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Erin Burnett Outfront
Iran Laying Mines In Strait Of Hormuz In Major Escalation; Israel Launches Second Wave Of Strikes In Tehran; "Betrayed": Major MAGA Voices Criticize Trump's War With Iran. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 10, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:30]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, live from Tel Aviv.
The breaking news, a dangerous showdown in the Strait of Hormuz tonight. Sources telling us Iran is now placing mines in the vital waterway while the U.S. claims it's now taken out six mines -- 16 minelayers.
Also breaking now, Israel launching a second wave of strikes in Tehran as questions mount why the world is not seen or heard from the new supreme leader. We will be live in Iran.
And dramatic new video just in showing massive explosions north of here in Beirut. We'll go to the ground in Lebanon. Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening and welcome to this special edition of OUTFRONT, "War with Iran". I'm Erin Burnett tonight live in Tel Aviv.
We begin with breaking news. A major escalation this hour by Iran. Sources telling CNN that Iran is now laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which, of course, is perhaps the world's most crucial waterway when it comes to oil, gas, chemicals, all of the things that makes the world run.
The strait tonight has been closed for more than a week, leading to the biggest oil disruption in history. Shipping CEOs are telling me their ships are still stuck there, all just now, counting the days that they can wait.
The United States is now fighting back, though. U.S. Central Command just posting a video with the caption, U.S. forces eliminated multiple Iranian naval vessels March 10th, including 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz.
Well, it's interesting that they're talking about eliminating naval vessels today that they say are laying mines, when Trump yesterday said that the Iranian navy was, his words wiped out. Well, maybe not.
And it's coming as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is promising, the most intense day of attacks yet in Iran.
And our Fred Pleitgen is on the ground in Tehran today. He witnessed that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Okay. We're hearing jets overhead. There's anti-aircraft fire going up there. We got to get out of here as fast as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: We're going to go live to Fred Pleitgen in Iran in just a moment.
And here in Tel Aviv, air raid sirens have been again going off as Iran strikes back. I will say today, we saw people running, taking shelter they every single time the people hear them, they go.
Moments ago, we got a warning, anticipating sirens. We don't have them yet. We did see some streaks in the sky, some whether it was interceptors. It was unclear exactly what it was, but that is the situation here tonight.
So, it's a war and it's going back and forth. And that's what wars do. And when people say they're just going to end just like that, it doesn't usually work that way. And it doesn't seem to be this time either.
The White House is now continuing to play word games with the U.S. objectives for what this -- winning this war would mean. Asked by reporters if Trump still stands by his statement that, quote, there will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender, which he wrote in all caps, the White House press secretary said something quite remarkable today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Does the president still want Iran's unconditional surrender?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, when President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, he's not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves. What the president means is that Iran's threats will no longer be backed by a ballistic missile arsenal that protects them from building a nuclear bomb in their country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And she said the president would determine what unconditional surrender was and when it was, and that that wasn't Iran's decision to unconditionally surrender. A little bit of a word salad, right?
What the president said, of course, is different than what she said.
And the White House press secretary today also made a claim about gas prices, which have shot up 50 cents since the start of the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: This operation will result in lower gas prices in the long term.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. But as I just mentioned, this mission is resulting in the opposite. Gas prices are going up, and they may continue to do so because of what's taking place in the Strait of Hormuz. A top oil and gas analyst writing, I estimate the chance of the national average reading $4 -- reaching $4 a gallon in the next month is now 80 percent, which is an increase of more than $1 per gallon since Trump attacked Iran, which is stunning in and of itself.
The Iranians see this economic pressure building on the United States. A senior Iranian official today, for the second time in three days, issued a major threat to Trump directly saying, quote, "Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation.
[19:05:01]
Watch out for yourself, lest you be eliminated."
Now, on top of the economic squeeze, the human toll is growing. The United States today announcing Iran's retaliatory strikes if injured, approximately 140 American service members in addition to the seven troops who have already lost their lives.
And a moment ago, you saw me looking off camera. That's because we did just get another early warning here for possible incoming missiles. We'll await those sirens, and you'll see how that all plays out if that's what happens. Usually, those early warnings do mean sirens and missiles, but not always.
So that's what's happening right now.
I want to, in the meantime, go to Tehran, where our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen has been spent, spent the week come under fire. He's now live in northern Iran, where he and senior producer Claudia Otto were part of the first international news team on the ground after this war began. Tonight, they're witnessing firsthand the intensity of U.S. strikes on Iran .
In fact, they were at the strike of an airstrike earlier today when suddenly they had to run for cover. Watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): There's been heavy bombardment in Tehran over the past 24 hours, as we both heard and felt.
