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U.S., Iran Trade Strikes: Is The Ceasefire Over?; Funeral For Iran's Former Supreme Leader Nears Its End; Trump Uses Old Air Force One To Depart Turkey. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 09, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:22]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: We're following this breaking news in the war with Iran after another night of strikes between the U.S. and Iran. Is the U.S. getting ready to return to full-scale war?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We just hit it very hard. And I'd say we hit it 20 to 1. Every time they hit us, we're going to hit them 20. And when they hit, we hit back much harder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to start here.

The uncertainty in the region this morning. A U.S. official telling CNN the ceasefire with Iran has, quote, temporarily ceased, but the situation remains dynamic.

So, overnight, the U.S. military hit 90 targets in Iran. This is video obtained by CNN. You can see here showing some damage to what is a maritime control tower in a port city in the southeastern coast of Iran.

Now, Iran claims the U.S. also hit a railway bridge northeast of Tehran. And if confirmed, this would be a rare case where civilian infrastructure was targeted. Iran's military says it targeted U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

Their top negotiator posting this warning on X, quote, "America still hasn't learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost- free. If you strike, you'll get hit."

So we're bringing in CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us from Abu Dhabi.

I want to start with the targets. We know that Iran has threatened to hit back. Do we have any sense of whether they were able to cause damage to U.S. military bases or civilian places in the region?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Audie, we haven't had confirmation from those Gulf nations at this point as to exactly what damage there was, if there was any damage. But we do know it was a second night of sleeplessness for residents in both Bahrain and Kuwait. Bahrain saying that they had intercepted several attacks, calling it a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

Iran also claiming that it targeted Qatar. in the retaliation against these U.S. military assets. Now, this is really the most serious escalation in violence that we've seen since this memorandum of understanding was signed. We are hearing from many around the world concerns that this will continue to escalate.

I have a statement here from the United Nations spokesperson I want to read to you saying, quote, The Secretary General reiterates that a return to full-scale hostilities would have catastrophic consequences for the peoples of the region, for international peace and security, and for the global economy. Now, it really is focusing around the Strait of Hormuz, starting when U.S. officials say that Iran targeted three vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which sparked this 48 hours of U.S. strikes followed by Iranian retaliation.

We are seeing the number of vessels managing to get through that critical waterway lesson because of the increase in hostilities. On Wednesday, we had some facts and figures from marine traffic saying that, in the previous 24 hours, about 20 ships had managed to get through.

Now, bear in mind, it's usually 110 per day at the pre-war level. So, certainly, we are seeing a significant impact on the region. We're also hearing from the U.N. Maritime Agency that they still have some 6,000 seafarers that is still stranded in the Persian Gulf since this war began, so many of them since February 28th, that they are unable to get out of this waterway at this point because of these hostilities that are ongoing -- Audie.

CORNISH: Paula, I do want to follow up on that last part because we're coming off a NATO summit. Al Jazeera just spoke to Germany's foreign minister, and he said that they were ready to at least take some supportive action in the Strait of Hormuz. I want you to take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHANNA WADEPHUL, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER: And we have deployed a minesweeper in the region. We are ready to begin our work. But, of course, a permissive environment is needed.

[05:05:2]

So we need an agreement with Oman and with Iran that they agree that European units are doing this work. We are urging all parties to come back to the negotiation table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So does that mean that these minesweepers can't get to work unless there is another ceasefire? HANCOCKS: Well, certainly, there are very few countries who are going to want to put their carriers, their personnel, in the middle of what is happening at the moment. These mines are believed to be planted by Iran in the central route through the Strait of Hormuz. There is still a northern route, which hugs the Iranian coast, but that is the route where you have to have Iranian permission and coordination.

Now, many vessels don't want to do that. So they are using the southern route of this Strait of Hormuz, so hugging the Omani coast. And that is where this problem lies as far as Iran is concerned.

