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Mojtaba Khamenei Selected As Iran's Next Supreme Leader; CENTCOM Confirms Seventh U.S. Service Member Killed In War With Iran; Interview With Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon; NYPD Investigate New Suspicious Device Near Mayor's Mansion. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 08, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I am Jessica Dean here in New York.

We do have breaking news to bring to you. U.S. Central Command announcing a seventh U.S. service member has been killed in action during the first day of the war with Iran. CENTCOM announcing the service member died from injuries sustained during an attack on U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia March 1st. The name of that individual being withheld until 24 hours after the next of kin is notified, CENTCOM has said.

Also, just moments ago, the Iranian regime announcing a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the late -- the son of the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike last week. That announcement coming as the war continues to escalate all across the region.

And we are covering it from all angles for you. Nic Robertson is joining us from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live in Tel Aviv.

And, Jeremy, we'll start first with you to get the initial reaction to Iran's announcement of a new supreme leader. Of course, something everyone was watching very closely, but especially the Israelis.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Without a doubt. And listen, Mojtaba Khamenei is in many ways going to be a continuation of his father's hardline legacy. He becomes the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. At 56 years old, he is known for having very close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. And as I said, he will be viewed as continuing his father's legacy and was already an influential figure under his father's rule.

President Trump has also already spoken about Mojtaba Khamenei in the days prior to his appointment, saying that he would be unacceptable as a future leader of Iran, and he was picked over the two other candidates, who were viewed as somewhat more moderate.

Now, as far as the Israeli perspective is considered, I just spoke with an Israeli official who told me, quote, "I doubt the Iranian people will want to replace one ayatollah with another ayatollah," and you can imagine that this latest Ayatollah Khamenei will likely also be at the very top of Israel's target list. He was actually wounded, according to reports, in that initial wave of Israeli strikes that killed his father, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as dozens of other senior Iranian officials.

Mojtaba Khamenei's wife was also reportedly killed in that strike as well. And we know that the Israelis have continued to make efforts to weaken the Iranian regime, to target the Assembly of Experts, that group of 88 clerics that actually appointed Mojtaba Khamenei to this new role. And so those Israeli efforts to weaken the Iranian regime will undoubtedly continue with this new supreme leader now in place -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Jeremy, thank you so much.

I want to go to Nic now, who is in Saudi Arabia.

Two things, Nic. This death of the seventh U.S. service member we know happening there in Saudi Arabia, initially from a strike on March 1st. This as we also know Saudi Arabia continues to be under attack from Iran and obviously quite interested in what happens next in terms of what the new supreme leader, how it will direct -- how he will direct Iran to move forward.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think if there was any hope in Saudi Arabia that a new supreme leader would show a more moderate face than the hardliners in the country, the IRGC that are commanding and sending out all the ballistic missiles, two of which by the way just were fired, targeted at an air base just south of the capital here in the last hour or so. Another ballistic missile again intercepted on the same trajectory about two hours ago.

So that all continues. If they were hoping to get a more moderate voice in charge, they now recognize that that's not going to happen. So this is the worst of the possible scenarios is now in play.

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And as you say, we have now understood from U.S. CENTCOM that a seventh U.S. service member has died. this seventh member died in Saudi Arabia of injuries sustained on the 1st of March, severely wounded. It's not clear if this service personnel was treated in Saudi Arabia or evacuated to other U.S. medical facilities elsewhere.

It's surprising in a way that the casualty, the U.S. service member casualty wasn't known sooner. But that I think speaks to the sensitivities here in Saudi Arabia.

DEAN: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for your reporting.

And we'll now go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who is on the ground in Tehran. We do want to note CNN can only operate in Iran with government approval.

Fred, we are seeing images coming out of Tehran as this announcement becomes public. What more can you tell us from your perspective?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, some of these images are people who are celebrating in Tehran and in other places. This is something that's being shown on state TV. The announcement, of course, coming here really in the middle of the night about an hour ago. And what's been going on here in Tehran and other cities is that there's been these vigils overnight as the combat operations have been going on.

