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Sources: U.S. & Iran Reach Tentative Deal, Trump Yet To Sign Off. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 29, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:37]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

An explosion at Cape Canaveral, lighting up the night sky, we'll show you extraordinary video from the scene. Plus, it's still not clear whether Donald Trump will sign a peace deal with Iran. We'll look at what each side says isn't negotiable. And this just in, a court in Kenya for now blocking Washington's plan to set up an Ebola quarantine facility there. We're live in Nairobi with details.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: We begin with the Blue Origin ground test that ended with a massive explosion. The company's new Glenn rocket blew up on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday during what's known as hot fire test. Blue Origin says no one was hurt and called the incident an anomaly. U.S. Space Force says an investigation is underway.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos wrote on X, quote, "It's too early to know the root cause, but we're already working to find it. Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it."

Now the fireball is a huge misfortune for the company in its lunar mission. A space futures professor told CNN that launch site is going to be locked down for a long time. Listen to this.

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LAURIE LESHIN, PROFESSOR OF SPACE FUTURES, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: This is going to be a setback for sure for Blue Origin's plans and for NASA's plans potentially, because Blue Origin is a key partner in the next set of Artemis missions, which are ultimately designed to get our crew down to the surface of the moon. But the next mission, Artemis 3, was supposed to be the Orion capsule, which of course, we all saw during Artemis 2 taking the astronauts around the moon. Another Orion capsule was supposed to dock with the landers that would ultimately take them down to the surface in Earth orbit. And Blue Origin had one of those landers. So it's going to be tough because that mission is supposed to happen next year and it's hard to see how they're going to be ready to launch and operate their lander in Earth orbit on that kind of time frame.

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BRUNHUBER: Now to a potential breakthrough in the Iran peace talks, Pakistan, a key mediator between the U.S. and Iran, says its foreign minister will meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington in the hours ahead. This comes as we're learning that the U.S. has reached a tentative agreement with Iran.

U.S. officials say the potential deal would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting the U.S. blockade on Iran's ports. It would also set off 60 more days of negotiation to address Iran's nuclear program. Vice President J.D. Vance says he's not sure if it will get President Trump's final approval. Here he is.

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J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think it's hard to say exactly when or if the president is going to sign the MOU. We're going back and forth on a couple of language points. I do think that we've made a lot of progress here. It's very clear that I think the Iranians, they want to deal and they want to open the Straits of Hormuz. We want them to open the Straits of Hormuz.

There are a couple of issues on the nuclear stuff, the highly enriched stockpile and also the question of enrichment. So, you know, we're going back and forth with them.

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BRUNHUBER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's directed the military to take more territory in Gaza. He spoke about it at a conference in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. Listen to this.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Right now we are tightening our grip on Hamas. Yes, we are now in 60 percent of the territory in the Gaza Strip. We were at 50 percent. We moved to 60 percent.

My directive is to move to -- take it step by step. First of all, 70, let's start with that. We are tightening our grip on them from every direction and we will deal with the remnants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Under the October ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces withdrew to a demarcation line known as the Yellow Line, which encompassed roughly 53 percent of Gaza. Hamas accuses Israel of moving the line, saying this is an explicit and ongoing undermining of the ceasefire agreement.

CNN's Oren Liebermann joins me now live from Jerusalem. So let's start there with Netanyahu's comments on Gaza, Oren. Take us through what he said.

OREN LIEBERMANN, JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Kim, since October, since the ceasefire left Israel with occupying about 53 percent of Gaza, Israel has gradually seized more and more of the devastated territory, pushing past 60. And then it was late last month that the Israeli military issued a humanity -- a map to humanitarian organizations showing that it controlled some 64 percent of Gaza's territory. Now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a conference in the occupied West Bank said he had directed the military to seize 70 percent of Gaza.

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Now, it's not a huge difference in terms of the land between 64 and 70 percent, but it is important in terms of what it means. It means Israel is seizing more and more land beyond what the ceasefire agreement allowed. And that pushes some 2 million Palestinians who are already waiting on reconstruction projects that aren't moving anywhere and haven't even started. They're being pushed into a smaller and smaller part of Gaza.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel wasn't supposed to take more land. It was supposed to gradually withdraw from the 53 percent as an international security force came in and secured parts of Gaza. Except that international force is nowhere to be seen and it's not clear if and when it will deploy. And in the absence of progress on that point of the ceasefire, Israel has pushed forward and seized more land.

Netanyahu said that they were tightening their grip on Hamas and yet Hamas remains firmly in control of the part of Gaza that Israel does not occupy. So in the absence of progress on the U.S. brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel has pushed forward with taking more land. And it's worth noting that when Netanyahu said 70 percent, there were shouts from the crowd urging him to take all of Gaza.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Oren, going back to the U.S. Iran negotiations, where do things stand right now?

