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Israel Launches Fresh Strikes On Iran and Beirut; Iran Launches Missiles At Israel Under New Supreme Leader; Oil Soars Past $100 A Barrel As US-Israel War On Iran Rages; Tehran Sky Turns Black After Israeli Strike On Oil Depot; Two Israeli Soldiers Killed In Southern Lebanon; Iran Warns War Entering "New Phase", Threatens Retaliation; Mojtaba Khamenei Selected As Iran's Next Supreme Leader; Sources: Russia Feeds Iran Intel About U.S. Forces. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired March 09, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us for another hour of our breaking news coverage of the war in the Middle East. We want to get straight to our breaking news with the new details out of the Middle East.

The Israeli military now launching a new wave of strikes on central Iran and Beirut. And this is U.S. President Donald Trump says that he will decide in consultation with Israel with when the war with Iran ends.

Just a short time ago, smoke could be seen rising over the Lebanese capital where Israel says that it struck infrastructure belonging to Iran-backed Hezbollah. Sirens sounding in Tel Aviv as well as Haifa and where emergency services could be seen in central Israel. And this after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard says that it launched missiles just hours after senior clerics named the next supreme leader.

Muqtaba Khamenei has been selected to succeed his father, the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike at the start of the war. And we've also learned that a U.S. service member has died after sustaining injuries during an attack in Saudi Arabia last week and that now brings the number of American troops killed in relation to this war to seven.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Ivan Watson joining us live in Hong Kong following these developments very closely. Ivan, what does this new leader mean brought for this ongoing conflict?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the son of the leader that the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign killed less than a week and a half ago, same last name, much to Khamenei.

Now he his name had come up in speculation in past years about who could succeed the elderly Ali Khamenei who was killed on February 28, you know, in the run up to this war. But now it's really official. He's 56 years old. He does not have a very big public profile, though, he's never really held a formal position, though he has been under U.S. sanctions since 2019. He's believed to be very close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as to the Basij militia that are so instrumental in crushing the protests that erupt on the streets against the Iranian government from time to time in Iran.

And you know, he's going to have a very personal issue here considering that the U. S.-Israeli bombing campaign killed his father, killed his mother. We believe it also killed his wife and possibly one of his children as well.

The signals that we're getting from different branches of the Iranian government and establishment are of unity, of support. This coming from the powerful parliamentary speaker, from the high national security council official Ali Larijani, and certainly from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well, which issued a video showing the launch of missiles shortly after Muqtaba Khamenei had been announced as Iran's new supreme leader.

He is only the third that Iran has had since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which swept another dynastic monarchy from power. A dynastic monarchy from power. And with the appointment, the anointment now of Ali Khamenei. Sorry, much about Khamenei. Iran now is once again in a situation of dynastic succession.

The Israeli government has made it clear he would be a valid target. And President Trump, in an interview with Axios, has said that he doesn't accept much to Khamenei as the new supreme leader. But as many bombs and airstrikes have been carried out, the Trump administration cannot at this point dictate who will become the supreme leader of Iran.

SANDOVAL: Ivan, a new supreme leader, but also a new round of strikes. Tell us more about what's been targeted in central Iran, Beirut and other parts of the region.

WATSON: Right. The Israeli military says that it targeted the headquarters of the IRGC aerospace division, its space force. We've seen an expansion of targets going very far beyond military targets with the striking of the fuel depot in Tehran, which had these spectacular and frankly frightening images of huge plumes of smoke and flame.

[01:05:10]

And also what CNN's Fred Pleitgen on the ground in Tehran described as the sky quite literally raining oil after this explosion. And then an official telling Fred that this will mark a new phase in the war that Iran will strike back accordingly.

We've seen on both sides of the Gulf water desalinization plants targeted both in Iran and in one of the GCC countries. And these are essential for drinking water for the civilian population. So that also shows an expansion of the targets on both sides of the conflict. We've heard of fatalities in Saudi Arabia, two people killed in Dubai,

a Pakistani national killed. Reports this morning of incoming potential drones and missiles coming into to Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE as well.

And the conflict between Israel and the Iran backed militia in Lebanon, Hezbollah, that continues to claim lives. Two Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon in the days after Hezbollah lost launched rocket attacks into Israel after the Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in Iran.

Israel launched its own invasion into southern Lebanon and that continues to claim lives with the civilian population. The death toll in Lebanon now reported to be in the hundreds. Polo.

