Return to Transcripts main page
One World with Zain Asher
Israel Strikes On Iran's Nuclear Sites Raise Fears Of All Out war; Israel Declares State Of Emergency As Iran Launches Drones; U.S. Urging Iran To Return To Negotiations On A Nuclear Deal; Officials: One Flight Recorder Recovered From Air India Crash; Trump Warns Iran To Agree To A Deal "Before There's Nothing Left"; Oil Prices Spike After Israel's Attack On Iran; Aired 12-1p ET
Aired June 13, 2025 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:31]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Zain Asher. You are watching "One World." Let's get right to our breaking news this hour.
We begin with a waiting game in the Middle East that could destabilize an already volatile region and have profound implications for decades to come.
GOLODRYGA: Israel is under a state of emergency at this hour, bracing for retaliation after it launched an unprecedented attack on Iran's nuclear
program.
The ongoing targeted strikes also killed some of Tehran's most powerful military leaders and nuclear scientists.
ASHER: The IDF says that Iran has fired more than 100 drones towards Israeli territory, but that most of them were intercepted.
Israel's military meanwhile is warning of a prolonged operation. Tehran vows that Israel will deeply regret its reckless aggression and says the
U.S. must be held accountable.
And President Trump is threatening, quote, even more brutal attacks if Iran doesn't agree to a deal. But it's still not clear the extent, if any, of
Washington's direct involvement here.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is doing this live now from London. So just in terms of what Marco Rubio has said, he's tried to make it clear that the U.S.
actually wasn't directly involved.
Iran, on the other hand, is pointing the finger squarely at the U.S., obviously, as well as Israel. Walk us through the potential ramifications
of that. The fact that Iran is pointing the finger at the U.S.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think it's important to be clear about the messaging we've heard from the
White House in the previous days. President Donald Trump apparently receiving signals as some degree, maybe from his own intelligence services,
that an Israeli move was potentially imminent, being ordered, a diplomatic drawdown of certain members of personnel around the region, perhaps in
readiness for that.
Doesn't necessarily suggest there was White House backing for this particular attack. And indeed, President Trump tried to suggest that he
much rather Israel didn't do this and gave diplomacy a chance in recent days.
Now it's happened. He's somewhat changed his tone, perhaps, I think it's fair to say, calling the attack very successful. An element of praise,
maybe you could see there for the remarkable effectiveness of this overnight series of strikes and pushing Iran to the diplomatic table.
Iran has long had a narrative that the United States as its key enemy and Israel is its obviously proxy and ally in many times. So it will be odd for
that not to form part of the rhetoric right now.
But I think it's important to look at where we are this morning and just take stock of what Iran is actually capable of. We've heard rhetoric from
Iran over the past decades, often potentially matching what it was able to do.
But even Wednesday, Iran was the weakest it's been in decades. The strikes in October against its air defenses significantly depleted them, left it
vulnerable. Back last summer, Hezbollah, its main proxy to the north of Israel in Lebanon was significantly damaged, but it's almost taken out,
frankly, as a strategic adversary by Israel's pager attacks and the military maneuvers that came after that, ruthless, brutal, but effective to
some degree, and essentially created a place where there was no second strike capability for Iran if its nuclear facilities and its capital were
attacked like this.
What we've seen happen overnight is a remarkably detailed and pinpoint series of strikes that appear to have taken out an ever expanding list of
senior Iranian military personnel.
I mean, the head of their armed forces, second in command, frankly, to the supreme leader, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the head
of the IRGC's Air Force, key Air Force personnel killed together at a command post.
That particular meeting may have been the trigger for this Israeli attack, but I think it's more likely that they saw the diplomacy looming on Sunday
and wanted to get out ahead of that.
This took months, if not years, to put together was most likely part of a plan preceded by the Hezbollah operation last year.
And ultimately, I think we're looking at a massively diminished Iran, an Iran whose key leadership will have woken up this morning and spent hours
working who amongst them is still alive, and then having to appoint successes to those who've been killed.
And I think that significantly damages the confidence of people to get together and create a plan for a response. It certainly raises anxiety
levels as to the cohesion of what that response would even be effective.
And I think it also helps us answer a bit of one of the major outstanding questions from the last 24 hours as Iran's suddenly about to make a rush
for the nuclear weapon, that its adversaries say it wants, but it claims it has no interest in.
[12:05:03]
I think it's difficult for that already complex task in peacetime to be achieved when about 60 percent perhaps, Israel's Air Force have been in the
skies over Iran in the past night or so.
