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Erin Burnett Outfront

Pentagon Releases New Footage Of U.S. Strikes On Iran; Trump: U.S. Will "Avenge" Deaths Of Three U.S. Service Members; Iran Releases Video Of Propaganda Video Showing Drone Tunnels. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired March 01, 2026 - 22:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

ERIN BURNETT, HOST, OUTFRONT: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett live from Tel Aviv. And as I say good evening, it is, of course, five o'clock in the morning here, a new day dawning in a Middle East that is dealing with war, and that is the reality on the ground right now. Welcome to this special edition of OutFront.

As we cover this for you, air raid sirens throughout the day, sounds of explosions within the past hour or so on a new front between Hezbollah in Lebanon and the IDF. The situation growing more fraught as the Pentagon has just put out new video of strikes on Iranian jets and drones. So, they're just inputting that video out as well, as the Israeli military does confirm that it is striking in Lebanon after they say Hezbollah struck. We could hear that back and forth where we are standing very clearly. Right now, the IDF says it does not wish to harm the Lebanese who live in the villages that it is targeting, but we also know they have been targeting into the Beirut suburbs using some heavier munitions for munitions underground.

This new front of the war coming as Israel says it intercepted several projectiles coming in from Lebanon, and Iran now has just put out a new video showing a stockpile of weapons that have been used to hit U.S. bases in the region, according to the Iranians, that's what they're saying, and we don't know exact dates on this, but we do know that they've been putting that video out. It appears to show -- the purpose of it to show that the Iranian state is still functioning, that the regime is still in place, and you can see rows of drones along with rocket launchers.

It does come after President Trump said that this war could go on for up to four weeks, and then subsequently told The New York Times that there are going to be more U.S. casualties, warning that U.S. -- more U.S. troops will die. When he referred to the tragic loss of troops at a base in Kuwait, he said, quote, "Three is too many as far as I'm concerned. If you look at projections, they do projections, you know, it could be quite a bit higher than that. We expect casualties", and painful and blunt truth.

We have a team of reporters across the region. As I said, five o'clock in the morning here. It is already dawn in Tehran and in the Gulf. Nic Robertson is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Julia Benbrook is at the White House.

But I want to begin with you, Nic. Let's start with you. As I said, five o'clock in the morning here. It is dawn and a whole new day. A lot of the strikes that we've seen have come in broad daylight, right? The belief that this only happens at night has certainly been shattered in these past hours.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, and that's the big question now. A new day. What does Iran do? We saw yesterday the strikes along the sort of Gulf Coast, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, all those places. There has been a joined-up message overnight coming from the GCC, that is Saudi Arabia, that is Kuwait, that is Bahrain, that is Qatar, that is the UAE, that is Oman, a joined-up statement calling these attacks unjustified, with a very heavy and strong diplomatic warning, indicating that they have the right to seek the defense and security of their countries here in the GCC. This is sort of an all for one, a one for all scenario, to the point they say, of having the option to respond to aggression.

So, a very powerful diplomatic message, and in a way now, it's over to Iran. And the question that's been going, buzzing here overnight is, what is the assessment that's being made in Tehran? Who is making that assessment of what to do next? Is it joined up? Is it a collective decision, or is it individual groups acting on old orders?

So, this is going to be a very important day, daybreak, where we see explosions along those Gulf Coast. Will there be more efforts to try to target cities like Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, a very powerful and influential country in this region, and that's where why the stakes are so high, because the analysis is, if this is a big day by Iran striking these GCC countries again, then that is really going to set the tempo for the coming week, coming weeks after that.

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And the implication is, if Iran does that, it will be a high tempo.

BURNETT: Yeah, as we await here daybreak. Thank you very much, Nic in Riyadh.

And I want to go to Julia Benbrook. As I said, she is at the White House. And Julia, we've talked about the silence from the White House on this. Yes, the president has given selected short interviews right to The New York Times, posting to Jonathan Karl of the Daily Mail, but not the big press conference, not the big announcement, as he did with Venezuela. This has been very different. They have not wanted to talk. But I do understand you've got new reporting that the Pentagon will be holding a news conference. What are you learning?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. That's going to be the first time that we hear from top administration officials about that. And Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, they are expected to speak with reporters at 08:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow. So, a lot of those top administration officials, notably absent from the Sunday shows this morning, have not really been taking questions, and this might be our first glimpse at a lot of these key details. But so many questions to be answered.