SANDOVAL: CNN's Ivan Watson with that live report from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, there's also some reaction inside Iran to this announcement of that new Supreme Leader. This is some of state TV video that shows celebrations in Tehran after Muqtaba Khamenei was named the new supreme leader.

The Assembly of Experts that elected him now urging Iranians to maintain unity and also to pledge allegiance to the new leader. Former CIA director David Petraeus says that Iran's hardline missile policy is likely to continue under the new Supreme Leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS (RET.) FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Let's keep in mind also that if he is so hardline that he refuses to change the trajectory of Iran, that we might have to repeat this 6, 12 months from now if they restart their nuclear program or develop a threatening number of missiles again that was probably going to cause Israel to attack them.

Regardless of this had we not gone forward in another month or so. I was in Tel Aviv a few weeks ago and they were very concerned about how rapidly that missile capability had been reconstituted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Earlier, I did have a chance to speak to Ali Alfoneh. He's a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute. I asked him what message Iran's regime was sending directly to the White House with the appointment of this new supreme leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALI ALFONEH, SENIOR FELLOW, ARAB GULF STATES INSTITUTE: The Islamic Republic is sending a message of defiance. What they are communicating is that you were capable of assassinating Ayatollahi Ali Khamenei. But we will give you another Khamenei, Mr. Muqtaba Khamenei.

But the regime is also communicating regime continuity, telling to the Iranian public, but also to the world that the regime is capable of continuing its normal functions. And even election of the leader has gone through the normal procedures.

SANDOVAL: Then of course, you just hear a little while ago, the Iranian regime essentially urging Iranians to galvanize support behind their new supreme leader. How are Iranians on the street likely going to respond to this? I mean, we've seen waves of protests in the past, and what we saw was just violent repression from the regime.

ALFONEH: The regime in Tehran is deeply unpopular. It has a problem with political legitimacy. That problem is not going to be resolved with the election of Muqtaba Khamenei, who many will argue does not possess the qualifications of being a leader.

And most likely he has been elected for symbolic reasons, defiance against the U.S., showing continuity of the regime, but also because the regime is trying to depict him as a living martyr, someone who has lost his parents and his wife in the war.

Now, is this going to solve the electricity shortage of the people or the water shortage, unemployment and all the other problems that the regime is facing? No. But it does send a message of defiance. And it is likely only going to satisfy approximately 10 percent of Iran population which supported the regime in the latest presidential election.

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The rest, they will remain unhappy, angry and dissatisfied. And I will not rule out new rounds of protests. But for now, exactly because of the pressures of the war, the regime appears to be in control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: I really appreciate that conversation with Ali. Meanwhile, the war, it does continue to cause oil prices to soar, putting countries around the world on alert. Brent crude surging past $100 a barrel on Sunday. This is the first time the global benchmark has actually crossed that mark since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

You can see where Brent crude sits at a little over $116 a barrel. That couple of bucks increase just in the last two hours, about 26 percent increase. WTI the U.S. oil benchmark also hitting its highest level since 2022. As you see, they are slightly low at 113 a barrel. President Trump, though, he's trying to calm some of those rising fears of fuel costs in the United States.

This is his Truth Social post over the weekend in which he writes short term oil prices are a very small price to pay for USA and world safety and peace. CNN's Mike Valerio joining me from Beijing continues to go over all the numbers around the world.

Mike, I wonder if you can share for viewers around the world, what are some examples of global markets being impacted by this conflict as it continues to rage on?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think when we look at the numbers from Asia specifically, you know, those WCI, West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude numbers are pretty astonishing when we had them in the low hundreds and now they're in the hundred teens. It just shows you how it's not just creeping but considerably going up and up.

All right, so here are the numbers. So the Nikkei down 7 percent in Tokyo, Kospi and Seoul, our friends across the west and Yellow Sea down a full 8 percent now is what I'm seeing on my monitor.

So, this is all out of concerns that if there are energy disruptions, Polo, that are going to last for not just weeks, but perhaps longer than that, God forbid not, but perhaps longer than weeks that could slow these economies down and lead us, the consumers to pay more for chips, manufactured goods, almost essentially anything that floats on a boat, anything that is shipped from these Asia economic powerhouses across the ocean and that we buy around the world.

So, you know, also to our friends in the United States who are watching as they go to bed, maybe on the west coast, excuse me, or everybody who's watching in Asia, as the day goes on, Americans are going to be paying more at the pump.

