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White House, Israel Suggest Iran War Will Continue for Weeks; Michigan Synagogue Attacker Allegedly Brother of Hezbollah Commander; Americans React to the War with Iran; Powerful Storm Has Potential for Historic Snow, Thunderstorms. Aired 6:30-7p ET

Aired March 15, 2026 - 18:30   ET

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

[18:33:42]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

And tonight the Israeli military telling CNN it plans to continue its operations against Iran for at least three more weeks. This as White House officials say they expect the conflict to end within weeks or sooner. The Trump administration has yet to offer up a clear timeline, but the latest messaging comes with gas and oil prices surging as a result of this war.

AAA reporting prices have risen 24 percent since the war began just over two weeks ago. Here's Energy Secretary Chris Wright talking about that earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Are you really sure it's going to be short term? Can you guarantee it will just be weeks before prices go down?

CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: Hey, there's no guarantees in wars at all. I can guarantee the situation would be dramatically worse without this military operation to defang the Iranian regime. This is short term pain to get through to a much better place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Meanwhile, President Trump is urging other nations to help the U.S. regain access to the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway where one-fifth of the world's oil typically passes through but has been restricted due to the war with Iran. We just heard from the British prime minister on this.

I do want to go to CNN's Julia Benbrook with more on that angle of all of this.

Julia, what are we hearing?

[18:35:06]

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, this has been a key area of focus for President Donald Trump this weekend. As you pointed out, 20 percent of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz. And Trump has posted about this several times. Taking a look at what he said yesterday. He said that many countries, particularly those that have been impacted by Iran's attempted closure of the strait were going to be sending warships to keep the strait open.

He specifically said that hopefully, big emphasis there on that word, that China, France, South Korea, Japan and the U.K. would be sending ships. And in the meantime, the United States would be bombing the shoreline. But as we have pressed on this, asking the White House for clarification, as well as the countries that Trump mentioned specifically here, if they have plans to send those warships, there's not been any firm commitments.

And in that statement from Downing Street, I want to pull that up for you now. They confirmed that today, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump spoke on the phone and in that statement, they said that, "The leaders discussed the ongoing situation in the Middle East and the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz to end the disruption to global shipping, which is driving up costs worldwide."

Adding, "The prime minister also expressed his condolences for the American service personnel who have lost their lives during the conflict." The two leaders agreed to keep in touch. So there's no real confirmation of specifics there. And then, according to a senior official in the Japanese government, any decision to send Japanese naval vessels to the Middle East would face a high hurdle.

According to reporting from Reuters and citing the president's office there, South Korea said that they would be in close communication with the United States on this, and then would take a lot into consideration as they made that decision. We heard from Energy Secretary Chris Wright earlier today, and he said that other countries would be helping. But again, there were not a lot of details added. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: All U.S. military assets, and again, as President Trump mentioned, of other countries will work to open the straits. Right now, our focus is destroying their military capabilities, including those that are used specifically to threaten the straits. But we need to finish those tasks first and you will see the straits open again in the not-too-distant future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: And this comes as Americans are feeling the direct impact here as prices at the pump are rising, and while Trump has said that he is confident that those prices will eventually go down, this could be a way to ease some of those growing concerns.

Iran's foreign minister has said that -- they've denied claims that the Strait is completely closed, instead saying that they're blocking vessels that have ties to the United States and to Israel -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook, thanks so much. We are joined now by CNN political and global affairs analyst and

Axios correspondent Barak Ravid.

Barak, good to see you. I want to start first with this two different kind of time frames we're being given. Israel saying its campaign against Iran will continue for at least three more weeks. The White House saying something a little bit different than that. Weeks, but it could be sooner.

How would you assess the alignment between the two right now on where we're going?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think the timetable for this war will be determined by the White House, not by the Israeli government. I think the three-week timeline we heard today came from the IDF spokesman. Obviously, he's not the one calling the shots. If Donald Trump will call Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him, I want to end this thing in five days, the war will end in five days.

I don't think, I mean, obviously Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to try and convince Trump to continue. But if at the end of the day, Donald Trump decides that's what I want to do, I want to end the war, the war will end.

DEAN: And Trump, meantime, is saying other countries are going to support the U.S. with warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has asked for their help. Do you have any visibility into who the White House is talking to about this, what the status of that might be?

RAVID: So I think the White House at the moment has the Brits on board, the U.K. I think several Arab countries in the region, especially those who are affected by the situation at the Strait of Hormuz might also send ships. And I think the Trump administration is trying to get as many countries as possible to be part of this operation because not only because it needs a lot of ships, but also because if it -- the more countries that agree to be part of this coalition, the more it will be difficult for Iran politically to continue those attacks.

[18:40:17]

DEAN: And so a piece of this, too, Kharg Island, which the U.S. hit military targets on Kharg Island Friday, President Trump is escalating his rhetoric around that, telling NBC's Kristen Welker that the U.S., in his words, may hit it a few more times just for fun. Help kind of connect the dots here about where we are with Kharg Island and what that might mean for the Strait of Hormuz as well.

