Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Fred Pleitgen's Report from Iran; Conflict in Iran Spreads; Gordon Sondland is Interviewed about Trump and Putin. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 10, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:48]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the war in Iraq. I'm Audie Cornish.

It is 33 minutes past the hour. And here is what's happening right now in the Middle East.

We've got new video showing the moment the U.S. military hit Iranian missile launchers. This video posted overnight by U.S. Central Command. Now it shows three strikes with a caption, "the Iranian regime can try to hide missile launchers, but U.S. forces won't stop looking. When we find them, we're taking them out."

And new comments from President Trump on that strike on a girls school in southern Iran. New video evidence suggests the U.S. was targeting a nearby Revolutionary Guard base with a Tomahawk missile at the time of impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's something that I was told is under investigation. But Tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, this strike happened on the first day of the war. And it's believed to be the deadliest so far, killing at least 168 children and 14 teachers.

[06:35:00]

New rescue efforts in Tehran after U.S. and Israeli attacks hit a residential building. Video showing emergency workers attempting to get inside a bombed out building. Rescuers say people were trapped several stories up, and reports show at least 40 people were killed.

And just in to CNN, a new report from CNN international correspondent Fred Pleitgen in Tehran. Our team on the ground operating in Iran only with government permission. This is required by local regulations. CNN maintains full editorial control over this reporting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a very kinetic night here in the Iranian capital, Tehran. We ourselves witnessed several waves of what appeared to be very heavy airstrikes. And the building that we're in right now, and that we're staying in, was shaken on several occasions from the sheer force of the impact.

Now from our vantage point, it appeared as though, especially targets in the east of Tehran were being attacked. Also possibly around Mehrabad Airport, which is in the west of Tehran, and is actually an area that has been attacked in the past as well. All this as the airstrikes, conducted mostly by the U.S. and Israel continue, not just here in Tehran, but, of course, throughout this entire country.

Meanwhile, the political standoff also continues as well. President Trump, of course, saying that he vows to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for oil shipments into the world's markets, whereas the Iranians are warning that they are the ones who control the Strait of Hormuz. A source close to the Iranian government telling me that the Iranians are the ones who control the taps of the world's oil supply. They say that Iran is even thinking of imposing duties on ships carrying oil that are affiliated with countries friendly to the United States.

At the same time, the Iranians are saying also, at this point in time, they see no sense in negotiations with the United States and are preparing for what could be a long war.

Fred Pleitgen CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: So, of course, the conflict in Iran rippling beyond the battlefield. This morning, five members of the country's women's soccer team granted asylum in Australia. The players were in the country for a tournament when the conflict broke out. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirming their safety. At the same time, he's saying what it -- calling it defensive assistance to the UAE. Now, this is after two drones were shot down near the Australian consulate in northern Iraq

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Our involvement is purely defensive, and it's in defense of Australians who are in the region, as well as in defense of our friends in the United Arab Emirates, who are good friends of Australia and Australians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The U.K. now confirming it has shot down two drones over Jordan, saying more forces will be deployed to help coordinate airspace. Joining me live now from Doha, CNN's senior producer Bijan Hosseini.

Thank you so much for being here.

First, I want to start with these other countries now sending troops to help with civilian and military airspace coordination. The U.K., we just mentioned. How is that affecting the situation?

BIJAN HOSSEINI, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Yes. Hey, Audie.

As you mentioned, more international involvement coming in to help defend these gulf countries against Iran's retaliation. We heard from the Australian prime minister. They are also sending an E-7 Wedgetail. It's this massive reconnaissance aircraft. It can, you know, long range surveillance. It can help with early system monitoring. So, a very welcomed piece of military tech coming to the UAE there.