This morning, we visited a site when all of a sudden, it was targeted again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we should go. PLEITGEN: Yeah, we should go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We go, we go.
PLEITGEN: Yeah. Okay, we're hearing jets overhead. There's anti- aircraft fire going up. We got to get out of here as fast as possible.
So that just goes to show how fast things can turn bad here. We were filming at a site that's apparently -- rid of this mask -- struck yesterday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: All right. We're going to be going to Tehran, to Iran in just a moment. We're establishing contact with Fred. We had him, it dropped out. You can imagine it's incredibly difficult to establish that connection to get to him live. So we're working on that.
While we do that here in Tel Aviv, Jeremy Diamond is with me, also with me retired U.S. Army General Randy Manner and Seth Jones also joining us.
I just want to start with you though, Jeremy, in the past few moments, about an hour ago, actually, we had sirens, missiles, then intercepted. Then we had a warning. We saw some things in the sky. We didn't hear sirens. Now we have another early warning, which could mean sirens. But again, just so everyone knows, if people are sleeping here, it's 1:00 in the morning.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, people are getting up and trying to get near a shelter for that potential siren. Moments ago, and we had those early warnings that didn't result in a siren. It's because sometimes it's adjusted away from here. So, the sirens actually took place in Jerusalem, kind of east of the Tel Aviv area. We'll see what happens this time around.
Obviously, we saw a slower pace today of those ballistic missiles being fired by Iran, but nonetheless, they are showing the capacity to fire, even if it's just one missile at a time. And of course, there are those cluster munitions now outfitted to about half of the ballistic missiles that Iran is firing towards Israel, according to an Israeli military official, those have the capacity to kind of get through Iran's -- Israel's air defenses at times and can cause damage, even if it is a much smaller warhead.
BURNETT: Right. We've seen two people died yesterday from a site that I know you and I both went to a construction site where two people were killed.
General Manner, the other breaking news right now is what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz. And talking to shipping executives, oil and gas executives, this has been the single biggest focus they have had since the war began, which ultimately is whether we're going to be facing a global economic catastrophe, okay? That's the question at hand, is where this is going to go. And now, we're learning that Iran could be laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, something we've known they had the ability to do. But when Trump had said they eliminated their navy, and now they're saying they're using naval assets to lay the mines, is obviously contradictory.
How concerning is it if they are laying these mines?
MAJ. GEN. RANDY MANNER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): So, Erin, first of all, again, my thoughts are with all the wounded Americans and their families that are very concerned about them, as well as those as those of the families of the fallen its extremely disconcerting. This is a major escalation.
The -- also, the administration has got to get its story straight between the Defense Department and the -- and the Oval Office as far as has the Navy been destroyed -- well, clearly not. Remember that mines can be laid not only by minelayers. They can be -- they can be laid by Iranian submarines as well as, of course, small boats. It's not very sophisticated or fast. However, it can be done. So, this is very dangerous.
(SIREN BLARING)
BURNETT: All right. General Manner, so I just -- I'm sorry, Susie, what? Okay, I'm having. Okay, are we going to go to Fred? Okay I'm not totally sure. Obviously, we have a little trouble with -- okay.
All right. So Jeremy and I are obviously having trouble hearing because we have the sirens going on here as we are going to seek shelter. We do have, Fred. We've been trying to establish those communications as well. So Fred Pleitgen is in Iran.
And, Fred, I know that you know, you've been in Tehran where you don't get warnings like this. You've been under bombardment.
[19:10:01]
Can you just tell us what you are seeing there? You know, when you've been to places that have been heavily hit by Israeli and U.S. strikes like you were today?
PLEITGEN: Yeah, Erin. First of all, you're absolutely right. We don't get the kind of warnings that you do, for instance, in Israel. And of course, also in other places in the Middle East. In fact, just a couple of minutes ago before we went to air here, we were actually under pretty heavy bombardment. We heard jets overhead. All of a sudden that noise became louder. And then there were some pretty big thuds.
It was a little bit in the distance, but it was certainly strong enough for us to be able to feel it. And that's really been a constant here over the past couple of days, and specifically over the past, I would say 24, maybe 36 hours as the aerial attacks have intensified.
And of course, you showed a little bit of a clip a little earlier here in the show. But what happened to us earlier today when we went to a site that had been hit a day before, I would say maybe 12, 14 hours before. And as we were on the ground, we, all of a sudden, heard that anti-aircraft fire and then us and everybody else who was there just sort of ran away.
It was very difficult to sort of ascertain where to actually try to go to, because there really isn't very much in the way of shelter around there. We then heard a big thud.
