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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Vows To Avenge Deaths Of Three U.S. Service Members; Police Release Photo Of Gunman in Mass Shooting In Austin, Texas; Interview With Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA); UAE, Jordan Summon Iranian Officials After Attacks; Israel Intercepts Projectile Launched From Lebanon. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 01, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:50]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett, and welcome to this special edition of OUTFRONT.
We are live in Tel Aviv, where air raid sirens have been going off through the night. In fact, we've had to seek shelter several times already. The deadly conflict between Iran, between Israel and the United States is escalating tonight.
To the north of where we are right now, even more sirens now after Israel intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon. Hezbollah involvement here now. Israel is now saying it is striking Hezbollah targets across Lebanon. This is the escalation and the metastasization that we are referring to. A major escalation in this already broadening war.
Already the strikes in Israel are the worst this country has experienced since Israel launched its war against Hamas nearly two and a half years ago. October 7th almost like Pearl Harbor for Israel, it looks like.
What we now know at this hour is three American service members already have been killed in action, five others seriously wounded, according to Central Command. And according to sources, those service members were killed in Kuwait by a suspected drone strike that appears to have gotten through any defenses that were there. A source telling CNN that the Defense Department is trying to investigate how an Iranian drone was able to penetrate the base's air defenses.
And the president tonight vowing revenge and warning of more Americans lives lost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is. Likely be more. But we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case. But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against basically civilization. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: "Basically civilization." Well, Trump is saying that that so- called punishing blow could stretch for several more weeks. Speaking to "The Daily Mail" and telling them a timeline and it's obviously significant because, you know, the implication had been this would be for days. That's the way they were talking and then he said to "The Daily Mail," and I quote him, "It's always been a four-week process. We figured it would be four weeks or so."
And tonight the entire Middle East is literally on fire. The Fairmont Hotel in Dubai engulfed in flames and that was after an attack. I mean, it's really stunning. This is out on the Palm. One of those fancy places. Gone there so many times. And to imagine that you have a five star hotel in one of the most prestigious areas of Dubai, known for luxury apartments, actually on fire, I mean, it's absolutely stunning to consider it.
And Dubai's international airport, which is the world's busiest when it comes to international travel, shut down and silenced. Right now in the middle of a war zone. And then in Qatar, U.S. base there, the U.S. State Department is now urging non-emergency personnel to leave. You can see the number of locations targeted by U.S., Israeli and Iranian forces over the past 40 hours. An incredible map.
If you look at this, you'll see U.S. and Israeli strikes are in red, Iranian strikes are in yellow. And now of course, it's just a continual back and forth. And the strikes from Iran include Dubai, Qatar Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, and of course here in Israel. And one of Iran's top leaders who was not killed in yesterday's strikes, a very well-known longtime leader, Ali Larijani, issuing this threat, typing in all quote -- in all caps. I'm sorry.
"Yesterday Iran fired missiles at the United States and Israel, and they did hurt. Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before."
Is it chilling? Is it an empty threat?
[20:05:02]
Well, threats like that have officials now in New York, in Los Angeles, and in Phoenix increasing security around sensitive areas, including houses of worship, synagogues, community areas as well, because the threat comes, as a top Iranian official tells CNN, Trump crossed a, quote, "very dangerous red line" by killing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
And it's not only the supreme leader in Iran. President Trump claims that 48 Iranian leaders have been taken out by U.S. and Israeli forces. If true, that is the biggest blow to Iran's authoritarian regime ever. Absolutely ever. And Israel taking out a leader of another country, absolutely unprecedented.
So are the Iranian people celebrating that fact tonight? Are they pouring out into the streets? Well, we haven't seen it. We've seen some in some places and maybe it presages what we'll see more of. But so far, no. I spoke to the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in September. I was actually with him face to face. And, you know, he said that the U.S. and Israeli strikes last summer, and this of course, this is his spin. But he said that they resulted in Iranians more united behind the system.
Now, when you think about it, what a fascinating choice of words. Behind the system.
We have a team of reporters standing by across the region and in the U.S. and you can actually, I don't know if you could hear those, but what's interesting right now is we're hearing a lot of explosions, and we did not get sirens. So I don't know --- so we can hear that. But obviously we did not get any warnings or sirens as we would have gotten, but I hope that anyone listening can hear that.
It's difficult to say where they're coming from here. We're not actually seeing the explosion or the smoke. I'm just turning around here to look, but obviously appearing to come from multiple directions right now.
Just to be clear here, when we look here at the time, you're looking at just after 3:00 in the morning here in Tel Aviv. So this is what's happening in the Middle East. This is the experience. And it's also happened in Saudi Arabia, where our Nic Robertson is live in Riyadh. Kristen Holmes is live at the White House as our live coverage continues here.
So, Nic, I just want to start with you and what we're hearing here, and I don't know if it was going out, you could feel the thuds on my microphone, is the fear here. It is the fear around this entire region now in a way that it has never been before in history.