It's going to mean that Israel is constantly looking for targets of opportunity. It's going to limit what Iran can necessarily do on the
ground. And I think we are looking at 24 hours, which has confirmed the diminished role of Iran as a regional power because of the damage it's had
inflicted upon it.
I don't want to overestimate the possibility for their beat to underestimate the possibility for some sort of Iranian retaliation that is
meaningful and damaging towards Israel. But it's also important to point out the changing realities here.
And I think we may be seeing a change in what Iran is capable of doing that has been compounded and possibly made permanent overnight.
GOLODRYGA: And to your point, Nick, if Israel's continued control over the skies there, and Iran, the Israeli military saying that its Air Force
continues to attack missile launchers and unmanned aerial vehicle launch infrastructure in the country right now.
How notable is it that we also have reports that Hezbollah has apparently said that they will not be participating in any sort of response aligned
with Iran at this point?
WALSH: Yes. I mean, I think it's frankly because they're not sure they can. I mean, they've been heavily damaged by the Israeli operation of last year.
They're positioned as the preeminent military and political force inside of Lebanon has been changed.
And so I think possibly, they're looking to not be dragged in to any conflict that continues to rumble forwards.
But I think it is noticeable certainly that they're not joining any kind of chorus regionally for some kind of response against Israel militarily. Of
course, there's been condemnation from regional powers or regional players about this series of attacks.
But I think we're dealing with a very different reality than we were simply a year to a year to maybe 10, certainly 10 years ago that Israel is the
predominant military and intelligence power in the region is acting entirely in its own interests, is unbound by criticism from its former or
current allies. It didn't seem to really care about what Donald Trump had said publicly about not going ahead with these particular attacks and saw
diplomacy as not in its favor.
And I think one of the other things we've learned in the past 24 hours is just really how little stock Tel Aviv or Jerusalem have put into the
negotiating powers of Trump administration with Iran, the kind of deal they could potentially have got if those talks had gone ahead in Oman on Sunday.
They didn't really think anything coming out of that would be in their favor and they chose to act. That may have been very perilous. It may yield
a response that Israel regrets.
But at the moment, it looks as though it's left Iran reeling yet again and huge questions about what it can actually do.
GOLODRYGA: And as President Trump has said now repeatedly, the United States gave Iran 60 days. Obviously, it's not a coincident that this attack
happened on day 61.
Nick Paton Walsh, thank you.
Eyal Nadav is an Israeli journalist and joins us now live. Eyal, let's pick up there from where Nick had -- had mentioned just the level of attack here
from Israel that is ongoing.
As you note, this isn't just a strike. This is now Israel at war with Iran. And in terms of how Iran could respond in retaliation, imminently or in the
days ahead, you also say that Iran's -- an Israeli, a security official said that Israel should prepare for Iran's response, don't underestimate
what they can do. It can be substantial and lethal.
Can you go into more depth about that in the state of war versus what we have seen, some pretty significant strikes?
EYAL NADAV, ISRAELI JOURNALIST: Yes. Thanks, Bianna, for having me. Basically, when the cabinet made the decision last night, cabinet ministers
were told and they were presented with different scenarios to Israeli casualties, civilian casualties across Israel. And these scenarios were
substantial.
It's the assessment of the IDF that Iran will respond that the response will be against civilian population centers as well as army bases across
the country and that Iran can mount a -- a -- a ferocious kind of attack on Israel.
Now, having said that, right now, the idea of itself is pretty surprised by the level of success that you'd see. It's flying in Iran, the last 16 hours
in sorties.
Basically, with absolutely no actual resistance, and right now, we're hearing reports from around home that the Fordow base of enrichment, which
is deep into the mountain, Bianna, as -- as you know, is being attacked. And as far as I know, these are, again, Israeli air force attacks.
ASHER: Yes. I mean, talk to us about that, because as you point out, it is underground, it is deep into the mountains. As I understand it, there's two
to three thousand centrifuges there.
[12:10:04]
The attack that we saw yesterday was focused on Natanz, but obviously the sort of second sort of prize, I guess for Israel would be the Fordow
nuclear facility. Talk to us a bit more about it.
NADAV: So the Fordow was a sophisticated and a secret installation of the Iranians that was exposed to the world during the Obama administration time
and was the result of work done by the intelligence services across the West, including the Israeli intelligence services.
And as you -- as you just said, it's -- it's buried deep into the mountain and it is definitely the biggest challenge, just technically speaking,
enriching those centrifuges which are also more sophisticated than some of the centrifuges used in Natanz.
And if indeed the Israelis are now attacking Fordow, it means that they have a way of operation there that would be efficient enough to actually
jeopardize the -- the nuclear project of the Iranians there.
