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Trump: Deal Reached For "Complete Disarmament" Of Hamas; Think Tanks Pitches Strait Of Hormuz Management Fee; UEFA Vows To Skip World Cups Over Private Investment Plan. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:32]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's get into the headlines.

President Trump is touting a new agreement with Hamas, but there is still confusion about what this deal really means.

Plus, Iran is launching new strikes on Gulf neighbors. We're going to take you live to the region with the latest.

And FIFA is in crisis, why a new push to privatize the World Cup has stirred up trouble with some of the top teams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from London, this is CNN Newsroom with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: A historic agreement with Hamas. That is what U.S. President Donald Trump is hailing this morning as he says a new deal has been reached to fully disarm Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. The President says the agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases and that once Hamas is disarmed, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Getting Hamas to surrender its weapons is essential to President Trump's plan to end the war there, but Hamas has not yet confirmed that deal.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, which is another militant group in Gaza, said that reports of an agreement were inaccurate. We're also getting reports of new Iranian strikes after Tehran vowed retaliation from the latest wave of U.S. attacks. Iranian state media says that Iran targeted military infrastructure at an air base in Kuwait.

It released this video, apparently showing Iranian forces launching those strikes. Meanwhile, Egypt has been pulled into the conflict for the first time. Egyptian officials say a drone hit one of the country's ports, setting two ships on fire. Now, no one has claimed responsibility, and Iran's foreign minister has urged vigilance in what he called false flag operations designed to undermine regional peace.

For more on all of this, I want to go to our Eleni Giokos. She is standing by live for us from Dubai. Good morning to you, Eleni. So many developments this morning, but let's begin with this announcement from President Trump about a complete disarmament of Hamas. What is Hamas saying? And do we have an actual concrete timeline for weapons handover that's been given to us by Trump officials?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, super important questions. All we know right now is what President Trump is saying, that he says it's a breakthrough agreement. It's historic. It's complete disarmament of Hamas, as well as other armed groups in Gaza, and saying it's going to be in a structured phase.

Now, Hamas has not responded to our request for comment on this agreement, but we do know the Islamic Jihad move, it says that there's inaccuracies with regards to this announcement. What we also know is that Israel has not publicly responded to this. But the Board of Peace says this is a breakthrough. It leads to a roadmap about disarmament of Hamas. And interestingly, also says that Hamas has agreed to an actionable plan for relinquishing its weapons, which will be followed by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. There are questions around the sequencing of this.

We know that this has been one of the biggest sticking points in implementation of the 20-point peace plan. And importantly, who does it first? Does Hamas disarm first? Does Israel start withdrawing? Does it happen in conjunction with both plans? Right now, Board of Peace is saying Hamas needs to do it first.

Interestingly, also Hamas has to release their weapons to the committee, with police weapons transferred first and then personal weapons last. That is according to the Board of Peace. The sticking points really remain in place. But this potentially opens up room for the International Stabilization Force to enter Gaza for the creation of a Palestinian-led government.

We're a lot of time away from that because it is about implementation and there's always been an issue in terms of how this plays out and what kind of action on the ground needs to take hold. And of course, political will, frankly, Salma, from both sides. It's also important to mention that Hamas earlier this month announced that they plan to dissolve its government.

And this also put a lot of pressure on Israel in terms of trying to find a way forward on the 20-point peace plan, which basically has been stuck in limbo for quite some time.

[04:05:10]

ABDELAZIZ: And separately, Eleni, I want to ask you, of course, about the widening conflict with Iran this morning. Tehran is saying that it targeted military infrastructure at an airbase in Kuwait. Was this American infrastructure? What are you learning about these attacks?

GIOKOS: Yes, so it's an airbase in Kuwait and Kuwait has experienced multiple strikes just this week. I also just want to point out that CENTCOM hasn't announced any strikes on Iran overnight. That's after extensive strikes Wednesday leading into Thursday. But Iran has been retaliating against its Gulf neighbors. So it's this attack, this attempted strike on its airbase in Kuwait, releasing this video showing clearly it still has military capabilities, wanting to send a signal to the United States.

But also there was a deadly attack in Kuwait yesterday. One person died, extensive damage to Chinese-owned infrastructure in Kuwait. And also five other missiles were intercepted that were heading towards Jordan yesterday. The question now becomes what happens in terms of the U.S. response? We saw a pause in fighting on Saturday of 13 days of consecutive strikes. This week has been interesting. You've seen the proxy network being activated and Iran clearly pushing back strongly on Gulf neighbors. Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: Eleni Giokos there on the fast-moving developments in the region. Thank you so much for keeping us across that.

The other aspect of course of this widening conflict with Iran is shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which remains extremely low amid these renewed tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Maritime traffic reports just 15 commercial ships passed through the channel on Thursday. That's only one more than Wednesday.

