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Israel Launches Strikes Against Hezbollah Targets in Lebanon; Trump Says the "Big Wave" is Yet to Come in War with Iran; Large Explosions in Central Tehran. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 02, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Look at the smoke coming up. Clearly another strike against some targets in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. We'll watch this unfold. These are dramatic developments that are unfolding right now. Not just in Lebanon, but throughout the region, including, of course, Israel, but all these Arab countries right near Iran are being attacked. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, most recently Iraq, and Oman as well. So, a lot going on right now. We're watching all of these dramatic developments.

And there's more breaking news unfolding right now. President Trump telling our colleague Jake Tapper that the big wave, his words, the big wave is yet to come in the war with Iran.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We have a lot of new developments to unfold. CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour joins us from London. Christiane, how significant is this new front in the war?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, it is significant, but this is par for the course really right now, because we're hearing a lot of Western officials and maybe even Israeli officials expressing some surprise that Iran's response, certainly on the Gulf states, has been as vigorous as it has been. And yet, Iran had warned very, very clearly, and many in the Gulf region, many American allies in countries which have American bases and other interests, that they, you know, were warning against such a war very -- you know, a few weeks ago because they knew that they would be potentially subject to targeting.

And I think for Iran, obviously, as they've said, that this is a war of survival now. They've also said, and I think it's been expected by many of the really in-depth Iran analysts, that once Khamenei was killed and once some mourning ceremony was conducted for him, they would lash out even further. So, potentially, this is in fact what's happening.

We've certainly heard on CNN from the deputy Iranian foreign minister who said that they take no responsibility for what was struck in Saudi Arabia. And we also understand from what the foreign minister has been saying to countries in the Gulf region that they are not intending to target them, only just American bases. And one of the rationales he gave was in this instance where so much of our leadership has been killed off, we have delegated orders to local commanders, and we will tell them not to attack your bases or your interests. Whether or not that's true or not, that's what the foreign minister has said.

So, I think it indicates several things, that there's been obviously a lot of disruption in the Iranian leadership. The Iranian leadership sees this as a fight for survival, therefore it will throw just about everything it has, wherever it can. And I think it will backfire, at least so far it has against Iran, because the Gulf seems to be very, very surprised that this has happened, despite the telegraphing before that it would happen.

And then I think there's a big domestic issue in terms of inside Iran, with the extraordinary press conference by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, saying that this is not about regime change, and yet the regime has changed. And I'm confused by that. The regime still is intact, has lost a lot of top people, but certainly President Trump and certainly Prime Minister Netanyahu, since the opening salvos on Saturday, have posted and said that in fact, rise up, this is your chance, we are helping you from the outside to rise up.

So, if it's not about liberating the Iranian people, then that'll have a material impact on what happens on the ground. So, if it's only about going after the military installations, the nuclear program, the ballistic missiles, trying to, you know, stop Iran's foreign proxies, etc., then that's not exactly what the president and the prime minister have been telegraphing for certainly the last 72 hours.

BROWN: Christiane, it's Wolf, Lebanon's government is now calling on Hezbollah to surrender its weapons. How likely do you think that is?

AMANPOUR: I think it's going to be very tough, to be honest with you. I'm not there, I haven't talked to them, but I think that will be tough, particularly now, as Hezbollah is pretty much still the only semi-standing proxy that Iran has, and potentially feels some kind of duty to help a little bit. And now, obviously, Israel is bombing those sites inside Lebanon.

So, I think the basic conclusion of the last couple of days is that this has escalated far beyond what any of the planners had expected, or at least that's what we're hearing from them. It's escalated in that it's brought in Europeans now, the British, the French, the Germans have all said in the last less than 24 hours that they will allow their areas, certainly the British anyway, to be used for defensive purposes, whereas before the British had said they don't want any part of this offensive operation against Iran.

[10:35:00]

I think, though, you really have to think about the Iranian people who believe that they were going to get help and who are waiting for help for a different and better life. And if the U.S. is now suggesting and signaling strongly, as the Pentagon press has showed, that this is not about changing the regime in the way that they had expected, well, it's difficult to see how and what the next steps on the ground in Iran will be. And I think from what I'm hearing, and perhaps you feel the same way, that there are a lot of strategies given. There's a lot of, you know, plans, but not one definite plan. I guess what I'm trying to say is the administration has not laid out an exit strategy or a day after plan, and it keeps funging and, you know, sort of conflating all the potential options. So, it's very difficult to know what the actual exit strategy is, what the battle plan is, and what will constitute victory or not.

BLITZER: Christiane Amanpour, as usual, thank you very, very much for your analysis.

BROWN: Thank you. And just ahead here in the Situation Room, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls the strikes on Iran, quote, "The most lethal and precise air power campaign in history." But will that air power be enough to achieve all of the administration's goals? We'll ask a former Supreme Allied Commander for NATO up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

BLITZER: As this war with Iran escalates, and I used war specifically, I want to turn to two of our analysts here in the Situation Room. Retired U.S. army general Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander, and David Sanger, CNN political and national security analyst and New York Times White House and National Security correspondent.

