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Trump Claims Iran Agreement Is "Unconditional Surrender"; Massive Blast At Moscow Refinery Amid Ukrainian Drone Attack; IDF: Four Israel Soldiers Killed In Lebanon Overnight. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired June 19, 2026 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: And thank you for watching NewsNight. CNN's coverage continues next.
[04:00:36]
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz is here in London. Let's get into the headlines.
Talks between the U.S. and Iran have already hit a snag. Vice President J.D. Vance canceled a trip to Switzerland this morning and Israel is targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon. We're live in Lucerne and Abu Dhabi with the latest on that. Black smoke billowing over Moscow following a massive drone offensive by Ukraine. What was hit and how Ukraine's allies in the E.U. are responding.
Plus, we have exclusive reporting for you on how the Trump administration is ramping up efforts to revoke the citizenship of naturalized Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from London, this is CNN Newsroom with Salma Abdelaziz.
ABDELAZIZ: We're going to start this hour with breaking news. Lebanese authorities report at least 18 people have been killed in a night of very heavy Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah targets in several areas in southern Lebanon, citing repeated ceasefire violations by the militant group. The IDF also says four Israeli soldiers were killed when an explosive device hit their tank in southern Lebanon. This is the single deadliest incident for the Israeli military since the war began about three months ago.
The fighting in Lebanon follows a very bold new claim from U.S. President Donald Trump that his agreement with Iran amounts to its unconditional surrender. He spoke with Axios in his first interview since signing the document on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC CAPUTO, AXIOS, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: What have you learned about not just the exercise of power, but the limits on your power as a result of the conflict?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are no limits.
CAPUTO: No?
TRUMP: No, not. I haven't learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but, you know, there are no limits. We defeated them totally militarily.
I did a naval blockade when not one ship was able to get through. Some tried. They didn't -- you know, it didn't last very long.
CAPUTO: And it certainly brought Iran to the table more than before. However, beginning of conflict you had talked about you only wanted unconditional surrender. And --
TRUMP: Well --
CAPUTO: -- the MOU doesn't look like unconditional surrender.
TRUMP: Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender.
CAPUTO: It is?
TRUMP: I think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance is postponing his trip to Switzerland for an official U.S.-Iran signing ceremony. The White House cites unresolved logistics.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry says today's planned talks have been canceled. The U.S. military has announced an end to its naval blockade on Iranian ports. But it says American ships will remain in the general area to make sure all aspects of the U.S. agreement with Iran are obeyed.
For more on all of this, I want to bring in our international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. He is in Zurich, Switzerland. I have to start here, of course, with the breaking news that the vice president has canceled his trip to Switzerland. This was supposed to be the signing ceremony, but the memorandum has already been signed. So where is the bump in the road here?
Could you clarify this for me? Is it the memorandum that we're struggling with or is it the 60-day of negotiations? Break it down.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think if we look at the first line of the memorandum of understanding that said that Lebanon was part of the cease fire, and if we look at what's happening in Lebanon today overnight, and if we look at what happened in Lebanon late yesterday, the Iranians have said very clearly to, you know, from their senior political figures to the supreme leader message to the sort of hardliners there, that they're going to stick to the letter of the agreement. And the agreement is that there's a cease fire between the United States and Iran, but that extends to Lebanon as well. And they're not seeing that in Lebanon at the moment. Now, it is understood that there are diplomatic efforts behind the scenes by mediators to try to sort of wrangle the situation out of the escalation that is appears to be happening in Lebanon at the moment. But it has been a very clear red line for Iran, what Israel does in Lebanon when it targets Hezbollah. Just going back to the weekend when it was going to be -- well, when there was an electronic, a virtual signing of the deal, the temperature around the agreement that the Pakistani prime minister, the main mediator had said was agreed. That statement came out as an attempt to try to sort of stop the possibility of an Iranian retaliation for Israel strikes inside of -- inside of Lebanon, Hezbollah targets in Beirut. This is a very, very contentious issue what's happening in Lebanon.
[04:05:36]
Lebanon being part of the cease fire has been an issue since the get go of the original ceasefire that got into the talks in the beginning back in April. The contention then that it was included, wasn't included. It's been made very clear now written into the first paragraph of the memorandum of understanding.
