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Israel Launches Unprecedented Strikes on Iran; Israel Says, Iran Launched Over 100 Drones in Response to Strikes; Trump Tells CNN Israeli Strikes on Iran were Very Successful. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. Unprecedented strikes Israel hitting nuclear and military sites across Iran and launching a new phase in the conflict between the two countries.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown has the morning off. And you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with major breaking news. Right now, the world is keeping a wary eye on the Middle East after Israel launches an unprecedented attack on Iran.

Those strobing flashes captured on social media are explosions in Northwest Iran. Israel strikes Tehran's nuclear program and kills top scientists and military leaders. Iran is vowing revenge, and Israel says Tehran has launched more than 100 drone strikes toward Israel.

New this morning, remarkable images from Israel's spy agency, the Mossad, Israel says, it shows operatives smuggling weapons into Iran just ahead of this morning's strikes. And Israel says its strikes are ongoing. Here, security cameras capture explosions in Tehran. It's not clear what was targeted.

The U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says the U.S. was not involved in Israel's attack. And this morning, President Trump tells CNN Iran should negotiate, quote, before it's too late. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

And minutes ago, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, issued his own warning on social media, saying, and I'm quoting him, Iran will face grave consequences if it responds by unjustifiably targeting U.S. interests, close quote.

We're covering all the angles this morning with our correspondence and guests as this incredibly very dangerous and important story unfolds.

Let's begin with CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Oren Liebermann. Oren, you've been following every development since this story broke hours and hours ago, Israel's first wave of strikes on Iran. What are you learning from your sources over there this morning?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Wolf, it's been about 14 hours since that first wave of strikes was carried out by the Israeli Air Force across Iran, not only in the capital of Tehran and multiple neighborhoods there but also, for example, against the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, several rounds of strikes there, it seems.

The first numbers that Israel put out in terms of the number of jets used, 200 fighter aircraft carrying out strikes across more than a hundred targets. But that number certainly seems set to rise as the Israeli military, that is the Israel Defense forces, the IDF, says this is an ongoing operation and there may be strikes carried out over the course of several days.

Israel has said they have gone after not only the sites I just mentioned, but also surface-to-air missiles. That has effectively paved the way for the Israeli Air Force. It seems to do just about whatever it wants in Iran. And Israel has also targeted surface-to- surface missiles, and that appears to indicate the types of ballistic missiles that we expect would be used in some sort of retaliation. We'll come back to that point in just a second here.

But Israel has also gone out after the senior leadership of Iran's military, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iran's top nuclear officials. One of those killed amongst a growing list of top officials there is the head of the IRGC Air Force who is in charge of Iran's ballistic missiles and who would, at least in principle, command an Iranian retaliation and the launching of ballistic missiles. And that is perhaps one of the reasons we have not seen the massive retaliation that Israel has told its public may be coming, including not only drones, but also hundreds of ballistic missiles.

To this point, Israel says the only retaliation so far is about a hundred drones. And from what it seems now, only one of those got into Israel's airspace and was intercepted a short time ago over the upper Galilee. Israel says others were intercepted before they ever got over to Israel. But, Wolf, to put it mildly, this isn't over yet.

BLITZER: Certainly not. It may just be the beginning. Oren Liebermann, our Jerusalem bureau chief, former Pentagon correspondent, thank you very much for your excellent, excellent reporting.

[10:05:00]

We're also getting new reporting this morning on President Trump's response to Israel strikes on Iran. CNN Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash is here with me in The Situation Room.

Dana, you just spoke to the president. Tell us about that conversation.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, my first question -- it was a very brief conversation, Wolf, but my first question was about the secretary of state's remarks last night, his statement, which you mentioned in the open to the show, which explicitly said that the U.S. was notified about the Israel strikes shortly before they happened, certainly warned Iran not to retaliate against U.S. assets.

But the boilerplate language that you and I have seen for so many years that any U.S. administration puts in, which is the U.S. supports Israel's right to defend itself, the U.S. supports Israel's action, that was absent from that statement. And so that's how I began my discussion with the president. And I said, does -- what does this mean about the support for what Israel has done and support for Israel? And he jumped in and said, we, of course, support Israel, obviously, and supported it like no one has ever supported it. It was a very successful attack. Iran should have listened to me when I said, you know, I gave them -- I don't know if you know, but I gave them a 60- day warning and today is day 61.

He went on to say, they should now come to the table to make a deal before it's too late. It will be too late for them. You know, the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners. And I said, so Israel got them? And he said, well, they were the hardliners, and I'll just say, yes, they're dead. And then I said, just to put a fine point on it, they were killed in last night's attack. And he said very sarcastically, yes, they didn't die of the flu. They didn't die of COVID.

Now, we know from Oren's reporting and others that some of the people who were eliminated last night include the head of the IRGC, the man who would have the Air Force, who would have perhaps directed retaliation by air from Iran against Israel. So, that is something that we now know, Wolf.