General Clark, let me start with you. President Trump is telling CNN the big wave, his words, big wave is still coming in this war with Iran. What do those new comments tell you about where this war is now heading?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FOUNDER, RENEW AMERICA TOGETHER AND FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Well, I think the president is trying to indicate that he's going to achieve escalation dominance. Maybe we're talking about the use of more of the Lucas drones that have been publicly announced. Maybe there's some other efforts. Maybe there's a different type of cyber weapon that's going to be used against Iran. And there are still some air reinforcements apparently moving in.

BLITZER: David, despite the killing of Iran's supreme leader, the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said this morning, this is not a regime change war, his words, but rather an effort to destroy Iran's conventional arsenal. So, it can't be used as an umbrella as Iran pursues its nuclear ambitions. What's your reading of that?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, NEW YORK TIMES WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT AND AUTHOR, "NEW COLD WARS": Well, Wolf, I was a little confused by some of what Mr. Hegseth said. First of all, the president himself in his taped statement on Saturday morning, announcing the opening of this, invited the Iranian people to hang back until the military action was over, and then rise up against their government. That sounded like regime change to me. And not only that, but encouraging the Iranian people to bring it about. So, when Secretary Hegseth said today that a goal was not regime change, I was a little confused.

Now, my colleague -- one of my colleagues spoke to President Trump yesterday afternoon, and we wrote a story about this. And he laid out three different scenarios, which were somewhat contradictory. One of them was that everybody rises up. The second one was that he would get to sort of pick some leadership the way he did in Venezuela. And then he had a third option, which was that a sort of more compliant Iranian government emerged. And it's not clear to us right now which one of those he's pursuing, but obviously each one would require very different strategies.

BLITZER: Yes, important point. General Clark, this conflict clearly is expanding right now with Hezbollah in Lebanon launching rockets into Israel, and Israel now conducting airstrikes and not ruling out a ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. What needs to happen to keep all of this from spinning into an overall regional war?

CLARK: Well, I think it's dependent on the rate at which the United States forces can degrade the ability of the Iranians to strike back in the Gulf, and simultaneously the ability of the Israelis to repress and go after Hezbollah. It is a contest of arms right now. The Iranian leadership is not ready to throw in the towel, obviously, and so it's going to have to be a matter of the destruction of their means to resist.

And the secretary of war said -- General Caine, said we have air superiority in the region. That's good. We need air supremacy. We need to be able to loiter overhead and watch every single square kilometer near a launch site and watch those missiles roll out and take them out before they can be launched.

We don't know what the size of the remaining Iranian inventory is, maybe several thousand still, especially short range. It's clearly in Iran's strategy to cause maximum chaos in an effort to force the United States to halt the operation. And so, this is a test of arms. And Admiral Cooper has got to be able to turn those sorties, load the aircraft, get them in action. He's got to find the targets that are significant.

And, Wolf, one of the problems you always have in an air campaign, it always starts out looking great because you preplanned the most significant targets or at least what you think is the most significant. But as it goes on day after day, you've got to continue to generate new targets for those aircraft.

[10:45:00]

When we were in Kosovo in 1999, target generation was a big problem. We ended up with 1,000 aircraft, and we were really scrambling to find useful targets. So, if this were to go on for several weeks, that's going to be a real challenge for us, despite the fact we've spent 30 years looking at Iran. Where are the targets that the aircraft striking can make the greatest strategic impact on the Iranian government?

BLITZER: And very quickly, General Clark, before I let you go, yesterday the Israeli, the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, the army announced they were mobilizing, activating 100,000 reservists to begin active duty right now. Is that designed for some sort of ground assault against Hezbollah in Lebanon, or is it possible the Israelis are actually thinking of deploying ground forces into Iran?

CLARK: I'd be surprised if they were going into Iran. We could get them there if we got a landing site. We could move people in by our own air transport. They wouldn't have to go around through the canal or something like this. But 100,000 is not enough. I'd be more inclined to think that there would be Mossad and agency people in there providing weapons and support to get the local resistance, especially starting with the Kurds, up in arms against the regime, if the intent is covertly to undermine that regime.

BLITZER: All right. General Wesley Clark and David Sanger, as usual, to both of you, thank you very, very much. Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Coming up here in the Situation Room, President Trump says he expects the war with Iran to last for weeks. Up next, we're going to ask a former national security expert under President George W. Bush about the parallels between this conflict and what turned into the Iraq War 20 years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BLITZER: We're back with the breaking news. The war in the Middle East clearly intensifying big time right now. We're seeing large explosions in Tehran. This after a new wave of attacks on the Iranian capital. And in just moments, President Trump will speak out on the war against Iran. We're going to bring his comments to you live. Stand by for that.

BROWN: And with us now is Michael Allen. He is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush for national security. I want to start with what President Trump just told my colleague Jake Tapper this morning, that the U.S. has not fully unleashed on Iran yet, and that the big wave is yet to come. When you hear that phrase, what do you expect it to look like?

