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Trump Threatens New Rampage As Iran Deal Deadline Nears; Iran Rejects 45-day Ceasefire, Demand Permanent End Of War; Artemis II Returning To Earth After Lunar Fly-By. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired April 07, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: It's not a war of one faith. But it's not a war of one faith against another. It's not that we know.

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PHILLIP: All right.

UNIDENATIFIED FEMALE: It's a secular garage.

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ERICA HILL, ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Erica Hill in New York.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And a very good morning from our Middle East programming headquarters here in Abu Dhabi. And Becky Anderson, it is midday here. We begin with U.S. President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz today.

President Trump is warning the entire country, and I quote him, there could be taken out in one night. But he adds that he'd rather not strike Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The last thing we want to do is start with power plants, which are among the most expensive thing. And bridges. Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? No. It will take them 100 years to rebuild. Right now, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country and it would never be as good as it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, the IDF has issued an urgent warning to Iranians not to use trains and to stay away from railway lines for the next several hours. The IDF issued the warning on its Farsi language account on X, which like the rest of its Western internet there, is blocked across Iran.

Meanwhile, in Israel, the IDF says medical teams are on their way to several impact sites after an Iranian cluster munitions attack today. These weapons release dozens of or hundreds of smaller explosives across a wide area. Iran has increasingly used cluster munitions to evade Israeli air defenses.

All right. Let's get you up to speed from the region, Eleni Giokos standing by in Dubai. First to Paula Hancocks here in Abu Dhabi. And the deadline set, as things stand at present by Donald Trump is 8:00pm Eastern time. What do we know at this point?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, that would be the early hours of the morning here in the region. And everyone is watching that deadline very closely. We have seen President Trump's deadlines being pushed back recently, but that people are still on edge waiting to see if, in fact he does carry out those threats to take out power plants and bridges.

Now, there has been plenty of response from Tehran. Iranian officials pointing out that if he takes out power plants and bridges, then they will reciprocate in kind for U.S. interests across the region, meaning here in the Gulf and neighboring countries and Israel.

Now, we have heard from one Iranian security source saying that Iran believes that they have dealt with Trump a strategic defeat, saying that judging from what they heard in his most recent press conference, saying that he looks like he's lost control of the war, also saying, quote, Iran wants the war to end, but not in the way or on the timeline that Trump is seeking. There was also a Revolutionary Guard response to his speech. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EBRAHIM ZOLFAGHARI, SPOKESPERSON, ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS CORPS (through translator): The rude rhetoric, arrogance and baseless threats of the delusional U.S. President arising from the deadlock he faces and aimed at justifying the repeated defeats of the U.S. military will have no effect on the continuation offensive and crushing operations by the fighters of Islam against U.S. and Israeli enemies and will not repair the humiliation of the United States in West Asia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now, we've also seen that Iran's deputy minister of youth and sports has called on young people to form a human chain around power plants this Tuesday. It's not the first time that Iran has called on children to get involved in the war effort.

Now, looking at Israel's plans, we understand from two Israeli sources that Israel has updated a contingency plan and an updated target list of energy infrastructure that they would want to target should this diplomatic effort not pan out and should this deadline be held by President Trump.

And now we know that Israel is skeptical about the diplomatic efforts at this point. They have insisted that any ceasefire or any deal has to ensure that the highly enriched uranium which Tehran has is handed over.

[04:05:02]

Now there is this ongoing diplomatic effort. We know that the proposal put forward by Pakistan and others for this 45-day ceasefire was lauded as a significant step by the U.S. President, but not good enough. It was rejected by Iran saying that they want a permanent ceasefire.

We've now seen on social media the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan saying that Pakistan's positive and productive efforts to end are approaching a critical, sensitive stage, saying stay tuned for more. So we know that there are efforts behind the scenes, but certainly militarily, what we are seeing with strikes on Iran, on Israel and also projectiles being fired on Gulf nations, it is not changing anything on the ground. Becky.

ANDERSON: Good to have you. Thank you. Let's turn to CNN's Eleni Giokos. She's live from Dubai for more. Now the markets are reacting to President Trump's fast approaching deadline. Should it not be pushed? Of course, Asian markets, mixed oil, steady investors it seems, Eleni sitting this one out ahead of this AP Eastern deadline.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And it's not lost on investors that President Trump never actually follows through with some of these threats. But this one feels very different. European markets also taking a really big knock today. You've got U.S. Futures under pressure.

But I think there's a story to be told when you look at what Brent crude is doing, which is the international benchmark, which is currently at about $111 a barrel. And Becky, we don't often see WTI, which is the U.S. benchmark, trading above Brent crude. WTI currently at $115 a barrel.

And it's really indicative of the fact that there's a scramble for available barrels of oil. And it's also an indication of how U.S. domestic prices are increasing. And we're seeing that at the pump.