Of course, a lot of these airstrikes that happened here on Tehran, they also happen in the middle of the night as well. But essentially what happened is that a very low key statement was read on state TV announcing that Mojtaba Khamenei, now Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, was the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Of course, succeeding his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed in that airstrike a little over a week ago.

And in many ways, as far as the policies of the Islamic Republic is concerned, people believe that this is something that stands for continuity of the policies of Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But of course, also a very important signal now that these combat operations, that this war, as the Iranians call it, is going on. And it really also plays into some of the things that we've heard from other leaders here in Iran as well.

For instance the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who said that at this point in time, Iran is not looking for a ceasefire with the United States, that Iran is looking to avenge the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even threatening U.S. president Donald Trump. There was also tonight another high profile interview with the speaker of parliament, who has become extremely important also to the combat effort here of the Iranian military, also saying that the Iranians at this point in time don't want a ceasefire with the United States.

Mojtaba Khamenei, for his part, is someone who's well respected by the security apparatus, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is someone who the security apparatus and the folks here believe is going to continue the policies of his father as they have been before. And as really it seems as though this state is gearing up for what could be a protracted war with the United States and with Israel.

DEAN: All right. A key detail there. Fred Pleitgen live from Tehran right now. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And joining us now, former defense secretary, former CIA director, Leon Panetta.

Thanks so much for being here with us. I do just want to start with our breaking news and getting your reaction to the announcement of a new supreme leader in Iran.

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, frankly, I don't -- I don't consider it much of a surprise. I think the intelligence made clear that the regime was very much in control of what's going on in Iran right now, that it's not likely we're going to get any kind of regime change. Bombs are not going to lead to regime change. It's going to take the people of Iran to rise up and make that happen.

So it's pretty clear that the regime remains in control. They've now appointed a new leader. And I think we have to accept the fact that as we proceed with this war that it is not likely we are going to see much change in Iran. We are going to have to try to do what is necessary in order to force them into a ceasefire of some kind.

DEAN: And so how do -- how does that happen?

PANETTA: I think it happens, frankly, with a clear objective. And that's something we don't have right now. The president has said initially it was regime change. The secretary of defense said it wasn't about regime change. We've talked about -- president has talked about unconditional surrender. That's not going to happen. He talked about being able to pick a leader for Iran. That's not going to happen.

And so all of the different objectives that have been thrown out there are not going to happen. There is one objective that I think is more realistic, which is the military objective.

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Right now it's the military that has a, I believe, a clear idea about what it's trying to achieve. They're going after military targets. They're going after drones. They're going after missiles. They're going after the Navy. They're going after targets. That would basically destroy Iran's ability to conduct a war.

I think the president has to basically put his arms around that as the principal objective to destroy Iran's capability to conduct war and hope that in doing that, we ultimately might arrive at some kind of ceasefire.

DEAN: And so if you put that here to the side and then on the other hand, you know, we have heard from the president encouraging the people of Iran to rise up, to take back their government. Benjamin Netanyahu has been even more pointed, saying, that a goal is regime change here and that the Iranian people should push forward with that.

I think the question is, do you think that can ultimately happen?

PANETTA: No, I don't. I don't see that as being very realistic right now. You know, we aren't even seeing evidence that there's any kind of movement by the people of Iran to bring down the government. And I understand that. They're being bombed. There are tremendous amount of fear. They're not about to move. And frankly, some of the targets that we've hit in Iran have probably increased their support for the regime.

So it's not working. It's not working right now. And for that reason I think what we have to do is try to develop a realistic objective here, and it's got to be realistic. We've got oil prices going through the roof. It's a huge crisis. We just heard about that. We've got the possibility of a worldwide recession. We've just lost the seventh American soldier that's been killed in this action. And there are going to be more that are going to be killed certainly, if anybody puts boots on the ground.

So clearly what needs to be done now is to focus on a realistic objective, which is to cripple Iran's ability to conduct war. We've got that capability. We're doing it now. Look, you know, Israel, at one point in fighting with Hamas, said that they could wipe out all of Hamas. That kept -- they kept saying that when everybody knew they were not going to be able to wipe out Hamas. But what we finally got in Gaza was a ceasefire.