And as President Donald Trump arrived here at the White House a short time ago, he did not answer any of those questions, even as reporters shouted and tried to get him to come over and talk, and he has not taken consistent questions since the joint U.S.-Israel strikes against Iran, Operation Epic Fury.

Most of his communication has been through social media. We saw that eight-minute post where he announced the strikes, and he also urged Iranians to seize control of their government after U.S. military operations concluded. In a separate post, he announced that Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah, had been killed. And then there is those reporter phone calls that he has been answering that you mentioned there. Those have been a bit brief and scattered. We've been getting some news from them, but for the most part, they have been these short conversations where there is not a lot of follow-up.

In his most recent planned, scripted video that he put out, Trump called this one of the largest; most complex; most overwhelming military operations that the world has ever seen. He said that combat operations will continue itself in full force until objectives are achieved. He did not go into full details on what those objectives exactly are, where that line would be.

BURNETT: Yeah. That's such a crucial point.

Julia, thank you very much, at the White House.

Alexander Cornwell from Reuters has been with me here through the evening in Tel Aviv, Karim Sadjadpour, and retired Lieutenant General Charlie Moore are also with us.

General Moore, let me just start with you. I mentioned at the top of the hour, these new images that we have, a propaganda video released by Iran showing what they say are drones that are stored in a cave that they are saying are ready to go and hit U.S. bases in the region. I want to emphasize, we don't know when they filmed this. We can't tell, right? Did they do this before with the intention to put it out? Now, is it -- we don't know. We do know that they have the ability, organizationally, to put something like this out. But we're looking at -- this is an underground cave of drones.

So, General Moore, how much capability do you think Iran has right now? One thing that this shows, OK, whether this was filmed now or whether it was filmed before, is that they obviously have storage of munitions in various places all around the country, including underground in caves that -- countless places where they're storing it.

LT. GEN. CHARLIE "TUNA" MOORE (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE; FMR. DEPUTY CMDR, U.S. CYBER COMMAND: Yeah, absolutely, Erin. I mean, this is one of the main targets that the president laid out for the department to go after, and along with our Israeli allies, this is very, very important. It's not just a ballistic missile program, although that's what's getting a lot of discussions. It's also the drones and the cruise missiles that they can use to reach out and try to affect, not only the U.S. bases and our personnel, but our friends and allies in the region as well.

As you indicated, we don't know when that video was shot, but I will point this out. If nothing else, what we've learned is the incredible intelligence capabilities of the United States and Israel as it relates to Iran. And if we know exactly where the supreme leader and the other leaders in this country are at any given time, I promise you, we have very good intelligence exactly where those types of systems are located, and they're high on the targeting list.

Alexander, as you and I stand here, and you can start to see it lightning, and it's obviously five o'clock in the morning. I will also note it was a full moon. So, when we did see some very large, sort of large jets come through, whether they were C-17s, we couldn't totally tell, they were flying through to an air base near here not long ago.

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All the lights were off, right? We could see them because of the full moon. But you've got dawn coming. That used to be a time of, OK, maybe it's going to be quieter, not the case now, not what we have seen. It's sort of, wait, it is dawn, as Nic just said, from Riyadh. What's about to happen in the Gulf, right? What is the very latest that you're learning?

ALEXANDER CORNWELL, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: Well, I've been speaking to a senior White House official who told me that while, yes, President Trump has said that he is ready to talk to leadership Iran, that for now the operation, the campaign in Iran continues unabated, is what the official said.

Now, Reuters has also reported, quoting sources, that Israel intends to continue striking political and security institutions in Iran. It is hoping to create the conditions that would allow for regime change.

