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Hamas: Political Chief Ismail Haniyeh Killed In Tehran, Harris Holds Rally In Key State Of Georgia. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:40]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin this morning with major breaking news out of the Middle East. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Tehran. According to Hamas, Haniyeh was killed during an Israeli strike on his residence with a Hamas official saying his death, quote, will not pass in vain.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reacting to this news overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't have anything for you on that. It will certainly -- we've heard the reporting, but I don't have any additional information to provide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And just moments ago, Iran Supreme leader vowing to avenge the killing of Haniyeh, writing in a statement, quote, you killed our dear guest in our house, and now have paved the way for your harsh punishment. We consider it our duty to ask for the blood of our dear guests.

CNN has reporters all across the region as the story continues to developments. CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Lebanon, but we're going to start first with CNN's Jeremy Damond, who is in Israel.

Jeremy, what are you hearing from Israeli officials this morning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica is really officials are not confirming that they were responsible for this assassination in the heart of Tehran, but as saying that they do not comment on reports in the foreign media, but Hamas, as well as Iranian state media are confirming that Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in building in Tehran.

The Iranian state media saying that it was an airborne guided projectile that was fired at the building where he was staying. Hamas describing it as an airstrike.

What is clear is that Ismail Haniyeh is dead, the target of quite brazen assassination by (AUDIO GAP) which certainly raises the stakes for this region.

We just need to take stock of what has happened just the last few days as we have watched, really tectonic shifting of the situation in this region. After earlier this weekend, Hezbollah carried out a rocket attack on the Golan Heights. Israel (AUDIO GAP) you saw that response play out last night as Fu'ad Shukr, a Hezbollah senior military commander, was taken out in an Israeli strike. And within the very same 24-hour period, Israel appears to have then taken this assassination out in Tehran on Hamas's political leader.

So not only is this potentially pushing this region closer to the brink of war, a region that was already very much on edge but in addition to that, this will also have significant implications on those ongoing ceasefire and hostage release talks earlier this week, Israel submitted its response to those going negotiations, but for the short term, at least, I think its very clear that those negotiations are going to go absolutely nowhere now.

Ismail Haniyeh with the key interlocutor with the Qataris, the mediators in these negotiations. And we will have to see in the medium and the long term what the impact will be. But at least for now, it appears that those ceasefire negotiations, the momentum and at least has been lost -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond for us in Israel, thank you so much for that reporting.

And this breaking news coming just hours after a Hezbollah commander was killed in Lebanon. According to Israeli Defense Forces, an airstrike near Beirut killed Hezbollah commander Fu'ad Shukr. An IDF spokesperson saying that strike was in retaliation for an attack earlier this week in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children at a soccer field.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us now, live from Beirut.

Ben, what are you hearing from Lebanese leaders are leaders in Beirut about this attack this morning?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this attack this morning comes its sort of a double shock after what happened yesterday, just before 8:00 p.m. local time when that senior military commander of Hezbollah was assassinated in the southern suburbs, although Hezbollah has yet to confirm that.

We've gotten a statement from Hezbollah which describes Ismail Haniyeh, the assassinated Hamas leader in Tehran as one of the great resistance leaders of our present era. They put out a statement saying that: We in Hezbollah share with our dear brothers in the Hamas movement all the feelings of pain over the loss of this great leader, the feelings of anger at the enemy's crime.

[05:05:07]

Now, also this morning, the Iranian ambassador here in Beirut has given a press conference. He said that Iran does not seek war, but does not accept the region falls prey to the United States and Israel. So we're really teetering on the brink of something much larger. There's already in the sense, multiple fronts in this war. There's, of course, Gaza where more than 40,000 people have been killed in the last ten months.

The border between Israel and Lebanon has been a battle zone. Also since last October, you have the Houthis who have interfered with navigation in the Red Sea. You have pro Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq, did occasionally fire toward Israel or U.S. bases in the region.