It's tough to implement. I know it's difficult to get its various provisions put in place. But the reality is we got a ceasefire, and that's what we have to aim for in trying to ultimately bring this war to an end.

DEAN: All right. Leon Panetta, thanks for your time. We really do appreciate it.

PANETTA: Thank you.

DEAN: More of our breaking news. Still ahead, as Iran announces a new supreme leader a man president Trump had previously said would be unacceptable to take over the regime. What happens now?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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DEAN: Tonight Iran naming the son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, as his successor. He was selected by Iran's Assembly of Experts. It's a body of elected senior clerics tasked with making that selection.

We are joined now by Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon. He's also the former Israeli deputy defense minister.

Mr. Ambassador, thank you very much for your time tonight. I just want to get your thoughts on this announcement and what it means for your home country of Israel.

DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Thank you for having me, Jessica. So this nomination shows that it's more of the same. You know, Mojtaba Khamenei will continue with the same radical ideas of his late father, promoting the nuclear capability, the ballistic missiles, the proxies. So for us, it means that we continue with the goals of the operation. And I would advise him to look at what happened to his colleagues who tried to threaten the U.S. and Israel.

DEAN: And we have -- we've talked a lot about how in lockstep the U.S. and Israel have been in all of this, but the view of the war at home in both places is slightly different. It's unpopular here in America, but we've talked to other experts who've written about how the Israeli people are united in this.

Talk to people about their viewpoint in the -- in this operation and what it means to Israel and the people of Israel.

DANON: Well, it's not easy to be in a war. You know, we pay a heavy price. For more than 10 days Israelis are in shelters. It affects our economy. But we understand that there is no other choice, and we are willing to pay that price. And that's the message to our allies and our friends in the region. They are also paying a heavy price. The Gulf countries are being attacked. But we all realize that, you know, the option of allowing Iran to become a nuclear superpower, it's not a real option for us.

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So we prefer to pay the price now. We know it will be costly, painful, but it's not going to last forever. It's going to be over, and then we can actually think about a new Middle East, expanding the Abraham Accords. And imagine, you know, the region without Iran. It will be a better place for Lebanon, for Syria, for Jordan, Israel, for sure, for the Gulf countries. And then I'm sure, you know, we will see the markets going up and prosperity will be there.

DEAN: And if we're going off of your prime minister's words, which is that regime change is an objective here for Israel, that that's what he would like to see. Knowing that we have this new supreme leader, as you, in your words, say it's just an extension of the same regime. What does that mean for Israel and the U.S. campaign, the U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran?

DANON: So when we spoke about the goals of the operation, we spoke about creating the conditions for a regime change. So basically we will unchain the people of Iran, but it will be up to them to rise up and control their future. I hope it will happen. I believe it will happen but that will involve the commitment of the Iranian people. Yes. So for us, we will continue to push against the regime.

You know, we are seeing the results in the last few days. We will continue to hammer the infrastructure of the IRGC and the terror organizations. And I believe that the Iranian people will rise up in time.

DEAN: Is Israel willing to put boots on the ground there to achieve that goal?

DANON: You know, we have no conflict with Iran. Look at the map. You know, we have no border with them. You know, we are attacking them only because we realize that they are building the threat and the capabilities to destroy us. So we have no desire to send anyone to anyone to Iran. And I think we will think twice before we do that.

But at the same time, you know, when you look at the nuclear program, you know, the light for so many years and they said it for peaceful purposes, but you look at the level of the enriched uranium, the fact that they hide, you know, everything in bunkers and mountains and the ballistic missiles capabilities. So for us it doesn't leave too many choices. We will do whatever is necessary to make sure that Iran will not become a nuclear superpower.

DEAN: And so to that end, if you want to -- I hear you saying the Iranian people, that you hope they'll rise up, how do they do that? How are they supposed to do that?