We also heard from the U.K. They have been involved since day one helping intercept a lot of these attacks on behalf of a number of gulf countries. We heard from their defence secretary, John Healey, earlier. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HEALEY, U.K. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEFENCE: Typhoons successfully took out two drones, one over Jordan, the second heading to Bahrain. The third Wildcat has now arrived in Cyprus. And we've now deployed additional RAF operations experts in more than five countries in the region, helping coordinate regional, military and civilian airspace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOSSEINI: The U.K. ministry of defense has been paramount in helping defend some of these attacks. We know here in Qatar specifically, they operate a joint typhoon squadron with the Qatari air force. That since day one. I think on March 1st we heard from the U.K.'s ministry of defense that they were intercepting, and that was way back when. We know a couple days ago as well they announced that they were going to send four additional Typhoon fighters here to country.

Now, this all happens as things, not as intense in the gulf as the past couple of days. Unfortunately, in Bahrain overnight, one person did die, eight more injured, when an attack hit a residential building. And we do know that alarms sounded earlier in the UAE today.

[06:40:03]

But here in Qatar, we haven't received an emergency alert system for at least 22 hours. It brings a little sigh of relief to the people living here. And actually looking outside, there is a slow sense of a return to normalcy, albeit a very slow one.

Audie.

CORNISH: OK. I want to turn to something else. Oil prices, they are surging amid the war with Iran, and an unlikely American ally may be forming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I had a very good call with President Putin.

We, obviously, talked then about the Middle East. And he wants to be helpful. I said, you could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine Russia war over with. That would be more helpful. But we had a very good talk. And he wants to be very constructive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The current oil supply chain issues could be greatly beneficial to Russia. They've been hampered by sanctions on their oil supply since they invaded Ukraine.

Joining the group chat, Gordon Sondland, the former U.S. ambassador to the E.U.

So, we wanted to talk about this because, again, when we looked at the polling, people were asked, how concerned are you military action against Iran will cause oil prices to go up? And we see independents in particular, but people across the board are very concerned about this.

In the meantime, you hear the president saying this. Why would he make this decision when you could maybe just as easily leave Russia in the lurch and maybe convince them to back off of Ukraine?

GORDON SONDLAND, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE E.U.: Well, this is -- Audie, this is a much bigger chess game than the transitory oil price increase. He has continually stayed friendly with Putin for a lot of reasons. Clobbering Putin really is not productive at all. He doesn't care if Trump clobbers him. What he's trying to do is he's trying to find an opening with Russia to figure out how to finally end this war in Ukraine and to bring Russia away from China, closer to the United States.

Just the same, the war in Iran is really not protecting Israel as much as it is dislodging China from a very cheap, long-term oil supply, and keeping China from getting super cozy with the Iranian navy, which doesn't exist any longer.

CORNISH: Well, let me -- you brought up a lot of things, and we've got a lot of experts here who can help us out.

So, first, I want to hear your take on this, because there's a lot of moving parts. Ukraine is providing support, you know, to take down drones. Russia is going to use the money it gets from the oil to bomb Ukraine. Like, I don't understand the circle.

JENNIFER GAVITO, SENIOR ADVISER, COHEN GROUP: Well, and add to that, of course, that Iran has been supplying Russia with drones. So, has been disrupting the Ukrainian battlefield further. I, you know, take Gordon's point about the desire to end the war more quickly. But unfortunately, I think the way that you're doing this is by throwing Ukraine, and arguably the Europeans as well, under the bus.

CORNISH: Here's Senator Ruben Gallego saying -- Democrat, of course, "Trump got us into a war with no plan. Now gas prices are soaring and American troops are in danger. His response? Ease Russian oil sanctions while Russia helps Iran target our forces. End this," we had to blank it out because it's a morning show.

Jamil.

JAMIL JAFFER, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY INSTITUTE: Well, look, I think that's exactly right. I think that I, you know, respectfully disagree with the ambassador. I don't think Iran is about China. Iran is about Iran. Iran wants to get a nuclear program. They've been -- they've been going after the U.S. for years. They've been killing American soldiers.

This war is about Iran. It's not about China. And frankly, the gas price issue is one that's very problematic for the president here at home. He's got to do something about it. But the idea that we have the Russians put more oil into the market is crazy. We've got friends in Saudi Arabia. We have control, I guess, in theory of the Venezuelan oil supply, right? We can produce more here. We have the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. There are a dozen things we could do before we allow Russia to sell more oil into the international market. It makes no sense.