So, sort of the stage is set for potentially a much greater conflict. Now that Israelis appeared to have assassinated in the heart of the Iranian capital Tehran, the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, a man who was actively engaged in the negotiation process for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

So, as Jeremy rightly pointed out, that process, the possibility of a ceasefire that possibility of the release of those hostages is now very much back burner -- Jessica.

DEAN: Ben Wedeman for us in Beirut, thank you very much for that reporting.

And for more on this breaking news, let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier and CNN chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh.

Good morning to both of you.

Kim, let's start first with you. This is -- this is a very significant 48 hours that we've seen -- really weaken even back up to the week with the attack on the Golan Heights that killed those 12 children. And now what has followed after this.

We have the killing of this Hezbollah top military commander in Beirut and now the Hamas political leader in Tehran.

Set the stage for us, where we are this morning as everyone is waking up. How this conflict has evolved?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Had it stayed just at the presumed killing of Fu'ad Shukr inside Beirut, this might have been for tat gone back to his below attacking Israeli military targets on the border.

Now that it presumably Israel has escalated to killing the political leader of Hamas inside Tehran, we've got a number of layers of complications. By hitting them inside Iran, this man was an official Iranian guest, as well as, of course, as U.S. and Israeli officials tell us, a proxy for Iran.

But he was also the more moderate wing of the party. He was the one who most of the peace talks were going through. He'd actually been one of the few voices within Hamas urging a more political track as opposed to Yahya Sinwar and the military wing inside Gaza that masterminded October 7. Haniyeh and many of those in Qatar, the Hamas leaders in Qatar, had said they weren't part of the October 7 planning. That they weren't aware of it.

And now that moderate, potentially moderate voice is off the stage, and that leaves Israel -- that leaves Iran and Hezbollah wanting some sort of revenge against Israel.

Will lead to something like the 300-missile strike that are Iran took on Israel after one of its own was killed in a presumed Israeli strike? That's the question.

DEAN: That's the big question.

And, Nick, to that point, as Kim points out, these are Iranian proxies just to connect the dots. And the question now is, what does Iran do and how much does this escalate?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, it doesn't have particularly great options.

And when you hear Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei saying that this is essentially a guest in their house and they must be harsh punishment for Israel, he doesn't have, as Kim was saying there, vast amounts of proven effective means at his fingertips. Now, yes, certainly, Hezbollah, the main proxy to the north of Israel, could potentially launch the full-scale conflict that many have been concerned of.

You heard Ben talking about there for months, but it'd be devastating for both sides of the border. And it would leave Hezbollah most likely weaken at the end of this, Israel, most likely as well.

So does Iran want to play that card that can be played once now? Unclear. You mentioned there to the 300 missiles and drones that were fired, intercepted by Western allies and Israel's air defenses? Well in the modern era, it's pretty clear. Iran's longer range missiles aren't that good at hitting Israel.

So what is really left for them? Remember too, how many speaking now, 24 hours after he's just seen, a more moderate president sworn in and perhaps he might have wanted in his wildest dreams after years of unrest inside of Iran, a weakened economy from sanctions, and a tough neighbor but frankly for a decade, for Iran in which it seemed to rise up, but it's also now seeing its power ebbed to some degree.

[05:10:19]

Khamenei many is not speaking from a position of strength. He certainly has to project strength internally. But what is actually able to do in the coming 24 to 48 hours is subject to question.

And this is all really dependent on the narrative we start getting out of Tehran. How did this really go down? Was this an Israeli airstrike? An Israeli drone controlled from Tel Aviv, for example? Or was there a group of Israeli backed agents on the ground executing

this? How precise was it? How embarrassing is it geopolitically for Iran?

These are all urgent questions. And interestingly enough, we just had a statement from the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, in which they kind of suggested they give us more details about what happened. But it was empty.

They talked about the grave violation really of their sovereignty. And so we're still waiting on exactly how this happened. And that will tell you, yes, how brazen Israel was, but also the scale of the embarrassment here that Iran is having to deal with and having to convince its allies in the region and the world that it's able to respond to.