GOLODRYGA: The timing also is crucial here because just this week, we had the IAEA for the first time in 20 years saying that Iran is in
noncompliance with its nuclear non-proliferation obligation.
And you also report on intelligence that Israel had received at the start of 2024 about just how quickly Iran was advancing towards its production of
nuclear weapons as well.
Can you now give us a sense of what the United States role is here because there's some confusion as I'm sure you're aware about, aside from just the
green light, how directly involved has the United States been in this plan and what role is the U.S. playing? You talk about a good cop, bad cop.
Explain what that means.
NADAV: Yes. Absolutely. I think it's absolutely clear. I hope, you know, your view is definitely in seeing and understand that Israel would have
never went onto this attack without at least a tacit green light coming from the White House.
And just judging from the public announcements made by President Trump, it's very obvious that the U.S. knew about this. And if the U.S., if the
White House would have told Prime Minister Netanyahu, don't do it, we're not going to back you, the Israeli cabinet wouldn't have done it.
And I can tell you that the Israeli defense apparatus wouldn't have recommended it. Now -- now is the question of what type of cooperation and
the sense that I'm getting is that it is extensive, an extensive level of cooperation.
Although the U.S. is not attacking together with Israel, it has made sure that everybody knows that. But there -- there are questions as to, for
instance, intelligence gathering, targets what's happening in between these sorties, you know, the equipment, the ammunition that Israel would need in
the coming days and maybe coming weeks. And there I think that there is an extensive cooperation between Israel and the United States.
But the point is more strategic. Israel has begun something that I think only the U.S. can actually end. And the president really made this clear by
saying, he is still ready to sign an agreement with Iran. And that's the strategy here.
Israel is taking away some of the nuclear capabilities by Iran and the United States and the international community are offering Iran for this
war to stop.
And this, as far as Israel is concerned, is absolutely fine as long as the Iranians commit for not having a nuclear program. And right now, they've
just been reduced in, you know, at least a few years back in the way that Israel has been acting.
Now, this is just day one, and they will respond. And this is not going to be a short thing, say the Israelis, but it could be. It really depends on
the U.S. at this point.
ASHER: And just in terms of how Iran goes about sort of calculating the right way to retaliate here. I mean, obviously, aside from the 100 drones
that we saw initially, they're going to want to be forceful, but not too forceful because they have a lot to lose.
NADAV: Yes. I -- I think that at this point, according -- judging from just the public statements coming from the Islamic Republic, it's all about
showing sovereignty and showing that they can mount a response.
I'll just give you a -- a quick example. The Islamic Republic had launchers of ballistic missiles ready for this kind of a scenario that they can shoot
immediately. And the reason that they didn't manage to shoot ballistic missiles during the night, or actually in the 15 hours, 16 hours that
passed from the night is because Israel basically decapitated the entire leadership of -- of -- of their armed forces.
There was no one there to order the launchers to shoot at Israel. And until there was someone there to give the order, there were no launchers left.
[12:15:04]
So right now, for -- for the Islamic Republic, it's very important to show this show force, not only for Israel, but also for the stability of the
regime, which is very much at play here showing this type of -- of Israeli attacks at this point.
GOLODRYGA: And we should note, Eyal, as we had mentioned that Israel's continuing its military presence has continued to be seen in attacking
missile launchers in Iran.
Donald Trump, in an interview with "Axios," is not only saying what you have already noted that Israel's attack could help me make a deal with --
with Iran. He also said that Israel used, quote, great American equipment during the attack.
I think that's the furthest that he's gone thus far, and not only saying that, you know, I didn't just give a green light or a thumbs up. We knew
about it, but also suggesting that U.S. equipment was involved as well.
Eyal Nadav, we'll continue --
NADAV: And, of course, the Israeli force, Bianna, as you know, is flying on -- on American equipment. But one big question there is whether or not
Israel received the type of bunker busters that Israel was seeking in the past. And did the president actually deliver them to Israel.
GOLODRYGA: We'll continue to follow it all as well as you're reporting. Eyal Nadav, thank you.
ASHER: Thank you. Thank you so much.
NADAV: You're welcome.
ASHER: All right. From the White House to Capitol Hill, we are hearing plenty of words of support for the Israeli attack on Iran. U.S. officials
are making a couple of things very clear. One is that the U.S. was not involved in these strikes in any way, and two, Iran should not retaliate
against U.S. assets or personnel in the region.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. American officials are urging Iran to return to the negotiating table as a way of ending the Israeli attacks. But it seems like
this weekend scheduled nuclear talks in Oman will be called off.
ASHER: Let's go live now to Washington. CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. We also got Alayna's -- Arlette Saenz, rather, joining us too.
