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The Situation Room

Iran Launches More Missiles Toward Israel; New CNN Reporting on Trump Weighing Strike on Iran; White House Official Says, All Options on the Table for Strikes on Iran. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 19, 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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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news.

As you hear right there, sirens just went off across Northern Israel. The IDF says Iran is launching a 10 to 15 missile barrage toward Israel.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, new CNN reporting on President Trump's thinking as he weighs weather to strike Iran.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

Breaking news, A source tells CNN that President Trump has reviewed various attack plans for Iran, but he is holding off, at least for now, to see if Tehran will back away from its nuclear program. This as Israel says, a major hospital in the southern part of Israel was struck by Iran. Israel says this hospital suffered extensive damage just moments ago.

Just moments ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with your reporters. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think it says everything about Israel and about Iran. Israel is fighting to remove the nuclear and missile threat aimed at our annihilation. We're targeting military sites. We're targeting nuclear sites. We're targeting missile sites. They're targeting a hospital. In this hospital, there are patients who are immobile, they can't even move. Right next to it is a children's ward, a baby's ward, infants. They targeted. They can, give this nonsense that they're targeting military sites. What military sites? I know all the military sites in Israel. There isn't a military site here for miles and miles around. They're targeting civilians because they're a criminal regime. They're the arch-terrorists of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Israel's defense minister also speaking to reporters today, lashing out at the strike with a blistering attack directly on Iran's supreme leader. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: I want to say that a dictator like Khamenei who leads a country like Iran and has engraved on his flag the annihilation of the state of Israel, this terrible goal of destroying Israel cannot continue to exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Just to be clear on what you heard, Israel's defense minister saying, Iran's supreme commander, quote, cannot continue to exist.

And there's new video coming into the Situation Room, Israel releasing this video of its military striking Iran's Iraq heavy water reactor. That's an inactive nuclear facility right near the center of the country. Iran's state-run news agency says there is no radiation and no major damage is reported.

Our crews are fanned out all across this developing story from the Middle East to here in Washington over at the White House. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran right now and is the first western journalist to enter Iran since the conflict started. He takes us inside the aftermath of one Israeli airstrike.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're inside the Iranian state broadcasting company, IRIB, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike a couple of days ago, and you can see the damage is absolutely massive. I'm standing in the atrium right now. But if you look around, this whole area has been completely destroyed. All of the offices and all of the technology that they have inside here, the broadcast technology, everything has been rendered pretty much useless.

All right, so we're going to go inside the building now. They have told us that we need to be very careful, because obviously there might still be unexploded parts of bombs in here or something like that.

What we see here is the actual studio, where an Iranian state T.V. anchor was sitting and reading the news when the strike hit. You can see here that is an anchor desk right there. And, of course, when it happened, the anchor was reading the news and then all of a sudden there was a thud. The studio went black. At the beginning, she got up and left, but then later apparently came back and finished the newscast and is now being hailed as a champion of Iranian media.

Some of the main bulk of the explosion must have been here because this place is absolutely charred.

[10:05:00]

And if we look back over there, that's actually seems to be the main part of what was the newsroom with a lot of the desks, computers, printers, phones. You can see how much heat must have been admitted by the impact and by the explosion. The phones that they had here are molten. Here also, the keys molten, this screen and there's actually someone's lunch still at their desk standing here, which probably they would've been wanting to eat until they had to evacuate the building. You can see there's a spoon here that's also been melted away by this explosion.

All of this is playing very big here in Iran. There's a lot of public anger that the Israelis attacked this site. And, certainly, the Iranians are saying that they condemn this and that there is going to be revenge for this.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks to Fred for that report. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Now, let's go live to CNN's Nic Robertson right outside the hospital that was hit in Southern Israel, one of the largest in the area. So, Nic, bring us there. Show us the situation.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. Look, you can see the rubble and destruction behind me. Above me is the cancer and urology ward on the top of the building right here. It's literally destroyed. And that's where the missile impacted.

