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IDF: Military Intercepted Two Missiles Launched From Iran After Ceasefire Went Into Effect; Netanyahu: Israel Has Agreed To Ceasefire With Iran; Iranian State-Linked Media Deny Strikes After Ceasefire. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:42]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and around the world. I'm Becky Anderson, live from our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi, where the time is 1:00 p.m. It is 12:30 p.m. in Tehran. It is midday, 12:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv.

It is Tuesday, the 24th of June, and we are keeping a close eye on the Middle East, where a fragile ceasefire is now in effect between Israel and Iran.

The IDF says it has intercepted two missiles launched from Iran since this truce began just a few hours ago, and Israel's defense minister vowing to respond with force. But a senior security official in Iran, denying that claim and told CNN that, quote, no missiles have been fired at the enemy so far.

Well, earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has agreed to U.S. President Donald Trump's peace proposal. But a lot of details still unclear at this point.

Before the ceasefire, an Iranian missile hit a residential building in Beer Sheba, killing at least five people. Israel says Iran launched six waves of strikes overnight and video posted on social media shows the moment of impact.

When Israeli firefighters rescued at least three people from the debris there, more than a dozen people were treated for light to moderate injuries. Iranian media also reporting deadly strikes from Israel just before the start of this ceasefire. Explosions lit up the skies of Tehran and at least nine people were killed in missile strikes on residential buildings. We understand in northwestern Iran.

CNN's Brian Todd live this hour in Washington, Nada Bashir standing by in London.

Nada, let's start with you. As we pointed out, a lot of details are unclear at this point. So, I think it's important that we just for our viewers' sake, explain what we do know. NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The finer details of

that ceasefire agreement are somewhat unclear at this stage. And there was some questions, confusion, perhaps, around the timing of the ceasefire and when in fact it would come into effect. Now, in the early hours of today, we had heard acknowledgments of an agreement, both from Iranian officials and from the Israeli prime minister's office. We'd heard first from the Iranian foreign minister saying that Iran had continued its military operation and attacks on Israel, in his words, until the very last moments.

And we certainly saw the impacts of those missile strikes, as you mentioned, in Beer Sheva, where emergency services now say at least four people have been killed, and we saw the destruction there as a result of those missile strikes. And Iran had said that it would bring an end or a halt its military operation and targeting of Israel, so long as there were no further attacks on Iran. Past 4:00 a.m. local time.

Now, we later then heard from the Israeli prime minister's office claiming a success in Iran. They said they had successfully eliminated a dual threat. What was described as an existential and imminent threat, both in terms of Iran's nuclear capabilities, but also in terms of its ballistic missile capabilities as well.

But what has developed in the last hour or two is reports of another attempted missile strike by Iran, according to Israeli officials. We've heard from the IDF saying that they intercepted two missiles from Iran, and we have since heard from the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, saying that Israel will respond with force after what he described as Iran's utter violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Now, it's important to underscore that we have heard denials from Iranian state media and also from a security official, telling our correspondent Fred Pleitgen, that there have been no Iranian missile strikes beyond 7:30 a.m. local time. So, when that ceasefire formally came into effect, according to what has been shared by the U.S. president, Donald Trump, who, of course, was a key factor in brokering this deal.

[05:05:05]

Now, lots of questions remain as to the durability of this agreement, whether or not this has now marked a breakdown, potentially, of the agreement and whether or not in fact, we do see that response by the Israeli military. Of course, we are still hearing that denial from Iranian officials. There are still questions and a lack of clarity around what exactly has taken place.

As we understand it at this stage, according to Iranian -- Israeli military officials, those two missiles were intercepted. Israel has vowed to respond. So, we will wait to see whether or not there is in fact, a military response to that.

ANDERSON: Nada, thank you.

