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Erin Burnett Outfront
Qatar: Iranian Missile Hits Largest U.S. Military Base In Mideast; CIA Working With Opposition Groups To Trigger Iran Uprising; Israel Launches "Broad Wave" Of Strikes In Iran. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 03, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:25]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Good evening and welcome to this special edition of OUTFRONT, "War with Iran". I'm Erin Burnett today live in the Middle East in Tel Aviv, with this breaking news.
An Iranian missile we have just learned has hit the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. Now this news is just coming in to CNN.
Here's what we know this very moment: Qatar says an Iranian ballistic missile has struck al-Udeid Air Base, as I said, the biggest American base in the region. We don't know much more. No casualties reported as of yet. Again, we don't know what we don't know, but we do know they are saying it was a ballistic missile. It's obviously a significant development.
And as that is coming in, we are learning that the CIA is also working to trigger some sort of an uprising inside of Iran. Now this is a major and potentially explosive development in the war. So let me tell you what we know here with these breaking details.
Multiple people familiar with the plan are telling CNN that the Trump administration is working to arm Kurdish forces, who they then expect to take part in a ground operation in Iran in the coming days. Now, to say that this plan is ripe with enormous risks is obviously a significant understatement, but we have much more on this incredible and crucial reporting in just a moment because it comes as the war is entering its fifth day.
The Israeli military launching a broad wave of strikes, really, within the past 45 minutes. They say another broad wave has started against Iran. It comes on the heels of the U.S. consulate in Dubai hit late today by a suspected Iranian drone. Video shows the compound on fire, and you can see the thick black smoke in the air. Emirati official confirming to me, though, that the consulate was closed at the time, so there were no injuries there.
But that strike came after Iranian drones of course, hit the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That was notable hit there, and it is obviously a threat now across the region to American bases, to American consulate, to American embassies. And we've seen three of those embassies, in fact, already closed. That includes Saudi Arabia, but also the embassies in Lebanon and Kuwait. And what about the Americans? All the Americans that are stuck in the
region? Well, the United States told them to get out, to depart now with commercial options in 14 countries now under incredible pressure. It was sort of incredible outrage immediately bipartisan.
The State Department is trying to scramble to help Americans after the U.S. ambassador, Mike Huckabee, to Israel, sent a note that we woke up to very early this morning, saying that the U.S. embassy is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel. The "hey, you're on your own" note.
Now, one thing about this is true. It's important for people to get out. I mean, we were on the air when rockets were fired at Tel Aviv. It's happened multiple times during the day. It does every day. We're in a war after all.
But it happened in a way that you could actually see how it all plays out. I was speaking to Dan Diker, who's advised Prime Minister Netanyahu's war effort and -- we'll just play for you a bit of what happened here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Now we hear the sirens. So here's what we're going to do, everyone sirens. And you saw that interceptor I didn't intercept anything. But we have things coming in so we are going to just unmic --
DAN DIKER, PRESIDENT, JERUSALEM CENTER FOR SECURITY AND CORIGN AFFAIRS: Unmic and then go downstairs.
BURNETT: Yep. I'm going to show you exactly where we go. All right?
DIKER: That's pretty dramatic.
BURNETT: You need to move pretty quickly.
DIKER: Yeah.
BURNETT: Okay. And there we go. We're just going to get on to this camera. All right. And come with me, Dan, you can -- you can just leave that there, okay?
All right, all right. I'm going to just move slowly here while Dan's coming with me. Okay? And we're going to move so you hear the sirens now, and this is all around the area that we're in in Tel Aviv. So that initial warning, it was about, I think five or six minutes, Dan.
DIKER: Five to six minutes.
BURNETT: Okay. And then let's just keep going. All right. We're going to --
DIKER: It could be -- this could be fire from Lebanon as well from the Iranian instructed Hezbollah, which is part of this is part of the Iranian regimes strategy of what's called survival warfare. Mobilize as many as much missiles coming from Lebanon. It could be the Houthis in Yemen, we don't know.
But this is the Iranian regime survival strategy. Mobilize as much terror as you can to distract the world's attention away from the Iranian front itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Now, while sheltering at that time, we heard a number of large blasts.
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And that's what you hear is they intercept. Some get through. Those appear to be ballistic missiles from Iran.
And no signs of Iran letting up, although obviously the strikes have hurt their ability to launch, to what extent we don't know. But the Israeli military says it has identified missiles launched from Iran, Israel. They're continuing to do that through the night as they are striking back.