So what are you learning at this hour, Nick?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. The question that we understand that's being asked around the leaderships, the diplomatic circles in this region, in the Gulf is, who is in charge in Iran? Is it one person, one group of people, or is it just disparate elements there that are at work? And there is a very, very strong and clear diplomatic message being sent from the GCC countries here, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, six of them.
Their foreign ministers had a virtual meeting today. They came out with a very strong, clear message. And the message is quite simply, you know, we stand with each other, we're united. It's one for all, all for one. They call Iran's attacks flagrant violations, unjustified attacks. They're talking about taking all necessary measures to protect their security and stability. Even it says including the option to respond to the aggression.
So this is very, very strong diplomatic language. And the sense here right now we're getting from sources is that the next 12 to 24 hours is going to be critical for how the next week, the next weeks will play out. Quite simply, Iran is in a position of, will it heed the diplomatic warnings from the GCC and stop attacking them, or will it continue to up the ante and draw the ire? And as they are saying here, including the option to respond to the aggression.
This is very strong, high stakes diplomatic moment. And the question is, who is listening in Iran? Are they in control? Are they working together? That's what brings the worry here right now -- Erin.
BURNETT: Well, as you say, who is listening? And are they in control? What stunning, what stunning questions to even be asking.
All right. Here in Tel Aviv, I'm with Jeremy Diamond.
And, Jeremy, I know you're getting new information. I will just say it is just, as I was saying, this is the way it is right now. What we just heard going around, what seemingly sort of across the horizon. Sometimes you get warnings, most of the times you do, but not all the time. And this has been the deadliest so far. Not this particular strike, but what we've been seeing today.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. But if you're talking about those booms that we just heard, I think that is very likely to do with what is happening right now with the Israeli military just announced.
BURNETT: In Hezbollah.
DIAMOND: Which is that a new front in this war is opening up right now, and that is that the Israeli military said that Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, effectively joining in with this Iranian retaliation, which we had heard grumblings of in a statement from Hezbollah earlier today.
[20:10:11]
Those loud booms, again, we don't know this yet with specificity, but those could potentially be explosions in Lebanon. Sound does travel fast.
BURNETT: In Lebanon -- yes.
DIAMOND: Especially we're along the coastline here. We have heard of booms in Lebanon before from Tel Aviv, particularly if Israel is trying to use some very large bunker busting bombs to try and hit Hezbollah infrastructure that's buried underground.
So, again, I'm speculating here to a certain extent but given the timing, I mean minutes ago, the Israeli military announced that they had begun striking targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, that's their quote there, operating against Hezbollah's decision to join the campaign. And then minutes later, we hear those booms.
BURNETT: Then you hear that.
DIAMOND: It doesn't seem like a coincidence.
BURNETT: So, Jeremy, OK, again, when we think about what happened last summer, you think about, you know, the nuclear program was obliterated, right, and now here we are, and they're week away from a bomb. These arguments being made. Hezbollah people may remember the pagers and the pockets, the bunker buster bombs, taking them out, you know, effectively neutering them.
And yet, what you're suggesting right now is not only is that not the case, but there's still the need for potentially bunker busting type of munitions, and they're actually stepping up and getting involved in this.
DIAMOND: Yes. And it's important to note as well that Israel has been waiting for an opportunity like this. I mean, Israel has carried out strikes against Hezbollah quite regularly since the November 2024 ceasefire agreement that went into place between the two sides. But recently, in recent months there have been discussions in Israel, even before this war with Iran, about kind of finishing the job against Hezbollah, fearing that the Lebanese army, which is supposed to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon, was not up to the task in in order to do that across the country really.
And so there have been plans already within the Israeli military to carry out a new war against Hezbollah. Hezbollah has just invited that, according to the Israeli military, by firing several rockets into northern Israel.
BURNETT: And it's not that any of the reporting today has indicated that this is going anything other than in an escalatory direction. But things like this are tangible proof of it.
Jeremy is here with me, of course is going to be here with us through the night. As I said, just after 3:00 in the morning.
And, Kristen, I think this is the context. Kristen Holmes is at the White House.
Kristen, Israel is clearly -- this is the opportunity that the prime minister here has, in a sense, wanted for decades. Right? This is an opportunity for regime change. This is an opportunity to take Iran in a different direction. And he is escalating.
What now is President Trump going to do? Right? I know he's just returned to where you are from Mar-a-Lago. What is he saying as we hear this now escalating to, as Jeremy says, a new front?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There are still so many questions, Erin. I just want to be very clear. President Trump, no member of the administration has actually taken consistent questions from the press. Generally, in a situation like this, there would be a press conference where the White House press pool would be brought in after an enormous strike like this, and we still just don't have answers.
And just, for example, there are still questions about why we did this now. Of course, as you mentioned, the Israeli prime minister has -- this is something that he has been wanting for decades. For the United States this is something that we have been actively avoiding. And President Trump included in that. And yesterday, in a background briefing with administration officials, they implied that it had to happen now, that this attack on Iran had to happen now because there was intel that there was a preeminent -- there was a potential for preeminent strikes on Americans from Iran. So this had to happen.