So, absolutely no guarantees in this region after last months because all the key players continually change or their own domestic sense of pressure. But it's a very volatile morning we wake up to. I thought that when I went to bed, frankly unheard about the strikes in southern Beirut that made me think the region was in a dangerous precipice.

Now, we're seeing a whole new phase here. But the unpredictability you can work in both ways. We can find ourselves dragged towards conflict, but also surprisingly big finding people step back from it. We simply don't know, but my gosh, what a morning.

DEAN: Yeah, it is certainly been a morning.

And, Kim, just before we go, a couple of thoughts to just listening to Nick. One, the fact that this struck with the strike happened in the heart of Tehran is significant, but beyond that separately, we have these hostage and ceasefire negotiations that you were mentioning. Where do those stand now? And what happens now?

DOZIER: First of all, were not likely to hear Israel claimed responsibility for this. There have been a number of top Iranians killed inside Iran, even near Tehran, including the head of the nuclear program in 2020 and Israel never said, yes, we did that. But it was done in a similar fashion with a drone or some sort of aerial device.

Where this leaves this though with everyone presuming that it was Israel carrying it out is I think were going to see the peace talks get frozen. This is a scary, scary time for the families of the hostages because he Hamas wing inside Gaza was the hardest to convince to take a step towards a ceasefire and exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners without someone like the political wings leader pushing for that.

Without Ismail Haniyeh there, I think we're going to have a big gap before any return to talks.

DEAN: Right. Kim, thank you so much.

Nick Paton Walsh and Kim Dozier, we'll be back with you guys in just a little bit for more on the story.

But up next on CNN THIS MORNING:

(MUSIC)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you've got something to say, say it to my face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Kamala Harris going on offense, daring Donald Trump to debate her.

Plus, J.D. Vance's wild claim about who's really in charge with the White House.

And we will, of course, continue to bring you the latest updates from Iran on the assassination of Hamas's top political leader.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:18:12]

DEAN: Vice President Kamala Harris bringing out the star power last night for her Atlanta rally.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

DEAN: Megan Thee Stallion hyping up the crowd of 10,000 with a few of her hit songs. The VP introduced to the stage by rapper Quavo.

And during her speech, Harris made the case to move into the White House, but also had a message for her opponent about the now canceled debate in September.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage because as the saying goes, if you've got something to say, say it to my face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Who wants to take the vice president's job also staying busy, with under 100 days now to Election Day.

On Saturday, J.D. Vance and Donald Trump will hold a rally at that same Atlanta venue where Harris held her rally last night.

Also last night, Vance hitting the trail in Nevada. While we can do a crowd in Reno, he suggested without evidence that Harris had been in charge all along.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's nothing they can do about the fact that Kamala Harris, she owns every single one of the Biden administration's failure of the last four years. Biden didn't know what he was doing. So, clearly, it was his vice president who was running the show.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now to discuss where both campaigns stand, Mariana Alfaro breaking -- politics breaking news reporter with "The Washington Post".

Mariana, good morning. Thanks for being here.

I'm just thinking first, that last clip there from Senator J.D. Vance, it is fascinating to see how Republicans have moved from Kamala Harris can't do anything, has no power, to now she was she was in charge all along.

[05:20:11]

They're still clearly trying to figure out how to message against her.

MARIANA ALFARO, POLITICS BREAKING NEWS REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: Yeah, they're using all these lines of attack that honestly are not lending. And the thing is, and that's why she probably said that yesterday about the debate, you know, say to my face and come here and then let's talk it out.

And I think that that's because she's really good at those snappy replies that they haven't been able to master. I think thinking about to her time when she ran for D.A., her first big raise, she was always really snappy, really fast, really quick, and I think that Republicans haven't been able to figure out how to handle that. Especially, you know, we heard J.D. Vance say that, they've also been coming on her for being a woman, for being childless.

I think Donald Trumps suggested yesterday that she wouldn't be able to hold her weight against foreign leaders. And I think that those are not really landing because there's always a way that she and her campaign have been able to reply to their attacks.