LIEBERMANN: Well, Israel is watching this very closely and even if they agree on many of the points, as we heard Vice President J.D. Vance says, this still isn't a final agreement. And the points that Vance did mention, enrichment, the highly enriched uranium that Iran already has, some 440 kilogram or so, these are the main points. Without solving these, it doesn't matter if you've agreed to the other 95 percent. These are the points upon which this has been held up since the very beginning.

From Israel's perspective, it's not clear that there will be a deal. There's also a big difference between the memorandum understanding which is to start talks and reopen the strait, and an actual final end of the war that addresses all of the issues, enriched uranium, Iran's nuclear program. And then let's not forget at the beginning of the war there was talk of addressing ballistic missiles and proxies. That's all gone now. This is an effort to focus on the Strait of Hormuz and we're waiting to see if this deal really is final or if the gaps remain too large, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, appreciate that. Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem, thanks so much.

For more on this, I want to bring in Jasmine El-Gamal, who's the founder and CEO of Averro Strategies and host of "The View From Here" podcast. And she's also a former Middle East advisor at the U.S. Department of Defense. She comes to us from London.

Thanks so much for being here with us. So, I mean, it feels like we've been here before with a deal supposedly close. What's your sense? I mean, how close are things right now, do you think?

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, FOUNDER AND CEO, AVEROS STRATEGIES: Good morning, Kim, and thank you for having me. Well, it remains to be seen whether President Trump will sign the deal or not. The deal is waiting for his signature. But, Kim, I think it's important when we talk about this so called deal to really understand what it is. This is essentially an extension of the ceasefire.

It's an opening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for some concessions from the U.S. But the actual issues that remain between the U.S. and Iran, the nuclear deal, the nuclear file issues like Iran's support for proxies, Iran's ballistic missile program, which it has already started to try to reconstitute, those are all off the table for now. This essentially kicks the can down the road for another 60 days or so. And a lot can happen between now and then. So I would say it's a good first step, but certainly just to temper expectations about what it means in the long term.

BRUNHUBER: OK. So let's ignore for a second the nuclear issue, which, as our reporter said, I mean, if you don't have a deal on that, you basically don't really have a deal. But looking just at the reopening of the strait, I mean, how confident, even if they do reopen it, that it would actually stay open for those 60 days as these further negotiations play out? Obviously it's a lot of leverage for Iran, that they wouldn't want to give up.

EL-GAMAL: That's right. That's a really good question. And the word that you used here is really the key word, which is leverage. What has happened as a result of this war is that Iran has discovered that it indeed does have a lot of leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and by extension the entire world, by threatening to close the strait, right? So threatening is the word here.

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It doesn't have to even close it again. It just has to threaten to do so. And it could wreak havoc on global markets, on global shipping, on insurance prices. What Iran has is something that the U.S. has had a lot of trouble challenging, which is what they call a mosquito fleet. A mosquito fleet meaning small boats, speedboats, fast boats that they can stick a rocket on and use it to intimidate or attack ships crossing the strait.

It's a very low cost way of controlling the strait effectively and intimidating or attacking ships that cross. And the price for undoing that or challenging that by the United States or others is much, much higher than the cost that it takes Iran to actually do that. And it will continue to be able to do that in the future. So I think the balance of power here has shifted moving forward in a pretty irreversible way for the time being.

So even though, like I said, there's a deal going on, the president may very well sign it, Iran now knows that if and when it wants to attack or intimidate ships again in the strait, it can do so. And that obviously is going to cause problems moving forward for insurer -- insurers or for countries wanting to move goods through the strait. They will have to keep that in mind.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, I mean, I want to pull back a little bit, look at this sort of more broadly with the two minutes or so we have left. I mean, you've been very critical of how these negotiations have been handled. I mean, what do you think the U.S. side has gotten wrong in its approach to Iran on this?

EL-GAMAL: You know, in just a couple of words, I would just say root causes. The U.S. has not -- has not entered into negotiations to address the root causes of any of the problems and challenges in the Middle East at large. So that doesn't just include Iran, but if you look at the so called ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, your correspondent was just talking earlier about how, you know, people use the word fragile, but really it isn't a ceasefire when guns are still being fired, people are still being displaced and killed. So you have one fifth of Lebanese territory now being ethnically cleansed. You have over 900 people having been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire and Prime Minister Netanyahu wanting to take 70 percent.