And I spoke to the director of the hospital and he said, fortunately they'd evacuated patients from that ward, 25 patients to the basement the night before, just as a precaution. Many hospitals are doing this all across the country. And he said there were. 40 light injuries in the hospital, mostly from fly flying glass when the impact came.

But the destruction we see all around here is huge. This hospital complex is huge. It has 1,200 beds. There's a pediatrics children's unit over there, there's a maternity center. There are other specialists units that we've been looking at here as well. It serves a community of a million people, the director of the hospital told me, it is important, the biggest one in the southern part of Israel.

And it is not just medically important today. It's become politically important. It's become important in that way. We've seen, because we've seen the prime minister come here. We've seen the foreign minister come here. We've seen various politicians come here as well, and it's all with a very, very clear message that Iran did this intentionally. They say, look at the number of civilian casualties across the country, 24 dead, more than 600 injured so far. They say, to them, that proves Iran is intentionally targeting civilian complexes despite what they say.

I asked the Prime Minister when he gave a brief press conference earlier what his message about this to President Trump is at a time when President Trump is considering if he'll join and help Israel in the strikes against Iran nuclear facilities. This is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROBERTSON: Iranian officials say they were targeting a military facility near here, but what do you say to President Trump as he tries to make up his mind about whether to come in support of Israel, particularly at a time when we read that you are having to ration some of your defensive missiles because it's so intense?

NETANYAHU: President Trump will do what's best for America. I trust his judgment. He's a tremendous friend, a tremendous world leader, a tremendous friend of Israel and the Jewish people. And we will do what we have to do and we are doing it. We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel. We're able to do it. And we, of course, we'll make our own determination.

But I have to say that the partnership with the United States, the partnership with President Trump, with whom I speak to almost every day, is incredible. I think his resolve his determination and his clarity when he says Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And for that to take place, Iran cannot enrich uranium. It's as simple as that.

He gave them the chance to do it through negotiations. They strung him along. You don't string along Donald Trump. He knows. He knows the game. And I think that we're both committed to making sure that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon and they won't.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: On a day like today, it really feels that democracy has gone to the fringes, and the central message here is President Trump is being strung along by the Iranians. Israel wants his help.

BROWN: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

BLITZER: And we're also getting new video coming in right now of what Iran says is an Israeli drone it intercepted.

BROWN: Iranian T.V. says this was downed by the country's defense system. Look at this. This is in Southern Tehran. Iran says this is a Hermes drone, an Israeli medium-sized drone. CNN cannot independently verify this video. In a statement, the Israeli military said a drone fell in Iran after a surface-to-air missile was fired towards us.

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BLITZER: I want to go right now to CNN's Alayna Treene over at the White House for us. Alayna, White House officials say all options remain clearly on the table right now. What's the latest you're hearing over there?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. We also have, according to a source familiar with some of these discussions, Wolf and Pamela, that the president did review attack plans for aiding potentially the Israelis and their strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, but that he is still kind of waiting to see how Iran is going to respond, whether or not they will come to the Trump administration in a proactive way, be far more forthcoming in some of the concessions that the United States is looking for. That is really the question why. What we're hearing is kind of keeping the president from actually moving forward with some of these just strikes, but beside the point though still that he's still considering, of course these strikes, and also that he's closer now to them, we're told, than he has been in many weeks.

But another key thing I want to tell you about was just behind the scenes in some of these conversations, Pamela and Wolf, is that when they discuss potential U.S. involvement in this, they say that the president specifically, but the Trump administration more broadly as well, does not want this to be a prolonged war. They really do believe that they may be able to go and have some of these strikes, aid the Israelis in trying to wipe out the Iranian nuclear capabilities, but try to keep it contained to that, have them be very decisive strikes and then get out.