But in Iran as there is so much, many questions about what the situation is, who's in charge, the strength of the state, an Iranian official told me tonight, and I quote, "Israeli criminals are not able to capitulate 92 million people with an ancient civilization."
So, they are projecting confidence and defiance. And I'll be honest with you, their ability to do that has changed. And when this first started, there was a little bit more of sort of a frozen shock. Now, much more on the page of the sort of words that I just said there.
And it comes on the same day that the world saw these images -- rows of coffins, a horrific image, one of the most biggest horrors of this war so far. According to Iranian state media, girls at an elementary school caught in the middle of the war, the death toll there unbelievably painful. Could be close to 200. We don't know. But those images are horrific.
And we have a team of reporters across the region covering this war.
Clarissa Ward is OUTFRONT, live in Iraq. Nic Robertson is in Saudi Arabia. Matthew Chance is in Beirut. Nick Paton Walsh is in Israel.
And I want to begin with Clarissa Ward, our chief international correspondent.
So, Clarissa, let's get to this crucial reporting. The CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to stage some sort of a major ground operation going inside Iran. They want to spark an uprising.
The details are incredible. What are you learning?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erin. It's a lot to unpack, honestly this story continues to develop at a breakneck speed and often in mind bending ways. We spent some time this evening with a senior Iranian Kurdish politician here in Iraqi Kurdistan who basically told us that he -- the expectation among Iraqi, Kurdish, Iranian opposition forces is that they will be going into Western Iran as part of some kind of a ground operation over the course or at some point during the next few days that they will have support from the U.S. and from Israel, though he would not be drawn as to what exactly that support will look like.
He also told us that President Trump himself had called the leader of the KDPI, which is one of these Iranian Kurdish opposition parties today and that they had what he categorized as -- or characterized I should say, as a positive conversation, though again, he did not give any details. And he said that we should be prepared for some surprises, potentially tomorrow.
Again, not giving details, but this is all coming at the same time as our colleagues, Natasha Bertrand, Alayna Treene and Zachary Cohen are learning that the CIA has been working to arm Iranian Kurdish opposition forces with the goal of fomenting civil unrest in Iran, and they spoke to a number of different officials who characterized it in different ways. Some talked about sort of basically trying to pin down Iranian forces to create buffer zones where ordinary Iranians who are unarmed would have more freedom to go out on the streets and protest.
Certainly, our source that we spoke to said that the focus is very much on establishing control of a sort of semi-autonomous Kurdish-run area of Iran, sort of like what you see here in Iraqi Kurdistan. But I mean, I can't even begin, Erin, honestly, to get into the manifold reasons why this is incredibly fraught with risk and complexity, but one just off the top of my head is the leadership here in Iraqi Kurdistan who have complex and challenging but vital relationships with Turkey, with Iran, who have made it clear that they want to be neutral in this conflict and who are now potentially being put in a position of having to support, this -- this operation, whatever its going to look like because it's not going to be possible realistically, to get supplies, weapons training, et cetera to these Iranian Kurdish forces without using Iraqi Kurdistan territory which because that's where they are, they are here along this border.
So, this is a rapidly developing story. And again, it's a lot to digest and remains to be seen how when Iran sees this reporting is going to respond, Erin.
BURNETT: It is truly stunning to even consider. All right. And we're going to be talking a lot more about it, because this is a huge and crucial development.
I want to first though, Clarissa, go to Nic Robertson because he's on the ground in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia.
And, Nic, now you've got an embassy closed there and it's not just Saudi Arabia. There's an embassy closed in Kuwait, there's an embassy closed in Lebanon. The consulate in Dubai has been struck, and the State Department is telling Americans to get out. They're saying they're going to help them do that.
But I'm getting obviously a lot of calls, as I'm sure everyone is in this region, from Americans saying, I'm calling the line and it's saying, you know there's nothing we can do and I'm booking flights and they're being canceled. And you know, nothings happening. What are you seeing on the ground where you are tonight?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. One of the things that's happening in Saudi Arabia, because flights can operate out of here. There are a small handful of people who are organizing to drive from places like Bahrain, from places like Qatar, from places like the UAE, through Saudi Arabia. It's only a handful of people. That's one way that some people are getting out.
But the reality on the ground, and this is the picture that's emerging and the calculation that the leadership here in Saudi Arabia is making particularly to what Clarissa was mentioning there. How is the Iranian leadership going to respond to this development in that Kurdish area?
