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Israel Launches New Wave Of Attacks, Targets Oil Facilities In Tehran; Trump: We're Not Looking To The Kurds Going Into Iran; Trump Says Next Supreme Leader Won't Last Long Without His Support. Aired 3- 4p ET

Aired March 08, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:30]

JIM SCIUTTO CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, thanks so much for joining us, I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SCIUTTO: We begin once again with the very latest on the U.S. and Israel's escalating war with Iran. Right now, we are getting new details on who might be the next Supreme Leader of Iran. A member of the group charged with making that decision just told Iranian state media the name of the country's former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will continue, that of course, suggests that his son, the son of the slain leader, could now succeed him.

President Trump says that he in fact, will have the final say on Iran's new leader, telling ABC News that Khamenei's replacement won't "last long" without his approval.

All of comes as the Israeli military has launched what it calls wide- scale strikes across Iran overnight. Look at those pictures there from Tehran.

Israel bombed some of the country's energy resources in the capital, that's what you're seeing burning there, because among the targets were oil depots and refineries.

My colleague, Erin Burnett, she is live in Tel Aviv, back with us now. Tell us what you're hearing there on the ground.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: So Jim, you know, it is interesting when we see those images and they are apocalyptic, out of Tehran, you know, advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu was just here telling me that they are adamant that those facilities that you saw and those flames and the smoke and the rain, the black rain that came down, they say, are IRGC facilities, so they reject any questions that this is infrastructure, that it would affect civilians. They say that the particular oil infrastructure that they hit was IRGC oil infrastructure for military use and military money.

So, you know, obviously that's the claim that they are making here and very clearly so. I want to bring my colleague, Jeremy Diamond now because Jeremy, you know, as we have seen those strikes in Iran and I just shared what the Israelis are saying about them here, we have received there was sort of a bit of a quiet, and then we had several strikes in a row and they were closer together than we had seen in recent days.

One of them we did see whether it was missile parts or its very unclear, got through, but there were injuries and you're learning more and that was really just a few blocks away from where we are.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a few blocks away was one of the impacts. Now, these are not the kind of full ballistic missile impacts that we saw at the beginning of the war, right? The one in Beit Shemesh, for example, where nine people were killed after, you know, the entirety of this missile warhead hit a synagogue, collapsed on top of a bomb shelter.

In this case what we seem to be seeing is smaller submunitions that are kind of part of the ballistic missile that disperse. We've seen some of those videos of the missiles in the sky and these kind of little particles. And we are now --

BURNETT: Like a firework, almost, is how we describe it.

DIAMOND: Exactly. And we are now starting to see what that looks like when those smaller warheads actually make their way down and make impact in residential areas.

And today it happened a few blocks away from here in Tel Aviv, as well as in Petah Tikva, which is a suburb of Tel Aviv. So, we saw several kind of smaller impacts, but they can cause damage, and they can also cause injuries.

And in fact, we have seven people who have now been injured by this missile debris. One person who is in serious condition, another in moderate condition. And it just shows that even when Iran isn't able to get, you know, a full ballistic missile strike in Israel, that most of these missiles are getting intercepted, they can still cause some serious damage and this will be a problem for Israel going forward.

BURNETT: And of course, as the Israelis, what they're saying when they're looking at what is happening in Tehran, back to the oil infrastructure that they say is IRGC, they point to this as obviously terrorizing civilians, as that landed in a neighborhood right near here, right? That was someone's apartment.

DIAMOND: Right. Yes, exactly. This is hitting residential areas. Again, we don't know what they're targeting necessarily and we've seen some instances where certainly they are hitting military bases in Israel and they have in the past.

But in this case, today, we saw several impacts in residential areas.

BURNETT: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much, here in Tel Aviv with me and of course, we talk about what is going on in Tehran where residents are dealing with, as I said, apocalyptic scenarios and images and not getting the sirens and warning that you get in Israel most of the time, that you get in the Gulf, most of the time, they don't, and they are dealing with the aftermath of strikes on key oil storage sites.

