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CNN International: Iran Fires Missiles At Jordan After U.S. Hits Five IRGC Tankers; Report: Netanyahu Was Warned Of Hamas Attack Before October 7; Air Traffic Control Outage Disrupts Flights At U.K. Airports; Spain Expected To Declassify Reports On Ceuta Migrant Crisis. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 09, 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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[04:00:36]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York.

And ahead here on "CNN Newsroom," tit for tat attacks. Iran fires a barrage of missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan after the U.S. military struck several Iranian oil tankers.

And travel chaos in the U.K. as an air traffic control breakdown cancels more than a thousand flights and leaves passengers stranded.

Plus, Europe's migrant crisis putting a strain on resources in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. We'll be speaking with an NGO about the humanitarian crisis there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval."

SANDOVAL: We begin with Iran as it threatens further retaliation after U.S. Central Command said that its forces struck five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tankers, sinking one.

CENTCOM says that the strikes were in response to Iran's attempts -- attempts to attack a U.S. Navy ship twice over the past two days. And Iran has since responded launching a barrage of missiles of its own, targeting a key Jordanian air base that's used by U.S. forces. Jordan says that 18 of the 20 missiles were intercepted and that no casualties have been reported there.

Tehran has also threatened to target oil tankers near Bahrain and Kuwait's ports.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us live from Abu Dhabi with the latest. Hey, Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Polo. Well, certainly what we're seeing at the moment is the battle between the U.S. and Iran being played out in the waters. The Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman. This is where we are seeing the U.S. military attacking tankers, Iranian crude oil tankers, saying it is after the Iranian Navy tried to attack the U.S. Navy warship twice over two days saying that missiles were fired.

Now, Central Command says that the -- that the -- the warship did manage to evade these attacks. It carried on with its patrolling of these waters with this naval blockade that it's in place.

But we did see from the footage that was released to -- to us by the U.S. military that one of those vessels, the Iranian vessels was on fire. It sunk in the waters. One of them was hit just about four miles off Kharg Island which is critical to the Iranian energy industry. The -- the islands copes with about 90 percent of crude oil exports for Iran

Now, we saw something similar last weekend where there were three Iranian vessels that were targeted. The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about this. This is his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: That Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships. And for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers. And I think you'll see that again today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Shadow network that is funding the -- the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard.

Now, Iran has retaliated. There has been missiles that were fired towards what they said were U.S. assets in Jordan. The Jordanian military says that some 20 ballistic missiles were fired towards them.

They successfully destroyed 18, two fell in -- in remote areas. It's a significant number compared to what we have seen in recent weeks.

Now, that was the military side of what we've seen in the past 24 hours. When it comes to the economics as well, the U.S. has added more sanctions against Iran, this time, focusing on the aviation industry saying some 27 Iranian airlines have been sanctioned.

Also, some of the service industries and the agents from other countries that are helping the Iranian aviation industry.

There's been a response from Tehran to these latest sanctions. I'll read you part of it from the Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi. He has said, quote, "After 47 years of sanctions, the U.S. went to war with Iran on behalf of Israel. The fallout has been disastrous for America including its standing worldwide after failing to achieve its aims through sanctions or war. Washington's novel solution is more sanctions. Seriously?"

[04:05:04] So, this is the point that Tehran has made consistently when it comes to the so-called economic D-Day that the U.S. treasury secretary announced recently talking about trying to isolate economically the Iranian regime, saying that they have dealt with these sanctions for decades and have managed to continue to survive.

We are hearing, though, increasing messages through state media of how people on the ground in -- in Iran are struggling. The economy is taking a -- a -- a hit, certainly, whether from these sanctions or the naval blockade or the attacks (CROSSTALK) that have come over the past six months, there is an economic impact.

Polo.

SANDOVAL: Our Paula Hancocks, as always, thank you so much for that reporting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing new political backlash over the October 7th Hamas attack. A new report is alleging that he was warned about a major Hamas operation a week and a half before the attack took place.