Because when there is a shortage in the Middle East, Asia, energy disruption, I should say, not technically a shortage as of yet, but when there are energy disruptions in one place, American suppliers of oil, of which there's plenty of oil in the United States, they're going to charge more because their market is a global one.

So when there is an energy disruption, the prices that American producers are going to charge will go up. And that means people buying gas in the United States are also going to be paying more. We're looking specifically at Taiwan 11 days is its natural or liquefied natural gas statutory required stockpile. And we've been able to learn from the Cabinet of Taiwan that their supply is OK for March, but there seems to be a little bit of uncertainty when it comes to next month.

We just got about three more weeks until we hit April. Somewhat of uncertainty about the liquefied natural gas supply for Taiwan for April, they're trying to shore that up. About a third of their supply comes from Qatar and the now sealed off essentially Strait of Hormuz. Another third comes from Australia. When we're talking about crude, about 20 some odd percent comes from Saudi Arabia, another 20 percent comes from the United States.

So it's not like any of these economies in this corner of the world, Polo, are going to be without fuel, but they could have a significant disruption that leads all of us to pay more for a whole suite of things. That's why these numbers in the red matter, no matter where you're watching.

SANDOVAL: And over the weekend, some hopeful optimism coming from one of the members of President Trump's cabinet, hoping that traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will be hopefully back to normal, not in months, but weeks. So we'll be watching as that plays out. Mike Valeria, as always, appreciate your reporting and helping us make sense of all this. Thank you. Well, the Red Crescent is now urging people in Tehran to stay indoors

and avoid the potentially hazardous black rain that is hitting that city. CNN's team into Iran captured some of this video. You may be able to see some of those thick black or gray clouds in Iran's capital just hours after American-Israeli strikes hit oil installations and they also hit some refineries, setting them ablaze.

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Weather experts say that black rain can cause long and short term respiratory conditions. It can also lead to crop failure and even cause cancer for people.

State media reporting that some of the blazes are still ongoing and may even take days to extinguish. CNN's Fred Pleitgen visited one of the hardest hit depots and brings us the following report. But first to note CNN operates in Iran only with the government's permission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an absolutely apocalyptic scene here. We've 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're actually seeing it up close.

And what we're also seeing is that some of those destroyed storage tanks are still on fire. There's still flames originating from them. You can also see here that the area around here is also completely destroyed. There's 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's 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)

SANDOVAL: Our thanks to Fred and his team. And still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, another complicated fold in this ongoing conflict. We'll have the latest on the situation between Hezbollah militants and Israel as the IDF strikes on Lebanon have now forced hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. Violence in Lebanon is intensifying as Israel and Hezbollah militants continue to attack one another. According to the IDF, two Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon by Hezbollah fired antitank missiles early on Sunday. Those are the first Israeli military deaths since the war started.

Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities say that an Israeli strike on a hotel in central Beirut killed at least four people and also injured 10 others on Sunday. Israel says that it was targeting Iranian force commanders in the area with ties to Hezbollah who were reportedly meeting at that hotel. CNN's chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lebanon continues to be racked with violence that has now left nearly 400 people dead and more than a thousand injured in the past week alone. That's according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, which is based here in Lebanon, says it's hit Israel with more salvos of rocket and drone attacks, while Israel says it's carried out more than 100 airstrikes against Hezbollah linked targets in the past day alone.

In one overnight attack, a hotel here in central Beirut was struck, killing at least four people. The Israeli military says it carried out what it calls a precise strike on key commanders of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps based here in Lebanon.

Well, all this as a mass movement of people gathers pace across the country as hundreds of thousands in Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, the Bekar Valley and Beirut, have been ordered by Israel to leave their homes to make way for military action. That's placing enormous strain on the authorities here who say they are struggling even with the help of international aid groups to provide food and shelter for the displaced.

Lebanese armed forces are also under growing political pressure amid calls for them to do more to curb the military activities of heavily armed Hezbollah, which many people here now blame for plunging Lebanon into this crisis and dragging the country into the Iran war. Matthew Chance, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: All right. For more now, I want to bring in Ambassador Alon Pinkas. He's the former Israeli consul general here in New York and joins us live from Tel Aviv. Mr. Ambassador, it's always great to see you.

ALON PINKUS, FORMER ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORL Great to see you, Polo. Always.

SANDOVAL: So, what do you think of Iran's new supreme leader, what this means now specifically for Israel?