Well, potential development in the Kurdish area of Iran and the view from Saudi Arabia at the moment is that the Iranian leadership is able to pick and choose targets to escalate up a ladder of putting pressure on the United States by targeting the embassy here last night in Riyadh that is now shut down. There was an immediate threat warning ballistic missiles or drones on the U.S. consulate in the east of the country here in Dhahran. That was a shelter in place. Don't leave your house. Don't come to the consulate. A similar warning to shelter in place in Jeddah, the consulate in the east of Saudi Arabia here.
We've seen the smoke rising. Who would have expected to see that kind of smoke rising from U.S. consulate in Dubai. The secretary of state said that the missile there impacted in a car park. It set fire to the chancellery. Everyone there accounted for no injuries as we understand here in Saudi Arabia.
But it is causing, as you say, these embassies here in Kuwait and in Lebanon to be closed. And it's putting the United States in this invidious position of being questioned, didn't you get people out earlier?
So -- but going back to that assessment of how of how smartly the Iranian leadership and coordinated it is operating, it is doing this intentionally. That is the assessment to put pressure on the White House as well as driving up the price of oil to end the war. So, it's coordinated. So, the assessment here, Iran is still acting in a coordinated way
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. And obviously important to say that and to point out, as Nick does, the targeting, right, that they know where those locations are and that they're able to hit them is obviously significant.
Nick Paton Walsh is here with me in Tel Aviv. Karim Sadjadpour also joins us, along with General Spider Marks, who spent a lot of time at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.
So, thanks very much to all of you.
As we were standing here, Nick and I were just hearing a jet go above and hear the air traffic that you get at night often has its lights off. It is military and it is sort of you're seeing the start of the heading in the other direction. So, we're very acutely feeling that.
I want to start with you, General Marks, if I may, though, because you know, Al-Udeid air base so well and we've got so much breaking news here this hour. But at the very top of the program, I mentioned the strike on Al-Udeid that we are understanding has just happened. And that was from we understand a ballistic missile from Iran what's the significance of that given that you've been there so much, but that this is the single largest military base in the region.
MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, the Qatari government has the obligation in concert with the United States agreements in place to protect the airspace. When I was there and over the course of time, certainly there was a full integration of not only U.S. air defense capabilities and those that are possessed by the Qatari government. In this case, over the course of time, maybe the U.S. presence there has decreased somewhat. And the -- and in Qatar, it has increased to a point that they now have primacy in terms of that mission set.
That's the only thing I can assume right now, because for Iran to be able to target Al-Udeid, first of all, it's a known location.
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They know where it is. So that's no mystery. But for it to get through, that's a -- that's a legitimate concern
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, and we're seeing that. Even when you see -- I mean, you're looking at basically suburban Dubai. And they actually were able to hit that car park by the consulate and the images are stunning.
But Al-Udeid, as you point out, because it's no secret where it is. It's not that it -- for every -- for any one of those reasons, it should be fortified. So, as we get more information on that, we're going to share it. We don't understand there to be injuries right now.
But again, we don't know what we don't know. We do know ballistic missile from the reporting.
All right, nick, now the other breaking news that we have -- and this is Clarissa was using -- I'm trying to not use an inappropriate word -- it's mind confusing. What is going on, but the United States, the CIA is planning to rely on Kurdish Iranian forces to somehow cross the border and awaken forces inside, some of which may have been earlier supplied with weapons or not in some sort of an uprising.
Okay, what do you think?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, in the politest form, this is probably not a good idea for multiple different reasons. If you're dealing with the United States whose president is saying they didn't really have time to put in an evacuation plan for U.S. citizens --
BURNETT: Americans, yeah. WALSH: -- then trying to enact this, which is essentially an insurgency, which you need weapons that takes a lot of time for serious planning. Now, the Kurds in the region are desperate for autonomy. They'll offer anything to anybody to have the shot at that, potentially. They've just been shut down, really, the Syrian Kurds in Syria by the new government there.
BURNETT: Right.
WALSH: Another reminder, when the Syrian Kurds were last used by the United States, before that betrayal in Syria, then they needed U.S. special forces and air cover for two years to take out the ISIS caliphate which covered a much, much smaller area than 90 million people of Iran. So, the task is enormous.
And so, essentially, I think what we're seeing here is a U.S. plan for a protracted sense of civil war. Ultimately, in Iran, the notion that this force, if magic out of nowhere, can distract Iranian security forces --
BURNETT: Somehow, if you give someone a gun, they're going to -- they're going to go use it.