BURNETT: All right. So, Karim, what does that mean? I mean, does that mean that they just wait? They're going to get Pezeshkian. They're going to get Larijani. They're going to get Araghchi. I mean, is this just that they're going to go down the entire list until there is nobody else? And what do you read into this is the goal?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT OF INTL. PEACE; IRAN EXPERT: Erin, when I read the president's most recent interview with The New York Times, it seemed to me that he is improvising. It's not totally clear in his head what his end game is. In that interview, on one hand, he evoked the Venezuela model, and he said that he liked that Venezuela model. You just take out the top person, or the top couple of people, and the people who come to power after that do a deal with the United States, and he is fine with that model. In that same interview, he also alluded to the idea that he wants to see the regime go and implode.

The reality is that if the goal is to bring down the Islamic Republic, the types of officials that you would want to focus on are not the civilian officials, like foreign minister Araghchi or President Pezeshkian. It's really the military, the Revolutionary Guard leadership. Those are the folks that you need to try to degrade. But it's a big question about whether taking them out and continuing to assassinate them, will that make them actually close ranks, or will that increase the fissures amongst them? Because I think the mentality of the security forces in Iran right now is that it's either kill or be killed, and they've shown themselves willing to kill en masse.

BURNETT: Yeah. Karim, one of the things that Trump said earlier, when you talk about him improvising was, we're offering, I don't know whether his word was immunity or clemency, but the point was, to anyone in the IRGC who wants to essentially come over to our side. Does that show understanding of the situation on his part?

SADJADPOUR: Well, ultimately, if you do want the regime to fall, you try to peel people away from the regime and --

BURNETT: Yeah.

SADJADPOUR: -- actually try to reassure them that if you do jump off the sinking ship, you're not going to be executed. But some of these people probably have a lot of blood on their hands. So, ultimately, that is going to be a decision internally within Iran, whatever the next form of government it is. But I do think it is critically important, and perhaps this is something that the United States and Israel is already doing that we don't see, which is that you want to try to peel away people from within the regime, senior officials, and --

BURNETT: Yeah.

SADJADPOUR: -- make it clear to them that this is a sinking ship.

BURNETT: Well, and I guess, to your point, I mean, perhaps when we look at the strikes that they've had, the incredibly successful strike, right, some of that perhaps already been done, or is it the feeling of penetration, we simply don't know what we don't know right now.

General Moore, I'm curious your reaction to what Karim said, though, when he said -- when he looks at some of the president's recent comments, President Trump's that is, that it feels that he is improvising. Do you see it the same way, and what are the possible implications of that?

MOORE: No. I don't think the president is improvising. I think the president recognizes that our military forces are best used to go and destroy and attract capabilities in the nuclear program of Iran, while simultaneously taking on targets that we can help set the conditions for a potential regime change. It's extremely difficult to use military forces to directly result in regime change. I have no doubt that we're going to be able to achieve all our objectives --

BURNETT: Yeah.

MOORE: -- that's been laid out by the president, as it relates to the military targets, and I have no doubt that we can help set the conditions, but there is a lot of other factors in play, including the will of the people of Iran. And I do agree with what was commented on about trying to see some type of fracture in the senior leaders inside the traditional military, the IRGC or the National Security Forces like the Basij. If we see that, then we could see the rapid collapse of the regime.

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BURNETT: Alexander, from your reporting, is there a will? And I understand this is where U.S. and Israel may diverge or not. But when there has been obviously all the discussion about how a campaign by air does not successfully lead to regime change, at least historically, is there a will? Is there a possibility that there would be more than air power brought to bear by either the U.S. or Israel?

CORNWELL: So, we've heard from the Israeli military, I believe it was yesterday, on Sunday, that there is no plan on the table to put ground troops in Iran, and that is the question, is that's what needed to engineer regime change. What Reuters has reported is that Israel wants to continue with the campaign. However, there are some concerns within Israel that Washington could reach a kind of deal with the united -- with Tehran, and that would end the war, in Israel's view, prematurely.

BURNETT: Karim, to that point, the Omani foreign minister once again coming out and putting diplomacy back at the table. Obviously, he came out on Friday night and tried to say that there had been a breakthrough, which was immediately met with the strikes that we saw. But I have seen discussion as to whether him coming in now and trying to open the door again is significant or not. How do you see it?