CNN's Oren Liebermann with more.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: This report from the "Haaretz" newspaper says that about 10 days before October 7th, 2023 and the Hamas-led attack on that day, the UAE ruler, Mohammed bin Zayed, called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and gave him a warning that Hamas was planning some sort of operation, described as an earthquake.

According to the report, MBZ knew this because intermediaries that had been working negotiations between Israel and Hamas had been warned by Hamas' then leader, Yahya Sinwar, who apparently was upset by the pace of ongoing talks, that he was planning something major.

The warning was serious enough that it went from the intermediaries who passed it on to MBZ, according to the "Haaretz" report, who then called Netanyahu, and in a 45-minute phone call about a week and a half before October 7th, warned him that Hamas was planning some sort of major operation that could destabilize the region.

According to the "Haaretz" report, Netanyahu was relatively calm, felt that he had Hamas and Gaza under control and was more worried about the occupied West Bank and other fronts here.

Well, Netanyahu's office put out a statement calling the report an absolute lie, while his spokespeople have said, this is an attempt to alter the elections with less than two months -- two months ago before critical elections, except this bombshell report is already making major political waves here in Israel.

The main opposition parties have put out a rare joint statement calling for a, quote, "immediate and thorough investigation" into the report and what they describe as Netanyahu's, quote, "failures and malfunctioning."

Of course, one of the definitive ways to know if there really was a phone call is from the UAE and if the UAE foreign ministry put out a statement. Well, they did. And one thing they didn't do in that statement is deny the report itself or the existence of that 45-minute phone call and the week and a half before October 7.

The UAE foreign ministry says they, quote, do not comment on media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders, and that there have been an -- or ongoing talks between the intelligence agencies.

One of the other ways to definitively answer what happened here, and whether this phone call happened, whether Netanyahu did get a warning before October 7 and chose not to act, would be an independent state commission of inquiry.

That would give a definitive answer on the truth of this matter here, except Netanyahu has absolutely refused a state commission of inquiry for nearly three years now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Oren Liebermann, thank you.

And the U.K., France, and Canada have announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The leaders of all three nations also issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to a two- state solution.

And the coordinated effort includes bans on goods imported from the settlements and also enforcing measures against parties that facilitate or profit from them.

And the British foreign secretary is condemning Israel's actions in the occupied territory accusing what he calls settler terrorists of committing what he describes as ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.

Israel has strongly denied the accusations and is vowing retaliatory measures.

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GIDEON SA'AR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: The accusations made today by the foreign secretary in the British Parliament were outrageous lies.

Let me make this clear from the outset, we have nothing against the British people. We know that we have many friends in Britain. Unfortunately, a hostile Labour government is in office systematically acting against the state of Israel. And it has left us with no choice but to finally respond to its hostile actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: All right. So, part of those response that he referred to is the Israel announcing the closing of the British Consulate in East Jerusalem. Diplomats were told that they will be losing their accreditation within 30 days, according to Israeli officials.

[04:10:05]

And Reuters is reporting that U.K. representatives in Ramallah, West Bank and those assigned to the U.S.-led Gaza coordination in Israel must leave within days.

And flight disruptions are expected to continue today at British airports. And that includes at that busy Heathrow Airport, this after an hours long air traffic control outage cost widespread delays, as well as cancellations on Tuesday.

And the company that runs the system said that the issue had been fixed, but delays are still ongoing.

CNN's Clare Sebastian joins me live from London.

Clare, is any end in sight for all of this travel trouble?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, the situation today, Polo, is better than it was yesterday, but certainly, the airports are telling passengers to check their -- with their airlines before they travel and warning that disruptions and cancellations.

And we do still see cancellations happening this morning that they are continuing because, of course, the airlines have to now clear this massive backlog after Tuesday's disruption, which saw more than a thousand flights cancelled, many more delayed, passengers getting stuck after having been diverted to other cities.

We can show you, I think, some footage of the scene at Zurich Airport on Tuesday after an Air India flight was unable to make it all the way to London. Passengers stranded there.

So, of course, that backlog, that disruption will take a while. It will take a while to get those passengers onto other flights and onto their final destinations. This is what happens when you see these hours-long disruptions.