Now this video that I described as apocalyptic, we have geolocated to Tehran. It shows that massive fire and the smoke plume at a facility just outside of the city, one of several oil facilities which have been hit and were still burning throughout part of today at least.

[15:05:10]

Our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen is there, was able to get very close.

I will note, of course, it is important to understand while his reporting there is absolutely crucial and incredible and brave, we do want you to know, CNN is only able to operate in Iran with government approval.

Here is Fred.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is an absolutely apocalyptic scene here. Weve just made it to the Shahran Oil Depot, which was attacked last night in a massive wave of airstrikes. We heard those going on for about an hour, maybe an hour- and-a-half with massive thuds and then explosions that we could hear, and that thick black plume of smoke. We saw that last night, and now we are actually seeing it up close.

And what we are also seeing is that some of those destroyed storage tanks are still on fire. There are still flames originating from them. You can also see here that the area around here is also completely destroyed. There are people here actually working on this electricity pole to try and get the electricity back.

And then this tanker vehicle here also that is right in front of the gate has been completely destroyed as well. The front gate of the facility also in complete ruins. The facility appears to be completely in ruins now after these massive airstrikes and again still on fire, still burning, and you can see that thick black smoke through the entire city, across all of Tehran.

It has been raining this morning in Tehran. There was oil mixed into the rain. So, this is definitely a massive incident that is still going on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: All right, that was our Fred Pleitgen on the ground.

And Jim, you know, it is incredible the work that Fred has been able to do. You know that image there when you could see the flames and smoke behind him. There was also a time when he was able to show the ground and it almost is coming down as complete ash around him, the rain, because it was raining there today, was literally raining oil and ash.

SCIUTTO: You know, Erin, it is interesting that these attacks and I know that the U.S. is not deliberately targeting civilians; however, attacks like this impact civilians, right?

First of all, there have been civilian casualties. The U.S. even acknowledges that from strikes so far, U.S. and Israeli strikes, but strikes like this and I know Israel says that these were entirely IRGC supplies, but it is going to have an impact regardless of who owns them on, for instance, access to fuel in the city, but also those black clouds and the oily rain now falling there. This is a war that the Iranian people are paying a price for, right? And that raises a question going forward, it is early days about how, if and how that will affect their support for this. Right?

There is no love lost between them and their regime. They suffered awful, awful crimes in January when the regime slaughtered thousands, including many young people. But it is a war that is going to going to impact them, right, in quite severe ways.

BURNETT: Right, yes, and you know, when you mention that, it is interesting another thing that Fred had shown, you know we first came into the country and obviously the air -- all air routes are closed, right? So he drove, and when he first came in the country up in the northwest, there were no lines at gas stations and life was much as usual.

But now what he was showing today was those lines to get gasoline, which, you know, you and I will remember, we were both in Ukraine when the war began, when we saw those lines. Right? That initial panic.

He described it, I know, as calm, but nonetheless people waiting excruciatingly long times to try to fill up. So, affecting the daily life there. And Jim, and I am sure you've heard this, too and we have limited visibility of how this is impacting the psyche and the feeling and the support of people on the ground there, but certainly among the Iranian diaspora, of which there are so many in the United States.

Incredibly mixed emotions, you know at first celebration and now watching the country that raised them, the country where they are from in flames and the suffering, it is incredibly painful. And it is unclear how much time, how much bandwidth there is, right, for the United States and Israel.

SCIUTTO: And they are worried about their loved ones. They've got friends who have family there, and they are calling them and reaching them when they can, right, because that's no guarantee given the connectivity issues. There are natural fears, the nature of this war we are watching expand.

Erin Burnett in Tel Aviv, another front of the war. Thanks so much. Of course, we will continue to bring you Erin's reporting throughout the hour and our coverage of the war continues this hour. We are going to look at how this conflict is pushing gas prices higher. President Trump calling those rising prices, "a little glitch." One of Americans agree with that. Plus, a top Iranian official appears to give a major clue as to who the next Supreme Leader of Iran is. How that decision could become a big factor in if and how soon the war can end.