And now you have this fragile again ceasefire in Iran. So the root causes of the problems came the occupation in Gaza, the confrontation or the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, and the nuclear program and the conflict between Iran and Israel. All of those haven't really been delved into. So again, this deal, if it goes through, is a welcome step, but it certainly doesn't go towards addressing any of those root causes, which means that conflict will always be just around the corner in the Middle East.

BRUNHUBER: Appreciate your expertise as always. Jasmine El-Gamal in London, thank you so much.

EL-GAMAL: Thanks, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Romania was on the receiving end of a strike that coincidentally or not happened during Russia's attacks overnight on Ukraine. Officials say a drone hit a residential building near a Romanian town on the Ukrainian border, injuring two people. Romania's Defense Ministry says military radar tracked the drone for a while. The country scrambled its fighter jets with pilots having the go ahead to open fire. It's not clear who fired that drone.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla is live this hour in Berlin. So, Sebastian, walk us through what happened and the reaction that we're getting to this incident.

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, the reaction, Kim, from Romania and from the European Union more widely has been one of huge and enormous condemnation. As you can imagine, what we're talking about here is one single drone landing or hitting a residential building in that small town in Romania which is just a handful of miles from the Ukrainian border. What we know what was happening overnight in Ukraine, Kim, because that is crucial, is that there was as a series of attacks launched by Moscow on Ukraine. And what appears to be this particular incident with this drone seems to be the targeting of a string of ports on Ukrainians Danube River which it shares with Romania.

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And this drone appears to have somehow made its way in to Romania in airspace. What's not clear is whether it was a direct provocation by Moscow or if this is just an errant drone. And Romania and other countries that border Ukraine have become more susceptible to these kinds of incursions. This is not the first time. And I want you to take a listen to what the Romanian Defense Ministry had to say about this particular attack last night.

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BRIG. GEN. GHEORGHE MAXIM, DEPUTY COMMANDER OF ROMANIAN JOINT FORCES COMMAND (through translator): All available data has been analyzed to establish the exact sequence of events, and it resulted in the fact that there were no real opportunities to engage it safely. I want to convey very clearly that the situation is under control. We are not facing an attack on Romania. We are facing the effects of a conflict taking place right next to our border.

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SHUKLA: The reason this has caused such widespread condemnation this time, Kim, is that although there have been incidents like this in the past, this one has actually resulted in injuries. There have been no fatalities. But the fact that people have now been hurt as a result of this is sending another reminder, as if European nations really needed it, that they share a border with a conflict, a country at conflict with a major belligerent when it comes to Russia. What this does, though, Kim, as well, is it just thrusts to the fore once again the questions about why NATO nations do not have the requisite air defenses to be able to defend themselves or protect themselves that -- from incidents like these.

But what we've seen in Romania is something that we've seen in other parts of Europe, too, particularly in the Baltic nations where we're seeing drones, perhaps jammed by electronic warfare, perhaps directly planned and programmed to go towards those Baltic nations are becoming more and more frequently as Moscow and the Kremlin look potentially to test the boundaries of NATO's capabilities, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Appreciate that. Sebastian Shukla in Berlin. Thanks so much.

Specialized divers begin a precarious rescue of five men. They've been trapped deep inside a flooded cave for more than a week. We'll tell you when officials hope to get survivors back to the surface. That's coming up.

Plus, after growing backlash, a Kenyan court puts the brakes on a U.S. backed plan to set up an Ebola quarantine facility. We'll have a live report from our Larry Madowo in Nairobi next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Rescue workers are hoping the weather will hold so they can bring five men out from a remote cave in Laos where they've been trapped for nearly a week. Crews are pumping water out of the cave to clear a path to safety for the men. The group had been searching for gold deposits when flash flooding cut off their exit route, stranding them for more than 25 -- 250 meters inside the cave system. Mike Valerio joins us with more.

Mike, you've been tracking the story since it broke. Are they any closer to actually getting those men out now?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, I think it's a big yes. The understatement in the afternoon, to answer your question, this is the biggest development. Rescue teams have begun rehearsing the evacuation procedure and are preparing to bring all five survivors out of the cave.

That is the latest update from the leader of the Lao People's Volunteer Association, an update 2:45 p.m. local time. Water levels inside the cave have dropped significantly, the message adds, following continuous pumping operations and are now close to being fully drained.

That is huge news because I'll tell you, Kim, when you look at the pictures that have been circulating over the past day and a half, two days the water level inside of these claustrophobia inducing caves, that has been the biggest impediment to bringing these at least five survivors out of there safely. On that front, you know, let's toss to a sound bite. We're going to give you an inside look on what was shot yesterday into the survivors states of mind. Let's listen. It's about 37 seconds.

We'll come back on the other side.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If we don't get any food, we're out of strength.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If we're still here after another two days, we'll be dead. All right, all right, Let me check how you're doing first so we can figure out how to get you out.