Well, we have just learned, and this is my colleagues or our colleagues, Natasha Bertrand and Zach Cohen, are learning that in a briefing today Pentagon briefers actually undercut that argument when talking to Capitol Hill staffers and briefing them, saying there was no imminent threat. But they just pointed to the fact that they have a ballistics program and said that historically speaking, we cannot let them attack Americans.
Well, this is something that has been true for a long time. And just to add on top of that, President Trump has done a series of these kind of three to five minute phone interviews with reporters. And in one of them, he was asked, why now? And President Trump said they weren't willing to stop their nuclear research. So that is something we haven't been able to pin down.
The other thing we haven't been able to pin down is an actual timeline. We've gone everywhere from four weeks to one week to two days. President Trump tonight came home from the White House, he usually stops and talks to the press. He completely ignored us, instead stopped and admired some new statues that were being put into the Rose Garden. We hadn't seen them before. They appear to be the founding fathers, saying, come look at them. They're unbelievable.
And then walked away. We were shouting questions, you know, what is your message for the families of these service members who were killed? How long are we going to be in this conflict? We have so little answers right now. We don't know what's going to happen next.
[20:15:00]
BURNETT: All right, Kristen, thank you very much. I think capturing just the incredible uncertainty of that moment.
And Alexander Cornwell is here from Reuters. Here he's with me at 3:00 here in the morning on this rooftop in Tel Aviv. We heard those thuds. General "Spider" Marks and Karim Sadjadpour are with us as well.
So, Alexander, you know, just what are you learning from your sources here? It's just fascinating what Kristen was just saying that the president of the United States, when it came to Venezuela, there was an immediate press conference. There was, I'm running Venezuela. This was immediate and he was flanked by all of his national security team, and he wanted to talk about it.
That's not the case right now. It's very different. The timelines we're hearing are conflicting and dramatically different. What are you learning?
ALEXANDER CORNWELL, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: So what I'm hearing from sources from the -- on the Israeli side, the Israeli perspective, they want to continue this campaign. And what they want to do is destroy and degrade Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. And they also want to create conditions for regime change. Now I'm also hearing that as of several hours ago, that some Israeli
officials were concerned that maybe this war would end how they see it as prematurely and not as soon as they ended -- they were able to reach, sorry, their objectives.
BURNETT: Right. And their objectives are clear. They know what they are, right? Obviously it's much less clear what the United States objectives are or whether -- right? That I guess is some of the real question marks.
You know, Karim, I guess on that front, the U.S. objectives, you know, President Trump said today in his just barely six minute address that he put out, where he said that we should expect more loss of American lives. And there were soldiers that died today, three of them. He said that we're going to continue towards the objectives, which remain very fuzzy. And in that context, Ted Cruz said he had no indication Iran was anywhere close to getting a nuclear weapon, which, of course, Trump himself had said their capability to do so was obliterated last summer.
So I guess there's really going to be a real question, Karim, as to whether Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States before this action. Certainly the intelligence such that we've seen it shows that that is not the case.
KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE, IRAN EXPERT: I think, Erin, when historians look back at this war in the years to come they will say this was a war of choice by the president. There wasn't an imminent threat that Iran was about to acquire nuclear weapons or any intelligence that they were about to launch strikes, whether against U.S. interests or allies.
But there was an imminent threat to the president's credibility because on nine occasions last January, he issued a red line that if Iran killed protesters, that there would be consequences. And he told the people of Iran that help was on the way and Iran proceeded to kill potentially tens of thousands of its people. So I think for the president, he sensed an opportunity, number one, to restore his own credibility. But that this sworn adversary of the United States that for 47 years has been saying death to America is at its weakest point, potentially ever, doesn't control its own spares -- its own airspace. Its proxies are destroyed.
And this is a high risk but potentially high reward gamble that he could turn a sworn U.S. adversary transform it potentially into a U.S. partner again.
BURNETT: Yes, and in such, he would be making history.
General Marks, you know, I'm just -- when you look at the threats coming out of the remaining Iranian leadership or the would be Iranian leadership, right, they're vowing revenge. I just shared the Ali Larijani comment. Right? It was in all caps. I want you to just say something about it. It said, "Today we will hit them with a force that they've never experienced before." Now, I don't know whether he's being literal or figurative with the
word today. But that is -- was, you know, yesterday, whatever, Sunday morning, OK. And there were awful things that happened today, but with a force that has never been experienced before.
I guess, General Marks, there's a real question of what capabilities does Iran really have right now? Trump says they sunk nine ships. He says they've destroyed so many ballistic missile capabilities. But yet we hear they've got at least a couple thousand of those cruise missiles. Do we know what their capabilities that remain are?
MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I think we have a pretty good sense of what their capabilities are in terms of the regional threat. The GCC, the Gulf Cooperation Council, nations, the threat is very real. Iran still has a large storage of missiles that can reach within the region. None of those are nuclear tipped, but they're incredibly dangerous.