SADJADPOUR: Well, the Omanis are always going to try to de-escalate and be a bridge between the United States and Iran, and we're in a fog of war situation now. Erin, I read some reporting just before we came on that Ali Larijani, who is ostensibly one of the potential leadership successors to Khamenei, relayed a signal via Oman that he is prepared to talk to the United States. President Trump has also said that he is prepared to talk.

So, I think that the big question is, in part, related to Israel, which is, does Israel feel like this is an opportunity to go for the jugular? And while Iran is weak, it would be folly to start negotiations. And it's not clear to me, again, based on just the public statements of the president, if he has a clear end game in his head.

BURNETT: General Moore, what do you hear when the president says that the death toll of -- the U.S. casualties could go up significantly?

MOORE: Yeah. I think the president has been briefed and fully understands and has gone into this eyes wide open, that the risk that you face with large military operations like this, not only to our men and women, but to potential for others in the region, that's the ugliness of war. And so, I think the president rightfully understands that that's the practical realities, and that we have to be willing to accept that if we want to bring about a change to the region.

BURNETT: Yeah. I guess the big question, of course, is whether the American people are willing to accept to accept it or not. So far, obviously, there has been no say in Congress.

Thank you all very much. I appreciate your time.

And next, as it is approaching dawn here in the Middle East, breaking views with more strikes across the region tonight, as President Trump is speaking about the death of Iran's supreme leader. We'll be right back.

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BURNETT: And we're back with this special edition of OutFront live in Tel Aviv Sunday night Eastern Time, early Monday morning now here in the Middle East. Breaking news. Strikes across the Middle East in these overnight hours, as President Trump tells ABC News Jon Karl about the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, quote, "I got him before he got me. They tried twice while I got him first." That's according to a tweet from Karl, who points out that he is talking about what U.S. intelligence believes was a plot to kill Trump in 2024.

All right. OutFront now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. He is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and I appreciate your time tonight, sir. I mean, I was talking to Congressman Lawler about that comment just a few moments ago. What do you make of Trump's comment to Jon Karl on killing the Ayatollah? I mean, obviously, intelligence has said there were plots, right, but -- I mean, saying that that basically it was about me or him, and I got him first.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Yeah. Well, it's a huge distraction from what we really need to be focused on right now, which is the war in Iran. Now, no question, Ayatollah Khamenei was a horrible, awful human being. I mean, he just killed tens of thousands of his own people mere weeks ago. But where does this go from here? And the problem isn't just Ayatollah Khamenei. It's the Iranian regime, and there doesn't seem to be any clear plan for replacing that regime at the moment, and the president hasn't even been clear on whether or not regime change is the goal. We do not have a clear set of objectives in this war, and we are putting the men and women in our -- who are serving our country's lives at risk without a clear objective or a clear plan for achieving that objective.

So, I don't know the ins and outs. I know Iran certainly has threatened us before, but whether or not they actually tried to kill the president, I'm not sure, but that's not what's important right now. What's important right now is, where does this war go, and how does it advance U.S. interests?

BURNETT: Yeah. Well, and you talk about things like the world's largest oil channel perhaps effectively shut down. You talk about the world's largest airport, it is shut down. You talk about strikes across the Middle East in a way that we have not seen before. We're in an unprecedented moment. And you also have American service members who have died in this war of choice at this point. I mean, Trump told The New York Times that the Defense Department projections show that the number of U.S. troops, Congressman, casualties could, quote, "could be quite a bit higher than that." So, if he is saying that, what do you think that means about where this is going?

SMITH: Well, again, the more important point, I mean, first of all, the casual way he talks about that is disturbing. But the more important point is, what's the goal? What are we trying to accomplish, and what is the reasonable means for achieving it? We have placed American lives at risk. There is no disputing that. Anyone who tries to predict how many Americans are going to be killed in this conflict, it's going to be very difficult to do. But the president needs to clearly explain to the American people what he is trying to accomplish.

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He has hinted at regime change, but you can't kind of halfway do regime change, and if it's not regime change, then what are we placing those lives at risk for? What have the American service people who already died, died for?

BURNETT: Yeah.