Let's cross to Washington then. Brian Todd standing by. It has -- it's been a very long night there, certainly an extremely

busy night in the region. Brian, what's -- what are you hearing from the White House at this stage?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are watching very closely as we are to see whether, in fact, a missiles have been fired from Iran toward Israel this morning or not, as we sort through that information to try to determine what exactly happened, that really hits home the point, Becky, of just how critical a moment we are in right now and how critical the coming hours are ahead to see if this cease fire can, in fact, hold.

It is so critical that President Trump has taken it upon himself to appeal to both sides to hold up their end of the deal. A short time ago, the president, posting this on his truth social media platform, quote, the ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it. Signed Donald J. Trump, president of the United States.

This comes as were getting a battle over the messaging over the ceasefire, specifically messaging as to who is going to get the final credit for brokering the ceasefire deal, if it in fact holds. President Trump on Monday evening, late posted this on social media, claiming that Israel and Iran came to him first asking him to broker a deal.

This is what he said, quote, Israel and Iran came to me almost simultaneously and said, peace. I knew the time was now the world and the Middle East are the real winners. Both nations will see tremendous love, peace and prosperity in their futures.

That is the message from Washington. There is a very different message from Tehran this morning from Iranian state media and a news anchor there who said, quote, in a begging like manner of urging, Trump requested the initiation of a ceasefire in the imposed Zionist enemy war against our country.

So, Tehran, claiming that Trump begged them for a cease fire, Donald Trump claiming that Israel and Iran came to him asking for a ceasefire.

In the middle of this, CNN has some very critical reporting from our colleagues. Kylie Atwood, Jennifer Hansler, Alayna Treene, Jeff Zeleny and Zachary Cohen. They are reporting that behind the scenes, Donald Trump's national security team and his diplomatic team worked furiously in those critical hours after Iran launched an airstrike against that U.S. base in Qatar, that this team worked furiously behind the scenes to try to broker a ceasefire deal, according to our sources, President Trump himself communicated directly with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and he communicated directly with the emir of Qatar, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani.

At the same time, J.D. Vance, the vice president, secretary of state and national security adviser, Marco Rubio, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, they were the ones communicating directly with the Iranian side through indirect and direct channels there. So, a lot of diplomatic flourishing going on in those hours. After

Iran launched those missile attacks on the U.S. base in Qatar. Again, the crucial hours coming, Becky, we are in such an important period right now to see if the ceasefire does indeed hold. They're watching it very closely, of course, here in Washington.

ANDERSON: And, Brian, very briefly, Israel touting its remarkable success, saying that it has, you know, effectively fulfilled its goals in its attacks on Iran. Yes. And many around this region and within Israel, suggesting that it should now take a break. Let Mossad, the air force, the public front, you know, take a breather, step back.

We have learned that that is not necessarily Benjamin Netanyahu's style. He has not necessarily been looking for off-ramps or political solutions. And that I hear time and time again in the region where I am, how much influence does Donald Trump have over the Israeli prime minister at this point? Is it clear?

TODD: I don't think it is very clear, Becky, because as you remember at the beginning of the Israel-Iran conflict, what some 13 or 14 days ago, well, it began about 12 days ago, but about 13, 14 days ago, you had President Trump in Washington saying, I don't want the Israelis to do this.

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He did not want them to launch this series of attacks on Iran and on their military facilities. They did it anyway. The Israeli prime minister said he did not have to check with Washington before doing that.

But then, of course, as this progressed along, Donald Trump kind of came in line and of course, made that critical decision on Saturday to launch those bombs against Iranian nuclear sites. So, it is not clear at all that Donald Trump has the kind of influence over Prime Minister Netanyahu that he might want to have.

This is a crucial period to if people are going to take a break, this is going to be crucial in actually doing the real assessments that are going to be needed to figure out just how much of Iran's nuclear program was damaged in the Israeli strikes and in the U.S. strikes. This is a critical period. They need a little bit of time off, actually, from these strikes, to do some real intelligence assessment, because that could take weeks, Becky.