MICHAEL ALLEN, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR NATIONAL SECURITY, FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR COUNTERPROLIFERATION, NSC, AND FORMER MAJORITY STAFF DIRECTORY, HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE: So, I think we have one of the greatest projections of U.S. military force in history arrayed around Iran right now. I know that they're hitting radars, surface-to-air missiles. So, they're probably just now establishing air superiority over Iran, which will enable us to send additional planes and aircraft into the area. So, that may be what he's referring to, which is a new gigantic wave coming in in a big way.

BROWN: Secretary Hegseth this morning said this is about taking out Iran's military assets. This isn't about regime change. What is your reaction to that? ALLEN: Well, I thought the president, you know, the other night, when he had the 2:30 in the morning taped address that went out, invited the Iranians into the street, remember? He said, for now, everyone stay in your -- indoors because there are going to be bombs dropping everywhere, but you'll have a once-in-a-generation chance to change your government. So, I thought he explicitly embraced regime change. And when the Iranians go after the supreme leader and the top 40 or 50 leaders of the IRGC, that's a decapitation strike by definition. So, I think they're trying to get rid of the top leadership of the country. And so, I think this is very close to the definition of regime change.

BROWN: Could it be that, look, that's not our first objective, but it would be great if regime change happened?

ALLEN: I think that's the best we can do. It doesn't work well from the air. I think what we're going to try to do here is completely eradicate any vestiges of their nuclear program, completely neuter everything that they have to do with military force projection. And then I think we begin to really hit the instruments of regime repression with the hopes that the people will be able to get back out on the streets and take care of things themselves. But what they'll really need is some sort of schism within the IRGC or within the regime, people with guns breaking and coming to their side.

BROWN: Secretary Hegseth also clearly wanted to make the point this is not the same as the Iraq war.

ALLEN: Yes.

BROWN: As someone who used to be heavily involved with the Iraq War as a national security expert in the administration, how do you respond to that?

ALLEN: Well, I think what he's referring to is we're not deploying ground troops into Iran. I think that's the chief difference between the two campaigns. And so, people obviously, when we've heard about it, have war fatigue after many, many years engaged in Afghanistan and, of course, in Iraq. We're still in the Middle East in a big way. So, I think what he's trying to say is we're going to do an air campaign. We're going to do the best we can to degrade their military and nuclear power and hope for regime change. But we're not going to go in and topple ourselves.

BROWN: You worked, as noted, for the Bush administration during the second Iraq War. Did that conflict, when it started, have a clear end and a timeline that was laid out to the public? And do you think it's wise for Trump to keep changing the timeline as he speaks with different media outlets? And then you heard Secretary Hegseth say, well, it could be more than what he's laid out or less. I mean, it's sort of been all over the map. But I guess, how can you know?

ALLEN: Well, at first, honestly, I think the Bush administration thought that when we did the announcement of major combat operations are over, that was sort of linked to deposing Saddam Hussein and his government. Of course, then what Rumsfeld called the dead enders came out on the streets, and this was the beginning of the insurgency. And then, of course, it went on for years.

So, he may be trying to hold -- be a little vague here until he sees how things develop. But if he's going to address the nation here at 11:00, he needs to set some parameters around what he's doing, military, nuclear, inviting the people to come out on the streets. Because I think if you explain things to the American people, they'll be there for you. But you just can't let them fly blind for many, many days without knowing the rationale.

BROWN: Do you see any scenario where U.S. boots end up on the ground in Iran?

[10:55:00]

ALLEN: I really don't. I mean, an extremist may be a special operations raid here and there for some very discreet mission. But, no, I don't. I don't think it's a wise idea at all. If there's any ground troops out there, it would be people that CIA and Mossad have recruited from within the country to take out some very discreet targets. But, no, I don't see us doing it.

BROWN: I spoke to a Republican congresswoman yesterday, Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who told me about her conversations with the White House. And she indicated that the goal is not for this to be a long-term war. She made that very clear. But just given the conversation we've had just here and the number of nations now involved here, how can you know -- you may not want it, but, I mean, could that be a very real possibility that this is a long, protracted war?

ALLEN: So, the enemy has a voice. So, this could get extended in ways that we're not -- that aren't foreseeable right here. But I believe we're going to be at this for a couple of weeks. I think President Trump's instincts -- and this may be why he stacked the theater with so much combat air power, his instincts are to get things over sooner rather than later. So, I've been thinking maybe four to five days, but he increasingly is opening the door in interviews over the weekend to it could be a matter of weeks.

And so, I think that's the right objective. If we're trying to degrade and neuter and get rid of military and nuke power, we need to let the target set drive how long we're engaged, not a political calendar.

BROWN: All right. Michael Allen, thank you so much. Great to have you on.

ALLEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: And we'll see what the president says in the next few minutes at the top of the hour. He'll be speaking out about the war and what's going on. We'll have live coverage of that coming up. Thanks for me, as well.

President Trump, as I said, expected to address the war with Iran in the next few minutes. We'll see if he takes questions from reporters at the same time. Lots more going on. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]