We made our way out of there and drove, you know, almost to the other side of the city where we were staying. And then all of a sudden there, there were impacts as well.
So that's one of the main themes that we've been getting over the past couple of days is a lot of places that we've been showing up.
After a little while, you would hear thoughts, you would hear impacts, you would hear explosions. And that's obviously something that the folks in Tehran and other cities in Iran right now are dealing with on a very regular basis -- Erin.
BURNETT: And I -- as Fred speaking, I just reminding everybody that CNN and Fred is there with the Iranian government permission, but does have full editorial control, obviously, over what he is reporting.
Just looking here at Jeremy's phone, more sirens coming in so obviously quite intense here in terms of what we've experienced by far today. Fred, I just -- I don't want to talk much here because I don't want to waste the time here because we could lose communications with you.
Is there more reporting that you're able to share on -- when you've been speaking to Iranian government officials and seeing them in person, which in and of itself is remarkable that anything you're learning about the Strait of Hormuz and what their plans are there?
PLEITGEN: Yeah. First of all, you're absolutely right. The communication obviously is very, very sketchy. And it's very difficult to keep this, this signal up.
But the Strait of Hormuz is a huge topic among the Iranians, among Iranian officials. They have not confirmed whether or not mines would have been laid in the Strait of Hormuz. But they've made very clear, and this is really that the national security council of Iran, the parliament speaker of Iran, who's very powerful right now because he is a hardliner, saying that the Iranians have a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
One official telling me that Iran is the one that determines whether the oil taps of the world are open or whether they remain closed. And in fact, that speaker of parliament came out earlier today and took a swipe at the U.S., saying that one official had said that a U.S. warship had had accompanied a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz. He said maybe on PlayStation, but not in reality.
So, for the Iranians, essentially what they're saying is that is their main leverage, that they have that economic grip on one of the most important arteries of hydrocarbons and other energy in the world and the Iranians are saying this is going to end on their terms. They say that right now, they have no interest in negotiations with the United States. The foreign minister once again saying that as well. They say that they want to continue for now and at the same time they also say that that is their main leverage, the fact that they can project that power into the Strait of Hormuz.
And they say whether or not they have a navy or whether or not their navy is functional, they are going to continue to be able to do that because they have their ballistic missiles and they have other means as well, to certainly disrupt things that try to get through that very important waterway area.
BURNETT: All right. Fred, thank you very much. And we're very glad that you're safe. As we said, Fred, in northern Tehran tonight, northern Iran tonight. And of course, was on the scene and under bombardment in Tehran today. Thank you so much, Fred, to you and to Claudia for being with us, for making all that herculean effort to even be able to get that signal.
Jeremy, as we're here, I think some of the impacts that we just heard very loudly here ourselves, because they sort of reverberate through your body may have actually been picked up on this camera outside.
DIAMOND: Yeah. That's right. We just heard at least two loud intercepts moments ago. I do think it is quite a split screen moment, actually, and something that were only seeing right now on CNN, which is a reporter in Iran here were having these missiles coming in, but a very different situation right? Israel has bomb shelters throughout the country. It has this air defense system that Iran does not.
One of the reasons -- one of the things that Israeli officials have been touting in recent days has been how much of Iran's air defenses they have been able to destroy.
[19:15:01]
And so, not only are Iranian military targets obviously, much more vulnerable, but also, of course, the population, they're more vulnerable as well.
BURNETT: And important to note, you know, when it came to last summer, too, and other strikes, Israel has done that. They took out some of the air defense that Iran had, early warning systems that would have been possible. And also, just so people understand what we're doing right now, where we're standing.
I mean, this isn't technically a shelter, but today when I was on the street, I -- you know, you take shelter in places that serve as shelter basements, in this case a stairwell which serves as a shelter because they build buildings here.
DIAMOND: With reinforced stairwells.
BURNETT: To be, to be -- you know, in certain places in the U.S., you may be watching you think of hurricane or tornado. Well, here it is, missiles and bombs that they prepare for and that's why the stairwells in the center of the building often provide -- provide that. Seth, I want to just ask you about something that happened today,
which was really fascinating interview that Steve Witkoff gave -- sorry, I'm just pulling my notes up here and it was with CNBC and he said that specifically that we should trust, you know, that the Russians have said they weren't helping the U.S. -- that they weren't -- they weren't helping Tehran, I'm sorry, target any U.S. assets and that we should take them at their word and that that happened in the conversation that Trump had with Putin I believe, last night.
Seth, it was a pretty stunning thing to hear him say, right, take them at their word. He's talking about Putin and Russia about targeting U.S. assets. I know that stood out to you, too, Seth.