WALSH: It's going to confuse the police and IRGC so much that the popular uprising will take over. Naive I'm afraid. It feels like a suddenly reached solution that someone's desperately handed in the hope that it will give the Kurds some more traction here.
And so, it leaves me slightly concerned that this may be the beginning of the ground motion, the sort of next phase of all of this -- not well thought through, I think, is certainly a fair way to discuss it, and a departure which could potentially see something go on here for years.
BURNETT: Karim, what do you think?
KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: I do think this is a strategy of potentially playing with fire. The Kurds in Iran are wonderful people who've suffered tremendously under the Islamic republic, but they constitute only 10 percent of the country's population, so they're never going to be able to really constitute an existential threat to the regime in Tehran. At the same time, I would argue the greatest countervailing force against the radical Islamism of the Iranian regime is Iranian nationalism. And I would say pluralistic Iranian nationalism -- a nationalism that encompasses Persians, Kurds, Azeris and others.
And there's a real danger here, Erin, that if Iranians feel that it's a U.S. strategy to essentially try to factionalize and splinter the country that's something that they're very sensitive about. And I think the vast majority of Iranians will be opposed to any outside attempts to try to threaten the territorial integrity of the country.
BURNETT: It was fascinating. I'm thinking of what the President Pezeshkian said to me and other reporters in the fall when he talked about how what happened last summer, he said, strengthened national belief in the system. Now, obviously, there were mass demonstrations. So that was -- that was their spin but I think it goes to the point that you're making Karim in some adjacent way.
General Marks, we're just getting something in that I want to share with you here. As Karim was speaking, and that is some new information from the commander of U.S. central command, Admiral Cooper. He just said that the United States is, quote, I'll give you the exact quote here. Sinking the Iranian navy, the entire navy.
Now, he just said they've destroyed 17 Iranian ships. I don't know whether this is apples to apples, but President Trump said the other night that they had destroyed nine ships. I believe that was two nights ago so, you know if that number was accurate and this is accurate, it's now double in the past 48 hours.
Can you put that in context of how meaningful that is?
MARKS: Sure. It's very meaningful. What Admiral Cooper is indicating, along with what the president said is that the Iranian navy is ineffective. It has no ability to affect traffic, to mine the Straits of Hormuz, to interdict flow of oil in or out however they want to try to execute that.
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So, what we're seeing is not to parse numbers but what we're seeing is Iranian navy that has no capacity at this point. And, Erin, if I can -- if we go back to what the Kurds are trying to achieve, I've got to tell you, this has less to do with fractionalization and more to do with what I would call an economy of force.
If the -- if the Kurds get into the north, this becomes a distraction that the regime is going to have to deal with. It will not turn the tide. No one is suggesting that, but I -- there obviously are some immense threats and risks associated with that. But I think we need to put a pin on it. It's more an economy effort than it is an effort to try to flip the regime.
BURNETT: All right. So, Nick, as were trying to understand what Iran's doing and what's behind their decisions of when they're striking here and what missiles they're using and when they're striking a consulate and what -- when they're striking al-Udeid. There's been this real question of who's in charge.
We know Ali Larijani has been doing a lot. We know that -- we know that the president of Iran is still alive, Pezeshkian, okay, but the supreme leader is dead most all of the leadership in so many important ways is gone and now were hearing that the senior clerics tasked with choosing a new supreme leader met today. They met virtually. Apparently, there was a strike on a location the Iranian state media said it was evacuated. We don't know yet if they did make a selection.
Okay, but what do you make of the way the war has been conducted when were, what, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday? We're now in Wednesday morning, were in full -- we're in the fifth day now of this war without a normal -- WALSH: It feels like longer --
BURNETT: Sure does. It sure does but without a formal leader.
WALSH: I mean, it is kind of startling, to be honest. I can see why they're reluctant, because the survivability of leadership right now is not particularly strong in Iran but it goes to a key point of who is ultimately calling the shots. This is a society that has had autocracy in its bones for decades here. So, relying on one voice to tell them procedures like what's ahead of them in wartime is utterly essential.
And so, we have these 88 senior clerics who've met today, the assembly of experts, the building bomb, they did -- they meet online. What is the ultimate result from all of this?