Importantly, the ending of this war is really being framed around the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, despite the fact that President Trump has had oscillating messages around who should go and open up the strait first. He said it was supposed to be up to the international community that relied on the Strait of Hormuz. And now clearly the pressure point being felt in the United States.

We also saw, you know, something really interesting happening over the last few days. You had a Qatar LNG tanker in fact, two of them leaving Qatari waters and trying to transit through the Strait of Hormuz before abruptly stopping and then turning around. And you can see in this image here showing the traffic. Really interesting to note here that Qatar wasn't able to get those LNG tankers through the Strait of Hormuz safely.

Now, we don't know why they weren't able to pass, but we do know that Iran has de facto control allowing passage to friendly nations. When President Trump was asked about Iran charging a toll fee of up to $2 million per transit, I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you willing to end this conflict with Iran charging tolls for passage through the Strait?

TRUMP: Us charging tolls?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran.

TRUMP: What about us charging tolls?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that something you're considering?

TRUMP: I'd rather do that. Then let them have them run. Why shouldn't we? We're the winner. We won. OK. They are militarily defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: All right, so President Trump there is sort of alluding to who has ultimate control at the end of the day, you know, basically talking about the U.S. potentially charging a toll fee. But I think that still remains in terms of how the Strait is going to be opened, who has ultimate control and whether we're going to get back to volumes that we saw pre-war. Economists are saying that it's not likely to happen in the next few months.

ANDERSON: Good to have you. Thank you. All right, we've heard Trump's threat. We have heard Israel's warnings today. Let's consider Iran's response. Our next guest says, quote, this is consistent with Iran's position, the fact that they've knocked back this Pakistan cease fire deal. It's consistent, he says, since the conflict began.

Hamidreza Azizi says, quote, Iran views ceasefires primarily as opportunities for adversaries to regroup. It also signals that Tehran believes it has sufficient leverage to hold out. Hamidreza joining us from Berlin, where you are, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Good to have you.

Let's consider three likely scenarios. Trump takes a deal. Trump extends the final deadline again. And what feels like an apocalyptic scenario, which is bridge day, he blows everything up. What's the calculus in Tehran? [04:10:00]

HAMIDREZA AZIZI, VISITING FELLOW, GERMAN INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL AND SECURITY AFFAIRS: Well, first of all, we are in a very strange time that the president of the most powerful country of the world has threatened openly to commit war crimes. And the whole world is just waiting to see whether he is going to follow through with his threats. What I can say is that the debate in Tehran is not whether to escalate or capitulate. This is what I can tell.

But it's about, I mean, if that happens, it's about how to escalate and when to escalate because there's already debates about kind of the need to do something substantial and preemptive in order to actually prevent that scenario from happening or to wait for the kind of, you know, to see if Donald Trump is going to actually order such a strike, but then, you know, go for attacking, you know, similar facilities all around the region and also probably, you know, asking the Houthis to, you know, also disrupt the Strait of Bab al-Mandab.

So this is -- these are kind of the options that are going to be that are already on the table, I can say at this moment.

ANDERSON: You suggest -- yes, you suggest that Tehran sees a ceasefire as a deceit tactic, I think is how you described it. You also said that Tehran believes it has sufficient leverage to hold out. That seems to be the sort of received wisdom at this point. Does it?

AZIZI: Well, on the first points, look, since October 7th, they have been observing the developments in the region, what happened to their allies in the so called axis of resistance. And the lesson that they have learned from the experience of Hamas in Gaza, from Hezbollah in Lebanon and also from their own 12-day war last year has been that, as I mentioned, it's been all about, you know, getting, I mean, for the adversary to get some time to regroup and strike more strongly.

And on the second point, look, it's all about the Strait of Hormuz and the leverage that they have found there. And that's why I believe that even in the scenario of a deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz, especially in the way that it was before the war, it's not going to be the kind of concession that the Iranian side is going to give in the beginning phase, rather, in the later stages, when they make sure that there's going to be sanctions relief or kind of other kinds of economic benefits, because you mentioned in your reports earlier that Iran is already considering imposing tolls on the transit.

So this is a kind of guarantee that they think they have in the sense that either they get a deal that is good enough to be sufficient for the reconstruction after the war, or they will take care of it themselves by the leverage that they have found at the Strait of Hormuz.

ANDERSON: Hamidreza, your analysis of sort of strategic thinking in Iran has been really useful through this 38 days. I think we get a better sense of where Tehran is at as far as mindset is concerned. I do just want to close our discussion this morning with a sense from you of how people in Iran are feeling at this point. And we know that's not a sort of monolithic society, as it were.

I mean, there are so many people, you know, factions, groups, millions of people who support the regime, millions more who don't. How would you describe sort of the current atmosphere for Iranians in Iran as we speak?

AZIZI: It's a very difficult situation, to say the least, for the ordinary people in the country, because we know that the majority of the people in the country were not satisfied with this government. We had massive popular protests just in January, which was brutally cracked down by the government. Thousands of people were killed.

