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Iran's Air Defenses Remained Active Ahead Of Ceasefire; Senate Expected To Vote On Resolution Over Trump And Iran; Qatari And Lebanese Prime Ministers Addressing Reports. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:30:31]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR, "CONNECT THE WORLD": Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson. Here are some stories that we are following for you today.

And President Trump will be in the Netherlands today for the NATO summit in the Hague, which is just getting underway. The alliance plans to discuss the tensions in the Middle East as well as the conflict in Ukraine which faced a wave of new Russian Aerial assaults on Monday.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's agreed to a ceasefire with Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump announcing the proposal via social media late on Monday. Israel vowing to respond after it says it intercepted two incoming Iranian missiles after the ceasefire began. A senior Iranian security official denying those claims. This is a battle of narratives it seems.

Both Iran and Israel fired missiles in the hours leading up to this truce. Israel says at least five people were killed in a strike on a residential building in Be'er Sheva. And Iranian state media reports nine civilians dead from a strike in the country's northwest.

Well, CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran where he heard and felt the strikes from Israel hours before the ceasefire took effect. He filed this report earlier from the Iranian capital.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we're seeing right now is extremely intense anti-aircraft fire over the skies of Tehran. If we look through here, you can see the tracer fire going up from those anti-aircraft guns. We've also heard some blasts. But as you can see, right now the skies over the Iranian capital absolutely illuminated with anti-aircraft fire.

Now, the Israelis have issued an evacuation order for the part of Tehran where we're seeing that anti-aircraft fire right now. It's unclear whether there's any strikes taking place, but we have also heard some thuds seemingly coming from that direction. This comes after a day where we saw intense bombardment here of the Iranian capital, especially central areas of Tehran. Right here, in the location that we are, there was an airstrike very close to us that rocked the building that we were in. We took cover and then came back to film the aftermath and there was a thick plume of smoke in the skies.

The Iranians also firing multiple missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, saying that was in response for the United States attacking several Iranian nuclear installations.

And there again you can see the fire in the skies over Tehran. That is that anti-aircraft burst fire coming from Iranian air defenses. And we have been seeing that happening over the past couple of minutes as clearly, they are targeting something that is in the skies.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, it is just after 1:00 p.m. now in Tehran. Fred filing that report in the wee hours of the morning, and more still to come.

Washington and the MAGA world remain divided over President Trump's actions in the Middle East. Why some say this is exactly what they voted against after this break.

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[05:38:15]

ANDERSON: Israel says it has achieved all of its objectives after nearly two weeks of strikes on Iran, and says it agreed to a ceasefire after its military success. That is the word from Israel.

But now Israel's defense minister says the military will strike again and respond with force after what it describes as a violation by Iran. Israel tells CNN the military intercepted two missiles. A senior Iranian official says no missiles have been fired after the ceasefire went into effect.

Well, before the truce both sides had fired off missiles, including one that hit a residential building in the southern Israel city of Be'er Sheva. Israeli officials say at least five people were killed there. Iranian state media reporting at least nine killed when Israeli strikes hit residential buildings in northwest Iran.

Well, some U.S. senators are moving to prevent President Trump from taking future action against Iran unless specifically authorized by Congress.

CNN's Manu Raju has more on how lawmakers are reacting to U.S. involvement in what the White House is calling the "12-Day War."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Even as Donald Trump announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran there is still a push for Congress to have a say if the president were to call for additional military action against Iran.

In fact, there are two resolutions that are moving through the Senate and the House to try to constrain the president's powers and actually say that Congress needs to be declaring an act of war against Iran if this situation were to escalate in the days and months ahead.

[05:40:00]

There is an effort to force a vote this week in the United States Senate -- that effort led by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. He has support from at least one Republican senator. That is Rand Paul of Kentucky who is pushing this measure.

But they need to have 51 votes in the Republican-led Senate in order for it to be adopted and then it has to get approved in the United States House. How it plays out in the House still is uncertain at this moment and whether they could have enough votes to move ahead, especially in the aftermath of the president's announcement of this so-called ceasefire deal that he said was reached.

Now despite all of this, this has exposed a divide within the GOP, particularly among some of Donald Trump's more MAGA-aligned supporters. People like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who told me that she opposed Donald Trump's decision to call for those military strikes against those three nuclear facilities in Iran.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We promised no more foreign wars, no more regime change. They also voted for President Trump on these promises. And I've been very vocal -- we don't belong in foreign wars.

And so, many Americans are very wary when all of a sudden, the news comes on and they -- and it starts saying why we're attacking a country when most Americans are walking around -- they're not thinking about Iran. They're not worried about a Houthi, and they don't even know what a Houthi looks like. They're not worried about what Russia is doing. They are very much focused on their American life and their American problems. And that's exactly what they should be focused on.

RAJU: Now, despite Greene's concerns, Republican leaders are by and large falling in line behind Trump on this issue, which is why we don't expect this resolution to try to tie his hands on Iran to go very far.

This all comes as the House and Senate are poised to have their own classified briefings on Tuesday about everything that happened over the last several days here and what the weeks and months head may look like, and whether Iran still has any capability to build a nuclear weapon.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ANDERSON: Well, let's go live to Tehran now. Abas Aslani is a journalist and senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies. Why don't we pick up from where Manu left off there?

What capability does Iran have still with regard to its nuclear program and any opportunity to build a bomb at this point? I mean, is its nuclear program still intact?