Let's start with Alayna. Obviously, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, made it very clear, very clear that the U.S. was not directly involved. But
as expected, Iran is now pointing the finger at the U.S. What sort of ramifications and consequences could that have here?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I think it's still unclear, but one of them, of course, is that they do not agree to ultimately come back
to the negotiating table in trying to work out a more formal, and really, an entirely new, I should say, nuclear deal with the United States.
Now, we have now heard repeatedly from the president himself. I'm hearing this in my conversations with White House officials that they do still
believe a potential nuclear deal is salvageable.
As of now, though, it's obviously very unclear. The Iranians are saying they do not want to go to Oman on Sunday, as previously scheduled.
In my conversations with one source familiar with how the White House is discussing all of this, they say that Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, is
still committed and ready whenever the Iranians are to go visit them wherever they need to try and continue these talks.
But, of course, that is very much up in the air now after these strikes, unprecedented strikes, I should say, from Israel.
But some other things to keep in mind. You mentioned the tone of what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last night, the first official response
we actually got from this administration.
That tone when he said the U.S. was not at all involved and that their priority is to make sure that Americans are protected and American
interests, you know, are taking priority here, what we are now hearing from the president himself, he's posted on social media. He has now done a round
of different media interviews, taking up -- picking up the phone with different reporters, including our own CNN's Dana Bash, called him.
It's a very different tone that he is striking. One, we've heard him say that Iran was given many chances to try and avoid this, that he had warned
them that this could happen. And now we're seeing that play out.
We also heard him say that that 60-day deadline. And we had reported on this a couple weeks ago. He had given Iranians kind of an ultimatum to
strike a nuclear deal. He said that deadline expired yesterday. And he said, so that's part of why he believes this all happened.
I also have some new reporting that the president spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu multiple times yesterday, including before Israel
launched their strikes on Iran.
And so it's a bit more murky, I think, than what we had heard from, you know, the kind of official line we're getting from this White House and
this administration that the U.S. is not involved whatsoever.
Now, we do know, and it's still unclear exactly when this is happening. It may have already happened, but the president is slated to speak again with
Netanyahu.
But from what we have heard from him, including from what he told our colleague, Dana Bash, is he's calling these strikes in -- in -- on Iran
very successful. He says, we have court support -- of course, support Israel.
We've heard him now tell different outlets that he wants to support Israel's right to defend itself. A key question is whether or not that
means that the United States would actually try and aid in some of the countermeasures and striking down some of the countermeasures that are
expected from the Iranians now as a result of that attack last night. All of this is up in the air.
[12:20:10]
And just last hour, it's unclear if they're still meeting. We're waiting to see when these officials come out of the Situation Room. The president was
meeting with his National Security Council to discuss all of this and really how they're going to move forward here.
But again, a key thing to keep in mind is, one, it does not appear that in those strikes last night from Israel that all of Iran's, you know, nuclear
enriching capabilities were completely taken out. They're still assessing it, I'm hearing from Trump administration officials.
But if that is the case, could these talks potentially continue on a potential nuclear deal or has this really ruined some of that work that
we've seen gone over the past couple of months to get a new deal really finalized?
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And as we've just noted, it appears the president is more willing to speak with a number of outlets today in the last few hours and
just telling "Axios," I would imagine, Barak Ravid, our contributor, that he believes that these strikes will perhaps help bring Iran back to the
negotiating table in earnest.
We'll continue following that. Alayna Treene, thank you.
Let's bring in Arlette Saenz. And, Arlette, we have heard, obviously, from the White House and a number of Republican member of -- members of
Congress, even early last night when the first reports of these strikes came out in support of Israel and in defense of Israel.
How are Democrats responding?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there has been a divide within the Democratic Party up on Capitol Hill about their response to Israel's attack
on Iran. But several prominent Democrats have argued that these moves were specifically taken to derail negotiations about a potential nuclear deal
with Iran.
Now, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, said that this was a reckless escalation. And Senator Chris Murphy, who
sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, went as far as saying that he believes Netanyahu was trying to destroy diplomacy.
That is a little similar to something that we heard from Senator Tim Kaine a bit earlier today. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Diplomacy may not work. Diplomacy may not lead to a productive outcome. But why torch diplomacy before it's been allowed to
succeed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, these Democrats have been arguing that President Trump really led to the ability of Iran to potentially develop a nuclear weapon when he
had pulled out of that agreement that was stuck -- struck during the Obama administration that had resulted in an Iran nuclear deal.