So there were some hopes among the people, and the hope were somehow, you know, was created by Trump's promise that he would help the protesters. Now there's a sense of disillusionment, you know, towards any potential external help and from within also, the fear is that, you know, the continuation of this situation.

[04:15:00]

If the Islamic Republic ends up weaker externally, it would increase crackdown internally. So there is a sense of frustration. And now just imagine what is going to happen if the United States is going to go through with, you know, the threat of targeting the civilian infrastructure. So with a -- few people that I've been able to talk to, they are really worried about this situation, actually.

ANDERSON: Understandably so. It's just after 10 past 10 in Berlin. Good to have you. It is just after 10 past 12 here in region in the Gulf. I'm in the UAE and I'll be back later in the hour with more Iran coverage. Finale, let's get you back to Erica Hill in New York.

HILL: Becky, thanks. Still ahead here, the Artemis II astronauts continuing to make history. A closer look at what they saw on the far side of the moon. What's still to come on this mission. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:20:26]

HILL: The four Artemis II crew members are now on their way back to Earth after their historic flight around the moon. On Monday, the Orion spacecraft reached the furthest distance from Earth ever traveled on the far side of the moon.

The crew also spent a record 40 minutes in a communications blackout. They marked what they called the surreal moment with a snack of maple cream cookies, courtesy of Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Then it was back to work though, the crew witnessing an earthrise and also photographing parts of the moon never before seen by humans. After the lunar fly-by, US President Donald Trump called to congratulate the crew today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You've made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud. We have a lot of things to be proud of lately, but this is -- there's nothing like what you're doing. Circling around the moon for the first time in more than a half a century and breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from planet Earth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN's Ed Lavandera has more now of the details of day six of this mission.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN LAVANDERA: For roughly seven hours, the crew of Artemis II made history flying around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, witnessing up close, well, 4,000 miles away, some of the areas of the moon that have never been seen by human eyes and documented with thousands and thousands of photos that the crew took turns snapping as they were flying around the moon.

And what really struck out was listening to the descriptions that the astronauts were sending back to Mission Control, where they talked about the various colors, the browns and the greens that they spotted on the moon's surface, the terrain and the ruggedness of some parts of the moon as well, different craters that had never been seen before. All of these types of descriptions were just simply riveting to listen to.

And on the end of the day, they come around the moon and they see a solar eclipse that at one point they could see the sun lighting up the backside of the moon, the Earth's glow lighting up the front. The moon was completely lit up.

And Victor Glover, one of the astronauts, described this as a moment like straight out of science fiction. They had a conversation with the President of the United States and this is what and how they described what their day was like.

REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: Proud to be a part of. I have to tell you, as we came around the near side of the moon, seeing all the sights that we've seen from Earth for all of our lives, but we're seeing them from a different perspective. And then we started to get a glimpse of the and we saw sights oriental sites that no human has ever seen before, not even in Apollo. And that was amazing for us.

And then the surprise of the day, we just came out of an eclipse where the sun, moon and the entire dark moon about that big right out the window that were watching, we could see the corona of the sun and then we could see the planet train line up and Mars.

And all of us commented how excited we are to watch this nation and this planet become a two planet species.

LAVANDERA: Now the Artemis II crew is on its journey home. And that is a journey that will take another four days. The crew will splash down off the coast of California the Friday night. Ed Lavender, CNN at Johnson Space center in Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: So NASA's administrator of course has said one of the agency's future goals is to build a moon base. Earlier, former NASA astronaut Danny Olivas explained the value of that idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY OLIVAS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: So much more than people can possibly imagine. So we have been on the -- in the low Earth orbit for will be 30 years by the time ISS finishes up its work. And there we have learned how to live and work in space for long duration. That's been a stepping that will take us to the next destination which will be the Moon.

Well, we'll learn how to mine the resources of the Moon. And now why are we going to do that? Well, guess what if we want to go to Mars, there are not a whole lot of hardware shops at Mars, right? So you're going to have to figure out what you're going to, you know, do when you get to Mars and make use of the resources that you have available to you. So that in situ resource utilization is going to be a big component of it.

And also the life support systems to be able to keep human beings comfortable and alive and thriving in that environment. You don't want to make a mistake on Mars, which is anywhere from seven to nine months away and then a two and a half year mission based on orbital mechanics. You know, you'd rather make the mistakes if you're going to make them on the Moon or just a couple day ride back and forth to and from the Moon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:25:00]

HILL Just ahead here, we'll bring you the very latest in the war with Iran, including the call now from a government official in Tehran for young people to encircle power plants as the U.S. threatens Iran's infrastructure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: The clock is now ticking down to President Trump's 8:00 p.m. Eastern Tuesday deadline for Iran to either cut a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz. He says the U.S. will start attacking power plants and bridges if that doesn't happen by the deadline.

A little more than 15 hours away at this point.

[04:30:03]

Israel warning Iranians today to stay away from trains and railway lines.