ABAS ASLANI, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST STRATEGIC STUDIES: Becky, there has been damages to Iran's nuclear facilities or equipment but let's not forget that the nuclear program of the country -- it includes different crucial components which we could categorize it -- categorize it in three components, which is facilities as well as equipment. The second one is the nuclear material. And the third one is the know-how or the knowledge.

The first one meaning the facilities have been damaged. To what extent -- that is the question. Iran's nuclear chief today said that they are going to investigate and amount and scope of that damage, but they will try to recover based on the preplanned arrangements. And -- but they have relocated those nuclear materials to a safe place keeping them intact. And Iran enjoys yet having those nuclear material which have been enriched.

And the third and the most important from Tehran's perspective is the know-how or the knowledge which Iran thinks cannot be destroyed or bombed.

So that's why the country is insisting that the nuclear program cannot be stopped, and the country will continue to pursue the same -- I mean, path that it did in the past.

But more importantly, the -- if the aim of aggression was to destroy Iran's nuclear program and to stop it, this seems that this has backfired. We shouldn't look at it in just the span of two weeks but in the longer run. Iran, these days, is talking about reconsidering its cooperation with the IAEA. Parliament is discussing suspension of any cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Not necessarily a nuclear bomb but this will backfire and give an opposite result to the Western capitals as well as Israel.

ANDERSON: Look, there's a battle of narratives out there. One would expect that Iran would try and get a win out of this. Frankly, I think around the world Iran looks like a very weakened regime at present. Its nuclear program may not be obliterated. The U.S., the IAEA, and others may not even get an opportunity to get a full assessment of that.

But it is significantly weakened as is its ballistic missile supply and its opportunity to launch missiles. Although, of course, we saw capabilities still exist in its very limited response, but a response with small and medium-range ballistic missiles on Qatar -- an air base in Qatar last night -- an erstwhile and one assumes still friend although I'm sure friends wouldn't normally expect to be -- to be fired on. I just wonder what Iran really believes it has achieved and whether they see in Tehran this is really a conclusion to what Donald Trump assesses as a "12-Day War."

What's the calculus and who is making decisions in Tehran these days?

ASLANI: Becky, number one, Iran sees this not just as a war -- Iran versus Israel -- but it sees this war as Iran versus Israel, the United States, as well as number of other countries who have been helping Israel in defending and attacking Iran.

Number two is that this aggression was initiated by Israel, followed by attacks by the United States. And -- but they were themselves the first ones to ask and to demand a ceasefire. Tehran thinks that a prolonged war could put pressure on Israel as well as the United States, and that is the original war is not something that they have been seeking.

So that's why Iran thinks that its resistance has been yielding some results. However, there have been damages to the country. But the -- Tehran thinks that it's the other way around. It thinks that there have been some miscalculations in Tel Aviv and Washington because they thought that they would be able to destroy the country's nuclear program.

They attacked military sites in order prevent a response from the Iranian side. This was not the case. Iran responded even earlier this morning just hours before the ceasefire had taken effect. Iran targeted some places --

ANDERSON: All right, Abas --

ASLANI: -- in Israel.

And the last one if I may is --

ANDERSON: Can I -- I want to wrap this up. And just for the time being I need to just get to Doha very quickly for what we've been alerting our viewers is a press conference by the prime minister there.

So Abas, thank you for the time being.

Let's listen in to what we are hearing there. He is alongside the Lebanese prime minister.

SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN AL THANI, QATARI PRIME MINISTER: (Speaking foreign language).

ANDERSON: We're just trying to ensure that we've got translation up and running for you if you are an Arabic speaker. Let's take a very short. We will get back after this.

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[05:52:15] AL THANI (through translator): -- had happened to the Iranian people. They are our neighbors and we don't wish them anything bad. We wish them development and to have good economic.

But attacking the Qatari state is an unacceptable behavior. It was also other diplomatic efforts -- big diplomatic efforts that the Qatar state was involved in along with our partners -- international and regional partners. But unfortunately, we were surprised with this attack. That it took place on the base of a neighborly city.

I would like here to praise the role carried out by the armed forces led by his royal highness -- his royal highness who was well informed and fully aware of -- whether it was because of our intelligence services had anticipated an attack on bases where there are American forces and we confronted this attack.

I would also would like to refer in particular that the Qatari armed forces carried out a heroic job in confronting this attack as has been explained in the press conference yesterday. The Qatar anti-aircraft forces one -- only one missile had fallen.

I would also would like to think our profound -- to thank our neighborly and friendly status in all what they have expressed feelings of support and solidarity in rejecting this aggression, particularly our brothers in the Gulf Corporation Council, which quickly -- they supported the state of Qatar.

And today there will be the exceptional meeting of the ministerial council of the GCC will convene a meeting and I will be meeting the foreign ministers of the GCC to study this dangerous development in our region.

But I shouldn't forget to also mention a number of points.

[05:55:00]

First, we have to always look at the developments that have been taking place in our region. We should look at it in a responsible and wise way after what we had seen. The flagrant aggression -- Israeli aggressions in many states in the region, including this Islamic Republic of Iran. We have to -- that is an obvious evidence that these arbitrary, irresponsible behavior could only produce instability in the region and could have taken the region to even a more difficult situation.

After we received the attack or the strike, our armed forces under the guidance of his royal highness --

ANDERSON: You are watching the Qatari prime minister in Doha. He is addressing the events that we've seen over the last 48 hours. The Iranian strike on the U.S. air base in Qatar, which he describes as a violation of Qatar by Iran and goes on to condemn the Israeli strikes of Iran itself.

CNN international will return to this briefing momentarily. For our viewers in the U.S., you will see "EARLY START" after this short break.

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