BLITZER: And it's interesting because, and you correctly point out that what the president was saying to you this morning had a different tone than what Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, said in his official statement yesterday, the first Trump administration statement, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against an Iran. And our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel. That was Marco Rubio. But you correctly point out he avoided, didn't mention the statement that --

BASH: Well, when was the last time you heard --

BLITZER: That leaders say if Israel's fighting an Arab or a Muslim enemy in the region right now and is at war for all practical purposes, the U.S. expresses its support.

BASH: Right. That's boilerplate, right? It always happens. And it was striking.

Now, I just want to say that the president did not say that -- didn't contradict that in any way. He didn't say we were involved. He didn't do anything to suggest that what Rubio said was wrong. But the glaring omission for the support for Israel, that is something that he added onto.

I'm not saying that there weren't very complicated discussions going into this. Of course, our reporting says that there likely were complicated negotiations and talks between the United States, the president and his top negotiators and diplomats, and that in Israel. But right now, his push is to say the United States, I, the U.S. president, supports Israel.

BLITZER: Excellent reporting. Dana, thank you very, very much. I appreciate it.

And, Dana, of course, we'll have a lot more on her interview, her discussion with the president, on her program right after The Situation Room, noon Eastern, Inside Politics with Dana Bash. That's coming up.

I want to bring in our Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour right now. She's joining us from London. Christiane, what's your reaction, first of all, to what President Trump just told Dana?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It's really interesting because there's a lot of tap dancing around this. You know, Amit Segal, he's a pretty well-known name in Israeli journalist circles, because he's very close to Netanyahu in his thinking, and he said that Netanyahu had basically signed off on this and given the go ahead to his own security cabinet and people really right after Trump's election.

And there are a lot of people in Israel who are now talking about how this whole lead up to what happened was kind of like, you know, a pretty coordinated with some deliberate obfuscation and deception campaign, but that it was coordinated and green-lit at the very least, which makes Trump the first American president to allow an Israeli prime minister to do what Netanyahu has wanted to do for decades, and that is strike Iran's nuclear facilities.

Beyond that, clearly, Netanyahu wanted to damage.

[10:10:01]

It's hard to say destroy, but certainly significantly damage these nuclear facilities, take out the top military leadership, take out more scientists. And, you know, over years they've been taking out scientists, targeted assassinations on the ground inside Iran, destroy Iran's ability to have any kind of air defense to be able to have their air defenses and try to head off a major Iranian retaliation.

But beyond that too, possibly, because this is where Netanyahu is politically, they probably also want no part in any further nuclear negotiations with Iran because they don't buy those negotiations. They don't like them. They were against the JCPOA. Netanyahu himself came to Washington, if you remember back in 2015, to specifically talk to the Republican Congress to try to head off the Iran nuclear deal back then.

So, that's the political, you know, context for all this. The military context is that Iran is most certainly weakened since its last encounter with Israel, plus its proxies having been defanged. Today, the president of Iran had a talk to the nation on state television urging them to stay united because there is a worry inside Iran that Israel and others may want to actually use this as a way to regime change. And, yes, so that's where we are.

BLITZER: And indeed, Christiane, according to U.S. officials, the Israeli strikes seem to raise the possibility of Israel potentially trying to force regime change inside Iran. This has reportedly been long a goal for the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. What's the likelihood of that happening now, given what's going on?

AMANPOUR: It's really hard to tell. You know, it depends on whether people will feel that they need to, you know, rally around the flag, so to speak, and be patriotic, or whether they see this as a chance to break out. It's really, really hard to tell. And it's also going to be interesting to see what the reaction of the Iranian officials will be. Will there be crackdowns, if there's any kind of civil reaction? And they're already saying that the attacks by Israel also killed and injured ordinary civilians, whether in Tehran or in other places that were not just nuclear and military facilities.

So, it's going to be -- it's hard to tell right now, but, clearly, there has been so much hardship on the Iranian people for decades. The economy is practically on its knees. The energy infrastructure is so badly damaged. They're rolling blackouts. People are very, very unhappy, which is why people, the Iranian people, have constantly voted for nuclear deals because they want to see the sanctions lifted. It's not just the leadership, it's the people want their economic lives to be improved.

BLITZER: Very quickly, Chrisiane, before I let you go. This whole period that we're going through right now sort of reminds me of the period you and I were reporting here on CNN some 30 or so years ago when Iraq invaded Kuwait and the U.S. launched Operation Desert Shield, which quickly became Operation Desert Storm, a full scale war. Do you sense that right now we're on the verge of a full scale war between Israel and Iran?

AMANPOUR: You know, it's hard to tell because they are frankly outmatched. I mean, Israel -- Iran appears to be outmatched militarily. So, is it a full scale in the classic way that you say it? Certainly, Iran presumably is not going to launch a ground invasion or any kind of issue like that, but it has other methods as it has shown in the past, whether it's, you know, whatever it might do, whether it's terrorism or whether it's long-term, or whether it's more missiles and drones in the immediate days and weeks. But, clearly, people are going to be watching that.