SETH JONES, PRESIDENT, DEFENSE & SECURITY DEPARTMENT, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Yeah. Erin, I'm just hearing from a number of people close to the U.S. intelligence community that there is a general view, based on evidence, that the Russians have provided intelligence to Iran on the position of U.S. infrastructure, naval vessels, aircraft in the region.
And, you know, this is not a surprise. The Iranians provided that same type of information. They passed it through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to the Houthis in both 2024 and 2025 during Red Sea operations. So the Russians have been doing this for years.
And, you know, it's worth remembering that that Vladimir Putin is a former KGB spy. He lies by trade and has been doing it since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. So, I would never take his word for anything, frankly, let alone this.
BURNETT: I mean, it is pretty remarkable. And, Jeremy, it also comes as Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are coming under incredible fire. Discussion depending on the quarters you're talking about, about what really happened in the final stages of those last nuclear negotiations with Iran.
But they were scheduled to come back here where Israel and the U.S. we have seen a difference in what winning means. They were supposed to be here, I believe, today, and now they're not here. And we don't know exactly when they're going to come here.
DIAMOND: Yeah. And Steve Witkoff was asked whether this was because of those disagreements between the U.S. and Israel particularly over those oil refinery strikes that we saw Israel carry out, which we said multiple reports of Trump administration officials being quite upset about that.
Now, Witkoff kind of tried to downplay any potential disagreement between the U.S. and Israel. I also thought what was so interesting was to see the extent to which he was not only defending the previous rounds of negotiations, but also indicating there's no potential diplomacy at the moment. I mean, he made clear that this current supreme leader is going to take the same hard line as his father, that it's not acceptable to the president right now.
And so, it's hard to see where things move forward in terms of diplomacy, when the man who is going to lead that diplomatic effort from the U.S. perspective doesn't know how this war is going to end, doesn't know where these negotiations are going to go -- a very difficult picture at the moment in the region.
BURNETT: And I just want to -- I just -- as everyone's watching where we are, you know, just because of some of the rules here and we know there are rules now across the Gulf on what you can and can't broadcast, what you can and can't show. There are rules here. And one of the rules here is that you cannot actually show the intercepts on live television.
So, part of the reason I believe were in a split screen right now, and Jeremy and I cannot see what's on our air. But you're seeing streets and you're not seeing the sky is because were not allowed to show it by the Israeli government because they do not want the Iranians to be able to identify where their missile interceptors are located.
DIAMOND: Yeah, Israel has always had military censorship rules. You typically see these in war zones beyond Israel as well, but they actually tightened the rules during this current war. And the rules I must say, are being applied in an inequitable manner. Israeli TV is showing a lot of this stuff and not being clamped down on by Israeli censorship, but this Israeli censorship is much more sensitive about what gets broadcast on foreign media, and that's why they seem to have tightened the rules this time in particular.
BURNETT: What you're seeing here, this is media where if you are anyone in government in Iran or IRGC, you could be watching it, right? And that's very important to note. So that's why I just want everyone to understand that.
General Manner, you know, you've spent 36 years in the military, you spent a long time in the Middle East, right, and CENTCOM.
[19:20:03]
So, when you hear Trump say, this is pretty much one. But then Hegseth said, we're just starting the next stage. And then Trump came out responding to the threats against him, saying, you know, basically fire and brimstone you know, we will crush you if we need to. Words that also were used by Hegseth.
What does all that say to you about where we are general?
MANNER: It's great uncertainty and it's the lack of synchronization among our government and it's very disconcerting.
I also want to compliment you, Jeremy and Fred and the camera crews and other teams that are there on the ground for the great, for being very courageous to get the word out about what is going on. So -- and having been under fire with missile attacks only five miles away last week and feeling them, I get it. So, thank you so much what you are doing for the American people.
And getting back to the point about the messaging that is coming out of the administration, they are reacting. They're reacting to what the Iranians are saying, what the Israelis are saying, instead of actually being proactive to decide and to control the narrative about why are we there? What are we doing, what is right look like, and how are we going to get out of this situation. So that's important that they again, synchronize their messaging and they get the United States behind them
BURNETT: Seth, when we try to understand the situation, anybody who is following this on social media has seen something like, oh, Israel's missile defense is obliterated. No, Iran's is obliterated. No, the missile launchers are gone.
You can find absolutely any argument you want, and it can be made by a relatively intelligent person. It's very hard to know the truth.
You have seen, I know, Seth, a lot of the satellite imagery to give you a sense of what's really happening. What do you think stands out the most?
JONES: Erin, I think what stands out to me the most is what we've seen in these kinds of wars in the past, which is its going to be very difficult to have a finite ending of this war, especially in the next week or two. I mean, I've been to Israel multiple times over the last two years have been inside of southern Lebanon and also inside of Gaza.
