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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

U.S. Senate Moves To Fund Most Of Homeland Security Dept.; Rubio Meeting With G7 Foreign Ministers In France; Rubio: "Progress Has Been Made" In Negotiations With Iran. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 27, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. And an update now on our breaking news out of Washington after four after 42 days of political stalemates, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a funding package. For most of the Department of Homeland Security excluded from the funding deal, the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and part of Customs and Border Protection included the Coast Guard and FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration, whose officers have gone unpaid for weeks.

Some of those workers have not shown up for work and that led to massive lines at airports across the country. Now to be clear, the partial shutdown is not over. This legislation still has to go through the House and President Trump, but the Senate deal does mark major progress. Much more on this breaking story throughout the morning.

But for now, I want to send it back to Becky Anderson and Abu Dhabi with the latest on the conflict in the Middle East. Becky.

BECKEY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: thank you, Rahel G. 7 Foreign Ministers Meeting today near Paris to discuss the war with Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he is not there to make U.S. allies happy, but it's in their interest, he said, to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz since they get far more fuel from there than the U.S. and here's what he said about indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran.

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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There are intermediary countries that are passing messages and progress has been made. Some concrete progress has been made. As you've seen and has been documented already, there's a growing amount of energy that's been flowing through the straits. Not as much as should be flowing, but some of it is picked up.

So again, there's been some progress in regards to the exchange of messages, but that's an ongoing and fluid process.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ANDERSON: If diplomacy fails, the U.S. President is said to be

weighing plans for a dramatic military escalation. CNN can report that the Pentagon has now developed several options for capturing Iran's Kharg Island, for example, which is vital to controlling oil shipments through the strait.

The U.S. is also considering plans to take over other strategically placed islands near the strait. One source says there is major concern that any escalation, especially involving ground troops, could mean U.S. casualties and wouldn't guarantee an end to the war.

Well, joining me now is retired British Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharp, currently a senior advisor at the public relations and management consultant firm Qorvis. Good to have you Back this morning, Tom. Firstly, what do you make of reported preparations for a potential ground operation?

TOM SHARPE, RETIRED BRITISH ROYAL NAVY COMMANDER: This has been brewing for a little while ever since we found out that the USS Tripoli was heading through Malacca and heading to the Gulf of Oman. And she has over 2,000 U.S. marines on board. So, people quickly did the math's. They saw the 82nd Airborne moving around in theater. So, you could see the beginnings of a small invasion force. And I think invasion is the right word. It's an important one in this context because that's what we're discussing here.

So, before we get into tactics and whether it may or may not succeed, we are talking about a ground invasion and it will be very interesting to see if that resonates at all back in the U.S.

ANDERSON: Kharg Island, of course, handles 90 percent of Iran's oil exports. It's a vital lifeline to Iran's economy and its military funding, of course. From a military standpoint, is there a smarter way to apply pressure than an invasion or blockading that island without the sort of level of risk that brings with it?

SHARPE: The Kharg is absolutely fundamental to this, as you say, and taking it would be strategically very, very important. But it's also a long way north. It's important to make that distinction. This isn't the little islands in the strait that you could sort of smash and grab and perhaps control whatever's on there.

Although again, even in that case, it's hard to know what you could do on the ground there in terms of taking out their surface of missile threat that you couldn't do from the air. So you are, in my view, taking militarily a lot of risk for not much reward. And besides, the missile threat is hundreds of kilometers inland in the mainland.

You're not going that far in because it's the mountains and that really would be a sort of death run. So, it is hard to know, except for Kharg. I think Kharg has value, but it's a long way north. It's big, it's defended. They will have been preparing for this for 30 plus years like they have everything else. It will not be risk free.

And then once you've got it, there is no doubt the Americans could take it. Absolutely no doubt at all. Then you've got to sustain it whilst becoming a missile magnet.

So, I think it's high risk. So, what we might see is a small island taken in the south to acclimatize to the idea and then more forces and more troops, more marines come in for the big push into Kharg. That would be a logical way to sequence this, if you do it at all.

[04:35:15]

ANDERSON: Yes, that's interesting. We just spoke to the Thai foreign minister. He underscored the enormity that this crisis is having on his economy in terms of energy price spikes and a lack of supply. There is some real momentum now behind a multinational sort of maritime task force. More than 30 countries certainly offering some support. I just wonder what that mission would look like.