RAVID: So I think the main, the main issue with Kharg Island is that it could be the, let's say, victory picture for the U.S., for President Trump if he sends U.S. soldiers to occupy it from the Iranians, and take control of this island that is basically where 80 percent to 90 percent of Iranian oil is being exported from. So I think that's a possibility. I don't know if Donald Trump is already there when it comes to giving such an order, but this, this is what it means. To conduct more airstrikes on that island will not do much unless you

want to destroy the oil facilities there, which Trump might get there. But if you just want to take control of Iranian oil or the Iranian possibility to export its oil, then you'll need to take this island by military force, by ground troops. And this is obviously something that could significantly increase the number of U.S. casualties when you move from just conducting airstrikes to, you know, sending soldiers to fight Iranian soldiers on the ground.

DEAN: Yes, and finally, I also want to ask you, before I let you go about your new reporting on a French plan to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. That's a second front for Israel that's opened up in all of this, that's happening in Lebanon. What have you learned there?

RAVID: So the French presented to the U.S. and to Israel a draft plan for some sort of diplomatic offramp from an all-out military ground offensive, Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon, a ground offensive that could include occupying big parts of Lebanon, basically going as north as the Litani River. And the French, I think, did it in coordination with the Lebanese government that is pretty terrified that such an Israeli operation would basically devastate the country.

The main problem is that at the moment, the Israelis are not rushing into negotiations with Lebanon because they say the Lebanese government is not really in control of its territory. So what's the point of negotiating with them? And on the other hand, at the moment there's no clear owner of the Lebanon file in the Trump administration and because there's no owner, it's unclear, you know, who's running the show, who has the mandate to mediate and when that's the case without U.S. leadership France can raise ideas, but without U.S. leadership, you can't really get any diplomatic process going.

DEAN: All right, well, we will see what comes there.

Barak Ravid, always great to have you. Thanks for your time.

RAVID: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, new details surrounding the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Michigan. What we're learning about the suspect's alleged ties to an Iranian proxy group in Lebanon. That's still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:40]

DEAN: We are following major new developments about the man who rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue full of children. The Israeli military now saying the 41-year-old was the brother of a Hezbollah commander who was recently killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. Law enforcement sources previously told CNN the man was flagged in federal databases for being linked to Hezbollah terrorists.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has been following these developments for us.

Gloria, tell us what more you have found out.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, the man who you were just seeing images of right there is the man who law enforcement officials say drove his vehicle into a synagogue in Michigan last week. You see him there entering a fireworks store where he purchased fireworks that he then packed into his vehicle which he used during this attack.

Now we had learned about the suspect's connection and the fact that he had been flagged by U.S. authorities as someone suspected of having connections to known Hezbollah members, but we did not know that it was his brother that had made that flag happen in his record. We're now learning more about the connection between these two men.

Ghazali's brother has been identified by the Israel Defense Forces as Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, and they've confirmed that he was killed in March 5th when the IDF struck a Hezbollah military building, which was being used to store weapons. We are told by a spokesperson for the IDF that Ghazali, the brother of the man involved in the attack in Michigan, was a suspected Hezbollah commander.

Now, this is all happening as we are seeing several recent incidents since the beginning of military action in Iran several weeks ago. This attack at the synagogue in Michigan last week, the attack here in New York City outside of Gracie Mansion, where there were two improvised explosives thrown into a crowd of protesters. And then of course, the shooting that happened at Old Dominion.

All -- those are only three incidents that have happened in the last few days. They continue to be under investigation, but now learning more about the connection between the man who drove the vehicle into this synagogue in Michigan and a man who was killed in a recent IDF strike in Lebanon -- Jessica.

[18:50:11]

DEAN: All right. Gloria Pazmino, with the latest reporting on that. Thank you for that.

Now into the third week with the war in Iran, some Americans are conflicted over the president's decision to go to war.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is joining us now to run the numbers on this.

So, hi, Harry. Can you walk us through --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Hi.

DEAN: -- what Americans think about all of this?

ENTEN: Yes. Why don't we just talk about President Trump first of all, right? I've heard a lot of the president's critics, you know, say, hey, this is going to basically bring President Trump's second term to an end. He won't be able to do anything more. But here's the thing. President Trump is liked as much now as he was before the war started. I mean, just take a look here. Americans who approve of Trump, in late February just before the war started, it was 41 percent. And now it's the exact same, 41 percent.

There has been no movement in the average poll and I have to say this doesn't really surprise me very much, Jessica, because President Trump's approval rating has been just so consistent over his term that even a war in the Middle East can't seem to move it at least a little bit.

DEAN: And so any idea why the numbers haven't shifted that much?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So let's talk beyond just the fact that President Trump's approval rating has been so static, right? Why don't we talk about how Americans feel about the war itself? And this is where it gets really interesting, because there are a lot of different polls, and they say a lot of different things. OK. This is the net approval of the U.S. military action in Iran. This is the seven most recent national polls, the net approval rating in percentage points.

