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CNN This Morning

Israel Says Another Wave Of Strikes Underway Against Iran; Iran's President Vows Not To Hit Neighbors As U.S.-Israeli Strikes Continue; Saudi Air Defenses Neutralize 16 Drones Targeting Shaybah Oil Field; Russia Giving Iran Intel On U.S. Military For Strikes; Tornadoes Leave 8 Dead Across Central US. Israel Hits Iran with "Broadscale Wave of Strikes"; Iran's President Apologizes to Gulf Neighbors, Vows to Stop Attacks on Gulf Neighbors; U.S. Deploys New Weapon Modeled After Iran's Kamikaze Drones. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired March 07, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:30]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning everybody. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, March 7th. I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Victor Blackwell.

Right now Israel says another wave of strikes is underway in Iran. The IDF says that it used 80 fighter jets and pre-dawn strikes against the country. Video in Tehran showed flames at the city's Mehrabad airport. At the same time, Israel says that it's intercepting waves of Iranian attacks.

But Iran's president said in an address on state media that the country is dialing back on some of its strikes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We do not intend to attack neighboring countries. As I have repeatedly said, they are our brothers. We must work with our friends in the region hand in hand to bring about peace and stability. And I am hopeful of that with the decision that we have made in the temporary leadership council that was announced to the armed forces that from now on there should be no attack on neighboring countries or missile strikes unless they should wish to attack us from those countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: It is not clear if that decree goes into effect immediately since interceptions continued over the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain right after his address. Qatar and Saudi Arabia says that they repel drones and missiles, too. Now despite that, the UAE says that it is resuming flights in and out

of Dubai's airport. Airports in the UAE are key for connecting flights worldwide and a major lifeline as foreigners are trying to escape. We are covering all of these new developments with our reporters around the world. Nic Robertson and Gabe Cohen are standing by and we'll check in with them in just a moment.

But first, let's get to CNN's Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv. And Oren, what do we know about Israel's new wave of strikes on Iran this morning?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Bianna, the number of fighter jets Israel says they used in some of the latest strikes on Iran, more than 80 gives you a sense of the freedom they have to operate as they go after a growing list of targets belonging to the Iranian regime, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and more.

Just a short time ago, Israel said it was striking targets in Tehran. We have obviously seen that for days now as we stand here on the eighth day of the war. But also going after targets in the Iranian city of Isfahan, that's significant because it was back in June that the U.S. and Israel targeted Iran's nuclear facility there. It's unclear if they're going after that facility one more time or as they work down an expansive list of targets, they are going after other regime facilities as well.

Certainly, Israel has made clear that it has no intention of looking for any chance for an off ramp here or to deescalate as they continue to carry out waves of punishing strikes across the country of Iran and targets within Tehran itself.

Tehran still able to fire back despite the fact that both the U.S. and Israel have gone after their ballistic missile arrays and launchers. In fact, just about an hour and a half ago or so, I believe, there was a warning of incoming missiles from Iran. There were sirens that went off in Modi'in a city that is east southeast of us and there were several rounds of that overnight as well.

Even if these aren't large barrages, just a few missiles at a time, it shows that Iran is still able to launch. Israel has tried to prevent that ability, but has not yet been able to do so entirely.

Within the past 24 hours or so, U.S. Central Command says they've struck so far 3,000 targets within Iran. And Israel has said they've struck 2,500 targets. So you get a sense of how big this list is, frankly, of targets they're going after and how both of those numbers from the U.S. and Israel will continue to grow.

Meanwhile, on the Lebanese front, that is just as active, Bianna, my colleague Jeremy Diamond was on that border yesterday and saw fighting very close to the border itself, even as Israel has issued evacuation warnings for much larger parts of the country, including much of the south of the country. There is still fighting right on the border itself there.

GOLODRYGA: All right, Oren Liebermann reporting live from Tel Aviv for us. Thank you so much. As the Gulf remains on the edge of panic as Iran's retaliation enters its air eighth day, Saudi Arabia says that it shot down 20 drones aimed at its Shaybah oil field. Sheba is deep in the desert and one of the kingdom's biggest oil producers.