We've just seen Marco Rubio there in Paris to attend the G7 meeting today. He said he's not there, sort of, you know, looking for support from U.S. allies. He was pretty sort of disparaging about them as he arrived. His point is that this Strait of Hormuz is a global issue. It is not just the responsibility of the United States. I just wonder what you believe that mission might look like.

SHARPE: It's very hard to envisage because the threat there is sophisticated in terms of air, surface and subsurface and all of these different levels of threat that Iran has demonstrated so far. Thankfully, not too much in the subsurface threat, i.e. mines. We've had sort of stories they might have been used in a limited fashion. But you have to write those threats down to a very low level before you can start escorting ships through. If that's the end state here is getting the trade flowing again and loosening Iran's vice like grip on it. You have to get escort ships in there.

Now, the problem with that is to do that, you have to drive the threat down to very nearly zero. And the Houthis showed that that's very hard to do. They will just keep taking potshots. So, the threat never quite goes to zero.

So, you get a conundrum here. Either the threat is low enough for everyone to pile in this international coalition, whatever that might look like, to get in there and start escorting. But if that's the case, you probably don't need the escort because it means the threat is gone. So as long as there's a live threat and you're in high end warship territory, where we are now, then it's very high risk. So high that the U.S. haven't gone in yet.

ANDERSON: Tom, what would the UK's role be in that coalition? And is Britain likely to be pulled into a more direct role in all of this alongside the United States?

SHARPE: We're involved already and I think we got ourselves in a bit of a mess as to what that meant in the early days of this conflict. Whether it was offensive or defensive ops, you can draw a line between them if you want. But we got a little confused because really right from the start, we had jets flying out of Qatar, we had jets flying out of Akrotiri. We were slow to get the Navy to sea. I think everybody knows that now. But that was partly because of the confusion.

We've got the mine -- we've got mine countermeasures capabilities that were spinning up. They're a little bit immature. But let's see. We've got the line bay, we've got our aircraft carrier. So, we've got lines of effort, as we would call it, sort of already happening.

We've also critically got, in Bahrain, the deputy to the fifth fleet commander there, and he commands the combined maritime force, 40 nations. So, if there is to be a multinational, coherent effort, then it'll be our guy in charge. So, yes, we are involved. It's all good stuff. I mean, it makes the barbs from the U.S. pretty hard to stomach, frankly, particularly when the next day they're normally followed by can you help? And then they insult you the following day and can you help the day after that.

So, you have to ride that out and try and be sort of grown up about it. But it's not much fun to listen to.

ANDERSON: No, absolutely. Keir Starmer, sort of deflecting those comments, those barbed comments, but it can't be easy. Retired British Royal Naval Commander Tom Sharpe with us this morning. It's good to have you. And we will be back after this short break.

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[04:43:54]

ANDERSON: Well, the world is watching and waiting to see if the U.S. escalates this war with Iran in a major way by, for example, putting U.S. boots on the ground. It is a decision that US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering.

For more, let's bring in Maximilian Hess. He's principal at Enmetena Advisory, which is a political risk consultant firm. He joins me now this hour from London. Good to have you.

Look at the moment. We're looking at this sort of, you know, window of opportunity, I guess you could call it that, for some 10 days as Donald Trump sort of steps back on his threats to hit energy, Iranian energy sites. So, I'm just wondering what can be achieved in that time? I mean, you've warned that what this could become a Suez moment for the us. What do you mean by that?

MAXIMILLIAN HESS, PRINCIPAL, ENMETENA ADVISORY: Well, thank you for having me. Yes. And I think you really hit the sort of nail on the head with that question of what can be achieved. And the real answer is not very much at all right now. Trump has already repeatedly acknowledged that Iran holds the cards on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. That is a huge weakening of the U.S.'s geoeconomic position and the geoeconomic position of its allies, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf countries since the beginning of this war. So, Trump can either choose to escalate to take that power away from Iran, likely leading the U.S. into another quagmire and another one of the forever wars in the Middle East that Trump himself spent the last 11 years campaigning against. Or alternatively, Trump can do the so-called taco scenario and chicken out and agree some kind of deal with Iran that leaves Iran in this more powerful position going forward.