In terms of what this was, this was according to NATS, which is the National Air Traffic Services, this is the leading provider of air traffic services in the U.K. It was a problem with their flight processing system, essentially the sort of back-end computer system which handles massive amounts of data related to flights and feeds it to the air traffic control as part of the sort of system, the plumbing, of flying that we don't see and take for granted. Frankly, that had -- had a problem. It took longer than they hoped to fix, according to the CEO of NATS.

And so that's why we see the extent of the disruption. But that company will be facing major questions. The CEO has been summoned by the British transport minister this morning.

This isn't the first time they've had problems. There was an issue with the radar-related system in the summer of 2025. In the summer of 2023, we saw a major issue related to another part of the computer system.

So, they are facing calls now for adding extra contingency into their system. And there's been a fair bit of anger from the airlines because, of course, they are on the hook to look after passengers, and to, in some cases, pay compensation or find alternative flights when this happens.

The CEO of -- of Ryanair has called on what they called the overpaid failing NATS CEO to quit. So, anger is increasing here, and especially, I think, because this is not the first time we've seen this issue.

SANDOVAL: Yes. These outages, Clare, remind us of how -- how delicate these systems are. It takes just one thing to go wrong, and then you have these crowds of travelers stuck at airports.

Clare Sebastian, following those developments for us. Thank you so much, Clare.

And still much more ahead here on "CNN Newsroom," including we have latest about thousands of migrants who remain in Spain's Ceuta enclave.

Also, we bring you up to speed on politics as Trump gets ready to kick off midterm convention in Texas. We'll talk about who will be speaking and who won't.

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[04:15:24]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom."

The turmoil in the Middle East continues to have an impact on global oil prices with oil prices hitting $100 a barrel as this Mideast conflict continues to mess with markets. These are some of the live numbers where you see both Brent Crude and WTI index numbers just under $100. But this was the first time since July that these prices actually soared to that symbolic point of $100. We'll continue to follow those numbers, of course, as trading continues.

And the U.S. midterm elections, they are less than just two months away. And then Republicans could be on track to pick up an extra House seat from Missouri.

A federal court has ruled that the state must use a congressional map withdrawn last year to favor the GOP. And that follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that was just a few hours earlier in a separate case, which rejected a new map.

Missouri's attorney general, who is Republican, says that changing the map from the primary to the general election is not feasible and profoundly unjust. The group's challenging the Republican friendly map have appealed. And they've also begun filing a series of emergency motions as they try to pause the lower court's order.

President Trump is gearing up for his Republican midterm convention. It is set for today and Thursday in Dallas, Texas.

The president pumping up the event on Truth Social claiming that it's "really hot," he says, and "totally sold out," he claims. And that "everybody wants to be there."

Well, he plans to speak both nights. We should mention that some Republicans are choosing to skip that convention. Some key Republicans actually are choosing to do so.

And President Trump is, again, continuing to gear up for this. In fact, he plans to speak both nights. But a number of candidates in key races, they have said that they're skipping this convention. They're privately questioning whether the extravaganza actually strikes the right tone amid some of the tight budgets that Americans are experiencing right now.

And also the wisdom of spending time away from campaigning in their districts just weeks away from election day.

Politics was clearly on the president's mind as he paid tribute to 9/11 first responders. He spoke on Tuesday at a ceremony near the White House praising the heroes who bravely ran toward danger during the 2001 terror attacks.

But he managed to get in a now familiar dig against Democrats during his remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our law enforcement holds our country together in light of some threats. We have some very real threats right now. We have people that want to go a different way. They want to go a communistic way. Well, that's not going to work.

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[04:20:11]

SANDOVAL: Spain's government is expected to release declassified reports about a mass border crossing which took place at the end of July in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa.

And the release comes after criticism of how the Spanish government handled that crisis and claims that alleging -- that officials ignored warnings about a potential mass influx of migrants.

More than 70,000 migrants rushed to border that day in hopes of starting a new life in the enclave. The mass move was triggered when Spain's Supreme Court made a ruling on migrant returns.