I do think the ambassador is right, that in part the president's trying to figure out how to get to a deal with Vladimir Putin, but you don't get to a deal with Vladimir Putin by easing up on him. You get to a deal with Vladimir Putin by putting more pressure on him and saying, hey, you want to supply intelligence to American forces -- to the Iranians hitting American forces, I'm going to supply more intelligence and more weapons to Ukrainians to take out Russian forces. That's how you pressure Vladimir Putin, not by giving him a walk on oil supplies.

CORNISH: And Jamil is really --

SONDLAND: Oh, thank God Donald Trump is the president and not Jamil, although I like Jamil.

CORNISH: OK.

SONDLAND: This is a very, very complex thing. And what Donald Trump is saying is, look, the oil is already afloat basically. A lot of it is sitting on tankers. And he's turning knobs up and down depending on the situation. Right now he's using the oil to bring prices back in check. It's come back under $100 a barrel. This is a very transitory thing.

But this war is critical for our long-term survival.

CORNISH: Yes.

[06:45:01]

SONDLAND: For Israel's long-term survival. And, frankly, for Europe's long-term survival.

CORNISH: Yes. And we should say --

SONDLAND: I can't tell you, Audie, how many times I was working on things that had to do with Iranian plots in Europe. It was almost daily.

CORNISH: Well, this is why we're asking all these questions.

SONDLAND: It was almost daily.

CORNISH: Putin says, "we're ready to work with Europeans, but we need some signals from them that they're ready and willing to work with us and will ensure this sustainability."

SONDLAND: Putin needs a missile in the Kremlin. That's the signal he needs.

CORNISH: I'm getting mixed signals from you in this conversation.

SONDLAND: No, I -- you're not getting mixed signals, I said, Trump does not need to clobber Putin on television. That doesn't do anything. What Trump needs to do is increase his support of Ukraine quietly, continue to surge weapons into Ukraine, make Zelenskyy understand he has to be reasonable, even though I think Zelenskyy is completely in the right for not wanting to give up one inch of --

CORNISH: You're getting some nods out of Jamil now. So, if --

SONDLAND: One inch of Ukrainian territory.

CORNISH: Yes.

SONDLAND: But this is a very, very complicated process. And it's very easy to sit here and Monday morning quarterback. I would hate to be sitting in the Oval Office right now. And frankly, I'm glad the person sitting there really does know what he's doing.

CORNISH: Well, then let me turn over here because I have two questions. I keep hearing the Iranian navy is done. I also hear the Strait of Hormuz not clear. So, tell me, defensively, what is happening.

GAVITO: Sure. I mean there's two different pieces of this, right? The strait can be open and also there can be an assessment by the ships that are trying to transit it, that it is not safe.

CORNISH: The ships, the insurance industry, most countries.

GAVITO: Exactly. Exactly.

CORNISH: Yes.

GAVITO: And so either side can declare that the strait is open. And I think at various points both sides have done exactly that.

CORNISH: Yes.

GAVITO: That doesn't mean, though, that, for exactly those reasons, that we're going to see an uptick in oil flows in the coming weeks.

CORNISH: Yes.

ALEXANDER WARD, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": A couple of things. One, if the president declares victory that the Strait of Hormuz is now open then he's saying that basically the status antebellum is a win. We already knew that the Strait of Hormuz was open before this war started.

Two, if the plan is to weaken sanctions on Russia, we know that the one thing, the one point of leverage that the U.S. has had over Russia in this entire conflict has been the sanctions and the economic pressure. If that has now weakened, either if the oil prices go up or if the sanctions are taken off, that helps the Russian economy, which helps their war machine, which does not help Ukraine in the long run.

Third, we've seen President Trump in that press conference say that actually keeping the Strait of Hormuz open isn't really that beneficial to the U.S. It's actually helpful to China. He actually said it was helpful to China. So, it -- so, the notion that --

CORNISH: Further confusing markets.