As of 2023, Saudi Arabia produced roughly 11 to 12 percent of the world's oil.

[06:05:00]

And this conflict is sending oil prices much higher. U.S. crude jumped to about $91 a barrel. That is up 12 percent just yesterday and 36 percent for the week. That is the biggest weekly surge since 1993.

Qatar's top energy official warns that prices could hit $150 a barrel if tankers can't move safely through the Strait of Hormuz, saying, quote, this will bring down the economies around the world.

Let's go now to CNN's Nic Robertson in Saudi Arabia. And we are hearing concern, Nic, from officials in the region there. And obviously we're seeing the impact in prices of oil around the world skyrocketing. And here in the U.S. a big concern is the sharp rise in gas prices at the pump too.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the concern here is not just the sort of short term issue of oil fields being under target of Iranian strikes as they were last night. As you mentioned, more than 20 missiles fired at the Shaybah oil field in the east of Saudi Arabia in what the Ministry of Defense here has described as the biggest barrage of overnight attacks on Saudi Arabia since this conflict began.

And the first time we've heard Saudi officials talk about an intense Iranian action around that very important Shaybah oil field. Three ballistic missiles also fired at the Prince Sultan Air Base, intercepted as the others were last night.

This again a key Saudi air base historically used by the United States. Not clear if they use it at the moment. And in Riyadh, two drones intercepted very close to the city according to the Ministry of Defense.

So despite this apparent rhetoric emerging today from Iran talking about a potential diminution or ending of strikes against GCC countries which could in of itself present the first sort of horizons of some kind of diplomatic off ramp or downscaling in this region at least, the actual effects rather than the words of the Iranian regime are military. They are strikes.

And that does play to exactly what you're talking about, the concerns about the energy sector, countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and others have to now recognize that the war could go long, that they will not be able to get their products to market, that they do not have the storage capacity more than perhaps over a few more weeks to store production at current levels. This would talk therefore about having to taper back output from fields. That sort of thing takes a long time and careful processes and expensive processes to reverse. So while there are these short term shocks to the oil market now,

absent a diplomatic path emerging or a military victory by the United States and Israel. The energy costs look at the moment only like ramping up and there are not in the short term, there would not be a quick tail off. The indications that these ramifications would last a lot longer.

So you are trying to reach officials here in Riyadh to get some reaction to what we heard from the Iranian prime minister today. Nothing so far. And from what I've been hearing over the past few days, I think they are going to judge Iran by its actions and not its words.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, we got news that both Kuwait and Iraq this week are cutting production because their storage tanks are full at this point and the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down the past week now. Nic Robertson in Saudi Arabia, thank you so much.

Well, sources tell CNN that Russia is aiding Iran's war effort by providing intel on U.S. military targets. When President Trump was asked about this, here's how he reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sounds like the Russians are helping Iran target and attack Americans now.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: That's an easy problem compared to what we're doing here. But can I be honest? It's just -- I have a lot of respect for you. You've always been very nice to me. What a stupid question that is to be asking at this time. We're talking about something else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Gabe Cohen is following all of this. And Gabe, tell us more about this reporting. Intel officials, I would assume, do not view this as a stupid issue. It is one that has a lot in the community concerned, especially given the fact that we don't know that there's a direct parallel in. But we have just lost six U.S. service members in this war days ago.

[06:10:02]

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, one of the reasons that this is really significant is because it's the first indication that Moscow is getting involved in this conflict. Those sources telling CNN that Russia is providing this intel about the location of American troops and assets so that Iran can specifically target them.

And much of that intelligence is coming from this sophisticated satellite system that Russia has, as Iran has been seeing their military capabilities degraded day after all of this fighting.

It is important to note that it's unclear at this point if that intel has actually been used in any specific attacks. And we don't know, though if Russia's involvement could be expanding when it comes to this conflict, especially after this phone call Friday between Iran's president and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed that they're going to keep communicating as this conflict unfolds.

