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Trump Considering 45-Day Ceasefire In War With Iran; Israel Says It Killed Sr. Iranian Special Forces Commander; Trump Comments On Iran War Amid Threats, Ultimatum. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: -- the two airmen, particularly the colonel who was rescued after about 48 hours in a crevice in the mountains in Iran.

[11:00:06]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I don't remember a time when there's a bunny like that standing next to the President and the First Lady and they're talking about the war with Iran on this Easter Egg Roll.

BROWN: It's quite the scene. And if you didn't know the context you would be asking a lot of questions. But he is there at the Easter Egg Roll making these remarks and we do expect the President to expand on those remarks at 1:00 p.m. and we'll be carrying that here at CNN.

BLITZER: Your live coverage of that to be sure.

The next hour of The Situation Room starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BLITZER: And 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.

And we begin this hour with the breaking news. CNN has now learned that countries working to end the war with Iran are calling for a 45- day ceasefire. A White House official says the President has not signed off on the proposal but Iran has already rejected it. It comes as the President threatens to escalate the conflict big time demanding that Iran reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz by tomorrow evening. He tells Axios that if that deadline expires and I'm quoting the President now, "I am blowing up everything."

BROWN: And this morning we're counting down to a news conference with President Trump as he trades these major new threats with Iran. And we're also learning more about the daring rescue of U.S. airmen whose fighter jet was shot down last week over Iran. Right here is the wreckage of two U.S. special operations aircraft that had to be destroyed after being damaged.

And I have some new reporting from sources I've been speaking with on that incredible rescue mission. I've learned that the operation included the Army's Delta Force, a Navy SEAL Team 6, the elite special ops team that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the CIA was also very involved according to a source that was briefed on the executive summary of the rescue. And we have learned that the crashed F-15 was attached to the 48th fighter wing out of Royal Air Force Lake and Heath Base in eastern England. That's what I'm told by a source who was briefed.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. Alayna, do you know how seriously the President is considering this ceasefire proposal?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well look, what we know as of now is that he is considering it. It's unclear though how serious he is actually taking it. As you mentioned, a White House official told us that he has not signed off on this proposal yet and that it's just one of many ideas under consideration. But what I can tell you is that obviously we are now only 36 or so hours now away from that new deadline that the President had set for Iran to either reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face a serious and much more aggressive escalation in U.S. attacks, particularly, the President said, on energy infrastructure sites, civilian infrastructure sites.

So we'll have to see. I think this proposal, and I should note, this proposal was drafted by U.S. intermediaries in this war, countries like Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, which have been passing messages between Washington and Tehran. They are the ones who had drafted this proposal. They delivered it to both countries last night. And so now we just are trying to get a sense of whether or not this is actually something that we could see happen.

The idea, of course, behind it is they're hoping that a 45-day ceasefire could allow, could be enough time for both sides to really have much more substantial negotiations that could potentially provide an end to the war. But again, we don't really know if this is something that could actually move forward. But of course, the hope is that such an agreement could stave off what the United States and really what the President is issuing with those threats of escalation.

I will say the Iranians, for their part, have said that they reject this idea of a temporary ceasefire. They said, essentially, in so many words, that they want any sort of deal to be an end to the war. Unclear if that's something that could actually be thought about. I think certainly not within the short deadline we're now facing at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow.

All to say the President's press conference will hopefully shed a little bit more light on this, as well as also give us a little bit more sense around the timing, of course, because that's been a huge question this entire time. The President has shifted deadlines regarding how long he expects this to last. His most recent one was saying two to three weeks before he thought the war could be wrapped up. We'll see if that's still the case when he addresses reporters at 1:00 p.m. today, Pamela.

BROWN: Right. And I'm just wondering, you know, we've seen the President in this war make threats and not follow through on them. Are you getting a sense from your sources how serious he is about this threat of going after civilian infrastructure in Iran if it doesn't open up the Strait of Hormuz by tomorrow night?

TREENE: Yes, look, I've been talking to a lot of people in that building behind me, as well as throughout the administration on this idea. I will say part of the reason we've seen that deadline shift previously, I mean, it initially gave one deadline, he pushed it 10 days, he's now pushed it again by another day is because the Trump administration recognized to escalate in such a way.

[11:05:14]

And of course, some of the things the President has threatened to attack could potentially amount to war crimes if he went through on, say, attacking desalination plants in Iran. But there's also, of course, Iran has threatened to reciprocate and retaliate should the United States actually move forward with attacks of that magnitude. And that is something, of course, many United States allies and partners in the Middle East, in the Gulf region, are very much concerned about.

Iran saying that they would go after similar civilian infrastructure should the United States follow through on that message from the President. And so there is some hesitancy there. And I do think there are many people in this White House who do want to see diplomacy prevail here and do want to see this staved off.