And I think what has struck me even in those wars is how much continuing operations there is, because these kinds of actors try to rebuild their capabilities, they import them from overseas. The Iranians are going to do exactly the same thing. They're going to try to rebuild their missile capabilities. They're going to import them in whether its from allies like the Russians or their partner forces in places like Yemen.
So, I would just caution anybody from thinking this is going to be over in any meaningful, clear black and white way in the foreseeable future.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right, everyone, stay with me, if you will. I want to bring in Vali Nasr. He is obviously an Iran expert, a professor at Johns Hopkins University.
And, Vali, I appreciate your time.
You know, we were talking about, obviously, when -- where we are in this war, what might happen next. But at the core of that is something that we simply haven't seen yet. And that is the new supreme leader, and it is remarkable when you see them having these giant celebrations of his new leadership. And they have pictures of him, and they have cardboard cutouts of him surrounded by flowers, and some of them are even on wheels, and they're moving them around.
But we actually haven't seen the man, the human being himself. Why do you think that is?
VALI NASR, SENIOR ADVISOR, MIDDLE EAST PROGRAM AT CSIS: I think the primary reason is security. I mean, none of the Iranian leadership is seen in public because they have a -- they have a bullseye on their foreheads. It actually has made it clear that that they -- he's a -- he's a top target to be eliminated.
And so, the Iranians also know that when Hezbollah's leader was replaced immediately, Israel assassinated that person as well. So, I think the primary reason is security. And you don't see also other Iranian leaders, they broadcast messages through social media or taped messages on radio and television but we haven't heard that from this new supreme leader yet.
And that partly might be also there's some rumors that he might have been injured during the bombing that killed his father.
BURNETT: And do you know anything about that? Or, I mean, do you -- do you -- do you assign any veracity to that rumor or to the fact that he might be very -- you know, he might be very ill or injured?
NASR: I mean, we really don't know. We know that his father, mother, wife, son and sister were all killed in that -- that attack. And so, unless he was somewhere that was not touched by the bombs that destroyed the compound, that it is -- it is possible that he was injured.
But when the council of experts elected him to be the next supreme leader, obviously they were of the opinion that he's capable of assuming the job, even if not absolutely immediately.
[19:25:00]
But I think the Iranians are very careful in terms of how they roll him out. They know that both Washington and Tel Aviv are very focused on him and on how Iran moves from this point forward. So -- so, this is part of the whole management of the war as well.
BURNETT: So, Vali, how do you right now see the strength of the regime itself? Obviously, we're hearing much more standard sort of bellicosity from the foreign minister, from others in the government than we had in the past week right. There is absolutely no sort of move for rapprochement, at least it seems that way.
How would you view the strength of the regime right now internally?
NASR: I don't see them teetering. There is -- there is a certain coherence. They're managing what their plans are in terms of spreading the war to the Gulf.
And also, they are showing defiance. In other words, the bellicosity is a direct response to the president's tweets or to the secretary of war's statements in other words, they're sending a very clear signal that they're -- that they are defying the U.S., that they're still in the fight and they're not ready for a ceasefire.
So, this is all planned. This is not lashing out. Theres a very clear messaging that they're sending to their own population and to Washington, in the sense that we're not ready to, to have a ceasefire conversation and this war will not end when you decide it ends. We will -- we will have a say in when it ends.
BURNETT: Yes, which is obviously huge significant and is shown by that Strait of Hormuz, they do.
All right. Vali, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
And we're just going to start walking back. We've been given the all clear for this. I guess I would say this was several rounds, Jeremy, that we had.
DIAMOND: Several rounds, but I did check with the Israeli military.
BURNETT: Yes.
DIAMOND: It was all from Iran. There -- you know, sometimes when we see multiple sirens go off like that, it can be Hezbollah and Iran. In this case, all of these were ballistic missiles from Iran.
BURNETT: So, all of these were ballistic missiles from Iran. And, you know, well, we'll be able to figure out exactly what we're able to tell you about what happened and where they landed obviously, with some of the censorship but once they enter into the airspace, then were able to share that information.
But we're going to be taking a brief break. When we come back, we're going to be back on our normal set here to continue our program. We're going to go live to Beirut, where there are new explosions, as we're speaking just north of here, and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:54]
BURNETT: Welcome back to the special edition of OUTFRONT, "The War with Iran". And we're live in Tel Aviv. Now back right here, as you can see, with the skyline behind us.