[15:14:47]

SCIUTTO: President Trump has now weighed in on the question of whether the U.S. might attempt to involve Kurdish fighters in the expanding war with Iran. Here is what he said on Air Force One just last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We Are not looking to the Kurds going in. We are 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)

[15:15:10]

SCIUTTO: Sources had previously told CNN that the CIA was indeed working to potentially stoke an uprising in Iran by arming Kurdish forces, sending them across the border into Iran.

CNN's Clarissa Ward has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Everyone is watching to see whether Kurdish fighters will launch a ground offensive into Iran. So, who are the Kurds?

WARD (voice over): They are one of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world. About 30 to 40 million people spread across a mountainous region spanning Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, they were promised a state of their own. It never materialized.

In Iran, Kurdish armed groups have fought the government for decades, operating from bases along the Iraqi border. Multiple sources say the CIA has backed some of those groups as they prepare for a possible ground offensive.

In Iraq, the picture is very different. Kurds here built a powerful autonomous region after the fall of Saddam Hussein and worked closely with the United States in the fight against ISIS, but they are wary of provoking Iran and are trying to stay neutral, calling for peace and stability.

In Syria, Kurdish militias became one of Washingtons most effective partners against ISIS controlling much of the Northeast. But they were ultimately forced to give up some of that territory to the government in Damascus.

WARD (on camera): Across the region, Kurdish politics and loyalties vary widely, but many share a long history of struggle for recognition, autonomy, and in some cases, their own state.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Erbil.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much to Clarissa Ward for that report.

Joining me now Sanam Vakil. She is the Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House and an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins.

Good to have you on. Thanks for taking the time.

SANAM VAKIL, DIRECTOR OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA PROGRAM, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: So, President Trump seems to have taken this Kurdish option off the table. And by the way, it was CNN's reporting that there were quite serious efforts, at least, to keep that option open, including training, arming, et cetera. He is now raising the prospect of U.S. forces, though I wonder, eliminating Kurds saying that would be too destabilizing, would U.S. ground troops be any less so?

VAKIL: Well, first of all, just to quickly address the issue of the Kurds, I think there was a lot of lobbying from Iraqi Kurdish officials, as well as probably from President Erdogan in Turkey. I mean, it is important to note that Kurdish populations span multiple Middle Eastern countries, and the idea of arming the Kurds would be destabilizing and moving them into Iran, broadly destabilizing.

But I mean, it would be not impossible. But, you know certainly President Trump and others are messaging ground troops are still on the table, that would be a huge shift for a President that has made it clear that American lives and boots on the ground are not really part of his foreign policy orientation.

So, if we go in that direction, to me, it suggests that the operation against the Islamic Republic is either needing to go deeper or things are going off the rails.

SCIUTTO: I mean, to that point, it seemed that that Kurdish option was a serious one and then there is pushback from Kurdish allies, and then they stopped it. That would indicate to me that there was no laying of groundwork prior to presenting that option, because those allies, those Kurdish Allies, in fact, the ones who would be taking part in that operation didn't seem interested.

VAKIL: Well first of all, it is not just that the U.S. hasn't done the legwork to set up you know, all of the meaningful relationships that would need to be involved to support a day after scenario or to support delivering a change of regime in Iran. You know, Iran, the United States and Israel clearly were preparing for this war long before it happened, but the United States has only focused on the military nature of this campaign, and what has become abundantly clear over the past week, plus, is that day, after planning and contingency planning and thinking about, you know, what Donald Rumsfeld called the known unknowns was not done by this administration.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Iran now says it has chosen a new Supreme Leader. It that that is Ali Khamenei's son. Listen, not a lot of love lost between him and the Iranian people, widely seen as corrupt inside the country. I just wonder what the path forward here.

[15:20:07]

Because if the future of any given Iranian leader is a bomb. Right? Which seems to be the strategy here and we've seen that even in the early hours of the war, what path forward towards a negotiated solution is there? I mean, the President seems to be suggesting unless he approves of the leader, you know not even worth trying, right?

So, what does that mean from an Iranian perspective?