SMITH: What is he trying to accomplish, to prove to the world that Iran is a terrible regime? Well, we know that. But can our military fix that problem? It's seeming increasingly unlikely that they can, and the cost is enormous, certainly to U.S. service members. But as you mentioned, there have been civilians killed throughout the region. The Middle East is in a full-scale war that they really haven't seen since probably 1967, and President Trump is the one who kicked that off. Major, major cost. Mr. President, what is the benefit that you think we're going to be able to achieve?

BURNETT: So, Congresswoman, what could Congress do about it? At this point, in a sense, Pandora's box has been opened, OK, and Congress was not consulted. Is there anything at this point that the legislative branch, which is supposed to be responsible for matters like this, can do?

SMITH: Yes, absolutely, and there is something we could do, and that's the other terrible aspect of this. Aside from the military miscalculation that seems to have been made in terms of what the U.S. can achieve here, is the fact that the president has taken us into this war in an unprecedented manner. He has not made the case to the American people. He has not made the case to Congress, and he hasn't gotten congressional approval to start what is undeniably a war. There have been previous conflicts where people have said, well, it's short term. They've come up with a whole bunch of different semantic reasons for why it wasn't really a war. This is a war, unquestionably, which should require congressional approval. Congress, at a minimum, should go on record on this. We should vote

for the War Powers Resolution coming up, and we should say, Congress has to approve this before it goes forward, and every single member of Congress should be on record. If you think this is a good idea, take the vote. I don't. I'd be voting no. But Congress can take that vote, and we can also cut off the appropriations.

BURNETT: Yeah.

SMITH: If Congress wanted to stop this war, if the Republicans leading Congress in the House and the Senate wanted to stop this war, we absolutely could. We've seen Mike Johnson, throughout this whole process, going back a year plus now, continually bow to Trump and the executive branch and essentially make the United States Congress invisible to abdicate our role and our responsibility under the Constitution. I think we should reassert it.

BURNETT: All right. Congressman Smith, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

And I want to go now to Brett McGurk, former Middle East Coordinator at the National Security Council. And Brett, as I don't know if anyone watching noticed, I was looking up a couple of times, they were just obviously several we've seen, I don't know, I think four or five now, over the past hour, very large planes, some with all their lights turned off as it was dark, now it's dawn, coming back to Israeli military bases. Obviously, we don't know why, but it is just part of the ongoing nature of this that this is what we're experiencing on the ground. When you say right now, Brett, in terms of where we are, that Iran is using the same tactics as Russia, what exactly do you mean when you say that?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, specifically, Erin, in the Gulf, I mean the Iranians, a lot of their response is, I think, very predictable, the missile attacks against Israel, where you are, I dealt with that in the last administration, two massive waves of attacks in 2024, but the attacks in the Gulf, the Iranians are attacking not just U.S. military facilities, which was maybe predicted, but they're also attacking through drone swarms and missiles, civilian areas, hotels, residential areas, ports, and this is -- basically, it is the same tactic as the Russians, and Russia is firing Shahed drones, which the Iranians have provided that technology to Russia. So, similar tech.

Now, why is Iran doing that in the Gulf? It is important, Erin. I think their objective is to force the Gulf states to then call Washington and say, hey, we need to de-escalate. We can't stand this anymore. But it's actually having the opposite effect.

BURNETT: Yeah.

MCGURK: And if you look at this, tomorrow morning will be 48 hours into this, one inflection point I'm watching, and Nic Robertson from Saudi Arabia previewed it, is that over the last few hours, you've had statements from five Gulf states, Jordan and the United States talking about acting in self-defense against these attacks. The Germans, the Brits and the French have also put out a statement today. So, you might see a bit of a coalition forming and possibly some joint military action here against those missiles.

So, again, what's Iran trying to do? They're trying to basically force the Arab states to encourage the U.S. to stop.

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It's having the opposite effect. It's having a galvanizing effect there.

BURNETT: Yeah.

MCGURK: So, that's where we are right now, but that is a key inflection point on where that goes, and I think we'll know --

BURNETT: Yeah.

MCGURK: -- over the next day or so.