And we have some dramatic new video just into CNN explosions near Beirut north of here. Were going to share the ones that just happened here in just a few moments. But in Beirut you can see those explosions, plumes of smoke billowing above the city. And there is obviously complete chaos there.
I want to go straight to Matthew Chance, who is in Beirut.
And, Matthew, you know, the images there. Obviously, you know, sort of stop you in your tracks. What's it like actually on the ground?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it's within the last 20 minutes or so that the Israeli military have said they've started a wave of attacks on the suburbs of south Beirut. We're overlooking those suburbs right now. These are -- these are Hezbollah-controlled areas, and they've been the place where there's been so many dozens of airstrikes taking place over the course of the past several days, in particular with the Israeli military targeting what it says Hezbollah linked individuals and buildings. A lot of financial institutions like banks, have been struck over the
past 24 hours, organizations which Israel says Hezbollah uses to fund its activities. There have been a lot of people around the country affected by these airstrikes because they're not just happening in Beirut. They're happening in the east of Lebanon as well, in the Bekaa Valley, which is also controlled by Hezbollah and in south Lebanon. All of these areas have had evacuation orders issued against them.
And we're looking at, I think, the latest casualty figures, more than 500 people have been killed in the strike so far and that number set to rise ever.
BURNETT: Yeah. Yes, and unfortunately, that's one thing we know will happen.
I know there have been calls for some kind of negotiation there, although obviously for Israel, they do view this as -- as an opportunity to end Hezbollah. That's how they see it. So, it's hard to imagine a negotiation. What are you learning?
CHANCE: Yeah, I think that's I think that's probably true that this attack, which Hezbollah carried out shortly after the Iranian supreme leader was killed in U.S. and Israeli air strikes and has been used by Israel as an opportunity to really finish what it started back in 2024 and try to eliminate Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia, as a military force as much as it possibly can, or at least to erode it even further.
It's clearly placed an enormous strain on Lebanon. Many Lebanese people, for instance, are incredibly angry and frustrated not just with Israel but with Hezbollah as well, for dragging them into this conflict yet again. It sparked a crisis of displaced people, hundreds of thousands of people. We're looking at more than 700,000 people now from across the country have been forced to leave their homes, that's seeking shelter elsewhere. And that's put an enormous burden on the Lebanese authorities to try and cater for them, to give them shelter, to give them medical attention and to give them food.
[19:35:09]
And you're right, there have been calls from the Lebanese president for negotiations for a ceasefire by air, land and sea to allow for talks to take place between Israel and Lebanon and the international community so that the Lebanese army can move finally towards disarming Hezbollah. But, frankly, I mean, they've been promising to do that for some time and what we've seen or what Israel has seen over the course of the past couple of years is an inability or a lack of capacity on the part of the Lebanese military to do that. And so, it looks like, you know, from those scenes that, that you're reporting that we're seeing in Beirut right now that the Israelis are for the moment, taking the matter into their own hands.
BURNETT: All right. Matthew Chance in Beirut tonight.
And it all comes as defense secretary in the U.S., Pete Hegseth, is projecting incredible confidence, claiming that Iran is on the run (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The mullahs are desperate and scrambling like the terrorist cowards they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, that may not reflect the reality on the ground given Iran is upping the ante now by laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz tonight, according to the U.S. government. It comes as one of the most influential MAGA voices is tearing into Trump's war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: It just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can't even really clearly define why we did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, is Trump's front man in the war, Pete Hegseth, doing anything to convince Americans like Rogan?
Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HEGSETH: America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ever since the first fighter launched. --
HEGSETH: With brutal efficiency, total air dominance and an unbreakable will to accomplish the president's objectives.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And the first missile landed.
HEGSETH: You act decisively in chaos.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Pete Hegseth has been speaking unlike any other secretary of defense ever.
HEGSETH: Death and destruction from the sky all day long.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Gone are the solemn statesmanlike updates on warfare the Pentagon has long preferred. In their place, Hegseth has picked up the tone long established by the commander in chief.
TRUMP: He died like a dog. He died like a coward.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Blasting the Iranian regime.
HEGSETH: For 47 years, these barbaric savages in the Iranian regime have murdered our brothers in arms, my guys, your guys. FOREMAN (voice-over): Ridiculing their attempts to stand up to the
dual military powers of the United States and Israel.
HEGSETH: The combination is sheer destruction for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries. They are toast and they know it. Or at least soon enough they will know it.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And even as he mocks the faith of Iranian foes and his department post online about showing them no mercy, Hegseth is blurring the line between his private Christian beliefs and his secular public duties.