DANON: Well, first, it's not yet, you know, and we are telling them, you know, stay home, stay safe. We are continuing with the operation. The time will come for you to get out and to gain control of your future. You know, for 47 years they were oppressed. Look at the billions of dollars that were spent on the proxies instead of investing it on the people of Iran. And, you know, the Iranian people are brave, smart, and I'm sure they will take the right decision when the time will come.

DEAN: CNN's Fareed Zakaria said this morning he described it this way, that the U.S. and Israeli agendas are separate but compatible. Would you say that at this point the two countries are on the same timeline and on the same wavelength maybe, about where this war is going and how it would end?

DANON: There is no daylight between the U.S. and Israel. You know, for the first time, we actually fight together. For many years, you know, we fought for the same values, but for the first time, we actually fight together the evil forces of Iran, very successfully, with a lot of precision and technology. And we are showing the world what moral clarity really means and I think, you know, we have the same goals.

And as I said at the beginning, I know it's not easy to be in a war. We are all paying a price, but it's better to pay that price today than wake up one morning like what we saw what happened with North Korea that all of a sudden they declared that they have nuclear capabilities. We don't want to wake up to that announcement coming from Iran.

DEAN: And we heard this morning from our secretary of energy, Chris Wright, saying that the U.S. did not plan on striking oil infrastructure. That is something that Israeli forces have done. We've seen the video of that, and they've been talking about it. Are those two things at odds?

DANON: So, you know, when we know that they are using some facilities for operational use, we strike them. You know, we didn't decide to strike the entire industry of oil of Iran. That's the decision that we haven't taken yet. Maybe it will come in the future. But when we see that there is some operational linkage, we take actions. And I think today, you know, we have the ability to fly all over Iran.

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We gained air superiority. It's very meaningful. It will allow both Israel and the U.S. to continue to target many sites in Iran.

DEAN: All right. Ambassador Danny Danon, thank you for your time.

DANON: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Thanks.

Be sure to tune in tonight for "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" as Sara Sidner delves into the decision to strike Iran and weighs the fallout. That airs tonight at 10:00 Eastern Time. It will stream tomorrow on the CNN app.

Back here, we do have much more of our breaking news still ahead, as Iran's president had apologized, saying they would not strike other Gulf nations but the drones keep coming. The long-term impact the war could have on the broader region. We'll talk about that next.

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DEAN: New tonight Iran calling for the country to support a newly announced supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late supreme leader who was killed in the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes last weekend.

I want to bring in former White House foreign policy adviser Dan Senor. He is also the host of the "Call Me Back" podcast.

Dan, it's always great to have you, especially great to have you today as we're getting all of this new information. Thanks for your time.

DAN SENOR, FORMER IRAQ COALITION SPOKESMAN: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: I want to start first -- yes, it's good to see you. What does this announcement do you think mean right now for Iran, for Israel, for the U.S.?

SENOR: I think from Iran's perspective, from the regime's perspective, they are trying to project an air of continuity, an air of stability. Yes, the regime may appear under siege but the regime is hanging in there, and we've already got our -- they would say we've already got our successor in place. And in fact he's a direct descendant of the -- Ayatollah, of the supreme leader, of Khamenei, his predecessor.

And we are kind of large and in charge is the message I think the regime is trying to say, lest anyone from outside or inside the country think that they could put increased pressure on the regime.

From Israel's perspective and from the U.S.'s perspective and from the Gulf allies' perspective, I think he represents someone who is as brutal as his predecessor, his father, someone who has hegemonic ambitions for the region, just like the regime does. So in that sense, it's no real change.

I do think the extent to which the regime has tried to project that it is not a monarchy, which is what they believe they replaced with the revolution in 1979, it is a little bit of an odd message from what I understand from some I've spoken to in the region to have the son of the late supreme leader just take over for him. It does -- it's not exactly what the regime promised with the revolution, but so be it.

DEAN: What do you think this might mean for potential escalation of this war?

SENOR: I don't think it changes much. The U.S. and the Israelis are -- and the Gulf states now increasingly are just really focused on degrading the offensive and defensive military capabilities of the regime. So it's about taking down the missile capacity, the missile production program, the drones. I mean, basically the tools of either havoc that the regime was able to wreak in the region and then also the tools of repression that the regime has used internally.