The thing is to go after the storage capabilities or to go after the launchers. Both of those targets are absolutely top of mind in terms of the high value target list that exists. The real issue then becomes, based on the narrative that we're hearing, and we should pay attention to that. But we've transitioned to a new period of required vigilance. I mean things are completely different. I mean you're living it right now. Your description early on was, who goes to Abu Dhabi and expects this?
[20:20:02]
Who's in the Emirates and expects this? Who goes to Europe and would expect anything different than what we're seeing right now in terms of terrorist activity? So when we look at this in terms of the timing, look, the president has indicated that this may be four weeks long. What we need to look for is what are the indicators that the IRGC might be fracturing and is there any indication that the population is prepared to rise up and maybe try to accelerate that fracturing.
If we don't see that, this is not a four-week fight, we're going to have to make a determination before then. It's time to cut bait.
BURNETT: And so, Alexander, you know, you look at what's happening in the UAE and Iran's striking out at countries that were certainly not its friends. OK? But weren't its sworn enemies ready to attack them in the way that of course Israel and Iran have been. And I'm referring to the UAE as an example.
So how much support is there? Because, yes, we hear them having these meetings. They had a Zoom call. They're clearly shocked and frozen and upset. OK? But does that mean that they support an escalating war?
CORNWELL: The public messaging that we're getting is that they're not supportive of an escalating war. They want this to end now. However, it's also quite unprecedented for practically all of the Gulf States, maybe with the exception of Kuwait several decades ago, so there's a lot of pressure on them. Many of their economies are reliant also on foreign workers, and although their airspace is closed at the moment, I think these governments will be cautious on how the public is feeling and what public sentiment, what is happening to public sentiment.
BURNETT: Well, the airspace being closed, I just think we can't emphasize how big of a deal that is with the busiest airport in the world in the center of that, and that there is a time -- there's a clock ticking on that. And that -- it's just important. It's not a small factor.
Karim, I want to play something else that Iran's foreign minister said today that really gets to the heart of all of this. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: As a matter of fact, you know, our, you know, militaries, military units are now in fact independent and somehow isolated, and they are acting based on instructions. You know, general instructions given to them in advance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK, Karim, when I heard that, I sort of thought, whoa, whoa, did Minister Araghchi just said they're based on instructions basically given before leadership was taken out? General instructions given them to advance. And they're sort of, I don't know if it's too strong a word, but freelancing? I mean, I guess the real question is, what do you hear there, Karim? And is it clear to you right now who is in control of Iran?
SADJADPOUR: It's not clear, Erin. There's an enormous leadership vacuum. Anytime a leader who's been ruling for 37 years is killed, that leaves an enormous vacuum. There's also a military leadership vacuum. You know, they say about dictatorships that they kill the most once, when they first come to power and when they're leaving power. And what we saw last month in Iran, when they massacred potentially tens of thousands of people, you know, showed that internally, but also now externally when they're fighting for their survival, this regime really has no reliable allies in the world.
And the only thing it can do is lash out at its neighbors, target civilians in the hopes that those neighbors will pressure the United States to stop. But this is a regime which is its existence is at stake. And it's doing the only thing that it knows to do which is to lash out violently.
BURNETT: General Marks, in all of this now, three U.S. service members have been killed on a base in Kuwait, we understand by a drone, right? Missile defense is designed to defend against, you know, fast-moving missiles. Drones are the opposite and somehow can get through those defenses in unexpected ways. Trump is now saying that there will likely be more Americans who die.
What's the significance of that admission to him, General, and how big do you think he expects this to get in terms of American lives?
MARKS: Erin, there's no guarantee that every preparation you take is going to be sufficient to provide 100 percent security and force protection for all your forces. So it's an incredible tragedy. What the threshold is in terms of what the president is willing to accept, in terms of killed in action, nobody knows. And I think that's part of that -- that is, not I don't think this. I know that that is part of the calculation that goes into the determination of when an objective has been achieved that's going to be good enough or it's going to be exactly what this administration wants. And that, I think, goes back to the nature of not only the preparation of our troops, but it's the nature of what's going to happen with the IRGC during this incredible period of chaos?
[20:25:08]
Are they going to fracture? Are they going to hold together? That's the indicator. It's not the preparation and the force protection and the immense capability that we have in the region. It's what's happening inside Iran and how they are withstanding and how they choose to respond.
BURNETT: Alexander, Karim, General Marks, I appreciate all of you very much as our breaking news coverage here continues on this Sunday night.
The FBI is now investigating whether the gunman behind the deadly mass shooting in Austin, Texas, was motivated by Trump's attacks in Iran as we are just getting in new details tonight about that gunman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news, air sirens sounding across Israel. We heard them from this rooftop not long ago, as we've heard them through the day here as we are live with this breaking news. Lebanon state media is reporting a series of Israeli strikes in Beirut suburbs right now, as we are also hearing that Israel is saying that Lebanon did strike and they say open areas here in Israel. And those -- we heard all of those explosions, ingoing, outgoing, not clear.
But that is what is happening, as Jeremy Diamond, our Jeremy Diamond has been describing this as now a whole new front in this expanding war.