Now to have a comparison here, only about 120 ships crossed every day before the war. And Reuters reports a Qatari vessel carrying liquefied natural gas has passed through the state -- strait. This is for the first time in nearly three weeks. Iran says it plans to keep the strait closed as long as U.S. threats and interference continue.

To discuss this further, joining me now from Paris is Mehran Haghirian. He is the executive director of research and programs at the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I was so fascinated to read your paper that you published earlier this month. It was titled, How a Hormuz Fee Could Work, where you essentially lay out what you call a viable solution, a workable model, a way to resolve the conflict, the deadlock in the strait. Walk me through that model and lay out the solution that you describe in your paper.

MEHRAN HAGHIRIAN, EXEC. DIR. OF RESEARCH AND PROGRAMS, BOURSE & BAZAAR FDN.: Thanks for having me and thanks for your interest in our paper. So my colleague and I, we came up with this proposal not to basically add a tolling mechanism to the strait, because that's something that is obviously unacceptable. But to learn from the text of the MOU itself, point five of the MOU basically stipulates that Iran has a right to come up with arrangements for the safe passage for the initial 60 days.

But it also stipulates that Iran needs to engage in dialogue with Oman, as well as engaging discussions with the other five Persian Gulf literal states on the future administration of the strait, let's say beyond the 60 days. That basically enforces a regional mechanism, one way or another, for dialogue on this future administration. Obviously, Iran and Oman have been engaged in dialogue since the beginning of the talks after the signing of the MOU and even before that on how to come up with a compromise solution.

Obviously, Oman is part of the U.N. Convention. Iran is not. And Oman is also representing, let's say, the interests of the other GCC states and arguably the larger international community in its dialogue with Iran. So the way we came up with this proposal is actually not to look at tolling, but to look at how service fees could be applied. And particularly, what we're looking at is imposing these service fees to the very large crude carriers, the oil tankers that cross the Strait of Hormuz. Approximately 900 VLCCs exist around the world.

And let's say 600 of them go to the Gulf and basically pick up oil from the ports around the Gulf. If we look at it this way, around only within the consideration of only 20 million barrels of oil crossing the Strait every day, only 2,000 payments would largely be made, let's say, in a year if we just look at these 2,000 pickup calls, let's say, of oil. And if we also want to look at it in an annual approach, it's going to be only 600.

[04:10:02]

So the way we looked at this was that, for example, the Port of Rotterdam adds an $0.08 sustainability fee that gets added to those costs. If we applied the same method with that very minimal amount, we would only see around $60 million annually coming out of this, let's say, fee that would be shared across the eight states through an institutionalized approach. Even if we increase that amount, let's say, obviously, there's these discussions about million dollars per passage or by tons or by value or other considerations.

But if we even increase it to $1 million --

ABDELAZIZ: This is such an interesting idea that you have of this. If you don't mind me just asking here as a counterpoint, because this is such an interesting idea. You're talking about a multilateral administrative body, a shared fee that would be across several nations. You're talking about eight nations.

But here's the obvious counterpoint. President Trump has again and again rejected any toll imposed by Tehran. Realistically, do you think this idea could gain any traction in D.C. or even in the GCC, for that matter? Is this simply theoretical?

HAGHIRIAN: Again, there's a clear distinction between tolling and a service fee, and service fees are really applied all over the place for various different considerations, be it for shipping or even you can consider aviation, for example.

When you are purchasing a ticket, you would see all these different costs that are added. Technically, everyone agrees to them because that's now the new norm because you need to pay for these services that are being added on. Now we have the sustainability fees as well.

So obviously, the services that are being rendered in the Strait have costs themselves. And the argument is, why hasn't there been one until now? And that's again because of the situation of the region. It wasn't really conducive to an environment where it would allow for regional dialogue to even take place.

ABDELAZIZ: Mehran Haghirian, thank you so much for laying that out for us. I'm so sorry we've run out of time. But thank you so much for explaining and talking us through that very interesting idea. Thank you so much.

HAGHIRIAN: Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: World Football's governing body, FIFA, is now locked in a standoff with European football's top authority. And FIFA appears to be calling UEFA's bluff after the Europeans threatened to boycott all future World Cups. They're angry over a new FIFA proposal to sell a significant stake in its biggest competitions from UEFA, "some things are simply too important to sell."

The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale. But FIFA says, "Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain." FIFA added that it is moving forward with its controversial plan to launch a subsidiary FIFA forward enterprise in which private investors would get about a 20 percent stake.

World Sports' Christina Macfarlane explains what's at stake in this power struggle.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN SENIOR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this is a huge, momentous decision and a strong rebuke from UEFA to what Gianni Infantino was planning to do here, which essentially was to commercialize the World Cup through private sales to private entities and without notifying any of its members, its leaders or even members in Gianni Infantino's inner circle. We're told that, you know, even some of his vice presidents didn't actually know what he was planning with this FIFA forward enterprise.