DEAN: Yeah. And we're seeing immigration obviously a very big issue for a lot of Americans, and we're seeing it not surprisingly, begin to emerge from both sides as they start is as the Harris campaign starts to kind of go on offense there, they released an ad trying to make the case that she's for all these things that were in that legislation that Republicans blocked on Capitol Hill.

Of course, Trump and J.D. Vance are really trying to hold Democrats and Kamala Harris accountable for everything that's going on at the border. How do you see this playing out, and now under 100 days left?

ALFARO: Yeah. And I think I think the very interesting man is going to emerge from this is that he's going to be able to run on that prosecutor record of hers because she did come after, you know, smugglers. She did come after human traffickers. She did come out after drug cartel leaders showing her time in California.

And I think that that's, you know, a tool that they haven't really spoken about when she was running for VP, when she was running for Senate. But I think that right now, they're trying to emphasize so much is that like prosecutor versus criminal aspect of the race that even going into immigration, she actually has a record of showing, you know, I did come after the guys -- the bad guys.

And I think, you know, that border czar situation that Republicans are really trying to nail on it, its going to take them a little bit to not take Democrats a little bit more explaining to figure out what she was actually doing there. She was supposed to be talking to Central American leaders about the push factors and everything.

But that's not something you can get on a quippy message. I think that that's going to be a challenge to be like, no, this is actually what she had to do. But then compare that to the rest of her record and see how that goes as a message.

DEAN: Yeah, and going back to where we began with this segment, that rally in Atlanta last night with Vice President Harris. A big crowd, pretty raucous, as you mentioned, kind of these one one-liners and zingers there, it is such a difference to see that versus President Biden on the campaign trail, of course, in that state of Georgia, which Democrats are hoping maybe can come back to them now.

ALFARO: I mean, it definitely felt like Georgia is back at play. You know, that's 10,000 people in that stadium and, you know, President Trump is going to be there next week. We'll see what crowd he draws in.

But, you know, the folks there, my colleagues who were there on the ground said, you know, the energy here has not been felt this campaign so far. It kind of makes me think of 2008. It kind of makes me feel like people just receive that sap of energy that, you know, ten days ago when this all began again, it's kind of crazy to think that it's a whiplash, right now.

DEAN: I know.

ALFARO: Yeah. Again, I mean, we even saw that in her smaller rally last week in Minneapolis, and said she is drawing these crowds because people kind of are feeling that, you know, just speaking to sources, speaking to Democrats on the Hill, they're kind feeling this like hope or this new reenergize issue that I think that they kind of forgot that they could tap into in the last year of campaigning.

DEAN: There as a different dynamic in this race, there's no doubt about it.

All right. Mariana, thank you so much. Great to have you here this morning.

Up next, the latest on breaking news, how the killing of a Hamas leader could impact the ceasefire and hostage negotiations.

Plus, after concerns over water quality, Olympic triathletes will swim in Paris's Seine River today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:28:24]

DEAN: Let's go back now to the breaking news out of the Middle East this morning, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has been killed in Tehran. It's an event sending shockwaves through that region. Sources telling CNN Haniyeh was, quote, instrumental and ceasefire talks and his death could complicate those efforts.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is joining us now from Abu Dhabi.

Paula, what's the reaction from countries across the Middle East and the world been to all of this?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, we've had an interesting reaction from one of those key mediators when it comes to the possible hostage ceasefire deal and this is Qatar. They really have been instrumental in trying to secure this deal and the prime minister has just issued a statement on X saying political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeeds when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?

Now, Ismail Haniyeh had actually been a key interlocutor in recent months when it came to these talks. We had seen recently his willingness to push forward a deal if Israel was going to agree to withdraw all of its troops out of Gaza. And we really juxtapose that to what we saw from the Hamas leadership inside Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, the leader who's believed to be the holed up underground find in Gaza at this point, appears to be far more hard line when it comes to pushing for this deal and what it wants from Israel in this deal.

[05:30:00]