OUTFRONT now, Vali Nasr, he is an Iranian American professor of Middle East and international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, and he is also the author of "Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History," one of the most important voices on this topic.
And Vali, I'm grateful that you took the time to be with us tonight.
Thank you.
BURNETT: You know, as we talk about this new front, which Israel seems to be announcing in the back and forth that we're hearing between Hezbollah and Israel right now, Ali Larijani, the top national security official in Iran, who is still alive, longtime Khamenei loyalist, tweeted today, and I mentioned that it was in all caps. "Yesterday, Iran fired missiles at the United States and Israel, and
they did hurt. Today we will hit them with a force that they have never experienced before."
Now, you know, if you take a side what may be some bellicose rhetoric there, what do you think the reality is? I mean, do you think that this war has really started yet when it comes to Iran's response?
VALI NASR, PROFESSOR OF MIDDLE EAST AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: I think we are still in the very early stages of this war. I mean, Israel had a plan to attack ferociously at the beginning, to kill a large number of Iran's leaders, including the supreme leader, and then follow with massive bombardment of various military assets.
Iran is feeling its way into this war, testing Israeli air defenses, U.S. air defenses gradually and steadily expanding the battlefield away just from between Iran, U.S., and Israel to include the Gulf and now Lebanon.
[20:30:06]
And I think they're going to gradually escalate depending on how much they have available to them to shoot as the war goes on because they want the -- they see that the U.S. and Israel want to knock him out quickly, and the Iranians want to drag this out. So they're not going to spend all their force at once. They're going to gradually escalate. That's also what they did in June.
And secondly, now that Khamenei has been buried and they've had the street vigilance for him, I think they will have to show some kind of a level of attack that they could claim is a vengeance for his killing. And so I think they will look for something spectacular to go forward, but I don't think Iran is looking for a knockout punch to U.S. and Israel. It cannot deliver that. It needs to keep them in this fight longer. And so it will keep steadily expanding and increasing its capacity.
BURNETT: So when Trump puts out this four-week timeline, which has surprised many because it seems to be a shift from what the United States at least hopes were initially, do you think that is reality or is that also rhetoric? I mean, how does that play, Vali, into how you see Iran staying power? Do they have the ability to stay and to sustain a four-week war?
NASR: We really don't know. I mean, once you start wars, you really don't know how they unfold. Perhaps they don't but it also is a question of what kind of a damage they can do before we get to the four-week mark. And also, President Trump's words really don't have much credibility because he says one thing and then he shifts. First it's about regime change. Then he says he's willing to talk to the Iranians. He wants to negotiate.
Now he says he may stay there for four weeks. And so I think the Iranians are not listening to the dates that he's putting down. They actually have a plan. And the plan is that they gradually will try to expand the scope of the areas of risk and defense that the United States has to contend with.
The U.S. started this war planning to only defend Israel by bringing the aircraft carrier forward to Haifa. But now it is being put in a position that it has to plan for defending all the GCC countries, shipping lanes and energy sources, tankers, Straits of Hormuz. and all of that the United States can do, but it will have to do it at much greater cost and much greater risk. And it comes down to what is President Trump's threshold for accepting cost of war?
BURNETT: Yes, and also, of course, the opportunity cost of what that would mean for other crucial theaters, for example, in Asia.
The Iranian foreign minister, Vali, says that a new supreme leader could be selected in a day or two. And now, obviously, there's a lot of possibilities in there, right? Could day or two. But I find it interesting because there's been so much focus on this, right, that the supreme leader was the supreme ruler of Iran for 37 years. And so definitional. That you, Vali, think that whoever is chosen to succeed Khamenei is actually irrelevant. How come?
NASR: Well, anybody coming in right now, it would take them a long time before they establish authority. Khamenei, even before he died, he delegated most of the decision-making, particularly wartime decision-making, to commanders, to his national security adviser, to various branches of government. This is part of the strategy of surviving decapitation. They wanted a system that you could not paralyze by killing one or two or three people.
This worked for them during the June war when Israel killed 30 commanders and they were able to fight. Israel has killed another 30 or 40 senior people, including the country's top leader. And the country's functioning. So this system doesn't depend on the next guy coming in, and they don't count on the fact that this guy would need to spend some time getting acclimated and consolidate power.
So constitutionally, and in order to show that the system is going to continue, they will choose someone, but they're not right now looking for that someone to come first in the office and take command of everything.
BURNETT: All right. Vali, I appreciate your time as I said. Thank you so much.
NASR: Thank you.
BURNETT: And also breaking as we speak, we have just obtained a photo, all right? This photo is of the gunman in the mass shooting in Austin, Texas. U.S. law enforcement is now investigating whether the strikes on Iran motivated that shooting. Two people were killed, 14 injured. The gunman was also killed, but he had a shirt on with an Iranian flag design, law enforcement officials are telling CNN.
So I want to go to John Miller. He's OUTFRONT.
And, John, you obviously broke all of this reporting. What more can you tell us about this? It's very disturbing. [20:35:04]
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, immediately, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to the scene of this shooting because of what they were being told by police.