Look at this. You can find polls where it's negative, minus 14, minus 13, minus 12, minus 11, minus 11. But then you can also find two recent polls that where you actually see that Americans are either equally divided or actually slightly more likely to approve than disapprove, as is the case in the most recent "Washington Post" poll. So the bottom line is this while there are plenty of people who dislike the war, there are polls that actually show that Americans are evenly divided or slightly more likely to actually favor the war than oppose it, and therefore, it's not really much of a surprise that Trump's numbers haven't moved, because the American people seem to be fairly evenly divided.

DEAN: Interesting. And so when you're looking at the numbers, how about how much Americans care about what's happening in Iran? What's their level of caring about this?

ENTEN: OK. This to me is probably the most fascinating part of this segment, right? Because there are a lot of Americans who really do care. And there are a lot of people who, of course, have family in the Middle East that really care. But take a look here, OK? Americans who say they care about a lot about the U.S. economy, 84 percent. How about the Iranian situation? It's just 45 percent of Americans who say they care a lot about the Iranian situation.

So I would expect that number to climb if, in fact, gas prices go up. And there's an effect on the U.S. economy. But at this point, for a lot of Americans, they simply don't actually care that much. So it's not that much of a surprise that, in fact, you're not seeing President Trump's numbers move because at this point the thing that the Americans care about is the U.S. economy. They don't necessarily care that much about a situation overseas -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. 84 percent. That is a high number. What about --

ENTEN: Yes, it's a high number. That's a high number.

DEAN: That's a high number. We don't see 84 percent on many things. What about interest rising or falling? Is it moving any direction?

ENTEN: Yes, so you see this 45 percent right here. This is a pretty low number. And then just take a look at Google interest. Americans searches for Iran down 84 percent, 84 percent versus the beginning of the war. And to put this into some perspective more Americans were searching for the Academy Awards in the last hour by a significant margin. I was typing it on my computer, then searching for Iran.

So, look, Americans haven't necessarily cared that much about the situation in Iran so far and their interest level, Jessica Dean, has been falling as the war has carried on. We'll of course wait and see if any of this changes. But at this point, the Iranian situation is something happening overseas. That's not necessarily impacting how Americans view the president.

DEAN: All right. Thanks, Harry. Always good to have you take it all -- take us through all the numbers. Really appreciate it.

ENTEN: I try. I try.

DEAN: Yes.

ENTEN: By the way, congratulations on the kid.

DEAN: Thanks. A baby boy. Should we name him Harry? I'll think about it.

ENTEN: Elizabeth Wagmeister already has done that.

DEAN: OK. All right. Thanks, Harry.

More than 100 million people in the eastern half of the U.S. are facing severe thunderstorms as a powerful system sweeps across the country. That storm already dumped several inches of snow and heavy winds to the Midwest and Great Lakes, creating very dangerous travel conditions. Starting this afternoon, thunderstorms that could unleash tornadoes and damaging winds also expected to impact the Eastern states. That's going to go into Monday morning.

Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar who's tracking the storm.

This is a big one, Allison. When and where can people expect the worst?

[18:55:02]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right. It is a big storm and it pretty much has everything but the kitchen sink involved. We're talking snow. We're talking wind. We're talking tornadoes. There's pretty much a little bit of everything. It just depends on where you live. So we begin in the north across portions of the Midwest. This is where you have your winter storm warnings, your winter weather advisories, and your blizzard warnings.

And that's where the bulk of the snow is, you can see that purple color indicating the snow. The darker the purple, the heavier that snow is. The pink indicating a little bit of a wintry mix. So some ice kind of likely mixed in there. And then all along the southern tier, this is where we have the strong to severe thunderstorms that are impacting right now. Where you see that yellow box that's a severe thunderstorm watch. That's in effect until 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

We have multiple tornado watches. The vast majority of these go until about 9:00 or, say, 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, but some of them may be extended and pushed eastward as we go through the evening. You can see all of these warnings right now. All the orange boxes are severe thunderstorm warnings, all these little pink boxes you see here, those are multiple tornado warnings.

Some of them we keep seeing the tornado warnings progress eastward and eastward as we go through the coming hours. This is where the severe weather is going to be expected, not just tonight but through the overnight. This is valid until about 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time tomorrow morning. So damaging winds, the potential for a few tornadoes as well, and even some small hail in those areas.

Then we fast-forward to Monday. This is where the greatest threat for severe thunderstorms exists, and it actually increases. So now we're looking at a level four for places like D.C., Richmond and even into Raleigh, where we could end up getting some strong thunderstorms and even strong tornadoes through the day Monday.

DEAN: All right. We will see exactly what that brings.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar laying it out for us. Thanks so much.

And still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, the war in Iran triggering a surge in gas prices that's affecting airline ticket costs. We'll break down those numbers for you with an expert. That's straight ahead.

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