And it does feed, I think into this potential concern that we heard in the opening hours of this conflict from the foreign minister, Saeed Araghchi, who essentially said that this was a decentralized mosaic defense that they've given orders to parts of the military prior to his death, of what to do if this happened. And this may be what we're seeing, that the reason why this is so persistent and retaliation is so broad is people are doing things they were told to do, potentially --
BURNETT: And they're sticking with it.
WALSH: -- months ago and they're sticking with it now. This is really perilous because they're not adapting to the situation. They're not potentially able to seize off ramps or diplomacy because there's nobody else you'll be calling.
BURNETT: Who you to talk to, yeah.
WALSH: And until we have that name, I think it's going to be incredibly hard for Trump to reach for diplomacy.
BURNETT: And, Karim, what if that name is one of the leading contenders? Khamenei's son, his son Mojtaba. Obviously, Khamenei's family, many of them were killed and but his son is still alive and is a leading contender if its him, what does that mean?
SADJADPOUR: So it has been reported, but not yet confirmed, Erin, that indeed Mojtaba Khamenei, a 56-year-old cleric, is going to be succeeding his father. It's a sign that the regime intends to continue the ideology and the revolutionary culture of 1979.
Mojtaba Khamenei doesn't have any popular support. He doesn't have any popular legitimacy. He's always operated in the shadows. He's an ally of the Revolutionary Guards.
There was a Bloomberg report about him a couple of weeks ago, showing that he's elbow deep in corruption. So, I'm skeptical that this will lead to a stable equilibrium, Erin.
If indeed he's confirmed, I think the Israelis have a target on him. They're going to try to assassinate him. And he's not someone who's going to be naturally accepted by Iranian society either.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you all very much. Covering all of these rapid developments here, even just in the past few moments. Thank you.
And our breaking news coverage continues in these developments. So much happening overnight here. Right.
There is no pause. There is no break. The fire continues. Our teams in Beirut are reporting steady drone activity tonight as we speak and it's after 2:00 in the morning here. Israel and Hezbollah trading fire. We're going to take you live to the ground there next.
And also breaking, the U.S. Central Command, just reporting the first 24 hours of the U.S. operation, they say was double the shock and awe back in 2003 Iraq war. I'm going to talk to Senator Mark Kelly, who has just briefed by the administration and will be speaking to one of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's close confidants who just was with him moments ago coming here now.
So, what is the prime minister planning to do?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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BURNETT: Breaking news, we are back with a special edition of OUTFRONT. We are live tonight in Tel Aviv, here in the Middle East, on the war with Iran. The commander of U.S. Central Command has just said that the United States has hit nearly 2,000 targets in Iran since the war began. In fact, he says that the first 24 hours of this operation so early Saturday morning to early Sunday, in his words were double the scale of the, quote/unquote, "shock and awe" strikes all the way back in 2003. Double it comes as there are now multiple fronts in this conflict.
Of course, fronts across the region. When you look at embassies and bases and consulates being struck. But a direct second front in Lebanon where the Israeli military is now currently advancing ground troops and striking Hezbollah targets pretty much around the clock. We hear that throughout the night.
Matthew Chance is OUTFRONT live in Beirut on the ground there.
And, Matthew, what are you experiencing and expecting right now?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I mean the city of Beirut is very much on edge because, you know, at any moment there could be more airstrikes of the kind we've been seeing very intensively over the course of the past 24 and 48 hours.
[19:30:08]
I'm actually on a rooftop here overlooking the suburbs of south Beirut, and that's known as a Hezbollah stronghold. And it's where much of the Israeli airstrike activity has been taking place in this city. The majority of it, though, to be honest, has been focused on the
south of the country in south Lebanon, which is, again, those traditional stronghold areas of Hezbollah. There's been rocket fire, drone activity in the other direction as well. Hezbollah continuing also important Iranian backed proxy for Tehran has been firing these drones and rockets across the border into Israel as well.
They've not been causing a lot of damage. They've not been particularly effective. Some of the power that that Hezbollah once had in terms of its vast missile arsenal has been eroded since 2024, when Israel really kind of, you know, made significant gains in eroding the ability of that organization as a fight -- but the response from Israel has been extraordinarily tough.
They've been retaking areas in southern Lebanon. And again, they've been stepping up that air campaign. It's led to lost lives. Dozens of people killed and injured, and of course, thousands of people, particularly in those suburbs of Beirut and in the south of the country, fleeing their homes, trying to escape the violence and seeking places elsewhere in the country for safety.