HEGSETH: May the Lord grant unyielding strength and refuge to our warriors, unbreakable protection to them and our homeland and total victory over those who seek to harm them.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Like Hegseth, the White House too, has taken a peculiar tack to spur support for the war turning bomb blasts into a highlight reel on X set to the song "Here Comes the Boom," snagging scenes from the video game "Grand Theft Auto" to underscore other explosive moments.
And even intercutting scenes from factual battle with clips from fictional movies and TV shows, all with the clear intent of selling the public on the proposition that everything is going as planned.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (on camera): Of course, despite all the tough talk, the victory so far, if you want to call it that, has not been flawless for American troops, let alone for a lot of people who live there. As Matthew Chance reported a short while ago, there have been American troops who have lost their lives, many more who have been wounded. There's no sign yet of when they're going to come out. And yet what looks an awful lot like a marketing campaign here just keeps going on -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah.
[19:40:00]
All right. Thank you very much, Tom Foreman.
And our breaking news coverage continues as we've just heard the explosions here in Tel Aviv. Trump says Iran wants to talk badly. Well, do they? I'm going to speak to a former top Iranian official who is speaking to his sources inside Tehran.
Plus, we're going to go live to the White House tonight where we are getting new details about Trump's thinking, as the war is now in its 11th day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:05]
BURNETT: And welcome back to this special edition of OUTFRONT, "The War with Iran". We're live in Tel Aviv tonight with breaking news.
I want to go straight to Kristen Holmes, our senior White House correspondent, on the phone with some new information that she is just getting.
A lot of posts on social media today from the president, but we did not see him at all. And, Kristen, I know you've got some new information as to what's happening. What are you learning?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, we've learned that basically the White House has stripped any kind of a timeline off of this war. We had heard from various officials three to eight weeks, five to five weeks, and now it seems as though they are not giving any kind of timeline in weak form. In fact, they've kind of backtracked on all of those numbers saying that right now, they're not going to get into any kind of timeline and only President Trump can make up his mind as to when this war is over.
And that is a very striking sentiment given the fact that Americans overall do not approve of this war. They did not get congressional approval to go into this war. And now they are saying, essentially, that they're not going to give any sort of timeline.
Now, the question is, of course, when will President Trump decide? And right now, we don't know what those triggers are going to be that cause him to decide that the war is over and that America's involvement is over. And this has been a moving target.
What we have heard today, two briefings now from both Pete Hegseth and from Karoline Leavitt, and both of them essentially just said, this war will be over when President Trump decides that it's going to be over, but nothing beyond that, when he decides the objectives are met.
But of course, as we've been talking about, some of these objectives aren't quantifiable. So, there are a lot of questions here as to how long we're going to be in this. And while they continue to say that this is not a forever war, it does mean something that now they have taken all of those time limits out of the equation and just essentially put this on President Trump to make up his mind of when this will be over.
BURNETT: All right. Kristen, thank you very much for joining us on the phone there.
And you know, Kristen's reporting here comes in the context of President Trump telling fox news something that may have suggested he's willing to actually talk to Iranian leaders. He said, quote, "I'm hearing they want to talk badly. It's possible. It depends on what terms," which, of course, is sort of in a sense, a classic thing for Trump to say.
OUTFRONT now is Seyed Hossein Mousavian. He is a former Iranian nuclear negotiator. He has been speaking to contacts inside Iran.
Seyed, you have been on the inside of this many, many times. What are you hearing now about the Iranian government and those in power? Do they have a desire to talk to the United States right now?
SEYED HOSSEIN MOUSAVIAN, FORMER IRAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR: I really don't see any desire on the Iranian side to talk with the U.S. The reason is that the both military strike by the U.S. and Israel in 2025, 2026 occurred when the nuclear negotiators achieved significant progress. Diplomacy was doing well.
Suddenly, the U.S. and Israel, they decided to attack Iran. Therefore, Iranians now, they believe that the U.S. has been using diplomacy as a tool to deceive Iran and the main purpose has been war, regime change and the total collapse of Iran. That's why they don't show any readiness as of now.
BURNETT: Right. Well, I mean, they were right in the midst of those negotiations about a week and a half ago, right, when this strike happened, right, and the war began. So the head of the Iranian national security council, of course, perhaps the most powerful, certainly one of the most powerful people inside Iran is Ali Larijani. He has posted something about President Trump I wanted to read to you, Seyed.
He said, quote, "Watch out for yourself not to get eliminated." Now you know Larijani, Seyed. You know, what is something they might post on social media versus perhaps something they really mean, or when those things actually line up together. Does the rhetoric surprise you that you're hearing?