VAKIL: A lot of things to pick apart. First of all, the Supreme Leader hasn't been formally announced and as I am hearing it, there are still debates and maybe not a consensus over one candidate. There are also risks to announcing a candidate because the moment he is announced, he could be targeted.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

VAKIL: Certainly, Donald Trump is looking for a pragmatic leader to do business with and I am not sure, Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei's son, represents that he is a consensus figure looking to protect the interests of hardliners and the security establishment in Iran.

So putting him forward is dangerous. What is at risk? And I think you bring it up by your question is, you know, Ali Khamenei had a clerical edict known as a fatwa that prevented Iran from weaponizing its nuclear program.

Now, that Ali Khamenei is dead, that fatwa effectively dies with him, so that does open the door to Iran, perhaps over time, or this regime, should it reconstitute particularly without a deal, thinking about a nuclear program that is weaponized in order to protect the regime.

You bring up one last point if I may, there is no current discussion of off ramps or a deal or negotiations. President Trump is saying he wants surrender, and the Islamic Republic is fighting for its life. So we are very far away from talking about ceasefires and deal making, but that is certainly where all of the effort should be made.

SCIUTTO: And we are hearing at least the beginnings of such an effort, perhaps among some of the Gulf leaders.

Sanam Vakil, thanks so much for joining.

VAKIL: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: Just ahead, as Israel launches yet another wave of widespread strikes on Iran, we get analysis on the strategy ahead for U.S. military forces in the region. I am going to speak with the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley Clark, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:58]

SCIUTTO: Relief for some travelers stranded by the U.S.-Israel War with Iran. Beginning today, Qatar Airways is now resuming a limited flight schedule. Repatriation flights from Doha's airport to Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, London and Zurich, they left today.

Tomorrow, flights from those cities to Doha are expected to arrive. Eight thousand travelers have reportedly been stranded in Qatar since the war began a little more than a week ago, and today the Israeli military has announced it launched another wave of what it calls wide- scale strikes, these across Iran, including on the capital, Tehran.

To discuss the progress of the military side of this war, joining me now, NATO Supreme Allied Commander, former, and retired Army General Wesley Clark.

Good to be -- good to have you. Thanks so much for taking the time.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Jim. Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: I wonder where you would say the war stands right now? Because, you know, each time we think its reached some sort of fever pitch, there are these threats to expand even further. Israel says it is launching a new wave of attacks. We now have Lindsey Graham talking about the next two weeks. We are going to blow the hell out of these people.

Do you see an expanding -- an expanding conflict here?

CLARK: Jim, I think it started well enough from the military standpoint. What you're attempting to achieve is escalation dominance. It is a form of coercive diplomacy and what you want to do is put some pressure on the regime in Tehran that they either surrender or beg for relief, get something political at some point to stop all of this.

Now, the easy part of the air campaign is always the start, because you already know the targets. But as you go into it, we bombed some 4,000 targets, so you have to continue to, we say generate targets. You've got 405 strike aircraft, if they don't have any targets, they're just going to be flying around boring holes in the sky.

So, it is a real process of trying to identify what is the next target and then what target is going to be significant and then what target do you want to save to go after later to even further escalate?

So, there is a whole strategy of ramping up the psychological pressure that has to be at work here.

SCIUTTO: Is there a danger --

CLARK: Second thing you've got to do, though -- SCIUTTO: Just on that thought? Is there a danger there, General Clark, that the targets become questionable? I mean, for instance, you have the Israeli military striking fuel depots. They say they are IRGC, but it is now raining, as our Fred Pleitgen said, raining oil down on the city of Tehran, impacting private citizens.

CLARK: Right, and you start attacking desal plants and things like that. It is really hard to justify that as anything other than a civilian target.

So, you go into the war crimes zone on this targeting because you can't find legitimate targets. We have to be very careful.

But, Jim, the other thing is, you don't want things to happen that will constrain your ability to continue to strike.

[15:30:08]

So, if you looked at what happened here, the attacks on our friends in the Gulf should have been foreseen. We should have done -- I think we could have done more to prevent that, maybe not, because I am not on the inside, but certainly, the Straits of Hormuz, you can't wait for like the third or fourth phase of the campaign and say, okay, well, I am sure three or four weeks, we will be fine and it is not fine.