PINKAS: Well, you know, we've said all the time, we not being Israel, we people observing this, that everyone is replaceable in Iran, that despite what people think, it is not a one man autocracy in which if you eliminate the leader, you're actually affecting regime change. That's not going to happen.

It's very stratified, it's very broad, it's very deep. I mean, the ideological hold of the regime, however unpopular they are. Now, what this guy represents and stands for, theologically, we know he's an extremist. He's in the same mold as his father was and his father's contemporaries.

What we do not know, Polo, yet, is how this will affect the chain of command because it was pretty clear until a few years ago how decisions were made in Iran on national security issues, on employing terror proxies, on arming, even on the nuclear issue. I don't know.

We don't know what kind of a role he will play. Will he be immediately as powerful and authoritative as his father was or will it take time at which point power will be diffused? But any way you look at it, Polo, not that I ever took President Trump or Prime Minister Netanyahu at their word, I don't see regime change happening anytime soon, certainly not as a result of aerial attacks or missile attacks.

[01:25:00]

SANDOVAL: You're in Tel Aviv. I'm wondering if you can give us a sense of public sentiment there, where you are when it comes to this ongoing conflict. Is there some perhaps solidarity with U.S. actions in Iran, or are you seeing some waves of protests?

PINKAS: No, not waves of protest. I mean, yes, you have some people who are protesting saying that this is a wag the dog situation in which Netanyahu lied in June 25, 2025, when he said we had a historic victory over Iran only to eight months later initiate this attack. And people are attacking him for trying to do this, criticizing him rather for trying to do this to get away from his political trouble. And other people are saying that he's become some kind of a delusional architect of the new Middle East, whatever the cost.

You see those critiques, you see those people, generally people are supportive of this war, even though if you ask them, if you ask for a specific answer, why, sir, why, ma'am, are you pro this war? They find it very difficult to explain other than other, you know, the old cliches about, well, Iran is an existential threat. Well, Iran needed to be dealt with.

Now, as for specifically what you asked about supportive of the U.S., I think a lot of people intuitively think that it was Israel that prodded the U.S. and pushed the U.S. into this, even though they're uncomfortable with the concept and notion. But they do sort of realize that it's been Netanyahu that's been pushing, that has been pushing Trump into this.

So they're not supportive of the U.S. they're just happy that the U.S. is on board, but they know this could turn against them.

SANDOVAL: I read your latest piece of analysis in the Republic where you refer to Prime Minister Netanyahu. In it, you write that the only way to redeem himself, referring to the prime minister, was to turn that calamity, referring to October 7th, into a region altering strategic triumph.

Mr. Ambassador, just tell us a little bit more about the potential political payoff for the Israeli prime minister after the last week or so of these strikes.

PINKAS: Well, you know, obviously, with the caveat that it's too soon to tell because we don't know how this war is going to develop. Apparently, he's somewhat succeeding. He's somewhat succeeding, Polo, in turning public opinion away from the backhoe of October 7, 2023, and into some, oh, look at Israel's geopolitical and strategic standing. It's never been better. Look at the -- at Israel's -- I look at the region in general and you see that Israel's hegemonic qualities have increased and so on and so forth.

So I don't know. You know, at the end of the day, people are going to have to decide whether to trust Mr. Netanyahu and they do not, according to polls they do not. Yet his polling, he did get some bump in the polls in the last 10 days, today being the 10th day of this war. But again, it's really premature.

I mean, people will not forget October 7, 2023. Yet, this war against Iran is somewhat abstract. People will not necessarily feel the, you know, people don't walk around the street and feel good strategically. They have emotions and they have sentiments and they have political inclinations and they have biases. They don't just think about geopolitics and strategy all day long.

So I doubt it's going to benefit him in the long run. But again, I qualify this work could go in different directions, some of which are unpleasant. So I don't know -- I think it is premature. Let me put it this way. It is really premature to assess.

On top of which I'm connecting the two issues we just discussed. There's going to some there may come a point where a lot of people in the U.S. are going to accuse Israel of dragging the U.S. into this. True or false, I don't want to get into. And this will affect how the public here in Israel sees perceives Prime Minister Netanyahu.

SANDOVAL: Now you said it best. There's certainly the potential now for even more unpleasant turns as we're just days into this conflict. Alon Pinkas, as always, we really enjoy our conversations with you and thank you so much for sharing your perspective.