That is clearly what they are focused on. Talk about what could replace this regime if this regime were to fall. Talk about whether or not there could be cracks in the regime, where there could be, you know, defectors who could work with the U.S. as a successor to this regime. That is under the who knows category. I think the most important thing, the U.S. and Washington and Jerusalem are trying to do right now is just remove the weapons, the capabilities, the munitions that the regime has before they start -- which they're still very deep into. They've made a lot of progress. The success has been extraordinary, but that continues to be the focus.

DEAN: Do you think ultimately that regime change, the Iranian people rising up? Is that realistic do you think?

SENOR: You know, these things are very hard to know, and they're always very hard to predict. Our intelligence agencies here in the United States have often missed major revolutions, collapses of regime. I'm thinking about the fall of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall. I'm not criticizing them. It's just the -- it's very hard to see where, like, the flywheel is in full motion, where these things happen.

Generally speaking, regimes, brutal, repressive, barbaric regimes tend to fall or if they do fall, it's often preceded by basically members of security forces in the regime getting increasingly uncomfortable with using weapons on their own people, that they do not want to turn their guns on their own people. And so whether or not the regime looks weak now because of the degree to which the U.S. and Israel and increasingly the Gulf states have this total air superiority above Iran, whether or not at some point the regime just no longer looks impervious to threats, means that people at some point will start rising up.

It's also why the U.S. and Israel are targeting things like the Basij Security Forces infrastructure, which is the Basij is like -- is the domestic security force that is responsible, really the principal tool of repression in the country? Why they're targeting IRGC facilities. So they're trying to send a message, not just send a message, but in effect facts on the ground, where the instruments of terror within the country suddenly don't look so strong.

Will that create an environment where people are willing to rise up, who knows? But it's definitely a necessary, if not sufficient set of events.

[18:35:03] DEAN: And I want to talk to you about the Israeli-U.S. of it all because you're plugged in with both governments. They have been in not just lockstep, but really unprecedented in how they have gone about this together since this all started, although today we did hear from the secretary of energy from the U.S., Chris Wright, saying that we don't plan, we being the United States, don't plan to attack oil infrastructure while the Israelis did have proceeded with that.

How would you assess that relationship and the dynamics at play right now in terms of then prosecuting this war together?

SENOR: I will tell you, Jessica, I have never seen integration between the United States military and another military. Not just between the United States and Israel. Certainly that has never been the case. But the United States and any other sovereign military, I've never seen this level of integration. Aircraft from both countries, you know, in the skies above Iran at the same time, all feeding into a central command function, sharing the same information between those aircraft, sharing the same intelligence, sharing in some cases the same command structure, and chain of command.

It's just total integration. And don't take it from me. You can hear this from the Pentagon. U.S. CENTCOM put out a post yesterday with the Israeli flag and the American flag talking about how these air forces are just achieving total excellence and performing with incredible excellence and success and professionalism, working together. It's really -- they're attached at the hip. It's, you know, I think about the '91 Gulf War where the U.S., the Bush administration, the first Bush administration, asked Prime Minister Shamir, the prime minister of Israel at the time, to show restraint, that Israel couldn't get involved.

Why couldn't Israel get involved according to the Bush administration? Because that would fracture the coalition which included many Arab countries. The Israel and the Arab countries couldn't be seen in the Arab countries' eyes to be fighting on the same side. Now that is -- we've completely inversed that. Now you have Israel and the U.S. fighting side by side, totally locked in and the Arab countries are joining that coalition.

So we are living on so many levels through truly historic times that I couldn't have even imagined in terms of the transformation in the region potentially, and certainly the transformation in the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

DEAN: Certainly. And I think when you step back, that is really -- it is really, truly amazing to see.

Dan Senor, thank you so much. Great to have you.

SENOR: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: And we'll be right back with more of our breaking news after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:42:20]

DEAN: And breaking tonight, the man President Trump told Axios was, in his words, unacceptable has just been announced as Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

I want to bring in CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas. He's a former Pentagon official and U.S. Army Special Operations veteran.