I want you all out of here right now. But the passage is flooded. We're trying to pump the water out. The teams outside are working hard to clear it for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're weak, and we're really hungry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): OK, OK. We'll bring more food in. OK. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Please bring rice and some proper food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): OK, OK. We'll get it to you as soon as we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: So we got an update earlier, I'd say about three hours ago, Kim, where the leaders of this rescue effort said that they are determined to begin this process today. So now that the water levels have decreased, which it was made possible by bringing in a much bigger power generator about three kilometers into this very thick jungle forest, now that they've been able to pump more water out, you know, they're able to install more oxygen tanks along the route of this cave system. What we learned yesterday is that there are pockets of hydrogen sulfide in this cave route. And hydrogen sulfide is a compound that limits your ability to process oxygen effectively. It is accumulated in cave systems.

So it's not as simple proposition or as simple a proposition as just leading them out. They need to make sure that they have a stable supply of oxygen. We also saw in new photos that are going to be published in moments on cnn.com these yellow stretchers that could be brought into the cave where these five men are perched on their ledge just in case they're needed to be brought out on stretchers in case they are too weak.

And then a final point, Kim, before we go, you know, it's worth noting that these rescuers have not given up hope to find two people who still remain missing. There are seven of them total. And the five who are stranded on that ledge, they said that two others went in before them. They don't know these other two people, but there's an effort to remap portions of this cave system so that they can be found, and that should be easier now that so much of the water has been pumped out, Kim.

[04:25: 13]

BRUNHUBER: All right. Largely welcome news you're bringing us there. Mike Valerio, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

A high court in Kenya has temporarily suspended plans for the U.S. to open an Ebola quarantine facility in the country. The judge ruled late on Thursday that Kenya is also not allowed to admit anyone exposed or infected by Ebola under the planned agreement with the U.S. until a legal challenge plays out in the courts. The Trump administration was planning to open a 50 bed quarantine unit in Kenya for those who don't show any symptoms instead of bringing them back to the U.S.

I want to go live now to CNN's Larry Madowo in Nairobi. So, Larry, an important development that just happened. Take us through what the court has done here and the anger over this issue there in Kenya.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, this is a major legal victory for all those opposed to this U.S. contained -- quarantine facility for those exposed to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A high court judge in Kenya ruling that Kenya cannot bring in, transfer, admit anybody who's been exposed to Ebola, confirmed with Ebola from the United States or from any other country for that matter, and that the Kenyan government cannot enter into any agreement to host this kind of quarantine facility in this country until this legal challenge has played out in court. This is just one of two legal challenges that this plan is facing here in Kenya. The Law Society of Kenya has also filed a constitutional challenge to look into this same situation, which has led to huge national outrage here.

And the reason why Kenyans are concerned about this plan is they feel if Americans consider Ebola too dangerous to import it into the country, then it should be dangerous enough for Kenyans as well. The doctors union here in Kenya, representing more than 10,000 physicians, says Kenya is a sovereign nation. It is not a geopolitical isolation ward. And they will not sit back and allow Kenya to be treated as a colony for a lethal pathogen that was not generated here. Listen to their leader.

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DR. DAVJI ATELLAH, KENYA MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, PHARMACISTS & DENTIST UNION: It is important that any arrangement that the government is having with the U.S. government on the issue of containment of the Ebola patient must be discussed transparently, because there must be something that is known even to the government, that once the disease has come to the country, you cannot limit it. And that's the reason why the government of the U.S. has said they will ensure that there's not any Ebola patient in their territory. That means they feel like it is too dangerous for Americans and therefore it must also be too dangerous for Kenyans.

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MADOWO: The United states has committed $13.5 million to Kenya for what is known as Ebola Preparedness Efforts. The concern here in the country is that the Kenyan government has not been transparent about what kind of deal it has gotten into with the United States. Overnight President Ruto spoke with U.S. secretary of State Marco Rubio and he reiterated something that is raising a lot of concern here, that the U.S. will make sure that Ebola does not get to its shores. And so the argument from Kenyans is if the U.S. is protecting itself and it's the most advanced medical infrastructure, it's a first world country, why would Kenya agree to accept this same patients coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo?

The Washington Post -- The Washington Post reports that a 50 bed facility was supposed to open today. So now this legal challenge means that will not be happening. It's not clear what happens. No response so far from the Kenyan government, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting development. Larry Madowo in Nairobi. Thank you so much.

The war with Iran is taking a toll on America's energy reserves. Look at the impact of plunging stockpiles of crude oil, gasoline and diesel fuel just ahead. Stay with us.

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