Remember, you know, you bring that up of the 1990 war, you remember Iran stayed out of it. The United States told Iran, you know, what it was going to do. And for Iran, it was a good deal to see Saddam Hussein, which had invaded Iran previously, get his comeuppance. And they actually kind of helped in the fact that they stayed out of it. And not only that, they kept all Saddam's Air Force jets, so he could not use the Air Force against the United States, he had sent them out to Iran for so-called protection, and Iran kept them. So, it was a different moment back then, for sure.

BLITZER: It certainly was. Christiane Amanpour, as always, thank you very, very much for your expertise.

And still ahead, with President Trump putting his support behind Israel, other countries are urging Israel and Iran to deescalate. We'll discuss with the former deputy secretary of state under President Biden, Wendy Sherman.

And also coming up, Israel says it's preparing for a, quote, prolonged operation against Iran. What that would mean for the region and for U.S. troops in the region.

Stay with us.

[10:15:00]

BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the latest very serious developments in the Middle East. Israel has launched an unprecedented strike on Iran killing top officials and damaging vital nuclear facilities in Iran as part of an attack that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says could last, in his words, many days.

Let's continue this discussion with the former deputy secretary of state under President Biden, Wendy Sherman. Wendy, thanks so much for joining us.

As you know, countries around the world are urging all sides right now, both sides, to deescalate.

[10:20:00]

How valid are these fears of a much wider conflict in the Middle East, A full scale war breaking out between Israel and Iran, which could cause enormous damage?

WENDY SHERMAN, FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: Wolf, thank you for having me on this morning. We are at a very serious point. There's no question that Israel has decapitated Iran's military that they have attacked some of the nuclear sites that they will continue on. And Iran, although it may be scrambling this morning, will absolutely retaliate. They have drone capacity, they have terrorist capacity. They still have missiles that they can launch toward Israel.

I think one of the things that viewers here in America should think about is that we have a very weak, strong man for president. He hasn't resolved Ukraine. He hasn't resolved Iran. He hasn't resolved Gaza. He hasn't gotten the hostages back. He's going to hold a parade on Saturday and I'm not quite sure what to celebrate here.

The president got out of the JCPOA, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018. That deal, which took months to negotiate, years actually, would have kept Iran in check, would have opened the door for a relationship. And now that's all in tatters. Israel is in charge this morning, not Donald Trump.

BLITZER: As you know, the Israelis and the Iranians -- excuse me, the Iranians and the U.S. were scheduled to meet this coming Sunday in Oman to continue their discussions on Iran's nuclear program. I don't know if those talks have been canceled or if they're even going to take place. What's your assessment? I know you're no longer in the government, but what do you sense happens to those Sunday talks in Oman?

SHERMAN: My understanding is that Iran has said it will not participate in talks Sunday or any time at this point. And one can imagine that they wouldn't have any confidence in that, they would be concerned about their security.

Look, I think none of us know exactly what's going to happen here. Iran is a resistance country. The revolution in 1979, as you well know, was built on the concept of really resisting and creating an Islamic state, as Iran is called. And I think that this will create great nationalism in Iran, even though there are forces that would like to have a different government in place. I don't see that happening. The government is still quite capable of oppressing its own citizens.

BLITZER: How has this strike, Wendy, on Iran by the Israelis going to shape the U.S.-Israeli relationship going forward?

SHERMAN: Well, President Trump has tried to reclaim his relationship with Israel this morning, saying there's never been a better relationship. But, clearly, Israel didn't care for the diplomacy that Donald Trump was engaged in, they didn't see a positive outcome, and they decided to take whatever action they thought was necessary for the security of Israel. And they do have a right to defend themselves, of course. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu saw this as an opportunity not only to degrade Iran but to bolster his own standing heading into next year's election.

I think for us, for the United States, how engaged will we be in defending Israel? I assume we will be. How much will other countries in the region, as they did the last time, help us, even if quietly, to defend Israel, will, in fact, we have and end up being targets. We still have troops in Iraq. We have troops in Syria. We have troops throughout the region, and Iran has said America is targeted as well as Israel.

So, a lot to unfold here, a very dangerous moment. The president heads to Canada to the G7 next week. I think people believe those talks would be about Ukraine. Now, I think there'll be about Iran as well.

BLITZER: You make an important point. The U.S. right now has more than 40,000 military personnel, military troops, in the region, potentially all of them endangered right now if Iran were to start attacking US positions in various places throughout the Middle East.

Wendy Sherman, thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it very much.

And coming up next, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Leiter, he's standing by to join us live right here in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: As Israel is expected to continue its unprecedented strikes on Iran, there's a scramble inside the White House right now to keep its own nuclear deal talks with Iran alive. A U.S. official tells CNN, the Trump administration intends for negotiations with Iran to take place this Sunday in Oman, as previously scheduled. The Iranians are suggesting that those talks are not going to take place. We'll see if they do take place.

Meanwhile, President Trump is issuing a stark warning to Iran, agree to a nuclear deal before there is, and I'm quoting President Trump now, nothing left.

I want to discuss all this and more with Israel's current ambassador to the United States, Michael Leiter. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining us.

[10:30:01]

I know you got a lot going on.

Does Israel want this strike to push Iran to the negotiating table and reach a deal with the U.S. on its own.