BURNETT: And obviously crucial, as you point out, because critics of this have made the whole point, right, about the "Coalition of the willing" during the Iraq War, right, and just the massive support that the United States had, and that this is just the U.S. and Israel alone. So, if what you're talking about materializes, right, and that this shifts and it does change, obviously, it would be hugely significant.

So, as we're watching that, we did hear something remarkable from the Iranian Foreign Araghchi today. Let me just play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: What happened in Oman was not our choice. We have already told our Army -- armed forces to be careful about the targets that they choose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And Brett, he was saying that in the context of Oman, which had been the crucial facilitator of nuclear negotiations, right, had not been hit, and then it did get hit. So, it was an apology, but it was but he said it that really stood out. We told them to be careful about the targets that they choose. It adds to the feeling that the units are sort of operating on their own, right, that there was earlier a comment made that there was a predisposed kind of list of things we agreed to do, but now you're on your own to go do it, right, raising real questions about who was in command in Iran and over the IRGC.

MCGURK: Erin, actually, in the early hours of this crisis, I said this because when the Iranian started attacking the Gulf states, the Gulf states want to stay on the sidelines. They don't want to be drawn into this. And Iran, by attacking those countries and their capitals in Dubai, where there is no American forces, for example, that suggests to me a real breakdown of the command and control. And perhaps you had delegated orders to those missile commanders at a very localized level, and they're kind of firing off orders that were given before this started. And Araghchi, in that interview, was extraordinary. He basically acknowledged that. He said, we have military units acting independently.

BURNETT: Yeah.

MCGURK: I think acknowledging their command and control has been completely broken, is in disarray. Now, they might get it together over the next few days. But I think that's what's happening. They're firing off everything they have without much strategic intent. And in fact -- we'll see. If this alliance -- this kind of alliance, which it seems to be forming over the last few hours, really does form against Iran, that -- I mean, that changes things, because it's not then just the U.S. and Israel, and that's opposite to what the Iranians had hoped to see.

BURNETT: Yeah. It would obviously be seismic.

Brett, thank you so much. And I want everyone to know that you can see Brett's full analysis. It's actually coming to cnn.com shortly, an entire analysis for you to look at about where we actually stand, now that we are just 48 hours into this. He writes an exclusive column for CNN subscribers, and we hope that you will check it out.

All right. We're going to take a brief break. But when we come back, OutFront after this, a CNN exclusive with Iran's foreign minister, who is now warning Trump crossed a, quote, "very dangerous red line." What does it mean?

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BURNETT: And we're back with this special edition live in Tel Aviv, where dawn is now behind us, as you can see to the east, obviously, daylight in Tehran, daylight in the Gulf, and now daylight dawning here in Tel Aviv. As we have breaking news with the CNN, exclusive interview with a top Iranian official, current top official right now amidst all of this, who is warning that Trump crossed a, quote, "very dangerous red line." So, what does that threat actually carry with it? Well, Fred Pleitgen is OutFront with the conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAEED KHATIBZADEH, IRANIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER (on camera): From religious aspect, he was a very great religious leader. So, many of Shiite followers across the region and around the world are going to react to that, and this is very obvious, because President Trump passed a very, very dangerous red line. And of course, as a national sovereign country, you have to react on that, because, nationally speaking, he also passed red lines. And what is happening right now is this fact that Americans have to pass a very hard exam of killing and assassinating the leader of another country. FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera):

President Trump has come out and warned Iran not to use harsh retaliation or the United States would respond with something that the world has never seen before. What do you say to that?

KHATIBZADEH (on camera): If President Trump didn't want to see Iran hitting back and pushing back, President Trump should have not started this war from the beginning. It was a war of choice. There was no necessity to start this aggression. That was act of aggression. And you know that -- you can ask those who were in the meeting in Geneva. You can ask Omani Foreign Minister, or Mr. Grossi. That was a breakthrough meeting, Kushner, with Witkoff, and those people who were in the meeting. The terms and conditions of the agreements was there to the extent that we decided to meet on Monday in Vienna with Mr. Grossi to wrap up and nail it down. And then all of a sudden, again, Trump cheated again. They conspired behind the scene and it started act of aggression.