Now, there are also some Democrats who do not necessarily agree with what we heard a bit earlier. John Fetterman, Senator from Pennsylvania, a very
staunch supporter of Israel, posted on X yesterday saying that they need to continue to keep wiping out Iranian leadership and the nuclear personnel.
Senator Gottheimer -- or Congressman Gottheimer, I should say, was on our air earlier today, saying that Iran is a proven threat to democracy and
freedom. And he agreed with these acts by Israel. So that paints a picture of a little bit of the divide within the Democratic Party as many are
keeping a close eye on where this heads down the road, whether there could be a way to get nuclear talks back on track with Iran and whether Israel or
Iran will respond in any way in the coming days and hours.
ASHER: All right. Alayna Treene and Arlette Saenz, thank you both so much.
All right. It was one of India's worst air disasters. After the break, we'll update you on Thursday's Air India crash and what the newly
discovered flight recorder may reveal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:25:32]
ASHER: All right. Investigators have now recovered one of the flight recorders from Thursday's horrific Air India plane crash that claimed some
290 lives.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner went down just minutes after taking off from the airport in Ahmedabad, India. The jet crashed into a hostel at a nearby
medical school, killing dozens on the ground.
GOLODRYGA: Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the sole survivor of the crash. He told the "Hindustan Times" that he heard a
loud noise before the plane went down.
Mr. Modi also visited the crash site, which is in his home state of Gujarat.
Meanwhile, investigators from both the U.S. and U.K. are heading to India to assist in the investigation.
And let's get some more perspective on the investigation. We're joined by CNN, the Asian analyst, Mary Schiavo, former inspector general at the
Department of Transportation. Mary, it's good to have you back on the program.
Now that they will have the black box to examine, as well as reports of that mayday call by the pilot, what are investigators going to discover?
And what are they looking for right now?
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it depends which -- whether they got the cockpit voice recorder or they have the flight data recorder.
On the cockpit voice recorder, they will really literally have two hours of all communications that occurred into and out of the cockpit. Anything that
could be heard in the cockpit is picked up by these recorders. There's one over the pilot, one with the copilot.
If they have the flight data recorder, it does take a little while to download that data. It says, you know, it looks like computer data when
they download it. So it does have to be downloaded and then interpolated. But that will have literally thousands of data points telling them how the
airplane was operating.
What were those flap setting that has, you know, those -- those little winglets on the back of the wing, the trailing edge of the wing that helps
the plane with lift? There's been a lot of criticism whether those were deployed or not. The flight data recorder will have that information.
It will tell them about the performances of the engines, where the instruments were set. That flight data recorder will solve this mystery. I
have no doubt.
ASHER: Yes. And just to clarify, it is actually the flight data recorder that has been recovered. The cockpit voice recorder they're still looking
for. We know that it took about 28 hours of searching the rubble to find the flight data recorder. So as you point out, that will be crucial in
terms of information.
We know that India's aviation regulator has now directed Air India to carry out safety inspections in all its Boeing 787 Dreamliner, just the entire
fleet.
Is that pretty much standard procedure after a crash like this and incident like this?
SCHIAVO: Well, yes, it is, because right now they don't know what occurred.
And, you know, given the problems that Boeing has had in the past, now granted it was a different aircraft model that crashed in Indonesia and in
Africa, but those were problems and those crashes in the end, Boeing was completely responsible.
So to allow these planes to fly without an inspection would be unusual. Most aviation nations do that until they can rule things out. They have to
make sure they've done all that they can.
Now, you know, the -- the problem is -- is also going to be, you know -- you know, what kind of data, what kinds of things are they looking for?
And remember, in January of 2025, a Dreamliner, while one has never crashed before, they had -- it was United Flight 613 in January and then the plane
itself did a number of un-commanded things that shut down its own autopilot, its auto throttles, dove the plane, et cetera.
[12:30:08]
So the United States National Transportation Safety Board, which is a party, which is part of this investigation now in India, already has an
investigation ongoing onto some of the Boeing Dreamliner. Boeing's participating, Honeywell.
So they've already got a good head start as to how to interpolate what goes on, the data understanding the plane, et cetera. But yes, they should be
looking at all of them just to -- just to make sure if there's anything that they can see right now that they can fix.
The NTSB will be leading a group of U.S. investigators here as they're trying to get to the bottom of what happened. What role exactly will the
NTSB be playing?
SCHIAVO: Well, because they've already dealt with this aircraft, there -- there were some fires also early on, a decade ago when this plane, this
model plane was new. There were a lot of runaway battery fires. They investigated those.
And then in January of this year, they started the investigation on the un- commanded dives and other things on this very kind of model of plane, the Dreamliner.