ANDERSON: Brian, it's good to have you. Thank you.

TODD: Thank you.

ANDERSON: Brian had the perspective out of Washington.

Mohammad Ali Shabani is a Middle East scholar, editor of Amwaj.media. Very well sourced in Iran. Joining me now from London.

You've been following this ceasefire news hour by hour, reporting that one source told you that Israel will stop firing at 3:30 a.m. Jerusalem time. It is now just after midday there, with Iran anticipating to follow suit.

Now, hours after that, we've seen a strike on Beer Sheva. Iran denying that it violated this ceasefire. When accused of doing so just in the last hour or so.

So, what are you seeing here and what do you understand to be the very latest from the Iranian perspective?

MOHAMMAD ALI SHABANI, EDITOR, AMWAJ.MEDIA; Thank you, Becky. So, I think there's been quite a lot of ambiguity about the timelines as the previous guest also noted, Donald Trump, when he announced it, he stated that the timeline would take effect six hours subsequently and that there would be a 24-hour kind of mark where the ceasefire transitions into a cessation of hostilities altogether. The Iranian side, they came out quite clearly and also telling us that basically that Iran will stop firing shortly after Israel stops firing.

And last night, apparently Israel did. Among its heaviest bombings since the conflict began in Tehran, apparently according to eyewitnesses, bunker busters were used to their suspicions. They may have been a high-profile target, being bombed, so mindful of all of that, the foreign minister of Iran also went out saying that although there is a timeline, there's a deadline they're going to strike until the very last minute.

And there's probably a variety of factors involved here. Number one, they want to show that they didn't -- they didn't surrender. They fought until the very end. And I imagine that there are also factions within Iran that are not very happy with the ceasefire.

Already, we're seeing a kind of discourse from the from the side that's not very happy with this saying that this is an imposed peace. And of course, there are many questions about the future of the ceasefire, what kind of shape it may take.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And I just want to pick up on one thing you said. Who would be on the list of Israel's priority prime targets, if indeed we've seen, you know, significant bombing overnight. And as you suggest, you know, the likelihood is that there was a significant target. Just -- just remind us who those targets might be at this point, given what we understand to be Israel's goals.

SHABANI: So, Israel, at the very outset of this conflict, went after the senior military leadership of the country. He killed the upper layer of the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and, intriguingly, also targeted Ali Shamkhani. He's a former national security advisor and a close aide of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Ali Shamkhani survived that strike.

Apparently, one of his legs were amputated. He suffered horrific injuries, but he's back, so they failed in that assassination.

But after the initial onslaught, Israel's also gone out and threatened the supreme leader himself, basically saying that he's fair game. We do not know yet. We don't have accurate data of what happened last night with the bunker busters, but usually in other places in the region, such as Lebanon, whenever such weapons have been deployed. We're talking about senior leadership.

So far, we don't know, but we can guess that it may be more political leaders, maybe some military leaders.

ANDERSON: Mohammad, it's good to have you. I'm going to have you back in the hours to come. I need to take a break. At this point. Very much appreciate your analysis.

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Still waiting to hear from the Qatar prime minister at a press conference in Doha, which is we're still standing by for that. I'm going to take a break.

Still to come. The latest on developments in the Middle East as Israel announces it has agreed to a ceasefire with Iran.

Stay with us.

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ANDERSON: Back to our breaking news. Israel's government says it has now agreed to a ceasefire with Iran, and Iranian media also reporting that a ceasefire has begun. But the Israel Defense Forces, accusing Tehran of a ceasefire violation already, saying they have intercepted two missiles launched from Iran.

[05:20:02]

The Israeli defense minister vowing to, quote, respond with force. But a senior security official in Iran tells CNN no missiles have been fired at the enemy as he described them so far.

U.S. President Donald Trump urging both sides to stick to this ceasefire. This truce, saying please do not violate it, exclamation mark.