PINKAS: Always good to be with you, Polo. Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Thank you. And we're going to have much more of your breaking news coverage of the war with Iran after a short break.

Still ahead, an update on the fresh wave of attacks across the Middle East. Plus, we'll also be taking a closer look at Iran's new supreme leader and what his appointment means for that country's future. Don't go anywhere.

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SANDOVAL: More now on our breaking news coverage of the war with Iran.

Tehran has appointed a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, to succeed his father and cement the regime's grip on power there. The country is now warning that the war is entering a new phase, as both Iran and Israel unleash a fresh barrage of strikes and missile attacks.

U.S. Central Command is now reporting a seventh U.S. service member has now been killed in relation to the war with Iran. The service member died from injuries sustained during an attack in Saudi Arabia back on march the 1st.

Iran's new supreme leader has kept a low profile, but that is all likely about to change, according to CNN's Isobel Yeung.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As many in Iran celebrated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, others mourned it. But his second son, 56-year- old Mojtaba Khamenei, was planning to step into his father's shoes and into the heart of war with Israel and the U.S.

Mojtaba Khamenei is Iran's declared new head of state, the spiritual leader for a brutal regime his father came to embody before he was slain by Israel and the U.S. in joint strikes.

Alongside his father, Mojtaba's mother and wife were also killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes.

MAHA YAHYA, DIRECTOR, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: The signals the regime is sending is continuation. We're still holding together. It's more of the same. And in fact, we're going to become even more hardliners than we were before.

[01:34:49]

YAHYA: All the military pressure, that is -- that the country is under is not going to get us to shift position.

YEUNG: Born in Mashhad in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei served in the Iran- Iraq war and studied in the holy city of Qom. Mojtaba Khamenei has strong links with the security establishment, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the besieged paramilitary force -- relationships he's likely to foster if he wishes to rule in the same vein as his father.

But the junior Khamenei could struggle for legitimacy even among supporters of the regime. He's not a well-known cleric and has not held government office. And a father to son succession may not be palatable to the supporters of a revolution that overthrew a monarchy.

But the new ayatollah's greatest challenge is the regimes current existential threat posed by the war unleashed by the U.S. and Israel. Israel has confirmed the new leader will immediately be an assassination target if he isn't one already.

Trump says the U.S. and Israel have killed dozens from Iran's leadership circle since 28th of February and they're far from finished, which complicates plans for a U.S.-preferred successor.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, most of the people we had in mind are dead. So, you know, we had some in mind from that group that is dead.

And now we have another group. They may be dead also based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty soon we're not going to know anybody.

YEUNG: The appointment of Mojtaba suggests that, at least for now, regime change has not been successful. A new ayatollah and a new enemy of the United States and Israel with at least one advantage over his peers. He's still alive.

Isobel Yeung, CNN -- London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard announcing new missile launches just hours after the appointment of its new supreme leader. They published video showing what they say are forces firing multiple types of missiles.

Now, CNN has been able to verify that video. CNN producer Antoinette Radford joins us now live from Doha with more on that.

Antoinette, so glad you could join us. I'm wondering if you can bring our viewers up to speed on some of these latest strikes that were announced by the revolutionary guard in Iran.

ANTOINETTE RADFORD, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, Polo.

So following the announcement of Mojtaba Khamenei as the next supreme leader of Iran, the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a fresh wave of missiles on a number of countries in the region.

Among the countries really hard hit was Bahrain. Now, Bahrain is quite close to us here in Qatar. In ordinary times, there's a ferry that connects the two countries.

Bahrain was hit this morning by a drone strike that injured 32 residents in an area called Sitra. Sitra's near an energy facility. Of those residents injured, a two-month-old child, two young boys and a 17-year-old girl.

Now, why this is significant is yesterday Bahrain was also hit at a desalination plant, and that desalination plant wasn't damaged to the point of not working but this is two attacks on not only civilian infrastructure but critical infrastructure in the region. Iran claims it's only going for U.S. bases, but we see here that these

are two very key pieces of infrastructure in Bahrain.

In Qatar, it's day ten of the war and we've had a period of reasonable quiet over the weekend until about 3:15 this morning following this announcement from the IRGC, where we received an alert to our phones of elevated danger.

The apartment I'm in started shaking with the missile intercepts taking place overnight.

Qatar's ministry of defense did confirm that missiles were intercepted. Whether they've caused any damage yet, we've not yet heard.