So they will be looking at the aircraft, the engines, which are GE engines of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the USA, the performances of the electronics. This
plane has an interesting system called the Common Core System, which is a system that links together all the computers. I mean, airplanes are just
flying computers now and they'll be looking at that. Anything electrical.
And so the NTSB, as far as the aircraft is concerned, probably will lead. They have working groups well established that do that. So they'll be
leading that.
But a big component of this is going to be the pilot's actions and the pilot's behavior. And about 75 percent of accident investigations of the
pilot is faulted, not saying that happened here. But there will be a working group that will be looking at the performance of the pilot, the
maintenance of the aircraft, the performance of their airline. Did the pilots put everything at the proper settings, et cetera?
So -- and then, of course, Britain's Air Accident Investigation board is very good and they're participating too. So they will help both -- both the
NTSB and India. So it's really quite a -- a good group of investigators that they have together. But the NTSB kind of has a head start because
they're already investigating the Dreamliner.
ASHER: Yes. The cockpit voice recorder. It's just in terms of how the pilots handle things. Obviously, the cockpit voice recorder is going to be
crucial here.
But Bianna and I were just speaking in the commercial break. I mean, obviously, everyone is still fascinated by how this individual, this
British man managed to survive. And we were talking and debating about whether or not he would have managed to get out just before, moments
before, seconds before the plane actually touched down, or was it right afterwards?
I mean, you know, I think everybody is going to be very keen to talk to him.
SCHIAVO: Yes. It was right after he said in -- in his explanations, you know, the further explanation that came out later, he said, you know, it
was -- it was after the crash because he saw a crack in the plane and we went through it.
And I've worked many cases in the past where there are actually were survivors. It's not as rare as one might think. And usually, it's the same
thing, they saw a crack in the plane after the accident and they took their chance to -- to go.
Some one lady in particular that I worked with for a few years, she actually -- she was barefoot because she took her shoes off obviously. She
had to crunch through burning wreckage, but she saw an opening in the plane and she went for it. And she's alive today. She's -- she's one of my
heroes.
GOLODRYGA: Wow.
SCHIAVO: So it is possible and it's not -- it's not impossible.
ASHER: But you -- you would also wonder why others didn't sort of follow what this man was -- I mean, obviously there's just so much confusion.
GOLODRYGA: It's the moment. In the moment decision.
ASHER: There's so much confusion happening and screams. I imagine people are terrified.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And --
ASHER: Go on, Mary. Give us your --
SCHIAVO: But -- but you -- but it's -- it's -- there's an awful lot of, you know, luck here also. You have to be near where the plane is opening or
where you can get an emergency exit open. So there's a huge component of luck. And those that have made it out have often said, you know, everything
goes dark by the way, the plane lights are off. There's burns, there's smoke, there's -- there's fire, but they see this light.
They see where the plane has broken. So if someone is fortunate enough to be where there is an opening in the wreckage, they can get out unless, of
course, they have the time and the ability to open emergency exits.
But in a crash like this, sometimes it's impossible to get them open. They're so damaged in the crash that a number of survivors have found, you
know, breaks in the plane and gone for the light, as they said. They saw light coming in, they went for it.
GOLODRYGA: It gives whole new meaning to that phrase, I went for the light. But, you know, we had breaking news, a reporter telling us that he had
managed to open the emergency exit door literally 24 hours ago, whilst we were on air, and saying that he jumped out as the plane had just taken off,
which is why we were even -- even more shocked at that possibility.
[12:35:06]
ASHER: Yes. But also then we had a doctor telling us that he is suffering from an amnesia and doesn't actually remember what on earth happened
because obviously there's just so much trauma happening to him at the moment. So he literally remembers sort of just walking away.
GOLODRYGA: Seat 11A is going to be quickly the go-to seat for many passengers looking at flight going forward.
Mary's Schiavo, thank you so much for joining us.
ASHER: Thank you.
All right. Still to come, the scale and scope of Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and top commanders have surprised experts on the Middle
East. We'll get some analysis and more perspective ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: All right. Welcome back to "One World." I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher.
Not since the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s has Iran seen such a devastating series of strikes in a single day. More now on our top story. Iran state
media reports fresh airstrikes on Tehran after overnight attacks targeting its nuclear facilities.
GOLODRYGA: Israel took aim at some of Iran's most powerful military leaders and nuclear scientists. This was the scene in one city in northwest Iran
overnight.
ASHER: The Iranian atomic energy organization says the main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz was damaged, but no casualties were reported
then. Radiation levels are -- are actually not elevated at this time. This is confirmed by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
GOLODRYGA: Israel says 200 fighter jets attacked some 100 targets across Iran. Israel's Prime Minister warns, it's an ongoing operation that will
last many days.