So, right now these countries are shutting down their oil production because they have run out of storage space. They filled up a bunch of tankers and the economic consequences are such that there will be a lot of blowback on the United States and there will be pressure to stop it.

And then the third thing you need to think about is isolating the theater of operations. You know, I ran this operation in Kosovo and Serbia in 1999. So, I went through all this logic and so forth. And we completely isolated Serbia, so that Russia couldn't come in and help it.

Well, Iran is not, so far as I can tell, completely isolated. Now, you've been talking about the Russian assistance and targeting. Well, that's one form.

But what happens when the Chinese begin to send in rocket motors? Right now, we've got some ships sailing back to Iran that have rocket fuel loaded on them. What is going to happen? Are they going to land and are we going to take them out? Or are we going to --

There is a whole range of things and this is a very large country. It means you've got to really have air cover and observation over the entire country to put the squeeze on it, to get the end state you want, and the end state should be exactly what the President said, no more nukes, no more missiles and so forth. But they have to agree to that.

SCIUTTO: Right, and listen, you know, you have Russia providing intelligence. You have at least the possibility of China increasing its support, which then provides further risks of escalation, right? Because if you choose, say, to take out one of those Chinese ships, what is the Chinese reaction?

I do want to ask you, given you have commanded forces in time of war, the President is at least leaving the option of ground troops open, and we don't know if that's just an example of rhetorical escalation dominance, right, just keep that threat on the table. But there are still great portions of this regime and its forces in place there. How high risk a mission would that be for even well-trained U.S. ground forces?

CLARK: It depends on what the objectives would be. So, for example, I could see putting in some limited ground forces in the Straits of Hormuz, maybe taking one of the islands, maybe the high ground overlooking the straits, just to be sure, and then put air cover over it and so that we own that area. That's not so high risk. You've got to do some fighting, but you're there.

It is too big a country to really occupy, but eventually, if Iran doesn't cough up the information and really agree, you may well have to put some ground troops in to find the nuke sites, to dig out the nuke equipment and so forth. It could happen.

But the most important thing is the President can take it off the table.

SCIUTTO: Yes. No question.

Well, you can see how these things can expand beyond the initial descriptions and goals.

Retired General Wesley Clark --

CLARK: And that's why -- Jim, if I could just say, that's why the President should be very clear to Russia that intervening to provide targets is not acceptable.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CLARK: That's the -- you know, first step of widening the war. He should tell Russia very clearly. Stay out!

SCIUTTO: Yes, it has already had three opportunities to do that. The Trump administration, they have not done so.

Retired General Wesley Clark, thanks so much.

And just ahead, gas prices have now soared since the start of this war. President Trump is calling the spike a little glitch. We are going to have more on whether that's true, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:41]

BURNETT: Oil prices spiking since the war in Iran began. Trading will resume later today. It ended the week above $91.00 when we looked at crude oil prices and some are predicting including the Qatari Oil Energy Ministry, that, well, if this continues, then it could go to $150.00 a barrel within weeks, which would have incredibly powerful catastrophic economic effects around the world.

President Trump, however, says that he is not worried about it. In an interview earlier today, he called the rise in gasoline prices in the U.S. "little glitch."

Our Matt Egan has more on that.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: We are in the middle of a major energy price shock caused by the war. Oil prices are skyrocketing like they haven't since the COVID disruptions of 2020, and they've gone up to levels unseen since the fall of 2023. The big fear is when the flow of energy out of the Middle East will resume?

The Strait of Hormuz, the most critical oil choke point on the planet, remains effectively closed. Exactly zero oil tankers went through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Just one went through on Thursday. That's down from the typical 60 or so oil tankers before the war that would normally be carrying energy out of the region.

[15:40:06]

Now, the Trump administration has announced plans to provide up to $20 billion of maritime reinsurance, including war risk in the Gulf, but it is not clear that insurance alone will solve this problem. There are real safety and environmental concerns at play here, and the spike in oil prices is having a direct impact on energy prices starting, of course with gasoline.