The White House, for their part, they are really downplaying this story, as you mentioned. Here's what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS News about the reporting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: So we know what's going on. And the president has an incredible knack at knowing how to mitigate those risks. And so the American people can rest assured their commander-in- chief is well aware of who's talking to who. And anything that shouldn't be happening, whether it's in public or back channeled, is being confronted and confronted strongly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American people can therefore expect conversations with the Russians to stop this.

HEGSETH: Well, President Trump, as people have seen, has a unique relationship with a lot of world leaders where he can get things done that other presidents, certainly Joe Biden, never could have. And through direct conversations or indirect, through him one to one or through his cabinet messages definitely can be delivered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does this put U.S. personnel in any more danger than they otherwise would be? The Russian involvement?

HEGSETH: No one's putting us in danger. We're putting the other guys in danger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters that if Russia is sharing intel, it's clearly not making much of a difference given the success of U.S. operations thus far. And President Trump also told CNN on Friday that, quote, a week ago Iran was powerful and now they have been indeed neutered.

But beyond important to note that this administration has said over the past week that they were hoping this was going to be a four to five-week war effort, though they did acknowledge that it could last much longer. We're waiting to see if that timeline could be drawn out a bit. If more countries like Russia are drawn in.

GOLODRYGA: We'll be following it all. Gabe Cohen, thank you so much. Another major headline that we're tracking this morning, the weather. At least eight people are dead following severe storms throughout the central US. This was in southwestern Michigan Friday afternoon where four people were killed and others injured as severe thunderstorm activity kicked up a destructive tornado.

One video shows the tornado rapidly heading towards a store where people were sheltering. You can see the storm get close to them as it kicked up the debris and building fragments in its path. With me now is CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Derek, what is the

latest? What can residents there expect in the hours to come?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately, beyond it was a day of deadly tornadoes not only in Michigan but also in Oklahoma. We're focusing in on the Union City tornado. This is near the border of Indiana and Michigan. Uprooting trees, ripping roofs off the top of buildings. That is a frozen lake. That is just incredible to see this twister as it passed over this lake, actually taking up some of that ice from the frozen water and distributed it on land.

Get to the graphics. I want to show you how rare this tornado really was. It was a powerful tornado and we saw it on radar. We are watching this very closely here at the CNN Weather Center. When you get that type of a bow echo or kind of a hook echo into this lone thunderstorm that developed. Here's the Three Rivers area. There's Union City.

This storm lifted and dropped several tornadoes along its path of destruction. This was amongst 13 confirmed tornadoes yesterday. Several reports of wind and hail damage and this is part of our multiday severe weather setup that continues today.

There's two areas I want you to focus on. Firstly across the southern Great Lakes. This area has our greatest chance of tornadoes today. So heads up Cleveland, Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. This area across the Deep south, the southern Mississippi Valley and into Central Texas. That's where we could have big time hail. We're talking an inch to an inch and a half potentially.

Right now we have a tornado watch across portions of Arkansas including Little Rock. Thunderstorms moving through. There was a tornado warned storm into southern Arkansas earlier this morning that continues to move to the Northeast. Can't forget about the flood threat across the region. We have a busy next 24 hours ahead of us. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And everyone should heed their local warnings as well. Derek Van Dam, thanks so much.

VAN DAM: You got it.

GOLODRYGA: Coming up for us, one week into the war, now Iran is responding to President Trump's call for their unconditional surrender.

[06:15:02]

What the comments from Iran's president tell us about how long this conflict could rage on.

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GOLODRYGA: All right, breaking news. A new message from President Trump on Iran posted to Truth Social just moments ago. And one particular line stands out. After the President of Iran said that they would not give in to President Trump's demands for an unconditional surrender.

[06:20:01]

President Trump posted, quote, today Iran will be hit very hard. Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death because of Iran's bad behavior areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time. Joining me now to discuss is CNN military analyst and retired U.S. air Force colonel Cedric Leighton. We also have CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Welcome both with both of you.