WARD: Right.

CORNISH: Which feel that it's very important for it to be open.

WARD: But then to then say that -- I take the point, Ambassador, I really do, that, you know, there has been this axis of Russia, China, Ukraine -- excuse me, Iran, North Korea.

SONDLAND: He's trolling China. He's trolling China by saying that.

WARD: I mean, he's not.

SONDLAND: Yes. Yes, he is. Of course he is.

WARD: He's -- no, he's not. He's been very kind to China since the -- since Busan (ph).

SONDLAND: Listen, most of the docks and the ports that we destroyed are vital to China's oil supply.

WARD: I don't --

SONDLAND: He's not doing anything to help China.

CORNISH: I don't --

G: (INAUDIBLE) fight (ph) over international markets as well.

CORNISH: Yes. Yes, also -- and --

SONDLAND: I'm talking about the Iranians.

CORNISH: But to be clear, I also don't want to confuse people with 3-D chess when we're in a very basic situation right now.

WARD: Well, and --

CORNISH: Yes.

WARD: And both can be true. They can be vital to China. But it doesn't have to be about China, right?

CORNISH: Yes. And it also can be vital to more than China, which is what oil markets are telling us.

I want to take a pause because we are continuing our breaking news coverage, and I want to turn to this conversation, not just about oil and whether it's rebounding, whether it's enough to ease worries about higher gas prices, but also President Trump's promises with U.S. involvement about whether or not it's going to end soon. Does he have an exit strategy? And later on, we've got recession fears. Could the war in the Middle East spark one?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:13]

CORNISH: President Trump trying to reassure his political allies back home that the war with Iran is a short term excursion, which will end soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough.

We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil, and I think you'll see it's going to be a short-term excursion.

Short term. Short term.

We're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they're pretty well complete.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: But in an exclusive interview with CNN, a top Iranian official says his country is digging in for a long war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How does all of this end then? If you say right now there's no room for negotiation, President Trump says he wants complete surrender. What does that lead to? KAMAL KHARAZI, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER TO THE OFFICE OF THE SUPREME

LEADER: There is no room unless the economic pressure would be built up to the extent that other countries would intervene to guarantee this termination of aggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, group chat is back.

So, we've got Pete Hegseth, defense secretary, is planning to speak in a few hours. And we have -- I want to get your questions heading into this conversation and for the rest of the week, because there are a lot of them. We talked about oil, the Strait of Hormuz. We talked about public sentiment. Peter Baker of "The New York Times," tweeting, "Americans skipped the rally around the president's stage this time." And he notes that, "JFK gained 13 points after the Cuban Missile Crisis, eight after bombing Hanoi," that George H.W. Bush got 18 during the Gulf War, Bush eight after Saddam captured, Obama 11 after Osama bin Laden was killed.

[06:55:13]

Trump has gained zero since Iran.

Can you talk about the difference, ,historically? I should start with you, because you actually mentioned this earlier when you were talking about the Bush era sort of approach.

JAFFER: Yes, I mean, look, I think the challenge for President Trump is, how is this playing at home? Can he survive within his -- within his own party, within our -- the Republican Party, right? Will the MAGA base rebel against him? And he's clearly trying to deal with that at this house -- this Republican retreat.

CORNISH: What are you seeing in the MAGA base? For me I see like a Megyn Kelly or a Tucker, you know, say, resurfacing Charlie Kirk tweets about Iran and their disinterest in the U.S. going into foreign entanglements. How are you seeing the fighting?

JAFFER: Yes, I mean, look, Tucker is irrelevant. I mean Tucker is ridiculous. He supports Vladimir Putin. He talks about how Russia's got better grocery stores than America. He's platforming, you know neo-Nazis. Tucker's not --

CORNISH: Yes. You say platforming because it's a massive audience.

JAFFER: Yes.

CORNISH: That's why I'm asking.