MOUSAVIAN: Erin, the reality is that the two countries, they are at war. And since the first U.S. strike -- a U.S.-Israeli strike, 2025, we have heard multiple mutual threats from Washington and Tehran on assassination of the officials. But the reality in practice is that after the 2025 military strike, the U.S. has killed about 200 very high-level military, security, political officials of Iran, including number one, the supreme leader.
[19:50:11]
And as of now, Iran has not assassinated even a single American official. This is the reality on the ground. This is what has happened. But while they are at war and while the U.S. has already in about a year, less than a year has assassinated about 200 Iranian officials, what do they expect from Iran? Do they expect to appreciate to thank the U.S. for the assassinations or the minimum is some such tweets, which you mentioned about the secretary of national security council.
BURNETT: So, Seyed, when you talk about 200 top officials being taken out, and yet we see a regime that is -- appears to be functioning, it appears to be functioning in terms of how it is communicating with the outside world, but also when our Fred Pleitgen has been on the ground there, what he's experienced. Now, he's there with government permission, but editorial control over everything that he says. And he saw the large crowd celebrating the supreme leader.
Look, we know a lot of people don't feel that way. Perhaps the vast majority don't feel that way but people flooded the streets to celebrate the fact that there was a new supreme leader. What do you read into the regimes current staying power, and how that's being seen by the Iranian people?
MOUSAVIAN: Erin, I believe I have been working on Iran-us relations for 40 years, advocating for peace between Iran and the U.S.
I really believe American, especially American officials, they really do not understand and they do not know Iran. Saddam invaded Iran in 1980, and he said within three days, he would be in Tehran. And it took eight years. All powers, east, west, Arab countries, they supported Saddam invasion of Iran.
But Iranians, they resisted for eight years, and they did not give up a millimeter of their land. And it was Israeli assumption, assessment that in 2025, when they attacked Iran, they were thinking within 48 hours, they will bring a regime collapse in Iran. And after 12 days, Israel was in very, very bad situation as President Trump officially said, Iranian missiles, they were hitting badly Israel. That's why Trump announced a ceasefire to save Israel.
Now, again the same mistake happened in February 2026. The original plan was to bring a total regime collapse in 48 hours by assassinating the supreme leader, and about 50 highest level military security, political officials. And within three hours after such assassination, Iran responded, retaliated about I don't know, 100 missiles to Israel. And this is 11 days they have been able to resist, Iranian nation have been united to defend their integrity and sovereignty.
I think this is something Washington needs to understand. They cannot bring regime change through war or airstrike. This is a mistake they have been repeating, and still they are counting on such a mistake.
BURNETT: So, Seyed, you know, Trump had a conversation with Putin and he said that Putin had assured him that Putin was not helping Iran provide information on U.S. targets. Do you -- I know when you take a step back on this you view Putin as actually quite central. I mean, I'm thinking back to when the Russians were providing nuclear know how and supplies for Bushehr which was at the time, right civilian nuclear power.
Do you -- why do you think that Putin actually is, in your view, the most important person to bring this war to an end?
MOUSAVIAN: I think President Putin has a very powerful position because he has a good relation with President Trump. He has good relations with Israel. He has good relations with Iran. And as of now, after three -- after 11 days, neither Iran have been able to win nor Israel and the U.S.
Everybody is claiming that they are winning. But the reality is that nobody has been able to defeat the other side.
Putin, I think, has a good position to bring a ceasefire and the only issue for President Trump would be -- for Iranians, sorry, would be that even if they -- this time, they accept the ceasefire, what guarantee they have that again after some months, the U.S. would not attack Iran.
[19:55:04]
BURNETT: Yeah.
MOUSAVIAN: Therefore, Putin needs to get a firm guarantee from President Trump that they will not attack again, Iran, this is number one. And number two, the reality is that the U.S. attack on Iran was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and Iran is victim of aggression. And what is about the compensation of billions of dollars Iranians, they have been losing during the war.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Seyed, thank you very much. Just a stunning thing to think about, about Vladimir Putin's potential role here. I appreciate your time.
And next, you just saw us broadcasting live from the stairwell from our shelter after sirens blared and ballistic missiles from Iran came into the skies here. We've got images of those intercepts that we are now able to share with you here. We'll show them to you in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: And the breaking news. We can now show you a photo of the intercepts that just happened here in Tel Aviv. As you can see in the photo, those are the trails of at least two intercepts. If you are watching the show, you heard it.
We just started the show at the top of the hour sirens started going off here in Tel Aviv. Jeremy Diamond and I then started moving, making our way to what we've been using as a shelter. These reinforced stairwells. We went in there while we were broadcasting from the shelter. We could hear, you could hear, we could also feel because it does feel, it just floods through your board at least two very loud blasts overhead.
Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow.
"AC360" starts now.