Colonel Leighton, let me start with you. Your reaction to this new post from President Trump, especially considering what we heard from chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last week, General Kaine, suggesting that now the new targets going forward would in fact be deeper inside of the country.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, in some ways, Bianna, good morning. There are certain elements here that kind of are congruent with what General Kaine said. But when you look at what the president just sent out on his Truth Social account, it is pretty clear that he's escalating the conflict. And that would mean that leadership targets will be part of this type of action, based on what he said, at least.

So if they're going to go ahead and target leadership targets, that is going to cause a cascading effect. If those leadership targets are successfully struck, that will then mean that there will be further disarray within the Iranian government and the elements of it like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and, you know, elements like that.

So this is a potentially a very serious escalation and it doesn't look like an off ramp is being sought at this particular point.

GOLODRYGA: Kim, let me bring you in here as well, because while both Israel and the United States have been on the same path in targeting the missile launchers and other sites and military sites, Israel has spent quite a bit of time this week going after potential leadership in the IRGC that would replace those that they had already killed early on into this war.

How are you reading into what the president just said now? Because he had been saying maybe perhaps flippantly this week that anybody he'd had in mind thus far had already been killed. Does this suggest that the United States will now be joining Israel in taking out specific leadership targets?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Those who briefed President Trump say that he can react very emotionally to things. So, I think he woke up this morning and saw that the Iranian president had given a five-minute taped address in which he rejected any surrender and vowed to fight on and responded in kind to that. So you're seeing a stiffening of rhetoric while the military campaign continues.

Now on the aspect of the threat of targeting further leadership, the Israeli military has already been doing that. And what the Iranians have done is in the IRGC, they have appointed a man called Ahmad Vahidi, who is hardline. He was former interior minister, former defense minister, and also one of the first leaders of the Quds Force. Now he's back in charge. And his specialty is asymmetric warfare, meaning fighting by unconventional means.

He had sent out, or rather the IRGC in general had sent out orders before this began, breaking the IRGC up into smaller units, giving them overall orders to operate independently, so there's no head of the snake to cut off. If Ahmad Vahidi is killed, the individual units know what to do.

And you can see proof that they are deciding what to attack in that. The Iranian president, in that taped address, also said he apologized to the Gulf States and said, we will stop attacking you. We will only attack places where offensive launches come from. And within minutes of that speech being released, Doha was on the receiving end of attack drones from Iranian forces.

GOLODRYGA: And what we've seen, Colonel Leighton, over the past week is an incredible amount of force, both from the United States and Israel, striking thousands of targets, ballistic missiles and their launchers. And we've seen the results of that, where we've seen a sharp decline in the number of launchers and the number of missiles and the number of drones that have been launched over the course of the last eight days.

And yet the IDF says that hundreds of mobile launchers are still hidden in underground missile cities. Just talk about the complexity and geolocating these launchers and actually taking them out at this point.

LEIGTHON: Yes, that's a great question, Bianna, because the way the Islamic Republic has done these things is they've gone and developed a whole infrastructure that puts a lot of their weaponry underground.

[06:25:10]

The Israelis just announced a few hours ago that they had in fact struck a mobile missile launcher that was being moved into position for an attack. So that's symptomatic of the type of real time targeting that the Israelis and the U.S. are conducting in this particular case.

So when you see these kinds of operations going on, what they need to do in terms of the targeting process is get real time intelligence, and that can be from multiple sources. Get real time intelligence to the pilots so that they can restrike or dynamically strike certain targets. In some cases they hit them several times. In other cases they go after them in a very dynamic fashion.

These are targets that pop up in a way that in some cases might be unforeseen from, you know, strategic perspective, but they can knock them out once they see them. So it becomes really important for the Israelis and the U.S. air elements to go in and really look at the movements that are going on. And those movements then often indicate that, for example, a missile launcher is. A mobile missile launcher is being moved into position. So that's the kind of thing that's going on. It's a very dynamic process. That dynamic process is what really feeds this striking effort that's going on right now.

GOLODRYGA: And it's been quite effective given that both the United States and Israel now essentially have air superiority over Iran taking out their defensive weapons over the last few days, of course, but even going back to the 12-day war last year and last summer, taking out their air defense unit completely, I would say.