So where do things stand right now? Well, JD Vance said they've -- there's logistical sort of, you know, issues in play here that they're going to have to sort of pause their deployment here to Switzerland to get involved with the attacks. The Iranians didn't make any noise at all, any statements about coming. Neither was it at all clear that the mediators were going to come and join the talks yesterday. So even late yesterday, the situation seemed to be breaking down.
And given the escalation in Lebanon today, perhaps looking to what happens there, how quickly those tensions can be resolved again. And Iran has a strong hand here, now it has leverage and it's sticking to its word of the deal. Then it's going to look to the United States to make sure there's a cease fire in Lebanon sufficient to their standards, likely before they would come and engage in talks. And that does seem to be where we're at today, day 15 or, you know, day 60 of talks yesterday. Now we're not down to 59 days and no talks.
That does not seem to be success so far.
ABDELAZIZ: Not any success so far. And obviously very worrying signs when you're talking about the first day of the 60-day period. A couple of things I want to pass through here with you, Nic. First of all, are officials making it clear that Lebanon is the reason why this has stalled? And second of all, how can the U.S. control this?
This is Israeli action taking place in Lebanon. Israel is not party to the deal. How can they control this behind the scenes?
ROBERTSON: So to bring pressure to bear on Israel not to escalate its strikes, not to strike Beirut, this is something both President Trump has been saying publicly that Israel doesn't need. If it has a suspect in a building in Beirut, it doesn't need to flatten the building. There are other ways to deal with that. JD Vance has been very clear that the united -- that United States is the benefactor of Israel in terms of defense, geopolitically and understanding. That's important so the U.S. can put pressure on Israel.
But also somebody needs to put pressure on Hezbollah. After all, Hezbollah is responsible, has claimed responsibility through certain channels for the attack on the IDF that killed four IDF soldiers. So mediators would look to Iran to put pressure on Hezbollah to stop their attacks on the IDF.
It's very, very tenuous. Then I think the other part is where can the talks go? There is plenty to talk about. That's what the Memorandum of Understanding is all about. There's plenty there to discuss.
Are we going to see a continuing easing of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz? Again, that's very high up in the agreement. Are we going to continue to see the waivers for Iran to be able to sell its energy products on global markets? That's very important to Iran.
There are many ways to measure the sort of progress of the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding. But of course, those talks about the thornier issues, the nuclear issues, all of that is going to be the hard part to get to. And if it's hard because you can't get over the first hurdle because there isn't a full ceasefire that all sides agree to, that is going to dog and make the smooth running of this talks process difficult.
ABDELAZIZ: Nic Robertson there on the struggle at the very first hurdle to implement this Memorandum of Understanding. Thank you so much.
Lawmakers in Washington are not as into the enthusiastic as President Trump about the agreement with Iran. Some top Republicans are expressing their concern actually.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea. And I think unfortunately, the President is receiving some, some really bad advice on this deal.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Everything I've heard about it causes me concern.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Literally everything that President Trump said he was trying to accomplish with this war he has failed to accomplish.
[04:10:01]
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Let's give 60 days to give peace a chance.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Some of the criticism of the MoU is valid, I think, but here's the way I look at it. Without the MoU being signed, there's no pathway to diplomacy to end the nuclear ambitions of Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ABDELAZIZ: Vice President JD Vance says the Trump administration plans to brief lawmakers in the agreement very soon.
I want to take us now to Ukraine, where a massive drone attack on Moscow Thursday marked the largest such offensive on the Russian capital since the conflict began. Video from the incursion captured a massive explosion at a key oil refinery. It was less than 10 miles from the Kremlin. The roof of one structure, as you can see there, was blown straight up in the air. Just take a look.
Moscow's mayor says the city's air defenses shot down nearly 200 drones. And at a NATO meeting in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attacks, quote, "A fully justified response to Russian strikes." The U.S. defense secretary was also at the meeting. Pete Hegseth announced a review of U.S. forces in Europe and scolded his allies for their lack of help with the Iran war.
For more on all of this, I want to bring in our Sebastian Shukla in Berlin. Good morning, Sebastian. How are you today? I just want to begin by talking about that video again that we just played where you see again that massive drone attack just such a short distance away from the Kremlin. You've been talking to your sources about how attacks like this, the ability to inflict damage, are changing the mood inside the E.U.
