOWN HER STREET: We look out the window and we saw the tornado go down right this strip. And it's where my daughter is, where my parents are, where I live down the road and I was just very grateful that God protected my daughter and my mom and sister and my family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:55:06]

SCIUTTO: Well, it really gives you faith when you see people helping each other out in dangerous, dangerous situations like that. Just down the road in Union City, officials say an EF-3 tornado packing winds of 150mph struck there. You can just see the devastation, the aftermath. Well, it seemed to just wipe whole communities off the map.

Coming up, who will be the next leader of Iran? We have new reporting just in to CNN. Our breaking news coverage of the war with Iran continues right here on CNN.

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