And if I could get to you, Kim, and ask you to weigh in on this new information about Russia supplying Iran with intelligence as to the whereabouts of U.S. assets in the region. You heard the White House try to dismiss this or downplay this reporting, but talk about the significance of it. And does that essentially put the U.S. and Moscow now in a proxy type of battle as this war is unfolding?

DOZIER: Yes, the response from the White House is that they essentially don't want to deal with this uncomfortable truth right now, and they probably wish it hadn't come up. But, you know, Russia has a track record of this.

When U.S. troops were deployed in Afghanistan back in 2017, I looked up the old press conference where General Nicholson and then Marine Corps General Mattis, who was in charge of the overall effort, admitted that, yes, Russia at that time was supplying weapons to the Taliban which were being used to kill American soldiers. And Mattis said we're going to have to reach out to them diplomatically and tell them to stop this. From my understanding, it never stopped.

So, I guess the Russians can say, look, the Iranians are our allies and what we're providing them isn't making any difference on the battlefield, but we've got to give them something. But it does outpoint that this White House seems to find it very difficult to confront Putin and Moscow to tell them, you are doing something that is contrary to our interests and could get American troops killed. Stop it.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. We've already seen six U.S. service members. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

LEIGHTON: Yes. If I could add to that. You know, the key thing that the White House needs to understand is that Russia is our adversary, full stop. That is the way this works. They are going to always consider a place like Iran an ally. They are also, of course, connected to China in an alliance like this and same with North Korea. So these countries are our adversaries, period.

GOLODRYGA: And notable that President Zelenskyy has offered to help bring down these drones just within the last 48 hours as well. Colonel Cedric Leighton, Kim Dozier, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Still to come for us, a small drone with a big impact. We'll take a closer look at this new weapon the U.S. is deploying in an effort to take down Iran's drones.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:30:00]

GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Iran. Israel's military says more than 80 fighter jets hit targets across Tehran today, in what it called a broadscale wave of strikes.

One of Tehran's busiest airports took a direct hit, and Iran is also firing back. Multiple explosions shook Tel Aviv today as Israel continues to intercept dozens of Iranian drones and missile strikes. Tehran also sending out a warning that any European country that joins the U.S.-Israel attacks will become targets for retaliation.

We're also learning more about an apparent shift in strategy from Tehran. Iran's President saying that its temporary leadership council has approved suspending any further attacks on neighboring Gulf countries unless that country attacks it first.

Our Paula Hancocks is standing by in Dubai, one of several Middle Eastern nations that has been struck by Iranian drones or missiles. And I have to say, Paula, the UAE has been on the receiving end of the largest incoming number of missiles and drones outside of Israel.

[06:35:00]

They are in the neighboring countries. Just talk about their response thus far and how these countries are reacting to the President of Iran now saying that they will stop sending these attacks.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, we're waiting for official response, but certainly, the response from citizens and residents is to breathe a sigh of relief. But it is also to be very concerned that this may not be immediate or it may not even happen.

It's almost -- people here don't want to believe it in case it did turns out not to be the case. So, Pezeshkian, the President did apologize to his neighbors. He said, "we need to solve this with diplomacy rather than fighting", something the Gulf nations have been saying for the past seven days, at least, in fact, for weeks before that as well.

Also saying that they'll only attack the Gulf nations if they are attacked from those Gulf nations. Let's listen to what Pezeshkian said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, PRESIDENT, IRAN (through translator): We do not intend to attack neighboring countries, as I have repeatedly said, they are our brothers. We must work with our friends in the region hand-in-hand to bring about peace and stability.

And I'm hopeful of that, with the decision that we have made in the temporary leadership council. That was announced to the armed forces, that from now on, there should be no attack on neighboring countries or missile strikes unless they should wish to attack us from those countries.

I think we need to solve this with diplomacy rather than fighting and having conflict with neighboring countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now, it's worth pointing out this came out on Saturday morning, the same time as we had alerts here. There were also blasts, including one at Dubai International Airport, which halted flights out of there for at least, half an hour.