So the 55 to zero unanimous decision you saw was essentially an outrage from its members that they've been blindsided by this decision, in addition to the fact that they feel that Gianni Infantino is attempting to sell the soul here of world football. What we're watching for now is whether or not confederations like CONCACAF, like the Asia Football Confederation, are going to follow suit here and maybe look for a boycott as well, to add to what UEFA is doing. We're hearing that CONCACAF are holding an emergency meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

We have no idea if that is to hold some sort of vote for a boycott or not. And, you know, it's noteworthy that we have heard from Asia's confederation in the last few days roundly criticizing Gianni Infantino. They've been one of his biggest backers in the past. The fact that this represents a split in this support for him could be significant, because if these two confederations alone go the way of UEFA, well, not only could we see Gianni Infantino losing support for this business deal, this FFE, but he could also lose support for his leadership in his presidency, too. And I think many are viewing this moment as a referendum, really, on his time as FIFA president, on his leadership, as we look ahead to that FIFA presidential elections in March.

ABDELAZIZ: President Trump's close relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino has long been on display, and now Joshua Kushner, the brother of the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is part of the private investment group that wants a piece of the action. We asked Sports City Podcast host Randall Williams, how is that being received?

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[04:15:17]

RANDALL WILLIAMS, SENIOR REPORTER, BUSINESS OF SPORTS, BLOOMBERG NEWS: UEFA and many members of football organizations around the world have long felt uncomfortable with FIFA's cozying up with President Trump, and this is just another part of that. You know, I think if you're going to raise money, you want to have a lot of different conversations with potential investors, with other private equity firms. And Bloomberg has previously reported that that didn't happen, that this was being discussed for many months, even before the World Cup began.

And then you think about the things that also occurred. President Trump was given a FIFA Peace Prize. And then, you know, 30 days later, we seized the Venezuelan president, 90 days later, we went to war in Iran. And so all of this has left everyone feeling very, very uncomfortable. Now you're talking about raising $4.2 billion and giving everybody a piece of this.

And UEFA and CONCACAF and I imagine many more football organizations are going to be like, wait a second, stop right here. Let's take a deep breath and let the World Cup end before we start trying to make even more money for next year's event.

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ABDELAZIZ: Thousands of migrants desperate for a better life make a dash for the Spanish border. But as some break through, others pay the ultimate price. That story is ahead.

Plus, Europe is battling devastating wildfires as temperatures continue to soar. Ahead, a French resident speaks to CNN after his house was engulfed in flames. This and more right here.

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ABDELAZIZ: Chaotic scenes in the Spanish territory of Ceuta as migrants rush across the border from Morocco, Spain's Interior Ministry estimates 49,000 have crossed just in the past 24 hours. Now, officials say at least nine people died as the crowd pushed in on Thursday, with border guards unable to stop them. There are very similar scenes in another Spanish enclave, Melilla, where the border with Morocco is now reportedly closed.

Spain has deployed the military in Ceuta, and the Spanish prime minister will head there in the coming hours. Both enclaves are located on the Moroccan coast. Across from Spain, they have often been targets for African migrants who see them as entryways into Europe.

Now, it is still unclear what caused that sudden rush across the border that you saw there, but the incident is raising the diplomatic temperature between Spain and Italy. The Spanish foreign minister says he has summoned the Italian ambassador after he criticized Spain's migration policy.

Wildfires are spreading across Europe as temperatures continue to soar. A fire broke out in the U.K. on Wednesday on England's eastern coast. Officials evacuated residents of nearby communities and closed roadways. The blaze, which is one of the largest the region has seen, is just a few miles north of nuclear facilities. One area resident worries about what is to come.

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JUDE BAYLY, EVACUEE: Well, I feel incredibly emotional. I feel every time I speak to a son or my husband, I feel very weepy. And that's just shock, I would imagine. And the devastation of this area, which is a natural beauty, and the wildlife is just awful. And I understand that this area may take, after this fire, decades to recover. And this is obviously going to be a repeating cycle with climate change the way it is.

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ABDELAZIZ: This satellite imagery shows the impact recent wildfires have had on the Greek islands of Crete and Paros. The images you see there show the islands before and after the fires. The after images show smoke billowing over the sea, with darkened areas showing the devastation path of the fire.

In France, tinder dry conditions are fueling massive wildfires. Temperatures are soaring throughout the region. On Wednesday, Paris saw temperatures that were above 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Conditions on Friday are expected to be a bit cooler at 29 degrees Celsius or 84 Fahrenheit. The heat is contributing to fires all across Europe. CNN's Melissa Bell is on the front lines.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what the village of Le Porge in Southwestern France looked like a week ago. These videos, filmed by Mathieu Plessis, one of a handful of locals who stayed behind to try and help firefighters.