What are you learning?
SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, well, if we -- if we focus on the attacks, firstly, Salma, some of the images that we saw coming out of Moscow yesterday could only be described as near cataclysmic, apocalyptic in ways, in pictures that we've not seen coming from Russia before. Those huge plumes of black smoke shrouding the city was a reminder to Moscow and to the Kremlin in particular, that the Ukrainians have been able to develop weaponry and long range drone warfare and missiles so significantly that they are really able to hit Russia and Moscow at its heart, to be able to remind the Russian people that, yes, despite what the President tells them on T.V., there is a major war that they are fighting, and it may not be one that they are necessarily winning. The kind of back and forth, the moving picture in the race to arm themselves against each other in this war moves almost on a daily basis. What we see -- appear to see at the moment is that the Ukrainians are really the ones with an upper hand here. But both sides are trading blows like this against each other, Salma.
And it's becoming now one of the questions is do the Russians have enough air defense systems to be able to defend themselves and their people? And now the other question also turns to whether President Putin reacts and what his retaliation will be? It appears to be that he is kind of running out of options militarily here without doing something that is potentially incredibly drastic. But I want you to also take a listen to what the Ukrainian president had to say about the attacks yesterday and what he's calling for from the Europeans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We have the tools and they are strong enough to put Russia on path where diplomacy becomes the only choice. We all see that Putin is now relying on one lasting thing, constant missile attacks. And he has ballistic missiles. So we need anti-ballistic capabilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUKLA: The European, Salma, as you mentioned, are having a meeting today, a summit in Brussels where the heads of state are coming together and Ukraine is going to be one of the major topics of debate. I've been speaking to a couple of E.U. diplomats in Brussels who kind of been telling me that the mood in Brussels has changed very significantly. And as a result of some of these attacks, those pictures from Moscow just yesterday, because they feel that the Ukrainians have the upper hand here. There is now no longer a mood in Brussels where the Ukrainians may need to sue for peace to a certain extent. They feel that actually now is not the time that to engage Moscow at all.
Whilst they feel that more sanctions, continued drone strikes like we've seen from the Ukrainians, and support from the Europeans in procurement of weapons and military products may well be the way to go. There is debate that is starting to percolate through about whether Europe should re engage Moscow in some way. And lots of that is connected to the Iran deal too, where the focus of the Trump administration has been so far so focused on the Middle East now that deal may be in the rearview mirror. There is a feeling and we saw it from the G7 that the focus of the White House and of Donald Trump may be coming back to Ukraine and the Europeans now need to get their ducks in a row. Salma.
[04:15:20]
ABDELAZIZ: Reporting there from Sebastian Shukla about the sense that Ukraine may have the upper hand among European diplomats. Thank you so much.
Arthur is no longer a tropical storm, but it is still wreaking havoc in the South.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHELBY DESHAUTELLE, MOREAUVILLE RESIDENT: We've gone through multiple hurricanes and prepped and this is the worst it's ever been.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: The storm system is expected to continue to drop rain on parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama as well as the western Florida Panhandle and western Georgia through early Saturday. The storm system has dumped heavy rain across the Gulf coast, creating a deadly flood threat. Flooding prompted at least three flash flood emergencies and the highest warning level in Louisiana and Mississippi. Arthur has also produced multiple tornadoes in southeast Louisiana. It will be the Stars and Stripes versus the Socceroos. The U.S. prepares to take on team Australia in today's World Cup action. We can have a preview for you just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:20:20]
ABDELAZIZ: Team USA will be returning to the pitch in the World Cup action today. The Stars and Stripes will be taking on the Socceroos of Australia in Seattle, Washington. And Scotland will face off with Morocco in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Brazil and Haiti are both looking for their first wins as they meet in Philadelphia. And Turkey will take on Paraguay in Santa Clara, California.
There's so much at stake as the U.S. men's team meets Australia. CNN's Coy Wire spoke with some of the players.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, the U.S. and Australia going toe to toe in Seattle with first place on the line. And there is growing concern for American fans not knowing just how fit their star Christian Pulisic might really be as he's dealing with a calf injury he suffered in the opener. Regardless of the team's physical readiness, Tim Weah, says Coach Pochettino definitely has their minds right. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAURICIO POCHETTINO, USMNT COACH: You have that bit of edge that we didn't have before and it's been wonderful.