I actually have been hearing in some of my conversations that one analogy they are referring to, what they're bringing up behind closed doors is how back in 2020, during the first Trump administration, the president ordered that attack on taking out the Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani. They argued that they were able to do that despite the sensitive nature of it and not create a prolonged war that the United States was dragged into. That is some of what we're hearing now behind the scenes.

Of course, the president though still saying he has not made up his mind and he likely won't make a final decision on U.S. involvement in strikes until the very last moment. Wolf?

BLITZER: Alayna Treene over at the White House for us, Alayna, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And we know from history, Trump could say we want to do this and then pull back, as he did in his first term. So, we're all waiting and, of course, Alayna Treene will keep us posted from the White House.

Also happening, European leaders are meeting the Iranian foreign minister tomorrow in Geneva.

We are joined now by CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood. So, Kylie, is the Trump administration involved at all in this?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's really interesting, Pam, is that Trump administration officials are not saying much at all about this meeting that is happening tomorrow in Geneva with leaders from European countries, the U.K., Germany, France, and the E.U. and the Iranian foreign minister, but the fact that they aren't saying much, that they aren't saying that they support it, but they also aren't saying that they oppose it is tacit approval essentially from the Trump administration.

A European and diplomat told our colleague, Nic Robertson, that the meeting is happening in consultation with the United States. I spoke with a source who said that this meeting is really to talk about how to create off-ramps to this escalating Iran-Israeli conflict. And we should also note that the foreign secretary of the U.K. is going to be here in Washington today meeting with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio. So, the Trump administration will get a really good idea of how these European players plan to go into this really critical meeting tomorrow in Geneva with the Iranian foreign minister.

BLITZER: Last ditch effort to see if they can avoid a full scale war. We'll see how that unfolds. Kylie, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Thanks, Kylie. And still ahead, quote, remarkable cooperation. Israel's prime minister giving new insight into the U.S. military's participation and protecting the skies over Israel. We'll speak to a former U.S. Navy admiral about that next.

You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: Well, this morning, CNN has learned that President Trump has reviewed attack plans for Iran, but a source tells us that the president is holding off to see if Tehran will step back from its nuclear program.

Joining us now with CNN Senior Military Analyst, retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander, who is now a partner at the Carlisle Group, a global investment firm. Admiral, thank you for being here with us, a lot to talk about.

First off, what do you think the factors are going into the president's thinking as he weighs military options here?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: I think all presidents begin with pros and cons. The pro is pretty obvious here. U.S. has the ability using these big bunker-busting bombs we're talking about constantly in all probability to take out definitively the beating heart of the Iranian nuclear program at for. That's a big pro.

The con the risk is tactical. Could a B-2 bomber get shot down? Could a fighter get taken out while escorting? Could the Iranians lash out at U.S. bases, U.S. partners in the region, go after oil fields? Could they close the Strait of Hormuz? There's a lot of cons here.

I think it's a close call for the president. At this point, Pamela, I would say there's a two in three chance he will go ahead and strike. I think there's a one in three chance he'll give it a bit more time and see how diplomacy plays out. You can make a case on either side of that decision.

BROWN: What makes you say you think there's a two and chance he would go for it?

STAVRIDIS: One is the way we have aggressively set the table, all the forces are in place and operations like that tend to create a momentum of their own. Secondly, widely reported, a lot of advice he's receiving from people he really trusts in national security, like Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Tom Cotton General Erik Kurilla. I think there's a growing body of advice to him to conduct the strike. And third, and finally, he looks at it through the prism of domestic politics.

Here again, pro and con, many of his supporters are against getting involved in the Middle East. But I think he may make the calculation a quick certain strike will in fact be well received. It'll be a sign of strength. So, I think those are the three reasons. It's a two and three chance that he decides ultimately to take the shot.

BROWN: And sources are telling us that the president has said that he does not believe the U.S. strike necessarily means a complete U.S. intervention in a foreign war. What do you think?