I mean that as a Suez moment. Because if Trump does do that and doesn't achieve any of the war aims that he laid out after launching this conflict alongside Israel at the end of last month, then that will not only have that immediate impact of leaving Iran emboldened there, but it will have knock on impacts from U.S. relationships across the region.

ANDERSON: Yes, well, let's talk about those. Marco Rubio is in France for a G7 meeting. Saudi Arabia, South Korea and India also invited and have been massively impacted as, as countries. Lanu Sabe, the UAE State Minister of State, said this yesterday. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LANA NUSSEIBEH, UAE STATE MINISTER: We're not asking the US to do this alone. We are actively defending our countries and we have a broad coalition of partners who are helping that do, helping us do that today. We have the French, the UK, the Italians, the Australians and a number of other countries the G7 are meeting this week in France. You have over 30 countries, NATO partners and allies who've come out with a strong statement saying that they will join any efforts to keep the Straits of Hormuz open.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Does G7 involvement, as well as these countries saying they'll join the efforts, help contain this crisis? At this point, I'm just wondering what a mission might look like. And it's difficult to really get kind of the shape of what is developing here with this sort of international coalition of the willing.

HESS: Sure, I think we still see a lot of positive diplomatic talk from countries like the UAE, from some of those G7 members. But that doesn't mean the action is actually there. France, the UK, others have all said that they will engage in some kind of mission to help secure the Strait of Hormuz after the end of hostilities. But, of course, hostilities have not ended.

None of those countries are going to get involved in an offensive war against Iran at this time either. And also, you have to remember that the UAE has taken a very openly hard-line position, saying that, look, if this conflict continues, then or Iran is allowed to survive this in a regime with that where it still remains a threat. That means, as Larry Fink himself said earlier this week, likely oil prices over $100 a barrel for the foreseeable future, huge increases in the insurance, shipping and other costs of operating in the Strait of Hormuz.

At the same time, Qatar has very much indicated that it does want a settlement. So, this coordination problem and off ramp, even if one thinks that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are the best diplomats of all time, they don't have experience negotiating with this kind of a multidimensional aspect. Everything they've done is bilateral thus far. How to get those Gulf countries to agree, how to get Israel to agree, which of course, is much happier with a failed state in Iran than any of them would because it isn't directly affected by that Strait of -- then, you know, achieving that kind of negotiation seems a stretch too far.

And which is why I think, despite Trump's recent statements and indications that he may willingly climb down, that there still is a real risk of further escalation. We saw it with your previous guest talking about an attack directly there, but both outcomes, one is either delayed pain in a long war or the other is immediate pain and a recasting of the geoeconomic map and map of relationships across the U.S. allies in the region.

ANDERSON: I think the next 10 days at least, will be a window for at least some sort of clarity on perhaps what happens next, although, you know, it's not clear at this point. Saudi's finance minister, thank you, sir. I just want to close out with this.

Saudi Arabia's finance minister saying, quote, "What we saw in the last few weeks is an impact beyond what we have seen even post-COVID, in terms of supply chain disruption. And if this continues, I think we will see even more severe impact." He goes on to say, "We really need to make sure we resolve the conflict very quickly and come together to do that for the global economy not to be impacted even more."

All right, Maximilian Hess, thank you. We will be right back.

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[04:54:33]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. The U.S. treasury has announced that President Trump's signature will soon appear on dollar bills. The move is a first for sitting president and the latest effort from President Trump to leave his mark across the federal government. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant said that the decision is in honor of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. he added, quote, "There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country, our and President Donald J. Trump."

[04:55:00]

A welcome sign of spring in Washington, D.C. as the famous cherry blossoms have reached peak bloom. Mayor Mariel Bowser made the announcement on Thursday saying that it's a beautiful time of year across all eight wards of our city. Reports say that the display is earlier than expected thanks to warmer weather in the region. The capital's cherry trees were originally a gift from Japan to the U.S. in 1912, and they symbolize the lasting friendship between the two nations. The colorful trees draw thousands of visitors each year.

Okay, thanks for joining us. Becky Anderson and I will both be back with another hour of early start after this quick break.

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