SANDOVAL: Antoinette Radford, as always, thank you so much for that reporting and the latest on the situation there where you are.

Well stopping Iranian attack drones, that is really posing to be a major challenge. Now, the U.S. may have a backup plan in the works. What we are learning about that plan, just ahead.

And Iran may be getting help targeting American troops. Still ahead, the information that Russia may be handing over to the Iranians. Don't go anywhere.

[01:39:04]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANDOVAL: Welcome back.

Ukraine is sending experts to the Middle East to help repel Iranian drone attacks. Ukraine has four years of experiencing -- of experience countering Iranian-made attack drones. And also downing the drones has posed a significant military challenge across the Middle East.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that experts would be sent to the region in the coming week. He also suggested that sharing resources would be a two-way street. That's a clear reference to receiving U.S. air defense missiles in return, as they continue to face off against the Russians.

Sources telling CNN that Russia is giving Iran intel on U.S. military targets in the Middle East. I want to show you some pictures now that show Vladimir Putin meeting with Iran's supreme -- former supreme leader in the past.

Well now, multiple sources say that Russia is providing Iran with intelligence on locations and movements of American troops, ships, even aircraft. It's the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in this war.

Joining me now for more on this is Robert English. He's the director of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California.

Robert, it's always great to have you join us. Thanks so much for joining us.

ROBERT ENGLISH, DIRECTOR CENTRAL EUROPEAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Nice to see you.

SANDOVAL: Before we get into that reporting, I wonder if you could just bring our viewers up to speed, just sort of in a nutshell, the dynamic that exists between the Kremlin and Iran.

ENGLISH: Well, they have a strategic partnership. They've cooperated closely in all kinds of military exchanges. Most people probably know that Iran helped Russia build its own drone program. And in fact Russia produces thousands now of variants of these deadly Shahed drones for use against Ukraine.

And Russia has a recent deal to provide surface-to-air, shoulder- fired, stinger-type missiles to the Iranian armed forces, which fortunately has not come into effect yet.

But they have this kind of long ongoing cooperation. So we're not surprised to find out that it involves intelligence sharing too, although it is shocking to learn that at the same time that President Trump is easing sanctions, economic sanctions on Russia, Russia could be helping our enemies kill our soldiers.

SANDOVAL: I wonder if you could expand a little bit more on just your assessment of these reports suggesting that Russia is providing Iran with intel about troop locations and movements. Though we should note that it's still not clear whether any single attack from Iran can be linked directly to Russian targeting intelligence.

[01:44:43]

ENGLISH: Yes, and so far there have been gladly, happily, no fatalities that appear to have resulted from Russian targeting assistance. The six Americans killed in Kuwait -- we also know from other reports that the Iranians themselves have been surveilling that site, that site of an American tactical operation center, very closely in the days before the strike.

And, of course, it's only about 100 miles from Iranian territory. They have some pretty good local intelligence assets, which is to say they didn't need Russian help for that. They did it on their own.

The most deadly targeting of our air forces, of course, came in a friendly fire incident where three F-15 fighters were shot down by our Kuwaiti allies accidentally.

So thus far, we don't know of any, you know, deadly attacks that Russia contributed to. But that's so far.

SANDOVAL: Sure. We're just days into this conflict. President Trump was asked about these reports while he was aboard Air Force One, while traveling back to the nation's capital over the weekend. Listen to how -- to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's asking whether you have indications of whether Russia is supporting Iran somehow in this. Do you?

TRUMP: I have had no indication of that whatsoever. If they are, they're not doing a very good job because Iran is not doing too well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Look the president has been provided before with multiple opportunities to be very direct with the Kremlin, but he hasn't really seized on those opportunities. Do you think -- why do you think that the president was fairly limited in his -- in his response?

ENGLISH: Yes. It is curious because Defense Secretary Hegseth gave a slightly firmer response and suggested that there was a very stern warning issued in private.

Trump sort of made light of it and in fact even said, well you know, we have been providing the Ukrainians targeting information on the Russians. Which is a really strange thing to do to make Putin's argument for him.

But the larger leverage here is because of the oil situation. And Trump has asked the Russians in some sense to fill the gap left by all the supplies that have been blocked in the Strait of Hormuz. And by that several million barrels a day of Iranian oil that's not going onto the world market now.

Trump knows that this you know, rapid spike in oil and gas prices is going to cause a global economic catastrophe. It's going to hurt our allies in Europe and Asia. And the only country he can turn to quickly is actually Russia.