Now, Ndiaga Diagne, the 53-year-old alleged gunman who was killed by police as he walked down the street allegedly holding a rifle and shooting at additional people, is somebody who came to the United States around 2000. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen around 2013. He shows several minor arrests in New York City in the early 2000 for things like street peddling without a license and others.
In Texas he's got one arrest for what appears to be maybe a hit and run accident, but a number of encounters with police involving mental health issues. Now that's part of the rub here. The FBI was not calling this an act of terrorism, saying they were there investigating that. And they were very specific. Alex Doran, the special agent in charge of the San Antonio field office, said that there were indicators on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate a possible nexus to terrorism.
Of course, the T-shirt with the Iranian flag, given the timing of this event, is a strong indicator, along with other things. They've executed search warrants at his house. They are looking at his electronics and his social media accounts.
BURNETT: Yes. All right. John Miller, thank you very much.
And I want to go straight now to the Democratic Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan because she sits on both the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committee.
So the nexus of what is happening here also, of course, the congresswoman also is an Air Force veteran who served during "Operation Desert Storm."
Congresswoman, the president is calling this operation that the United States is arm-in-arm with Israel "Operation Epic Fury." How concerned are you that law enforcement is now investigating with the reporting that John is just sharing that the U.S. strikes on Iran could have now played a role in a mass shooting in Texas?
REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D-PA): So of course that's concerning but it does sound, at least on first blush, as being a very sick man doing very, very difficult and sick things because he's challenged in different ways. And I think that we should stay focused on the main thing that's happening in our news stories right now, and that the fact that the American people are watching and listening.
This president, having taken unilateral action to attack Iran, not to say that they are not a very bad regime and this is not a very dangerous country, but rather to say that this is not what the American people signed up for. Those who support him and those frankly who didn't support him were not lining up to attack Iran in this way. And we have no evidence collectively of why we are doing this. And he is also giving us amorphous timelines that are constantly
moving in terms of how long we're in this. And of course, we've also seen the first American casualties here as well. So we as Americans are looking for answers of why now, why there? And also what's the end goal and why is this have nothing to do with health care and nothing, in fact, the opposite to do with lowering the price of things like gas?
And I think it's terribly problematic. And I want to make sure that we are all continuing to be focused on that issue.
BURNETT: You served in "Operation Desert Storm" in the Air Force, and I -- so I know that when you hear that three Americans were killed on a base in Kuwait, right, they were on their base. OK? And an Iranian drone broke through any defenses and killed them. There were others who were injured. And that the president of United States says that there will likely be more Americans who will die.
Have you been able to get any more information as to how the Iranians were able to penetrate the base, one of -- you know, obviously, one of America's most fortified and protected bases in the world, in Kuwait?
HOULAHAN: Well, so this -- no. And the short answer to that is no. We collectively, and that's actually part of the problem. Collectively, we as an Intelligence Committee, we as the Armed Services Committee, have not had any sort of informative briefings before or after that would allow us to understand what's happening, what's transpiring.
I can speculate that this is a drone activity, which they are very excellent at, the Iranians are, and that this is an asymmetrical advantage that they have upon us. But I don't know that because I haven't been included in the conversations, none of us has. And that is in fact part of the bigger problem here which is what kind of country are we? We should be a country that observes our own Constitution, which means that the Congress should be engaged in these conversations.
[20:40:01]
BURNETT: Congresswoman Houlahan, I appreciate your time very much.
As she talks about that drone, I think it's important to reference here, of course, that it is Iranian Shahed drones that have been used by Russia and have been tested, what, some 57,000 of them used in Ukraine. So how to use them, how to target them, how to break defenses is something that there's been a lot of practice on in recent years.
And next, breaking news from our Jim Sciutto, who is talking to his sources. He has new details about the heightened threat to the homeland and U.S. forces right now. This is after a very quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news. We're back with a special edition of OUTFRONT live in Tel Aviv in these early hours of Monday morning. Thuds and explosions just in the past hour. Iranian state media is now
releasing some new images. And take a look at this. This is pretty significant considering the last time Iran's leadership met. There was an extinction. Iran's newly established interim leadership met for the second time after the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.
And they've just put this picture out. The foreign minister of Iran is saying that a new supreme leader could be chosen in a day or two. So that's the context we have. But they obviously wanted to make a point with taking the picture and with all the paranoia that they must have about their being penetrated, they still met.
Also just breaking, the UAE and Jordan, summoning Iranian officials after Iran's attacks in their countries. Just absolutely stunning attacks across the UAE.
And in the U.S. major cities from New York to L.A. are on heightened alert after Iran's threats of retaliation.
Jim Sciutto is OUTFRONT now with obviously his unparalleled sources, Jim, in this region in the U.S. as well, in terms of the threats.