We've also heard from the U.S. President, he's responding to this, saying that Iran has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised it will not shoot at them anymore, saying that the credit for that goes to the U.S. and Israel.

Here, though, the coming hours will be critical to see whether there is further incoming. Of course, remember, Iran did say it's decentralized its military. So, Pezeshkian is potentially not the one in control. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Paula, thank you so much for your reporting. Well, the U.S. military deploying a new weapon on the battlefield, modeled after one of Iran's deadly Kamikaze drones. Our Tom Foreman breaks down why it is turning into a major force in the war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): In this battle, we are seeing a weapon system that the U.S. military has never fielded before. And let me bring in a life-sized model so we can take a better look. This is the Lucas drone.

It's low cost, unmanned combat attack system. As you can see, it's about 10 feet end-to-end, it has a wingspan of about 8 feet. It has a propeller drive in the back, so it doesn't give off a lot of heat that can be easily tracked.

It weighs about 180 pounds, and it can carry 40 pounds of explosives upfront. It is also, interestingly, a clone of an Iranian drone, the Shahed 136. The Iranians have been working on these for years. The U.S. got a hold of one, and they had engineers replicate it so they could turn it back on the Iranians.

Why do Iranians like this so much? Well, unlike big missiles which have to be -- come from some sort of a launch system, a truck or something like that which can be easily tracked and attacked, this can be fired from the back of a truck, from a boat, from the middle of a field.

Unlike a missile which requires a great big production facility which can also be targeted, these can be built much easier in covert locations all over the place. Again, hard to find, and these are cheap missiles cost at least, a million dollars each, if not more, and these only costs about $20,000. So, when you look at an attack map out there where strikes have

happened by missiles or drones, every time a drone is hit someplace, that doesn't necessarily represent one drone. No, these are often launched in swarms.

The reason for that is simple enough to overwhelm defense systems so that if 90 percent of them are stopped, 10 percent can still get through with devastating results. When you look at the video coming out from drone attacks there, you can see why the Iranians are relying on them so much, and why U.S. forces are trying to turn this weapon back against the Iranians.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Tom Foreman for that report. Up ahead for us, what it's like being stranded as a traveler, as strikes expand across the Middle East. We'll hear from an American who just got home after a day's long ordeal about his struggle to get out of Doha.

[06:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ODIES TURNER, WAS STRANDED IN DOHA WHILES ON VACATION: It is a mess. This is a mess. I would have never come over here if I knew this. I guess, hindsight(ph), 2020, but I really want to go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: All right, new this morning. Airlines in the Middle East are offering limited flights to help stranded travelers return home. The war with Iran has caused massive travel delays across the region. And the State Department is saying that more than 20,000 Americans are now safely back in the U.S., as some flight paths reopen.

[06:45:00]

The first evacuation flights began Thursday with more chartered flights expected. But some of those stuck in the war zone say they are not getting help. One of those people is Texas chef, Odies Turner, he visited Doha for a friend's birthday and was then stranded there for days before he finally made his way back.

He says he never got any help from U.S. authorities, and he joins me now live. Odies, good morning. Thank you so much for taking the time, I see you are in Dallas, back home, so that is good news. Tell us how you ended up getting back home in Texas from the region.

TURNER: Yes, so, no help from the government, decided to start to reach out to others who were stuck in the region, got on WhatsApp and was added to a group of hundreds of probably thousands now, that I've seen still talking, trying to get out.

We decided to just secure some land travel. We took a car, 8-hour truck over the border into Saudi Arabia, and we got to the Riyadh airport, and started looking at different routes that we could take, which cities that we can just get out of the region, flew into Paris, then from Paris, I flew to Detroit, and then from Detroit to home here in Dallas, over 40 hours of travel via land as well as air.

GOLODRYGA: When did you finally make it home?

TURNER: I got home on Thursday evening, around 8:00 p.m., and we left Doha, I think Wednesday evening -- morning.

GOLODRYGA: And how long had you been in Doha before the initial strikes began?