And so that's an issue that's pending now. The Israelis have ordered 50 villages and settlements in south Lebanon to evacuate, because there's going to be more military action there, they say. And so that's compounding the problem of people being displaced by the fighting, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you very much, in Beirut tonight.
I want to go straight now to the Democratic senator, Mark Kelly, who sits on both the Senate Armed Services as well as the intelligence committees.
And, Senator, I appreciate your time. I'm grateful to talk to you tonight.
I mean, I just want to start here with obviously significant developments. You've just finished a briefing with top Trump administration officials that are making all the decisions here they were just in the room with you.
I understand some of your colleagues after the briefing have said they're more concerned than ever about U.S. boots on the ground in Iran.
Did you come away with that concern?
SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Well, yeah. I mean, just like Secretary Hegseth said publicly that he will not rule it out, we get sort of the same message in the secure facility there in that brief. So yeah, I have more questions coming out than I had going in. That's typical of these briefs.
They share a lot of the public information. They get into very few details about the why and how does this help Americans, which is one of my biggest concerns here, Erin, is how does this help the American people pay for stuff that they can't afford right now? Groceries, rent, health care. Like what is in it for us?
And they don't really go into like the why of this? Was this about? Or they tried to write, they talk about nuclear weapons. They talk about an imminent threat. The navy, ballistic missile capability, regime change. And it's a -- still a constantly changing story on why we're doing this.
BURNETT: So, the CIA, there's also this new reporting, and I'm sure -- I don't know if you just have seen it, senator or not, but I'll give you the quick summary. We're reporting that the CIA is -- has this plan where they're arming Kurdish forces to lead an uprising in Iran. Some of those forces are in Iraq and are going to cross over the border, and some of them are in Iran, and they're armed. And the whole goal is to basically start some sort of an uprising and destabilize the government in some way.
Do you know anything about this? Do you have any confidence in it?
KELLY: Well, I don't have confidence in much of what this administration has done with this operation, but also with, you know, other things that they've tried to deal with over the last 14 months. So I'm just starting to hear about it. Heard a little bit today.
One of the problems that we have faced here is when you take out the Iranian leadership, who's going to take over next? I mean, the opposition isn't armed. There's no obvious successor. It's not well- organized. And it can't get a lot of support.
But I would suspect that trying to organize the Kurds to be involved in an uprising in Iran, like a lot of these other things that they have tried to do, is probably not going to work out the way that they expect and my assumption is, I might be wrong about this, but my assumption is that this was not part of the strategic plan.
[19:35:04]
I don't think they had one. I think -- I don't think this administration thinks --
BURNETT: Well -- yeah.
KELLY: -- more -- doesn't think much about past the first or second step of anything.
BURNETT: So, we've now had American service members die. Their families have been informed from -- in Kuwait. We've had a U.S. consulate struck, thank God it was in the darkness, and it was closed and no one was there.
Okay. So, the Saudi embassy, thank God no one was killed. But they managed to hit possibly the CIA wing of it according to "The Washington Post," they knew where they were going. We've seen strikes now on Al-Udeid air base and that just happened in the past few moments, we understand, by a ballistic missile on Al-Udeid. We don't know of any injuries at this point, but we do know that that
happened. Do you think that any of this was expected in their plan?
KELLY: Well, I know we expected, you some response from the Iranians against, you know, our assets. We know that they're going to attack us. But I don't think, you know, we thought about the math problem we were going to have here very quickly.
The Iranians have a lot of ballistic missiles and drones. We have interceptors in the region. We have air defense systems, we have patriots. We have SM-6s on ships, SM-3s, we can deal with some of this, but if they have more offensive assets than we have defensive, we get into trouble here possibly really quickly if our magazine depth goes to zero and they can then shoot these things, you know freely around the region.
And when you don't have a goal and you don't have a timeline, that's when you wind up putting more Americans at risk. We already have six Americans that have paid the ultimate price. We don't want to see any more.
BURNETT: No. Senator Kelly, thank you very much. Glad to talk to you.
And we continue with breaking news next, 10 people with suspected ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard have just been arrested. Ten. Now, this is happening in Qatar, where that Al-Udeid air base is. Officials in Qatar say some were trained to carry out what they call, quote/unquote, "acts of sabotage". So we've got the latest there as well as that strike. We're understanding by ballistic missile on Al- Udeid air base.
Also breaking, an Iranian missile, hitting that base. Qatar is the one reporting that we don't know anything about how substantial the damage was or where it was. We're trying to get more information on that for you. We're going to take a brief break and we'll be right back.