PLEITGEN (on camera): One of the things that we're seeing is that your forces are hitting a lot of targets in Gulf countries. Now, I know that the Gulf countries were involved in trying to prevent this war. Why are you doing that?

KHATIBZADEH (on camera): We are not attacking any neighbors that we do have. We did our best to make an approach along with them. They know that. We communicated with them, either to shut down those American bases that are constantly threatening Iran and are constantly using to offend on Iran, or we have no option just to push back. We cannot reach out to American soil. So, we have no option just to attack any bases which is under U.S. jurisdiction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: That was our Fred Pleitgen there talking to the deputy Iranian Foreign Minister.

Dan Diker is OutFront now, Middle East expert, who has advised Prime Minister Netanyahu's office. He is also the President of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Dan, I just want to ask you with what the deputy foreign minister just told Fred Pleitgen.

[22:40:00]

Fred asked the very basic and crucial question, which is, why are you hitting countries like -- cities like Dubai and countries like the UAE? And the answer was, well, because of U.S. bases. But Dan, to state the obvious, there is no U.S. base in Dubai. It's based in Abu Dhabi. But what they hit in Dubai was a Fairmont Hotel. They hit the airport, right? They're not -- those aren't U.S. installations. So, do you understand why they're doing that right now?

DAN DIKER, PRESIDENT, JERUSALEM CENTER FOR SECURITY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS: I think so. I think what we have to look at, Erin, is an ideology that is rooted in a radical Islamic eschatology, which we remember very well in the statements and the actions of Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was the president of Iran, who was eliminated yesterday, and -- but he was the president, if you remember, in the 2006 Iranian-Israeli-U.S. war in Lebanon, and he was talking about the necessary violence in the region against Sunni powers as well as Israel in order to bring back the emergence of the messianic figure, according to their own eschatology, called the Mahdi, meaning, this is an ideologically fueled war from their point of view.

It has been since 1979 when Ali Khamenei' boss, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, took 52 American hostages, held them for 444 days, then killed 241 American servicemen and women at the Marine Barracks, then shot up the USS Cole in 2000, and then killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq, following the 9/11 American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So, this is an ideologically, religiously fueled regime. They don't need other excuses, like territorial or political grievance in order to claim that they're responding to aggression by the Israelis and Americans.

BURNETT: So, Dan, obviously, as you've advised Prime Minister Netanyahu's office over many years, you did, he has been warning about Iran for years, right? And we all have seen -- he has been saying right in front of the U.N. how close they are to a bomb and his -- using the sharp ear, the images that we can all indelibly see in our minds now, right? He has been saying that this is near, if not imminent for a very long time. So, what do you believe is going through his mind right now, after he eliminated the supreme leader that has been a focus and a scourge, as he sees it, for almost 40 years?

DIKER: Well, first of all, you bring up a very important contextual point, because I think some of us are old enough, you may not be, but some of us are old enough to remember, back in 1996, during Netanyahu's first -- the first months of his coalition government, he stood in front of a session of the joint houses of Congress and warned about the Iranian regime's race for regional and nuclear supremacy, and he has been hyperfocused on what President Trump has now stated loudly and clearly in his two very recent declarations from Mar-a-Lago yesterday and then on February 28th, on Saturday, which is this is a regime that is dead set on achieving nuclear weapons in order to eviscerate the Jewish state and hit the big Satan, which the Iranian regime leadership has always said is the United States.

So, Netanyahu, what is going through his mind is, A, I told you so, and B, thank God we have President Trump as the friendliest, most morally determined U.S. leader in decades who is willing to take a principled and courageous decision to take great action against the regime, President Trump and Netanyahu are very much on the same page, strategically, I would say, morally and tactically. We haven't seen this type of cooperation, one-to-one cooperation between these two nations in a very, very long time.

All right. Well, thank you very much, Dan. I appreciate your time on this early Monday morning here.

And next, as the war with Iran escalates, one of the most prominent leaders of the Iranian opposition is speaking out. We'll tell you what he is saying. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:45:00]

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BURNETT: And we are back with a special edition of OutFront live in Tel Aviv. And you can see, it is now daylight here. We are through the evening, and it is now morning.