So he maybe is in a kind of weakened position, even more weak than usual vis a vis Putin and Russia because he needs his help in easing this -- especially crude oil -- this petroleum shortage.

SANDOVAL: Robert, before we let you go, I would love to get some of your thoughts also on Iran's new supreme leader. Obviously this is an extremely unpredictable situation and a war that continues to evolve.

But what are your thoughts on what this new appointment means and where we could be in perhaps in the next week or so?

ENGLISH: Yes, I don't have a lot to add to what the other analysts have said before, which is to say I agree with them. Whether or not he survives an Israeli strike doesn't seem to make much difference. What's important is the decentralized nature of the Iranian theocratic regime and the IRGC, which will continue. And they have tremendous ground forces conventional military force at their disposal.

And so we can kill more leaders, but it seems that the conflict will go on, and none of us can see how we can force Iran's capitulation. It will just get messier for civilian deaths in Iran, civilian deaths in neighboring countries, and of course, this global economic shock. I'm afraid the administration has got itself into a situation where all they can do is reach for more power and destruction, and it seems that it will only make it worse.

So they'll be -- they'll come a time very soon when they have to rethink and work with allies to find an off ramp.

SANDOVAL: Yes. Especially with the -- with the pressure from the markets.

Just finally, Robert, do you see the IRGC surviving this conflict, even if it ends up in a -- in a -- in a even more debilitated state?

ENGLISH: I'm afraid I do, at least a month, two months out if it goes on at this pace. There's simply too many troops, too many capabilities. And unless we're ready to turn to weapons of mass destruction and do something just unbelievably violent, they will carry on.

And it's another lesson. We keep relearning this lesson that you cannot affect regime change. You cannot change the political dynamics solely with air power.

At some point, if you're -- if you're serious about regime change and a new leadership, you have to get involved. And of course, that's even messier. But it won't happen from bombing alone.

[01:49:48]

SANDOVAL: It is a sobering assessment. Robert English, as always, really appreciate your perspective.

ENGLISH: My pleasure.

SANDOVAL: And when we return the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran continues to intensify. We'll bring you the latest on the new strikes in the region on Monday morning.

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SANDOVAL: Back to our breaking news story on the war with Iran. Israel and Tehran, both announcing new waves of missile strikes. The Israeli military says that it has launched strikes on central Iran and that it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut on Monday morning.

A senior Iranian official is telling CNN that the war has entered a new phase after Israel's attacks on oil and fuel depots.

Well, meanwhile, Iranian state media officials have named the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country's next supreme leader.

In a statement the IRGC issued its full backing of Mojtaba Khamenei. But U.S. President Donald Trump says that the new supreme leader, quote "is not going to last long without his approval".

You can see here several hundred protesters who support Iran's exiled royal family. They marched to the Israeli embassy in London on Sunday.

[01:54:49]

SANDOVAL: They expressed their backing for the bombing campaign underway in Iran, with some waving U.S. and Israeli flags in a show of support for the war effort.

Here in New York, an improvised explosive was thrown near the residence of New York City's mayor on Saturday after opposing protest groups clashed. All of this happening as tensions during an anti-Islam protest boiled over.

You can see it there, police say the counter-protesters threw that explosive. Well, the New York City Police Department said that the bomb was capable of causing serious injury or even death.

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

At this time, we do not yet know whether the devices were functional improvised explosive devices or hoax devices. Because we don't yet know if there was energetic material contained in them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And the U.S. military carried out another strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific -- that's according to Southern Command -- that the strike killed six people, according to officials who say that the boat was targeted because it was on a route that's commonly used by drug traffickers. Well, the government has not provided any proof that the vessel did in fact, have drugs on board.

So far, at least 157 people have been killed in strikes by the U.S. military for suspected drug trafficking.

And a huge fire in Scotland, it has engulfed a historic building in Glasgow and is also causing a major travel disruptions. Dozens of firefighters have been tackling -- trying to tackle that blaze, which erupted near one of the country's busiest train stations on Sunday.

The fire service says the blaze started on the ground floor of a four- story commercial building. Glasgow Central Station remains closed. Fortunately though, no casualties have been reported so far.

And with that, I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. We do want to thank you so much for joining us the last hour of news.

The breaking news coverage continues with my colleague Rosemary Church in just a moment. Don't go anywhere.

[01:57:00]

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