Gas prices were relatively cheap for months. Now, they have skyrocketed to the highest levels of either of the presidents two terms in The White House. Now, it is true that people are making more money than they were in the past, so gas is swallowing up a smaller part of peoples paychecks, and prices are not as high as they were after Russia invaded Ukraine under former President Biden.

Now hopefully, President Trump is right when he says this will just be a short term blip but some energy analysts that I am in touch with are increasingly concerned that this could get worse before it gets better, and it is not just about gas prices. Diesel prices have gone up dramatically, too. That's bad for truckers and railroads, farmers, ultimately consumers as well.

Jet fuel prices are surging, that's a problem for airlines and for travelers, and I talked to market veteran, Bob McNally, and he told me that investors have gone from complacency, when this conflict started to now they are at the edge of panic. And he said, unless oil market investors and traders start to see vessels go through the Strait of Hormuz, he believes oil prices are going to blow past $100.00 a barrel and just keep going until they cause a recession.

So, bottom line here, this is obviously a serious situation and the question now is how long does it last and how much damage gets done in the meantime.

BURNETT: Yes. Exactly! Matt Egan, thank you very much.

It is how much damage gets done and when you reach a certain crisis tipping point with energy prices, sometimes you can't pull it back. You have Qatar and others saying that if they start to cease contracts, citing force majeure of basically an exogenous, uncontrollable event, all of a sudden you can't just turn the literal and figurative spigot back on.

I want to bring in Antoine Halff now. He is the chief analyst and the head of oil industry markets at Kayrros. He is also the former head of the Markets Division at the International Energy Agency, and I appreciate your time.

Look, Matt, giving us a lot to talk about there. And I want to talk about all of that, Antoine.

I guess, first you know, what's been interesting watching the markets is that, in a sense, they responded initially and we have seen through the past week, whether it be stock markets, but also energy markets, with the expectation that a traditional world order would take effect, that the United States would secure the Strait, right, that certain things that they expected because they have happened in the past, would happen again.

We haven't seen any of that, though. Do you feel that there is a deep confidence within the energy markets that this is a manageable situation? Or do you feel, as matt was just indicating that we could be at the trigger point of something more dramatic?

ANTOINE HALFF, CHIEF ANALYST AND THE HEAD OF OIL INDUSTRY MARKETS, KAYRROS: Yes, I think it is more the latter. I tend to agree with Bob. You quoted Bob McNally before.

I am pretty much on the same page. I think we are going to see further price increases. The disruption is hard to overstate the scope of the disruption. The Strait of Hormuz is a key lifeline. A lot of energy supply goes through it, oil and gas.

What is surprising to me is that the price increase hasn't been higher until now. I think there is a few reasons for that, but the effect, I think -- we haven't seen the end of the price increase.

BURNETT: Yes. Okay, I want to ask you, I was talking to one shipper who has several ships in the Gulf and approaching the Strait, right? And in a sense, they are literally and figuratively treading water. Right But any ships that have, you know, U.S. or European flags, Iran had said would be targets for strikes, and so, they are worried about that. And they see small Iranian boats that could be planting bombs on hulls.

I mean, the situation is obviously incredibly tense, and there is the possibility of catastrophe, but the way they see it is that it must happen immediately, that it is urgent for the Strait to open.

There is a real sense of frustration and, and I think sort of disbelief that the United States has not stepped up yet, Antoine. What do you think is happening?

HALFF: Well, I think what we've seen is that we have seen some of the producers in the Gulf, particularly the Saudis and to a lesser extent, the UAE, take precautionary measures and respond very effectively redirecting, rerouting supply from the Gulf to the Red Sea or the Gulf of Oman.

[15:45:06]

So, we've seen some measures that have muted the full impact of disruption, but -- and also, there has been a lot of prepositioning supplies that the Saudis and the UAE can draw from to supply their customers and that minimizes the impact in the short term, but that only can go so far. And I think, the longer we stay in this situation, the further the price increase will be, the higher the prices will be and the longer they will take to go down again.