TURNER: Not long. So, we arrived Friday, the 27th, Friday evening. Decided we were going to take a nap just to get adjusted. And Saturday morning, things were starting to turn into just chaos for us just because we figured we were stranded and no assistance.

GOLODRYGA: And what was the first thought that crossed your mind when you heard the strikes?

TURNER: At first, we just started staring at each other like, oh, we are really -- this is really happening. And we started -- to start to -- let's see the embassy. Let's see if we can reach out to the embassy to see if we can get home. And that was nonexistent.

And so, we just sat there, nothing we can really do, until about day four, we were like, OK, it's time for us to try to figure out how we're going to get home. So, initially, it was not really frightened. We could hear the missiles being intercepted.

You can feel the missiles being intercepted in our -- in our rooms, but the Qatar government did a really good job. At least, while I was there. I know there's -- like I said, thousands still stranded in the country. So --

GOLODRYGA: Did you feel safe?

TURNER: Yes. I felt safe. I didn't feel like I was going to be harmed. It -- hearing missiles, I think I've never experienced this in my life, just stressful. I think my biggest thing was, we were stuck in a country that is foreign to us. That was our first time in the region, and we were not getting any assistance.

We don't know how we're going to get home or when we were going to go home. So, that was the biggest thing.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, well, the U.S. State Department had initially said that things -- the war began quickly, and they didn't have time to reach out to all of those Americans, American citizens and nationals that were stranded in the region.

Now, as we've said, some 20,000-plus have been evacuated. There is a number on the website for them to contact. What do you think, looking back, that the U.S. should have done to help stranded Americans like yourself? TURNER: Just looking back, I just think it's -- I don't know how they

could have warned -- it's a surprise attack -- how they could have warned us.

But there should have been -- if they were planning this for months, there should have been some kind of plan of how we're going to get our citizens out or what communications that we can have to make sure that they're going to be able to get out safely or feel assured that they are going to help.

I saw some news while I was there that Marco Rubio was saying that they were as well, giving us phone numbers to call, and when you call those numbers, we were just being told, hey, we're not helping you all at this moment.

Just find shelter very -- just that upset me more than anything just for our government to put these things out. That was not true --

GOLODRYGA: Well, it is quite an -- it is quite an experience, Odies, I'm sure you are relieved to be home. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us this morning.

[06:50:00]

TURNER: No problem. Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: All right, and still to come for us, a major legal headline here in the United States. What we know about three FBI memos posted by the Justice Department that have been missing from the trove of Epstein files released so far. That's after the break.

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GOLODRYGA: Another major headline to bring you this morning. Newly released documents that were missing from the Epstein files contain serious unverified allegations against President Trump. The Justice Department posted three FBI memos describing interviews with a woman who accuses both Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.

[06:55:00]

The White House calls the accusations completely baseless. CNN's Paula Reid is in Washington with the latest. And Paula, these were missing from earlier file releases, right?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And this individual was interviewed by the FBI four times. And initially, only one memo was released in that initial batch of documents released by the Justice Department, and that was an interview where she made allegations against Jeffrey Epstein, but not against President Trump.

Now yesterday, these additional summaries were released, and they detail the types of allegations that she made against President Trump, where she describes being introduced to him. She alleges that he asked everyone to leave the room, and, quote, "mentioned something to the effect of" quote, "let's teach you how little girls are supposed to be."

And then describes an encounter where he pushes her head down to his penis, and then told agents she bit Trump, who then allegedly struck her and said something like, get this little 'expletive' the hell out of here. Now, in her third interview, she allegedly said that she was receiving threatening calls.

And in her fourth interview, it's interesting, she told -- she told investigators that she was concerned about why she was even coming forward, because the Statute of Limitations had passed. Now, I do want to make sure you get in here, the fact that President Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement yesterday, the White House described these allegations as, quote, "completely baseless", backed by zero credible evidence.

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Paula Reid for that. Well, our coverage of the war with Iran continues in the next hour. We'll have live team coverage with the overnight strikes in Tehran as well as what we expect to hear from President Trump later this morning, who will be speaking as part of the Shield of the Americas Summit.

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