[20:45:04]
You've been talking to them about concerns, of threats to the United States both at home but also around the world, to American interests. What are you learning?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Erin, I've been speaking to lawmakers briefed on the latest intelligence and the consistent message I hear is that there is genuine concern that Iran maintains the capability to retaliate on two fronts, certainly in the region and we're seeing that play out right before our eyes, but also potentially overseas via terror attacks including in the U.S. homeland.
We know and we know that the FBI is aware of operatives inside this country, but also in Europe and elsewhere that have at least the capability to attack civilian targets. There's genuine concern, and that's why we are seeing an additional allocation of resources from U.S. law enforcement to follow those potential threats.
Inside the region, they believe you have an Iranian regime that has maintained the ability to strike, and even as the leadership has been dissolved at the top that many of these units in the Revolutionary Guards are operating independently to fire, to choose targets and fire, and that while the air defenses of both the U.S. forces deployed in the region, and of course, Israel, are formidable, the volume of these attacks is such that some get through.
And we've seen that, you know this. You're well aware where you are that some have gotten through inside Israel in population centers. We know that with three dead U.S. service members, they've gotten through on a U.S. base in Kuwait. We also saw in Erbil. And that concerns them going forward. And then if I could just add, Erin, that a mounting concern as this lengthens out, this war in effect in the region is that U.S. supplies of air defense missiles are not endless, right?
In fact, they're quite finite, and with the volume of these attacks, the concern is that we will not have those capabilities forever. And that makes the danger of further strikes that might hit their targets greater over time.
BURNETT: Right. Right. If they can space it out and burn through that supply, which was so depleted. Even last summer, of course, as we all know, and not replenished as of yet.
Jim Sciutto, thank you very much.
I want to bring in Ian Bremmer now, on the heels of Jim's reporting. Obviously, Ian, renowned global affairs expert, president and founder of Eurasia Group, also host of GZero Media on PBS.
So, Ian, I appreciate you being here. So when you hear Jim's reporting about the threats, right, threats to U.S. forces, but also to Americans, the belief of the retaliatory potential that Iran may have or its proxies, and also these missiles getting through air defenses, right? That's when you've got air defenses fully firing, right? And as you deplete them, you have fewer of them.
You know, is the strength of Iran's attacks, or maybe, let's just say, their ability to space them out, how do you see that? Is that surprising U.S. officials in any way from what you're hearing?
IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER OF EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: Short range missiles which they have, many of them hidden in caves that they can take out and strike, you know, targets relatively easily would be hard for the Americans to get at those in time. That's going to be an ongoing threat. That's a threat to the GCC countries. You know, in other words nearby, it's not as much of a threat to Israel. It's not obviously not a direct threat to the United States.
But that is a concern. And it's going to be continued concern going forward. And the fact that the Iranians have hit civilian targets across the GCC is not because that's the strategy. It's because that's the one thing that isn't hardened, that's within range. And they have lots of missiles and drones that can actually get there. So I think that there is an ongoing significant security threat that will come from that and then there's the question of proxies.
The terrorism threat, of course, is real. It's very hard to assess. But there's also the threat against tanker traffic going through the Straits of Hormuz. Now there, Erin, oil prices have gone up only about 8 percent on the back of all of these strikes. This extraordinary military threat.
BURNETT: Wow. That's amazing.
BREMMER: So, you know, the markets are saying that's not such a big deal at this point. They're not as worried about that.
BURNETT: Which is really quite something. Right? Whether they'll be right or not. BREMMER: Right.
BURNETT: But it's not what many had anticipated would occur. I mean, when you see tankers burning, Maersk shutting down in the Hormuz.
All right, Ian, I got to ask you about something else and that's this image. I don't know, it stands out to me. Iran's new leaders put out these photos. OK. Of the three men currently, they say in charge of the country and I know there's all sorts of questions about what that even means, what they know. But the three currently in charge until they say they choose a supreme leader.
OK, the last time they had a meeting it was fully penetrated, right? And as I said, it was sort of a mass extinction event. Right? United States intelligence, we understand, may have led to Israel's ability to strike that, take out the supreme leader and so many others.
[20:50:04]
OK. So the fact they put this image out is showing some sort of at least bravado. What's your assessment, Ian, of the interim leadership such that it is?
BREMMER: Well, one, that's why we have this so-called mosaic strategy they've been planning for a long time. There's no centralized control of the military attacks, that's happening locally. They -- the reason they've been planning for it is because they thought that they would need to plan for decapitation strikes from Israel, from the United States. That's now happened. And they're still able to engage in military strikes, but it's not being ordered by the people in those photos.
So that's significant and it's a breakdown of command and control, but it's not a breakdown of the regime. And also, I mean, in terms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, there were lots of those leaders that were killed last year by the Israelis during the 12-day war. They reconstituted quickly. The 86-year-old supreme leader that's now no longer with us was not actively involved in day-to-day leadership of Iran over the past year. That's not going to change very much.
And Iran's ability to repress domestically is much more about their militias, their paramilitaries, their police, those have not been significantly taken damage, but they haven't been close to destroyed. So there's no reason to believe that the Iranian regime yet is facing regime change, is going to change in its repressive ability and desire. And of course, that was the third component of what Trump said he was going to war for.