BURNETT: Antoine, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, Antoine Halff, joining us here as our breaking news coverage of the war continues.

Just into CNN, in the United States, the NYPD in New York reporting that an explosive device was thrown outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's home in New York during a clash between opposing protests groups on Saturday. We have new details on that right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:28]

SCIUTTO: We are back now with breaking news as our coverage of the war with Iran continues, the war entering its ninth day, and this just in to CNN NEWSROOM. The U.S. Central Command has announced that a seventh U.S. service member has been killed.

In a statement on social media, CENTCOM has said "Last night, a U.S. service member passed away from injuries received during the Iranian regime's initial attacks across the Middle East. The service member was seriously wounded at the scene of an attack on U.S. troops in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 1st. This is the seventh service member killed in action during Operation Epic Fury. Major combat operations continue. The identity of the fallen warrior will be withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification."

This announcement comes just one day after the dignified transfer of the remains of the six other U.S. service members killed in the very first days of the war with Iran. We should note this one taking place the seventh in Saudi Arabia. Those six, of course, was in Kuwait, so U.S. service members now dying in two different countries in the region.

Other news we are following, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts is suggesting the body tasked with choosing a new Supreme Leader has chosen one of the late Ayatollah Khamenei's sons to succeed his father, who was killed in the very first hours of the war. Despite a video statement on Iranian state media, a final decision has not yet been formally announced. President Trump, however is claiming that he will have the final say telling ABC News that Khamenei's replacement won't "last long" without his approval, not clear yet how he would contribute to that decision.

And this just in to CNN, the NYPD now says a device hurled near the Mayor's Mansion Saturday was not a hoax, it was an IED, an improvised explosive device, and could have caused serious injury or death.

The incident happened amid escalating tensions between two competing groups of protesters. Circled there, that is the device. One of the protesters, one of the groups, rather was led by a pardoned January 6th rioter.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was at home at the time and his wife were told were not harmed, were not in immediate danger.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has been covering.

Gloria, can you tell us -- do they know which of these competing groups of protesters was responsible for this exactly?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. We are learning some new information, actually in just the last hour. Multiple sources telling CNN that both men that were arrested following these protests in relation to those two explosive devices admitted to having been inspired by ISIS.

Now, I also want to add that last night when the Police Commissioner briefed the media on this incident, she did say that the investigation was still underway, and she emphasized that so far, there appeared to be no nexus to the situation unfolding in Iran.

So I just want to mention those two things right off the bat, because we are learning that while these two men said that they were inspired by ISIS, the Commissioner did say last night that this incident did not specifically have a nexus to Iran. However, she did say the investigation is ongoing.

These were two homemade devices that she described as smaller than a football being filled with all kinds of, you know, hard material screws, glass and now, there is an investigation ongoing about exactly what was in them.

I want you to take a listen to the Commissioner speaking about the incident last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA TISCH, NYPD COMMISSIONER: Based on preliminary examination and x-ray imaging, the devices, which were a bit smaller than a football, appeared to be ajar, wrapped in black tape. Importantly, with nuts, bolts and screws along with a hobby fuse that could be lit.

As of now, there is no indication that this is related to the ongoing hostilities in Iran, but the investigation is still ongoing given the heightened threat environment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:00]

PAZMINO: Now Him, we are also learning that these devices were designed with the intent of exploding and causing serious injury that's according to our law enforcement sources. And I want to also say that this all started with these two sets of protesters, one being led by a former January 6er pardoned known as right-wing provocateur. That's what the Police Commissioner described him as yesterday.

And then there was a counter protest, and there was over a hundred people. These two groups collided. There was chaos that ensued. And it was during that back and forth that these devices were thrown into the crowd.

SCIUTTO: Listen, and they packed these devices with nuts, bolts et cetera to be shrapnel. If it were indeed to explode designed to hurt or injure maybe even kill people.

PAZMINO: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: Gloria Pazmino, thanks so much.

Well, more of our coverage of the ongoing war with Iran at the top of the hour, as we wait to hear if Iran will officially announce a new Supreme Leader, please do stay tuned. Jessica Dean joins us after the break.

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