They believe that they are in control of the Strait of Hormuz. They believe that this memorandum gives them control over the logistics, the coordination, and all ships transiting through have to coordinate with them and any that are trying to avoid that and go via the Omani route, some of them are being targeted. We know a Saudi tanker, a Qatari tanker earlier this week were both targeted.

So when it comes to this central route, it's simply not being used by many vessels at this point, because that is where the mines are believed to be. But as I say, it's hard to believe that any country, any of these European nations offering the mine-sweeping capabilities are going to want to put their vessels and their personnel in the middle of this tit-for-tat that we are seeing at this exact moment -- Audie.

CORNISH: OK, that's Paula Hancock speaking to us from Abu Dhabi.

We want to talk about what's been happening in Iran domestically. This new round of strikes is coming as the week-long funeral procession for Iran's former supreme leader nears an end. Earlier today, we were talking about this marathon funeral continued in Iraq, where mourners carried Ali Khamenei's coffin in a crowded mosque.

His coffin is now being taken to its final resting place, the town where he was born in Iran. The question looming over today's events, will the new Supreme Leader, Khamenei's son, make an appearance?

So, CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran. CNN is operating inside the country with permission of the government, and CNN retains full editorial control of our reporting.

Fred, I want to start with the former leader being finally laid to rest. The question has been, given the threats to Iran's leadership, whether his son Mojtaba would be there today, and what's the sense of whether that could happen?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Audie.

Well, I think it's highly unlikely that Mojtaba Khamenei is going to make an appearance in Mashhad.

You're absolutely right. He hasn't been seen since taking the reins of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He's really only communicated by our written statement, so we don't even have any audio messages from him. One of the things, though, that the leadership here says is they say that he's fully in charge, he's fully in control. Certainly, if you ask the supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and many of them, of course, were out here on the streets over the past couple of days as this marathon funeral ceremonies were going on here in Tehran and other cities in Iran, as you mentioned, also all the way to Iraq and the holiest Shiite cities there, finally ending in Mashhad in the east of Iran today, that many people came out.

They were out in force. They were very angry at the United States. They called for revenge for the killing of Ali Khamenei. Essentially, what the people here are saying is whether or not Mojtaba Khamenei makes an appearance, which seems pretty unlikely at this point in time, that he is the one calling the shots, that he is also the one directing Iran's reaction, for instance, to those U.S. strikes and also to all the negotiations that are going on with the U.S. as well.

So, they say, whether or not he's seen in public, he certainly is a big presence as far as running the Islamic Republic is concerned. And one of the things, Audie, by the way, that we also have to keep in mind is that the office of Supreme Leader is actually a pretty large body. It's also a big administration as well.

So in any case, that seems to be functioning in a way that at least is effective enough to control those negotiations, but then also, of course, to oversee the ceremonies that we're seeing there happening in Mashhad, which is, of course, the holiest place in Shia Islam on Iranian soil -- Audie.

CORNISH: For people who aren't familiar with how this is supposed to work, why the length of time between the Supreme Leader's death and these funeral proceedings?

PLEITGEN: Well, that's -- yeah, that's basically due to the war that was going on between the United States, Israel, and then Iran on the other side. You'll recall that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the early hours of the U.S. and Israel's attacks on Iran in a massive airstrike here in Tehran on his headquarters in the center of the city on February 28.

[05:10:08]

Of course, the Iranians have been vowing revenge, but then the actual kinetic operations between the U.S. and Iran, and of course, Israel on the U.S.'s side went on for an extended period of time, and the Iranians simply felt, that it was too dangerous and logistically difficult to conduct the large funeral ceremonies that they wanted to conduct.