The attack comes just days before a sixth round of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran was set to take place.
On social media earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran to agree to a deal before, quote, there is nothing left.
ASHER: Let's bring in Trita Parsi, the Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute of Responsible Statecraft.
Trita, thank you so much for being with us.
[12:40:02]
TRITA PARSI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, QUINCY INSTITUTE OF RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT: Thank you.
ASHER: When you think about Iran's initial response, the 100 drones, and obviously as expected, the Israeli air defense systems managed to intercept
almost pretty much all of them. We knew that Iran was -- or rather Israel knew that Iran was going to retaliate immediately in some way, shape or
form. They were very prepared. They still are very prepared for an escalated Iranian response.
Just walk us through what a potential sort of real response by Iran would actually look like here, because obviously they are going to want to send a
forceful message to Israel, but at the same time, they have a lot to lose when Israel then counter retaliates.
PARSI: Thank you so much for having me. I don't think the Iranians think that a response to Israel at this point will cause the Israelis to do more
than what the Israel already has planned to do.
The question is, given the damage that the Israelis have inflicted on Iran, not only on Iran's assets, but also on its leadership structure and
command, the question is whether the Iranians actually have the capacity to be able to respond forcefully and more forcefully than what they did in
October.
They may have -- there may be a scenario in which they still have the military assets and the missiles, but they need to regroup because of the
damage that their command structure has taken.
But there may also be a scenario in which it's not just the command structure, but rather that a lot of the missile peoples have been
destroyed, and as a result, they simply don't have the capacity any longer. We don't know that. We will probably find out in the next couple of days.
GOLODRYGA: Trita, how vulnerable right now is the Iranian regime in terms of leadership? And what do you make to that point of President Trump saying
just moments ago that he thinks this type of strike will actually convince Iran to seriously come to the table now to negotiate?
PARSI: Well, the Iranians were already at the table than they were negotiating. The different problem was that Trump started off with a red
line of weaponization, which actually enabled the talks to move forward relatively quickly.
But then he shifted his position under the pressure of the Israelis to adopt a zero-enrichment goal, which had been favored by the Israelis as
well as people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo in the first administration. That caused the stall of the negotiations and then
apparently the Israelis managed to convince Trump to go along with and potentially also support actively a strike.
Now, the calculation from Trump's end being that this will help add leverage to negotiations. I'm skeptical because bottom line is, once you
have to face an attack of this kind, your desire for a nuclear deterrent skyrockets rather than reduces.
And particularly if the Iranians are convinced that Trump was actively involved in deceiving Iran into a false sense of security, thinking that
any attack potentially would, if it were happened at all, would come after the talks, but instead it came before, then the question raises of why
would they trust -- even a capitalization, even assuming that that even would be within the realm of possibility, why would they trust that with
Trump mindful of the manner in which he now seems to be signaling that he actually was quite involved in deceiving the Iranians into this significant
loss that they now have suffered?
ASHER: It's interesting because, yes, there was -- there was already very little trust already prior to this. And, of course, now even less so.
When you look at the leaders who were killed here, the head of military, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the deputy of the armed forces,
the head of airspace at the Revolutionary Guard Corps and obviously a few nuclear scientists as well, just how much of a setback is this?
I mean, obviously, a lot of them were almost instantly replaced by the Ayatollah, but how much of a setback is this for Iran militarily?
PARSI: And also around an estimated 400 civilian casualties in addition to the names that you just mentioned, might as well the fact that the Israelis
were bombing apartment buildings as they have done in Beirut and in Gaza as well.
These are obviously very significant setbacks. The Iranians have suffered setbacks of this kind before, but it's usually one or two individuals at a
time, not this many at the same time. And this is why there appears to at least be a temporary paralysis in their decision making right now and their
ability to muster a counterattack.
These people can obviously be replaced, but it can also reach a point in which the -- the -- the challenges for the Iran command system is just so
great that they simply don't have the speed and -- and swiftness to be able to restore their structure and be able to fight back or resist or -- or
even potentially negotiate.
So all of those challenges are things that I think the Iranians did not expect. I mean many of these people were killed in their apartments at
night when they were sleeping, so clearly, they seem to have dramatically miscalculated the risk that they were under.
ASHER: Trita Parsi live for us there. Thank you so much.
PARSI: Thank you so much.
[12:45:59]
GOLODRYGA: Well, the Israeli attack on Iran is soaking fear in the oil markets, but Donald Trump says the strike might be good for the markets.