JAFFER: That's right. So, I mean, he's got an audience, right, certainly. And the -- but the president's not trying to necessarily cater to that audience. He is looking at congressional Republicans. He's looking at the midterms and saying, how do I ensure this doesn't tank my support in the midterms and going forward so I can move my agenda forward. CORNISH: But isn't that the J.D. Vance wing?

WARD: Well, I mean, you heard the president say during the press conference Monday that, you know, the vice president was less enthusiastic but still quite enthusiastic about this. Yes, there is a MAGA wing that is somewhat against this war, but what is -- I think what we've seen is that MAGA is not against war necessarily. They like targeted strikes. They like things that seem to appeal to protecting the American homeland. What they don't like is long term foreign entanglements that really suck in the U.S. So, as long as this is kept to a short-term excursion, as the president's saying, MAGA might be fine with this in the long term.

CORNISH: Yes. I mean this doesn't happen in a vacuum. You know, I feel like after Afghanistan in particular abroad, people, like officials in Iran, think the U.S. public has a certain sensitivity to getting tangled up here and that it is possible to sort of wait them out, that it is possible to make conditions difficult domestically. Like, they're aware of that as much as we are talking about local politics.

GAVITO: Absolutely. And I think they read that relatively correctly in that, you know, this becomes a game of time and which can wait out the other when you're talking about oil prices, when you're talking about -- when you're talking about gas prices and you think --

CORNISH: Well, you're taking out a lot of missiles in that time. I mean --

GAVITO: Absolutely. But, you know, as a lot of people have discussed, for the Iranian regime, this really is an existential crisis. And they have every interest in ensuring that they extract enough pain from the United States that it makes it very hard for this administration, or future administrations, to wade back into this situation.

And so they are, I believe, willing to probably take on more pain than would normally be attributed to them in an effort to reestablish some degree of balance in that relationship.

CORNISH: Last time when we were here you brought up whether the president or Rubio had actually been explicit enough to the public about the reasons for going. But now that we're in, how are you feeling?

SONDLAND: Well, I think, on leadership, I give the president a ten. On communications and educating the American people, I give him a much lower grade. He is taking huge political risks and he doesn't care. He understands the importance of this war. He's been talking about this problem long before he became president. And he is one of the few people who could prosecute this war with enough Teflon around him that he doesn't care where the polls are, he doesn't care temporarily where gas prices are. Now, if they're here six months or a year from now, he's going to care a lot.

CORNISH: Yes.

SONDLAND: But he is willing to take the hits to get this done once and for all.

CORNISH: And we should say, for Democrats, there's going to be a request from the Defense Department for supplemental funding. They're going to come back for more money. What are Democrats going to do then? They don't seem to have any kind of alternate path. They just have a criticism of how this path was taken.

WARD: Yes, and we should note that there are Democrats that have also wanted to see this kind of military action taken against Iran. So, they're kind of put in a tough space here because, on the one hand, they don't want to seem weak on Iran. On the other hand, they don't want to be seen siding with the Trump administration if this were to go awry.

SONDLAND: You're right, there's video of every single Democrat that has been criticizing this war, talking about prosecuting such a war over the past several years. Every single Democrat there's video of.

GAVITO: I think the -- such a war is the question, right? Is this about military objectives, which, you know, the president has said are largely complete?

CORNISH: Yes.

GAVITO: Or is this about complete, complete surrender on the part of the regime?

CORNISH: Yes.

GAVITO: That is very different. And so I think --

CORNISH: And to your point, way back when, the video of the lone vote against the Iraq War, that aged better than it did in the moment. So, you don't know how these things are going to look back in --

SONDLAND: Well, I don't want to conflate the Iraq War with the Iran War --

[07:00:00]

CORNISH: I too, but I want to say that --

SONDLAND: Even though a lot of people out there have don't know the difference.

CORNISH: These votes go on the record for a reason. And history does have a different lens, OK. So, let's -- we're so early in this process and we've had a lot to talk about today. I appreciate you guys spending your time with us. Know that we've got more headlines coming up for you next.