The enclave's leader now calling on the European Union for help in repatriating those migrants who still remain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JUAN JESUS VIVAS, CEUTA PRESIDENT (through translator): On two occasions, Morocco has used border control and migrant pressure to challenge the territory of integrity of Ceuta, Spain, in Europe.

We believe that cannot be tolerated. We believe it must provoke a firm response from Europe. Telling Morocco that if we want a fruitful and mutually beneficial policy of cooperation, it must be based on respect. And respect begins with respecting our border and respecting our territorial integrity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And about -- about 10,000 migrants -- 10,000 migrants remain in Ceuta whose population is only about 80,000 people. Now, tensions do continue escalating between locals and overcrowded public areas where migrants are facing some dire living conditions.

Joining me now is Catalina Perazzo. She's the Director of Influence and Regional Development for Save the Children. Catalina, thank you so much for joining us.

CATALINA PERAZZO, DIRECTOR OF INFLUENCE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SAVE THE CHILDREN: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: So, Spain's Prime Minister recently reported that some 5,000 migrants remain in that Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

How many of them are unaccompanied minors? And I know those numbers are -- are difficult to track, since technically, there's some minors who haven't had a chance to register with the government?

PERAZZO: Exactly. That's one of the main issues right now that we have around 1,800 children who are already in the child protection system.

But we still have hundreds, maybe even thousands children still living on the streets, which is without access to adequate protection, food, or hygiene facilities.

SANDOVAL: If you could just expand on those conditions, Catalina, and also what kind of support, if any, do they get? Are they from local officials? Or are they from some of the NGOs on the ground? Or maybe even residents?

PERAZZO: Mm-hmm. What we're seeing on the ground is that many of these children are still being held by local NGOs or even neighbors associations. They are in informal settlements that are, well, they are given one food, one meal a day.

They have a pretty bad water conditions. And this is all having a real impact on their health, and especially their mental health. We're talking about girls being assaulted at night. And no institutional response being given, because they are not being identified as children who are in need of protection.

And this is -- well, this is urgent. And the protection of all these children is not going to happen, unless they are transferred to other regions in Spain.

SANDOVAL: For folks around the world who may be watching this, perhaps not following this as closely, perhaps answer the question of how they got there in the first place during this -- this rush that we saw take place in -- in -- in July.

PERAZZO: Well, children, migrant children, have arrived in Ceuta for many, many years. They do that walking or swimming.

In this case, we received thousands of children. They all came within the Earth (ph) that came -- that we are seeing right now on the screen.

And some of them came with their families, but some of them came on their own or with friends. The thing is that what we are seeing is that they swam here from Morocco, or they did a longer -- a longer way from Sub-Saharan countries, for example, from Sudan or other Sub- Saharan countries that -- which means that their -- their trip, their way, was much longer, and they have been exposed to risks and violence for a longer time.

[04:25:00]

SANDOVAL: And then just quickly, is it international law that prevents the Spanish government from returning some of these young people, in some cases, children to their country of origin?

PERAZZO: What the law establishes, both, the European, the Spanish law, it's that every decision has to be individual. This means that you have to assess the circumstances of every child.

And -- and this is based on the best interest of that child. You have to decide on what's the best solution or a girl or a boy that's here. And you have to take into account the family situation. You have to listen to the child and then you have to coordinate with the authorities in the country of origin if that is what is the best solution.

But return is one of the solutions. The -- what we are trying to -- well, to -- to -- to focus on is that the solution cannot be collective, not systematic. You cannot decide to return all children, but it's -- but that is like that in the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, the European law and the Spanish law.

SANDOVAL: It is an extremely complicated situation for all involved.

Catalina Perazzo, as always, thank you so much for all that important nuance. Thank you for your time.

PERAZZO: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: And still a lot more on the way here on "CNN Newsroom," including more on President Trump's latest threats towards Canada and also that escalating trade war. A look at the wider impact, after the break.

Plus, investigators sharing some new details about the deadly Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami. An update, on the way.

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