Well, a new CNN poll shows U.S. airstrikes against Iran over the weekend are broadly unpopular. 44 percent of respondents say they approve, 56 percent disapprove. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents say they fear the strikes will increase. The Iranian threat to the United States.

Large majorities of independents and Democrats disapprove of the U.S. military action, while 82 percent of Republicans approve.

Let's get more now from Jennifer Kavanagh. She is a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. She joins me now live from Washington.

Just out of interest, what do you make of that polling that snap polling after all those strikes only Sunday this week? It is now Tuesday.

JENNIFER KAVANAGH, SENIOR FELLOW & DIRECTOR OF MILITARY ANALYSIS, DEFENSE PRIORITIES: Well, I don't find that surprising. There really is not an appetite in the United States for another adventure in the Middle East. People are tired of foreign wars, especially after Iraq and Afghanistan proved to be quite disastrous and are very broadly unpopular across the Republican and the Democratic Party. So I'm not that surprised that another use of military force would -- would be unpopular and probably spark worries among a lot of voters that this is just the start of another long-term campaign in the region.

ANDERSON: You have deep insight into military strategy. So let's just take a step back here and consider the following. Donald Trump is taking credit overnight -- overnight, regional time for this ceasefire. What he calls the end to this 12-day war. We have seen certainly some fragility, if not violation of that very ceasefire in the past hours or so.

As you assess what you see going on and strategy from both sides, what's your snap assessment?

KAVANAGH: Well, it's not uncommon for -- to take a little bit of time for a ceasefire to take hold, for hostilities to stop. So I'm not that surprised that there's some uncertainty about where things stand right now. I think things are certainly trending in the direction of at least a temporary stop to the airstrikes that we've seen. Israel was signaling even yesterday that it was getting towards the end of its target list, both because the United States had signaled it wanted to de-escalate, but also probably was running low on air defense interceptors as well as its own munitions.

And Iran, similarly, has suffered significant military damage and doesn't have an endless stockpile of missiles. So, I would expect to see a temporary cessation of hostilities here. However, the bottom line is that the fundamental problem of Iran's nuclear program hasn't really been addressed. We still don't know where most of Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium is. We still don't know how much of their nuclear enrichment capabilities remain.

So, it's not clear to me that this is the end forever, even if it's the end for right now.

ANDERSON: Yeah. And is your recent analysis overnight points out there are real questions about what was accomplished over the past two weeks, given the high risks and the costs.

Of course, there are other two other points you point that you make. Some in the U.S. and many in Israel are pushing for more strikes and a broader regime change goal. And secondly, it could be a very long road to diplomacy, even if this ceasefire provides an off ramp and opens or reopens a door to diplomacy. And you say it's not clear that Donald Trump has the patience to stick with it.

Explain.

KAVANAGH: Well, there are certainly groups within the United States and in Israel that have hoped that this would be a broader war, that it would eventually bring down the Iranian regime. With the hopes that whatever followed would be better. It's not clear to me that that's the case. In fact, it seems more likely that if the current regime were to fall,

you'd end up with a failed state, which would probably be even worse in terms of, you know, thinking about the path back to diplomacy, at this point, the Iranians have very little reason to trust Donald Trump's word. He's now twice talked about having negotiations and then scuttled those negotiations himself by greenlighting military operations, first Israel's and then the United States. So, it's not clear to me that the United States can offer credible assurances to Iran that if it negotiates, its going to be protected from future attacks.

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So, for any Iranian regime, that has to be a calculation is negotiating worth it? And we've seen, you know, with the -- in the case of Iran as well as in Ukraine and elsewhere, that that Trump wants to talk about peace, but he doesn't really have the patience for the long --

ANDERSON: Apologies. We look as if we've lost communication with Jennifer Kavanagh. But you heard sufficient analysis from her for some key takeaways there. We are doing more now on what is this fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran after Iran denies an alleged violation of that truce.

The very latest is just ahead.

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