MATHIEU PLESSIS, LE PORGE RESIDENT (through text translation): There were flames jumping of over a kilometer. We had flames 25 meters high or even taller. It was -- well, it was the apocalypse.

BELL (voice-over): By Friday morning, however, this was all that was left of his home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): We're at my home. We're ay my family home.

BELL (through text translation): You've been here for seven generations, and this is what's left.

PLESSIS (through text translation): But the next morning, when we came back, everything was still burning.

BELL (through text translation): What was the inside that house, which has belonged to your family for generations?

PLESSIS (through text translation): My whole life. There was an aquarium fish. I had a snake in a terrarium. I couldn't save it. I couldn't save everything. Everything burned, even the animals. It breaks my heart.

BELL (voice-over): Some locals hear accused authorities of sending firefighters elsewhere just when the fire hit hardest for them. As it spread, they were engulfed and felt abandoned as firefighters raced towards the popular tourist hotspot of the Cape Ferret Peninsula.

PLESSIS (through text translation): Everyone deserves to have their home saved, to have their living space saved, whether they're rich or poor. We're all human beings.

BELL (voice-over): His neighbors didn't fare much better. Many of their houses were destroyed as well. Overall, in the village of Le Porge, 180 houses were destroyed, making it the hardest hit by the Gironde fire.

[04:24:59]

BELL: That trail of devastation that led to Le Porge began here just over a week ago at ground zero of the Gironde fire. And here on the outskirts of the village of Saumos, you get an idea as well of just how violent it was.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Saumos.

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ABDELAZIZ: We're following a developing story out of Pakistan. That's where the bodies of four mountain climbers have been recovered after an avalanche. At least six other climbers are still missing. Rescue teams in helicopters and on the ground are searching Broad Peak in the Karakoram mountain range. None of the recovered victims have been identified yet. Communication with the group of 10 climbers was lost after the avalanche on Thursday. Among them is the world-renowned Nepalese climber Nirmal Purja. He made history in 2019 by climbing 14 of the world's tallest peaks in just over six months.

An American woman named Mallory Geis is also among those climbers. For more on all of this, we're joined now by Mike Valerio. He is live in Beijing. Thank you so much for joining us. It's very disturbing to hear that just in the last hour, four bodies have been recovered. Are these search and rescue operations now turning into recovery operations? What are you learning?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, we don't have a clarification on the name. They're just being called search efforts, Salma. But I think that's such a great question. And we do, within the past hour, in terms of updating everybody following the story, we have a new effort from China to help since Broad Peak is on the border of Pakistan and China, up the street from where our bureau is in Beijing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, making that clear that they want to help if need be.

And also search teams are reporting clear conditions today, expected throughout the rest of the weekend. So that should certainly help their efforts. And the GPS coordinates of four people who are part of this effort were also showing four search teams. The roster of people who were part of this climb, in addition to Nims Purja, the very celebrated climber, we have people from Nepal, Pakistan, Oman, climber from the United States, who mentioned in the introduction to the story, and one person from China. So certainly an international story.

And where this is, if you're looking at the map, there we go, at least I see it on my little delay. We're talking about the far western fringes of China, the far eastern part of Pakistan, right on the border. This mountain, the tallest in the world, Broad Peak, is about the height of 18 empire state buildings in New York, stacked one on top of the other, about 10 Burj Khalifas in Dubai, stacked one on top of the other. And the effort here, Salma, this is Nims Purja saying that if he were to be successful climbing this mountain, and then one other mountain in the Himalayas, he wrote on X before this climb, that would make him the only person to summit the 14 tallest mountains on earth twice.

So quite a Herculean feat that this was part of. And then finally wrapping up here, as the search continues, as we work on the story from three cities, be it Beijing, Hong Kong, or Islamabad, we just look at the X post that Nims put up before he made this climb, writing with a lot of humility about the treacherous nature of summiting Broad Peak. He wrote, "Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and down, up and back down. I take zero mountains for granted. Not one. The moment my foot leaves base camp, it's 100 percent always has been, always will be."

So plenty of unanswered questions in terms of is this still a rescue? Has it shifted to recovery? I think that the searchers just don't know. They're hoping -- they're holding as much optimism as they possibly can, but such a harrowing storyline from such a celebrated climber and his team, Selma.

ABDELAZIZ: Mike Valerio in Beijing there on the latest on those search efforts as we know them to be. Thank you so much.

The future of Ukraine's production of U.S. patriot missiles could be in limbo, just as the country needs the most. That story is ahead.

[04:29:17] Plus, a man who witnessed a fatal ICE shooting is breaking his silence. Why he says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is lying about how Jose Salgado was killed.

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