And if you look at what's been going on here over the past couple of days, it's been one event after another. I think you called it a marathon funeral ceremony, and that certainly is what it was. The body, not just of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, because some members of his family were also killed in that stripe, including a 14-month-old granddaughter. They lie in state for two days. Then there was a very big procession here in Tehran. Then the body was brought to a very important holy site in Iran, then

to the two main Shia holy sites, Najaf and Karbala, on Iraqi soil, and then finally today to Mashhad in the east of Iran. So, as you can imagine, this is a huge logistical operation on the part of the authorities, on the part of organizations that are pitching in as well. And then, of course, also big logistic operation as far as people traveling to those places on planes, trains, and automobiles, that that is something that required a lot of operation by the authorities.

And they simply said they didn't have the capacity to do that, as that ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, of course, was extremely shaky before the signing of that memorandum of understanding. And now we're seeing it seems shaky once again -- Audie.

CORNISH: One other thing, I've been reading that there are people with signs in English there, and that there have been calls for revenge within the crowd. Can you talk about the mood in and around the cities as they are going through this process?

Sure, absolutely. And you're absolutely right. There are a lot of people with signs in English calling for revenge against the United States, revenge against Israel, revenge specifically against U.S. President Donald Trump. And a lot of those signs are obviously meant to show that anger also to Western audiences and to U.S. audiences as well.

I can tell you from anywhere that we've turned up at these funeral processions, people were very keen to show us those signs. People in, you know, even if they didn't speak very good English, in English, told us that they would have revenge on the United States and on U.S. President Donald Trump.

So that whole notion of revenge is one that is extremely important to the supporters of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and they certainly did come out in force here on the ground over the past couple of days. We have to caveat that, of course, there are people here in this country who opposed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's role and his rule.

But we did see over the past few days, as these processions were going on, that the government here was able to bring out people in force with many hundreds of thousands of people coming on the streets, specifically for that procession that happened in Tehran and really voiced their support. And I think that it -- the power, the people who are in power here in this country certainly see that as also shoring up the support that they have as they are in these negotiations with the United States and now, again, in that standoff with the United States as well -- Audie.

CORNISH: OK, that's our Fred Pleitgen, joining us. He's live in Tehran. Thank you so much.

And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about the strategy out of Tehran, whether they are trying to box President Trump in, keep the clock ticking until the U.S. midterm election day. Plus, President Trump ditches the new Air Force One for at least one

leg of his trip home. We're going to find out what's behind that switch up.

And in the state of Maine, Graham Platner is out of the Senate race. Democrats have to find a new candidate in one of their most important races of the midterms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM PLATNER (D), FORMER MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: Accusations are supposed to be the beginning of things, not the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:18:23]

CORNISH: So, when President Trump left Turkey for England on the first leg of his trip home, he was on the old Air Force One instead of his new Qatari-donated plane. And the switch came at the urging of the Secret Service.

A source tells CNN they were concerned about the security capabilities of the new aircraft in international settings. The president claims that he sent the Qatari-gifted jet to Milton Hall, Air Force Base in the U.K. to give our soldiers, quote, "a chance to see it". But that's left reporters with a lot of questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you think there wasn't a security concern?

TRUMP: No, no. Why would --

REPORTER: Do you know why they had us close our window blinds? That was not usual.

TRUMP: Well, yeah, because you're probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags that we have to deal with.

REPORTER: Iran was possibly thinking --

TRUMP: Yeah. I mean, if they ask you to close your windows, probably they feel that way. They didn't ask me to close mine, but if they did, I would have done it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So we're bringing in Becca Wasser, defense lead at "Bloomberg Economics".

Becca, we've talked about this plane in the past, what it would cost to retrofit it. And now we are here, right, in the moment when it has to travel internationally. And I want you to help clarify a thing. I mean, sometimes the flight attendant tells you to put the shades

down because of the sun. So what do you hear between this conversation of? Is it a security concern or something else?

BECCA WASSER, DEFENSE LEAD, BLOOMBERG ECONOMICS: Listen, I think what's happening here is the efforts to try and retrofit this aircraft so quickly means that there are some gaps in what it needs to be a secure Air Force One for an international visit.