So, is he right? We'll take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. The world's oil markets are feeling the fallout from Israel's attack on Iran. Oil prices saw their largest single day percentage
increase in years. Brent Crude, the global benchmark is up.
Let's take a look. There Brent Crude is up about 5.5 percent. U.S. benchmark. West Texas Intermediate is also up about -- about five percent
also as well. Those prices reflect the fear that a wider conflict in the Middle East could disrupt supply. The head of OPEC says a situation does
not require taking any measures just yet.
GOLODRYGA: So, let's bring in Matt Egan with a closer look at the markets.
Anytime we have this type of instability and fears of a wider regional war, we -- we do see oil prices tend to -- to go up, though the difference is,
Matt, the U.S., over the last few years, has improved -- has produced significantly more oil domestically here.
But that having been said, how are U.S. investors reacting?
MATT EGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Zain and Bianna, look, these strikes on Iran by Israel, they really rocked financial markets around the world. And
within minutes of the first social media post, stock futures in the United States did tumble last night, but markets are well off their worst levels.
Let's take a look at where U.S. stocks are right now. You see, the Dow is down about 500 points, 1.2 percent. So significant losses, though not as
bad as futures had been indicating overnight.
The S&P and the Nasdaq, they're down but only modestly about a half a percent. So I think the message from the market is, yes, concerned about
what comes next, but not panic.
Now some parts of the market are experiencing more significant losses, including the travel sector. Airlines in particular, Delta, United down
about two percent a piece as investors are concerned about higher fuel costs and potentially more expensive routes due to the airspace closures in
the Middle East.
Also, Carnival, Norwegian and other cruise operators, they're falling sharply for similar reasons.
Now one part of the market that is up right now, not shockingly, it's the defense sector, right? Defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin and
RTX, L3Harris Technologies, General Dynamics. All of them moving higher as investors are betting that these scary times are going to ultimately boost
their profits.
[12:50:02]
I think the bottom line here right now from the market's perspective is that I think investors are taking a lot of this in stride. Yes, they're
concerned, but they're not overreacting, at least not at this point.
ASHER: And just in terms of how high oil prices are going and then what we could see here. And just talk to us a bit more about the concerns
specifically among energy investors, Matt.
EGAN: Yes. Well, again, we did see an immediate spike in oil prices last night. At one point, oil futures were up by 14 percent. But you can see, it
scaled back some of those gains, still sharply higher, about six percent for Brent, the world benchmark, six percent for U.S. oil prices, WTI, on
pace for their biggest one day gain in three years.
I think the concern here among investors is, what does Iran do next? How do they respond? Because if that respond ends up -- response ends up
threatening, the supply of oil from the Middle East, then yes, this could drive prices even higher.
Now, the big fear is that something could happen in the Strait of Hormuz, right? That is this critical oil choke -- choke point. It's only about 21
miles wide. And in the past, Iran has threatened to disrupt the flow of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz.
That would be a big deal because there's every single day, 21 million barrels of oil that flows through the Strait of Hormuz. It's about a fifth
of what the world consumes. Analysts say that that is unlikely. It's unlikely that they'd be able to really disrupt the flow of oil out of the
Strait of Hormuz. But if it does happen, Goldman Sachs says, you could see a return of $100 a barrel of oil.
One last point here is thankfully we're entering this crisis at a period of relatively low energy prices. In fact, the gas prices in the United States
averaging just $3.13 a gallon today. It's actually lower than a month ago, much lower by 33 cents than a year ago.
GasBuddy though telling me that they're expecting gas prices to move higher, probably between 10.25 cents a gallon over the coming weeks. But a
lot is going to depend on how Iran responds.
Zain and Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: We'll be watching. Matt Egan, thank you.
ASHER: Thank you, Matt.
EGAN: Thanks.
ASHER: We'll be right back with more after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:55:58]
GOLODRYGA: All right. We continue our breaking news coverage of Israel's massive assaults on military and nuclear targets in Iran.
We are learning that Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, asking them to deliver a warning to the United States saying, quote, it is
unthinkable that the Zionist regime's aggressive actions against Iran were carried out without cooperation and coordination from the U.S. The U.S.
must be held accountable.
ASHER: Israel warns that the attack is not over and forced to say over 200 warplanes struck more than 100 targets in a highly covert operation
intended to decimate Iran's nuclear capabilities. Israel is under a state of emergency at this hour prepared for retaliation from Iran.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Some of Tehran's most powerful military leaders and nuclear scientists were killed in the strike.
According to the Israeli Defense Force, Iran fired over 100 drones toward Israeli territory. The majority of them intercepted.
All right. Well, that does it for a very busy "One World." I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. I appreciate you watching. "Amanpour" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