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BURNETT: Welcome back. Were here with the special edition of OUTFRONT, "War With Iran". And we have the breaking news right now.
Qatar says it has arrested ten people with suspected links to the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. They say that we're operating in two separate cells inside Qatar. They say some of the individuals of these 10 were trained in the use of drones, and that they were assigned to carry out what the Qatari government is saying is acts of sabotage.
Well, context matters here because Qatar is now just saying at the top of the hour that an Iranian ballistic missile hit Al-Udeid air base, which is the largest U.S. military installation in the entire region and that the Iranians did successfully target it with a ballistic missile. This is according to Qatar. We don't have casualties reported, so we
don't know more about that were waiting for more comments from the Americans.
OUTFRONT now is Michael Eisenberg, a close confidant advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And he just met with the prime minister today, as I know you have been doing constantly, Michael, since this war began.
So, help us understand his mindset right now as we're coming in to day five.
MICHAEL EISENBERG, ADVISER TO PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: First, it's great to see you, Erin. Welcome to Tel Aviv.
Prime minister Netanyahu, alongside President Trump, have incredible foresight and fortitude to prosecute this war. They both saw it in advance, by the way as did Secretary Rubio. There's a video making the rounds of Secretary Rubio on the Senate floor 11 years ago, as Prime Minister Netanyahu was both told me and said publicly, President Trump said to him in Mar-a-Lago prior to his inauguration, hey, Iran cannot get nuclear weapons.
As you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu for decades has been talking about this. And I think his mood is incredibly resolute. He's had the foresight for 30 years to get after this, as has the president. And I think they plan to prosecute this war to enable the Iranian people to be free of this murderous death cult, clerical regime.
BURNETT: All right. A lot of questions I want to ask you about that. But first, I want to ask you about the nuclear program. But first, in terms of who's going to be running Iran. There are reports that it may possibly be confirmed that it is, but certainly one of the leading contenders is the now dead Ayatollah Khamenei's son, Mojtaba who is a staunch conservative like his father. He's a hardliner.
Karim Sadjadpour was just describing him, someone that may not have a lot of popular support within the country, but certainly ideologically hard-line conservative.
What does that say to you if he's chosen?
EISENBERG: Look, this really needs to be up to the Iranian people. They were hijacked some 47 years ago by this clerical regime, when Ayatollah Khamenei came back from the from exile into Iran and took it over. And since then, they've been prosecuting like I said, this death cult and the Iranian people haven't had a chance to do this.
But I think the United States, led by President Trump and Israel, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, are doing, is creating the conditions for the Iranian people to choose, and they should choose in free and democratic elections. It's time for these people to be free.
BURNETT: Do you really think that's --
EISENBERG: Really talented people, incredibly talented people. BURNETT: When they're on the street, when there have been uprisings, you know, we've heard some chanting for Reza Pahlavi, right, and a monarchy. You know, it's not a country, you know, you point out for 47 years.
You can't just, like, throw a democracy in there, can you?
EISENBERG: Yeah, there's definitely a transition time. It's going to take time to transition, nothing happens overnight. And I don't think anyone expects things to happen overnight.
But we have to create those conditions. The IRGC is murdering these people.
[19:45:01]
President Trump has said its tens of thousands of Iranians who've been murdered by the regime just in the last few months that needs to stop.
And the United States, together with Israel, the two strongest air forces in the world, the two most, like I said, the two leaders with the most foresight out there and the bravery to confront this are at this for the Iranian people to make the world a safer place.
BURNETT: You mentioned one of the core reasons, and I know Israel has several objectives here, but one of them, you said that they can never have a nuclear weapon and the Prime Minister Netanyahu talked about that for decades. Okay, that's all true.
Today, there was an interview, though, with the head of the IAEA, Grossi. He's been relatively quiet, but he came -- did an interview with my colleague Becky Anderson. Okay. He specifically said -- she asked him was Iran days or weeks away from a nuclear weapon which had been asserted in Israel last week? He said, no, that the nuclear program was, quote frozen if not almost stopped after the strikes last summer and that there was absolutely no indication that Iran was close to getting a nuke or had any systemic program in any way, shape or form to build one.
What do you say to him?
EISENBERG: Look, Secretary Witkoff said on TV and for the record that in the negotiations, the Iranians told them that they were getting close to enough material to make 11 bombs. That's what they said to him in the negotiation. First of all, that's brazen.