TIM WEAH, USMNT FORWARD: I think the maturity level, we're much older now. I think, you know, after you get that first World Cup experience, the second one is always a bit easier. Just from a nervousness standpoint.
The mentality that Coach Poch has brought to the team, it has been amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Now we already know that Folarin Balogun or Flo (ph) is already looking to take more upon his shoulders or shall we say foot. His brace in the opener was a huge coming out party on the biggest stage and there are plenty of other playmakers we may see stepping up as well, like Tyler Adams, the vocal leader of this team in his second World Cup. But first, as a dad, I caught up with him at the team's training grounds and asked about how becoming a father has impacted him both on and off the pitch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYLER ADAMS, USMNT MIDFIELDER: It's special. I think it just puts everything into perspective about what really matters. You know, for me, being able to focus and find a balance in my family life and raising kids has allowed me to find a different motivation and discipline on the fields as well. So I think it's helped me grow tremendously. I'm extremely blessed that I got a wife that is amazing and takes care of the two kids while I'm here able to do what I do best.
But yes, it's definitely changed my perspective.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: I told him he knows what real pressure is now, changing dirty diapers. And he and all the guys, quite frankly, certainly had this calm, steady demeanor despite the huge expectations. They told me it's in no small part because of their leader, Mauricio Pochettino.
ABDELAZIZ: Now to that historic New York Knicks win. They celebrated their NBA championship on Thursday with a ticker tip parade through the city. An estimated 2 million fans turned out to celebrate the team with some camping out overnight to secure a spot. It's the Knicks first title since 1973, ending a 53-year championship drought. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani honored the players at City Hall. He presented them with keys to the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: What is New York if not your back up against the wall, a dream that feels just out of reach, a rent payment you don't know how you'll ever make? What is New York if not 99.6 percent of the world stacked against you? And who are New Yorkers if not people who hear those odds and smile, who look at a 0.4 percent chance of success and ask, why are you giving me a head start? This is our city. This is our team.
For 53 years we watched. For 53 years we waited. Now we've won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: I want to go back to our breaking news story. We're following deadly new Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon. And just ahead, we're going to have a live look from the Gulf region at how the conflict with Hezbollah is affecting that U.S. agreement with Iran.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:27:28]
ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. And I want to get you back up to speed on our breaking news this hour. The Lebanese national news agency now says that 18 people have been killed in heavy Israeli airstrikes overnight. The Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
It cites repeated ceasefire violations by the militant group. The IDF also says four Israeli soldiers were killed when an explosive device hit their tank in southern Lebanon. That makes it the single deadliest incident for the Israeli military since the war began about three months ago. The fighting comes amid criticism from U.S. and Israeli lawmakers over the Trump administration's agreement with Iran. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think Bibi himself has actually criticized the deal because I think he's maybe a little bit more familiar with the details of what's in it. But, yes, you've seen people in their system, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who've attacked the deal. And I guess my response to them would be what is your exact proposal? And you know, you're a country of 9 million people, you can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: Following all of this for us is CNN's Paula Hancocks. She's live from Abu Dhabi.
Good morning, Paula. So some really difficult images that we're seeing from Lebanon this morning with at least 16 people killed after a heavy night of Israeli airstrikes. Israel also saying that it's had its deadliest incident for IDF troops since the beginning of this three month conflict. Are we starting to see this memorandum of understanding fall apart before it's even begun? And what can the United States do to contain this conflict on the Lebanon front when Israel is not party to the deal?
PAULA HANCOKCS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Salma, we've long been talking about this issue, the issue of Israel and Hezbollah being potentially the break when it comes to this memorandum. It could become the spoiler as we know that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not feel contained or restrained by this deal when it comes to fighting against Hezbollah. We did hear him on Thursday saying that his priority is to make sure that residents in the north of Israel are protected, that his military will remain in Syria, southern Lebanon, where they have seen this -- these increased hostilities overnight, these deadly hostilities as long as is necessary in order to protect the security of Israel.