Alex, good to have you here. What message do you think this sends from Iran? And how do you see the U.S., Israel, the Gulf states reacting to it?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, little is known about him in the public space because he hasn't really given many speeches or sermons. You know, just to give some context about who he is, he's 56 years old. He was born in 1969. He, you know, served in the Iranian military, in the IRGC at the tail end of the Iran-Iraq War from '87 to '88, and then he entered the seminary later in life at about age 30. And he's been a seminary professor of theology, basically in Qom since.

But he's said to be sort of powerful in the background, in the shadows, but widely unexpected. And now the Assembly of Experts has selected him. You know, his viewpoints are largely seen as very conservative. He supported Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he was, you know, when he was president and his second candidacy. He was in charge of the Basij, the local security forces that, you know, repressed the uprisings about the -- during the elections in 2009.

And, you know, there's been writings that perhaps he supports Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. So if all of that is actually true, that's obviously very problematic and is not, you know, a policy prescription to get this war to end quickly. But in speaking to sources in the region, so mediators, you know, in Arab states that have been involved, in the Gulf, and speaking to U.S. officials, I think it's going to be telling.

So is there outreach that's going behind, you know, out -- excuse me, is there outreach that's going on behind closed doors? Is he going to step to the microphone and announce, you know, what the new policies are? You know, I was told to watch for things, you know, in a speech if he's to give one, is he going to attempt to avenge his father's death? You know, a lot sort of rests on this moment.

We also haven't seen a reaction from the U.S. yet. And, you know, let's not forget, as you mentioned, the president made a comment about him. But there were also a series of missteps when Delcy Rodriguez, you know, first took over down in Venezuela. And there was, you know, a little bit of back and forth comments and then it sort of worked itself out. So it's a difficult moment.

You know, nobody really knows where he stands on the issues right now. And so if the president's comments stand and if his history that we know is to be correct, this is going to be difficult. But a lot has transpired, you know, over the last week or so. So we're going to have to see what happens.

DEAN: And we wait, as you note, we wait to hear from him and what he might say. And also, too, in a lot of cases, actions speak quite loudly in these situations.

I do want to ask you, too, related about oil. U.S. oil hitting $100 for the first time since July of 2022.

[18:45:03]

Obviously that is going to have major implications, not just for the world, but certainly people, Americans right here at home. What's the significance of that?

PLITSAS: So, I mean, it is fairly significant. I mean, President Obama had once stated that he could see his poll numbers rise and fall based on the price of oil. So it's definitely got domestic political impact. But in a more practical sense for Americans, right, you know, we get very little Gulf oil coming to the U.S. The impact directly of that oil that's not really coming out about 20 million barrels a day really goes to markets in the east over to India and China, in that direction, right?

But there's an overall, you know, market effect in terms of the price of oil, which we're seeing now at Brent crude there at about $108 a barrel, is what we see with WTI crude about $108 a barrel. In speaking to some of the shipbrokers who are responsible for moving oil around the world, they're saying that this could spike somewhere between $100 to $150. We've got about seven to 14 days or so before the Straits of Hormuz really turns into a crisis.

Lloyds of London, others in the insurance business, right, are people insuring ships? They're not, in many cases because of the, you know, the current, you know, geopolitical situation. So the United States is actually building an insurance mechanism to help ensure those boats to trans at the Straits. And they're talking about, you know, U.S. military escorts going in and out. In speaking to folks with a level of risk, it's assumed that the, you know, the most risk takers in the industry are really the Greek shipping owners, and the Chinese need the oil.

So the suspicion is if the Greeks and the Chinese, the ship owners, get together, they could probably put together movement of somewhere between four million and five million barrels, you know, a day coming out of there. But that's only 25 percent of the total volume. That also, you know, is notwithstanding any potential drone attacks or things of that nature coming out of there. So once the oil storage tanks are full and gets backed up, they have to shut down production on the back end. It takes a long time to sort of turn that back on. So the ripple effects will last for a little bit.