But second of all, listen to what people tell you. One of the things we learned here on October 7th was when people say they're going to kill you and they're going to do bad things, you better listen to them. And the Iranians have been saying for decades, "death to America, death to Israel", we want to build a nuclear bomb.
They didn't need to keep all that nuclear material there if what they wanted to do was build something peaceful.
BURNETT: So why do you think the IAEA is saying though that's not true?
EISENBERG: I can't answer for them. They'll have to answer for themselves but let's just say they've been hoodwinked before by the Iranians. And we have to take a lot of these things that some of these organizations say, not necessarily face value. The president of United States, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the Iranians themselves, to Secretary Witkoff, have said that they are preparing enough material to create 11 nuclear bombs.
That's a big deal. We should listen to Secretary Witkoff.
BURNETT: All right. Michael Eisenberg, thank you very much. I appreciate your time here in Tel Aviv tonight.
EISENBERG: Erin, thanks for having me.
BURNETT: And next, we're going to continue to follow the breaking news. As I mentioned just out of Qatar with those arrests, as well as an Iranian ballistic missile striking the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East.
Also breaking this hour, we are just learning the names, the names of the six American service members who were killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:51:33]
BURNETT: All right. We are back with a special edition of OUTFRONT. We're live from Tel Aviv tonight covering the war in with Iran. And we're following the breaking news. Qatar saying an Iranian ballistic missile has struck Al-Udeid air base in Qatar. That is the largest military installation for the United States in the entire Middle East.
And it comes as a new CNN investigation is now looking specifically at the American targets hit so far by Iranian strikes. Every single one of them.
Tamara Qiblawi is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Imagery showing the extent of the damage to U.S. military facilities across Gulf Arab countries is starting to emerge. Part of Iran's furious response to an Israeli-American campaign that decimated its leadership.
At least nine U.S. military positions have been hit in less than 48 hours these are relatively close targets. They're much nearer to Iran than its usual target, Israel. That proximity may give Iran's missiles and drones a better chance of hitting their targets.
This is the port of Sheba, where, just after 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, an Iranian strike set a makeshift U.S. operations center at the civilian port ablaze. Six American service members were killed in the attack. You can see smoke rising from the fire. The blown out three wide trailer blackened on the inside. There are few signs of fortification.
In another attack, a drone, this appears to be the Arash 2, crashes into U.S. positions in Camp Buehring. A building severely damaged, American helicopters parked inside the base were nearly hit.
In Bahrain, a Shahed attack drone flies into the base that hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, one of the largest American naval formations in the world. It looks alarmingly defenseless. The drone hits one satellite communication terminal, clearly seen here, but the scale of the damage is more obvious here. Warehouses and other buildings damaged, and another satellite communication terminal destroyed in a separate attack.
We see this pattern of targeting throughout the region. At least five satellite communication terminals were destroyed. It points to a possible Iranian effort to cut U.S. bases off from the outside world. Iran used an unprecedented barrage of missiles and drones, U.S. Patriot missiles and other multibillion dollar air defense systems shot most of these out of the sky but the ones that got through were enough to puncture the veil of security around oil rich Gulf Arab states and the heart of Americas security infrastructure in the Middle East.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QIBLAWI (on camera): Now, the question is just how long can Iran sustain these attacks? That depends on how big their stockpiles of missiles and drones are, which is currently unknown. And really, Erin, it comes down to how quickly can the U.S. and Israel achieve their stated objective of obliterating the missiles? Until that happens, Iran has made it clear that in the aftermath of the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei, it plans to sow as much chaos as possible to U.S. interests in the Middle East and beyond -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Tamara, thank you very much. Incredible reporting.
And next, the breaking news. We now know the names. We know the names of some of the six American service members who have died, who were killed in Kuwait by an Iranian drone in this war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:59:23]
BURNETT: Welcome back to this special edition of OUTFRONT, the "War with Iran". We are live in Tel Aviv tonight with breaking news. The Pentagon is just identifying four of the six U.S. soldiers who were killed, killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.
All four of the Americans were assigned to an Army reserve unit out of Iowa. And we want to tell you their names.
Thirty-five-year-old Captain Cody Khork, 42-year-old Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens, 39-year-old Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor, and Sergeant Declan Cody. Declan Cody was only 20 years old.
A source is telling us there was no siren. There was no warning to give any of them time to take cover. They have given up their lives for this war and for their country. And America is grateful for their service.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Our breaking news coverage continues now with special election coverage on "AC360".