[05:20:08]

And what I'm hearing between all of this is really the lack of three things that caused him to fly home on the older Air Force One. And it's about security. It's about communications and it's about survivability.

So if, you know, there was this rush to trying get the Qatari aircraft to be his Air Force One, that means that it's probably lacking some of its missile detection and countermeasures that it likely needs. Additionally, it probably doesn't have the full secure communications network that President Trump would also need to essentially prosecute a war from afar with some of the strikes on Iran that we've seen in the past two days.

And then lastly, it probably lacks some of the basic survivability that it would need. Some of those Air Force One airplanes really were built to be survivable under even the worst things like being able to survive a potential nuclear blast. And it is very clear that the Qatari jet definitely lacks that capability.

CORNISH: Becca, I'm sorry, this is crazy. These are the three things that are the point of an Air Force One. I mean, security, communications, and survivability. I mean, was this kind of inevitable? I had always wondered, would it have to be gutted to the studs to be what the U.S. needs it to be.

WASSER: I think it probably had to, but that wasn't the timeline that, frankly, the Air Force was offered. So they managed to do this under a year, and that could possibly work for domestic use of Air Force One.

But when the president is flying overseas in international airspace under different conditions, you're going to want something that is a little bit more secure than what that could offer. And I think that's exactly why we're seeing him fly home on some of the older jets.

CORNISH: In the end, is that kind of what this is for, though, his domestic comfort?

WASSER: It could be, but I think it was very clear that Qatar offered a gift to the president, and it was one that he wanted to take. And so, you know, the U.S. military was essentially given a job to do, which is make this work.

And what they've done is tried to make it work. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it meets the standard that is required for the president's overseas travel and to be able to do some of the secure -- you know, messages that he would probably need to do.

CORNISH: So what's at stake here? We are in the middle of renewed hostilities with Iran. Trump flew on this Air Force One as this was escalating. After that, they switched planes.

Is there a concern, you think, about Iran specifically, or, as we said, this kind of general concern about international, you know, support for the leader of the free world?

WASSER: I think it's more about general concerns and, again, having that secure communications network that you would need to be able to, you know, help, you know, develop military operations and make those calls. Iran lacks capabilities with the correct ranges to be able to come after some of, you know, some of where the president would be.

You know, it's -- Iranian drones are short-range. They aren't able to get to Turkey. Additionally, while it does have missiles that have greater range, that's probably not, you know, what the biggest concern was here, even though it is definitely something that, you know, I'm sure the Secret Service has been very concerned about.

CORNISH: OK, Becca Wasser, thank you for talking with us about this. I know you will be back as we talk about this fresh round of strikes on Iran.

And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump has lost again in court. There's a judge here who says that E. Jean Carroll is owed millions of dollars. But will she ever collect?

Plus, who has the leverage in this Mideast standoff, the balance of power in the U.S. war with Iran?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:28:37]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They have very little left, and they want to make a deal so badly. They called a little while ago. They want to make a deal so badly. I just don't know if they're worthy of making a deal. I don't know that they're going to honor the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So the president claims Iran now wants to make a deal as the two countries exchanged a new round of strikes. U.S. Central Command saying they carried out attacks on 90 military targets across Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard saying it responded with drones and missiles aimed at U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.

So, at this point, who has the upper hand in making a deal?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We came into the situation with maximum leverage and maximum strength. Their nuclear program was destroyed. Their conventional military was destroyed.

And you've got some people within the Iranian system who are saying, you know what? We want to change our relationship with the United States. We want to turn over a new leaf. And the president said, OK, we will sit down at the table and negotiate and see if the smart people in that system can take over from the crazy people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Sabrina Singh, CNN global affairs commentator, also former deputy Pentagon press secretary.

Sabrina, good morning.

I want to start with what the President was saying there, talking about maximum leverage, because we heard him describe it as leverage militarily. Can you help me parse that with where we are now, the U.S. having to do strikes again?