DEAN: Yes. I also want to ask you about this island off the coast of Iran in the Persian Gulf that controls nearly all of Iran's oil exports. And some in Trump's circle have been urging him to take control of it. I believe it's called Kharg. What can you tell people about that? And is that something to watch? PLITSAS: It's absolutely something to watch because it's right near a

strategic choke point. So if you look at the Straits of Hormuz, there's two very narrow shipping channels that are there. They pass the island. And there's been, you know, back-channel communication and some of it spilled in the public, where Iran has been targeting oil and gas infrastructure in, you know, neighboring Gulf states, you know, which they say is, you know, sort of retribution for support for the U.S. military.

And there's a fear that if the Iranian regime's back is in a corner, that they could attempt to target some of those larger oil complexes and arrays in neighboring countries, that would really inflame the situation so there's been messages back, you know, if you come after us, we're going to hit the oil on your side as well. So, so far it's been a bit of a detente. But we've seen, you know, a number of drone strikes.

Even today there was an attempt in Saudi Arabia, again, at one of the oil fields. So very, very tense situation. And you can see what's that doing to the market at the moment. But from what I'm hearing, this is part of Iran's strategy. So in speaking to folks in the region and the intelligence community as well, at the Pentagon, who are familiar with Iran's strategy, it's really built on a couple of things.

One is what we're seeing now which is to drive up the price of oil and price of goods to put pressure on the administration. The second is to elongate the war because they think they can wait President Trump out, because he won't be able to sustain this and really doesn't want to do this for the long term. They want to maximize U.S. casualties to the extent that that's possible. And then finally, the fourth point is they want to try to drive divisions within the MAGA base as well as within the president's administration, because as you know going into this, there were a number of officials who had espoused that they didn't really want to go to war.

But now that we're here, it's a different picture. We're inside, right? So those divisions may not exist but the Iranians realize they're at military overmatch, and that's what they're seeking to do.

DEAN: That's interesting. You know, we've heard from the American perspective, but to hear from the Iranian perspective there, too.

All right, Alex, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

PLITSAS: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

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[18:53:25]

DEAN: New tonight the NYPD saying they have found another suspicious device while investigating a homemade bomb that was thrown near the mayor's mansion. Here's video showing a robot at that vehicle while police in the bomb

squad blocked off the area. Now, on Saturday, two men were arrested after a live improvised device was thrown during a protest. Law enforcement sources telling CNN the suspects were inspired by ISIS.

I want to bring in Gloria Pazmino. She is outside the mayor's mansion.

Gloria, what more can you tell us?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, they actually removed that other device from inside a suspicious vehicle here just a short while ago. I want to show you directly behind me. There's a black sedan vehicle that is parked here on the street, which police officers have been looking at for the past few hours or so.

The bomb squad was here just a few minutes ago. They pulled away and we now have several officers that were also removing what appeared to be evidence in brown paper bags from that vehicle.

I want to note, Jessica, we are on East 82nd Street. We're just about three or four blocks from Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence here in New York City. And that is the location of where that protest took place yesterday. A total of six people were arrested. Two people, we have been told by our law enforcement sources, said that they were inspired by ISIS to plan and throw those incendiary devices that were launched into the crowd that had gathered in front of Gracie Mansion yesterday.

[18:55:01]

We are still waiting to learn more about the suspects and the potential charges that they will be facing but we do know that it was yesterday when these two protests gathered in front of the mayoral residence. One of the protests was a so-called anti-Islam protest organized by a right wing sort of provocateur influencer. The other one was counter-protesting that demonstration.

Now, police officials are looking into the vehicle behind me, as I said. They have shortly -- just a short while ago removed a suspicious device from inside that vehicle. And this investigation continuing. Several blocks around the area here frozen to both pedestrians and traffics. Some of the residents here have not been able to get into their buildings while police investigate -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for that.

And I want to thank you for joining me tonight. I'm Jessica Dean. Anderson Cooper picks up our breaking news coverage right after this short break. Have a good night, everyone.

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