STAVRIDIS: I hope that turns out to be the case. The problem is if we conduct the strike and then Iran retaliates, and let's imagine a world in which their retaliation takes out a U.S. warship or a U.S. flagged tanker, or they strike a U.S. embassy, or they close the Strait of Hormuz, then you're in a, a ladder of vertical escalation that'll be hard to avoid.

So, it's always pleasant to think that you can do these strikes as a one and done. The problem is what happens next. That's what would concern me, vertical escalation, we get dragged into a broader war.

BROWN: And from our reporting, you know, the president has been thinking about what happened in his first term when he gave the okay for the assassination of Soleimani. And there was a lot of warning then that this could lead to, you know, a broader conflict and lead to a major escalation. And the fears then didn't come to fruition. Although there was, of course, you know, assassination concerns from Iran toward Trump.

But what do you think about that being part of the calculation here?

STAVRIDIS: Iran is in a very different place now, although they are weakened ironically, perhaps. I think that gives them less to lose. And as a result, I think if we did jump in and conduct the strike. I think it's pretty good odds you would see an escalatory response from the Iranians. There are a lot of targets they can strike. And if that happens, I think the president is going to have to take the next step and the next one.

As always, when you start a war, and I've been involved in a lot of wars, when you start a war, it's like kicking a door open into a completely dark room. You really don't know what's in there. Once you release ordinance, once you launch that first B-2, there's a lot of variability to how things unfold at that point.

BROWN: Right. And there's really no certainty, right? If you do launch the B-2 with this bunker-busting bomb, as we've been calling it, that's never been used, there's no certainty if it would wipe out Fordow, right? STAVRIDIS: Correct. And then there's a second order concern here, which is the spread of radioactive material. Do you create, in effect, a kind of dirty bomb by hitting Fordow? The good news in this regard is that it's 200 feet deep. Hopefully it's fairly constrained. But if you're using that bunker-busting bomb, it's going to open a pathway for that enriched uranium to simply float up into the air occurrence. That's a real worry and I'm sure that's been part of the conversation in The Situation Room as well.

BROWN: Yes, we have some good reporting on that from our Jennifer Hansler about that concern.

I also want to ask you about the Israeli drone that Iran says it shot down with its air defense system. Israel says one of its drones was shot down in the area. We're looking at some video right here. What does this tell you about various reports that Iran's air defenses are largely gutted? You just heard the president say yesterday that Iran doesn't have air defenses.

STAVRIDIS: I think Iran remains capable, but at the level of 10 to 20 percent of their previous capabilities. So, almost all of their air- to-air, so their jets, their fighters, have been hit. Almost all of their really advanced air defense systems, like the Russian supplied S-300s had been hit. But there are always going to be some residual level of air capability that could take out, particularly something like a drone, which is slow moving, not stealthy particularly, that could be taken out frankly by a shoulder-fired missile.

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So, there's still 10 to 20 percent. And, again, part of the calculus for the president is, do they have the ability to take out a B-2 bomber? I think that's very unlikely. Could a lucky shot occur? Possibly. Again, a lot of factors going into this very tough decision for the president.

BROWN: And just to be clear, it would be a two person crew, right, in the B-2 bomber?

STAVRIDIS: It would be, and recall that there are also typically fighter jets would be alongside it in order to make sure some Iranian aircraft didn't get up and challenge the B-2. So, there'll be not just the B-2 with two people. There'll be fighters, there'll be tankers. The Israelis will be flying. It'll be a fairly complex air picture. Typically, we would have a large air early warning aircraft, probably from one of the carriers, an E-2 Hawkeye would manage that battle space.

BROWN: All right.

STAVRIDIS: But it's not as simple as just pointing a B-2 at Fordow. It's a big, complex operation.

BROWN: All right. Retired Admiral James Stavridis, thank you for coming on for, all of your experience over the years sharing this with us as we continue to watch this unfolding crisis in the Middle East, we appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

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