He said he wanted to hit the nuclear and military capabilities. They've done that. Wanted to hit the ballistic missile capabilities. They've done that. But he wanted regime change and regime change at the hands of the Iranian people, who aren't organized, don't have the weapons and facing what we see, what we've seen over the past two months in Iran. That still is an -- that's a lot of hope. It's not a lot of strategy. BURNETT: Yes, yes. I mean, I'm just thinking times, you know, when
we've actually been in Tehran and you walk down the street, just the constant presence of secret police and you talk to anyone and then they come over to them and that they could be in danger from having even spoken to you. The toll that that takes to just expect people to suddenly rise up, if that is even indeed what they would do, is quite something.
All right. Thank you very much, Ian. I appreciate it. And next horrific image --
BREMMER: Yes, Erin, I just want to say. Of course I'm worried about the American troops.
BURNETT: Yes, yes, go ahead.
BREMMER: I'm worried about the Gulf states, I'm worried about the American troops. I'm worried about the Gulf states. But we should be most worried about the Iranian people here because they are the ones that are likely to experience by far the most death and destruction over the coming weeks and months.
BURNETT: Yes. On the receiving end. Ian, thank you.
And we do have horrific images coming in tonight of a deadly strike here. It's actually just near Jerusalem. Horrible. At least nine dead. A synagogue was flattened. Rescue crews have been scrambling to save people trapped including in a bomb shelter underneath where they had rushed to seek safety. We have the very latest on that tragedy next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:36]
BURNETT: Breaking news as we are live tonight in the Middle East. We're in Tel Aviv.
Well, President Trump just told "The New York Times" that the number of U.S. casualties from the war with Iran, and I'll just pause before I read the quote here because just take a deep breath. "Could be quite a bit higher." The U.S. casualties. So far the United States says that three service members were killed in a drone strike by Iran at a U.S. base in Kuwait.
But the president of the United States is now saying that this could go quite a bit higher. A stunning admission. But of course, the strikes that we have seen already coming in from Iran have been deadly, including some of the deadliest we have seen of this war. We've got new video just in from Lebanon after Israel announced it was hitting Hezbollah there. Targets across Beirut. So we heard that and Hezbollah said it was going to retaliate.
Some of the booms we heard here at the top of the hour, we now understand, our Jeremy Diamond confirming, were actually incoming from Hezbollah, but that has now been responded to by the Israelis with strikes across Beirut coming as the death toll is rising in Israel as well as Iran since the start of this war.
Jeremy Diamond is OUTFRONT with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIAMOND (voice-over): A powerful blast rocking this city on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Rescue workers scramble to the scene, smoke billowing in the air of this residential neighborhood. Before long, the wounded are rushed out on stretchers and the dead carried out in body bags one after another.
Israeli police say at least nine people were killed and a synagogue flattened in what is Iran's deadliest missile attack yet. Under the rubble, an even more tragic story.
Beneath that synagogue, we understand that there was a bomb shelter and there were people sheltering inside there who believed that they were safe as those air raid sirens were going off. But as you can see here, it appears that this synagogue collapsed on top of that bomb shelter. And multiple people were killed.
(Voice-over): The next block over, more destruction. One home after the next bears fresh scars of this missile attack. Windows blown out, ceilings caved in, residents taking stock of all they've lost. And thanking God for all they did not. "Every Sunday I work nights," Sefir (PH) says. "But by chance today I worked in the morning." It meant he wasn't home when the missile struck. Two houses down total destruction.
This isn't just the rubble of a home destroyed by an Iranian ballistic missile. It is also evidence of the kind of split second decisions that people have to make amid this conflict. The woman who lived here decided to take her five children across the street to her neighbor's house, and it's only thanks to that decision that their lives were saved.
(Voice-over): That neighbor, Imbal Ohana (PH), takes us inside the safe room where they all huddled with their children.
"This was really a miracle because look outside, there's nothing left. They have no safe room. So they come to us during the alarms. And essentially we all survived."
"You saved them," I tell her. "Yes. Thank God. Yes." She says she's just glad they didn't go to the public shelter beneath the synagogue, where there are no miracles to be found.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: It's just hard to hear. Jeremy Diamond is here with me now, and I know you were there today.
As we're here and now hearing this back and forth between Hezbollah, I think there had been some who had hoped because of the decimation that Israel had, you know, unleashed upon Hezbollah before and their at least immediate silence that perhaps we weren't going to see their involvement. Not the case now.
DIAMOND (on-camera): Yes. And it very much seems like Hezbollah has made, you know, quite a foolish error if you consider the kind of firepower that Israel is going to bring to bear, the kind of firepower that Israel has been preparing to bring to bear in Lebanon, and the fact that, frankly, Israel was waiting for an opportunity to be able to conduct major operations in Lebanon. There's a reason why they were able to strike back very quickly after those first missiles from Hezbollah not just with, you know, the kind of garden variety strikes in southern Lebanon that we see. But they are currently striking in Dahieh, the southern suburbs of Beirut.