Breaking news, Iranian state media has just released new images of the country's newly established interim leadership, making a point of saying, we're going to show you that we will meet even after what happened at the mass meeting when the Ayatollah Khamenei was eliminated, along with 40 plus of his inner circle in the government, the IRGC. It comes as the Iranian foreign minister says a new supreme leader could be chosen, quote, "in a day or two." We'll see. Obviously, they are putting on a strong face on it.

But another potential contender, though, Reza Pahlavi, is speaking out moments ago. A fascinating character. He is the eldest son of the former Shah. He left Iran all the way back in 1979 during the revolution. At the time, he was a teenager, but he left, and he hasn't been back. He has been living in the United States ever since, but now is a central figure. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REZA PAHLAVI, SON OF IRAN'S LAST SHAH: They trust me as a transitional leader, not as the future king or future president or future whatever. I'm totally focused on my mission in life, which is, let me bring the country to a point that they can make that free choice. That will be enough for me having said mission accomplished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Jomana Karadsheh is OutFront with a closer look at who and what he is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A celebration on the streets of London so many Iranians had been waiting for, for decades. Not long after the news broke of the death of supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, crowds of Iranians, young and old, poured into this area of the British capital, many loyal supporters of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran.

[22:50:00]

Pahlavi has been positioning himself to be the man who would lead Iran's transition if or when the regime collapses.

PAHLAVI (Interpreted) (on camera): My dear compatriots, decisive moments lie before us. In these sensitive hours and days, more than ever, we must remain focused on our ultimate goal, reclaiming Iran. KARADSHEH (voice-over): Pahlavi is the eldest son of the last Shah of

Iran. The now 65-year-old went to the United States when he was 17 and remained exiled there after his father was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. For years, the exiled Crown Prince sought to present himself as a man who can lead Iran's opposition and rid the country of repressive theocracy. As protests over the state of the economy spread like a wildfire across Iran in December, Pahlavi seized on that and a regime weaker than ever. He called on Iranians to take to the streets on January 8th. On that night, the regime unleashed its most violent crackdown ever, killing thousands.

In some of the video that emerged from the protests, people could be heard chanting for the return of the monarchy.

PAHLAVI (on camera): They called my name. They asked me to come to their support, and I have, and I accepted the challenge of leading the transition. As far as the plan that we have, we have a plan before the regime's collapse, and particularly for the transition after this regime, which is very well documented and presented. It's an open document. You can see it on the website of the Iran Prosperity Project. It talks about the initial 100 days, how do we manage that process, how do we avoid what happened in Iraq post Saddam Hussein.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): While Pahlavi does have the support of many Iranian monarchists who are nostalgic for the days of the Shah, it is unclear just how much support he really has inside the country.

Iran's opposition is a fragmented one with different groups and no unified plan or vision for the future. You will hear many Iranians who want nothing more than an end to this regime, saying a monarchy is not what they have been fighting for. They say Pahlavi hasn't set foot in Iran in decades. He is too disconnected from the people who have been on the front lines of the battle for freedom and democracy.

His close ties to Israel quite public during his visit in 2023 where he was warmly welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials, has also been a source of controversy and concern for many Iranians.

The people of Iran are bracing for difficult days ahead. The death of Khamenei is not the end of the regime, but if that day comes, the leadership that follows may not be their choice.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Right next, America's largest cities are now beefing up their law enforcement over fears of possible attacks and reprisals inside the United States. The latest reporting on that is after this.

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[22:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: Welcome back to a special edition of OutFront live in Israel,

here in the Middle East. America's largest cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, increasing law enforcement presence, as we speak, as protesters are taking to the streets in major cities nationwide. In New York's Times Square, outside Los Angeles City Hall, near the White House, and all the way in downtown New Orleans, many of the protesters waving Iranian flags and demanding an end to the attacks. Others, though, carrying signs with anti-American and anti- Trump messages, as we continue to monitor all of this.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'll be back here tomorrow, starting at one o'clock Eastern, and live, of course, for OutFront tomorrow night at 07:00 p.m. Handing it off now to Jim Sciutto. Our breaking news coverage continues.

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