The question, of course, though, is whether or not that's something that the President is willing to do if he's willing to push this deadline even further or try to come to an agreement before we face 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night.

BROWN: All right, Alayna Treene from the White House for us. Thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: I want to go to our own Jeremy Diamond right now. He's reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel. Jeremy, as Tehran rejects the idea of a temporary ceasefire, it's also responding to President Trump's threats to Iran's infrastructure. There's a lot going on right now. I know you're covering all of these developments, including the Israeli apparently Israeli move to kill the director, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence chief. First of all, tell us about that. Have the Israelis confirmed that they went ahead and assassinated the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps' chief of intelligence?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. The Israeli military has confirmed that Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence chief was killed in an Israeli strike. He is just the latest of a slew of senior Iranian officials and senior IRGC officials who have been killed in Israeli strikes just a few days ago.

Of course, it was Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' naval commander who had been killed. We've seen a slew of other senior Iranian officials. All of this began, of course, the first day of the war with the killing of the former supreme leader. But now we are waiting to see what more Israel and the United States are prepared to do in Iran. Today, we already saw that Israel is increasingly already going after infrastructure targets inside of Iran, targeting a petrochemical facility today, one that produces about 50 percent of Iran's petrochemicals altogether. And Israel's defense minister has warned that Israel will continue and carry out more strikes on Iranian infrastructure targets should Iran continue to target residential areas here in Israel, as we have seen them do over the course of this war, including last night, when four Israeli civilians were killed in a residential building in Haifa that was hit by an Iranian ballistic missile.

But the United States is also now threatening to join into the fray and strike those infrastructure targets, though that is the threat of President Trump, with the deadline for tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. All of this as we are seeing that there is this last-ditch ceasefire proposal on the table to try and avert those strikes, to agree to a temporary 45-day ceasefire. But for now, the Iranians do not seem amenable to that proposal at all.

They very much want to see this conflict end with a permanent ceasefire, one that avoids a scenario where, in a few months' time, you have Israel and the United States both going back into Iran to carry out additional strikes. The Iranians are showing that they are willing to bear the brunt of the ferocity of the Israeli and American strikes in that country and use their asymmetric warfare assets instead to draw this out into a war of attrition and seeing if President Trump will blink. Wolf?

BLITZER: And very quickly, Jeremy, in addition to that strike that the Iranians launched against that residential building in Haifa, in Haifa, Israel, I take it the sirens have been going off for much of today in central Israel, in the Tel Aviv area where you are?

DIAMOND: Yes, that's right. Well, both overnight and this afternoon, we had multiple air raid sirens going off, one after the other, in fact, which is relatively unusual, indicating that Iran was firing several waves of ballistic missiles in quick succession. Many of those missiles were armed with those cluster munitions. We could hear several impacts happening within seconds, milliseconds of each other, indicating small cluster munitions impacts, which have happened here, multiple injuries as a result, but no fatalities as a result of those cluster munitions today. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy Diamond on the scene for us in Tel Aviv. Stay safe. Thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: Still ahead, Wolf, here in The Situation Room, health officials warn that children could be vulnerable to a new version of COVID-19. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary will join us in The Situation Room next to discuss that and much more.

[11:09:56]

BLITZER: And later, an emerging split among Republicans up on Capitol Hill as party leaders push an ambitious plan to end the partial government shutdown. We'll ask a Republican congressman what he's hearing. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: All right, President Trump is over at the traditional White House Easter Egg Roll, and he's taking some questions from reporters. Let's listen in.

[11:15:02]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've seen every proposal you can imagine.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- final deadline is Tuesday at 8:00 p.m., your final deadline?

TRUMP: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Iran does not meet your demands, Mr. President, are you willing to continue the war?

TRUMP: You'll have to watch.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: The answer is yes, but you'll have to watch.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think that meets this proposal?

TRUMP: They've made a proposal, and it's a significant proposal. It's a significant step. It's not good enough, but it's a very significant step.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: They're made negotiating now, and they've made a very significant step. We'll see what happens.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, that's what they need. They have a long way to go. The U.K. has a long way to go.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We don't want another Neville Chamberlain. Do we agree? We don't want Neville Chamberlain.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is the airman that was rescued doing now? TRUMP: What?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is the airman that was rescued doing?

TRUMP: He's doing really well. They're both doing well. (Inaudible) And we held off the one because if you -- if they would have known, we had him. So we held off the one. They are both recovering very well. They were both injured, and they're doing well.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: What else?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, you know what? When you do thousands and thousands of flights, and you have one plane shot down, and not mortally, the two pilots got out, they got a little bit lucky. And you know what? In war, you need a little bit of luck also. They got a little bit lucky. That's all they got.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's stopping you from ending the war?

TRUMP: Well, it could end very quickly, the war, if they do what they have to do. They have to do certain things. They know that. They've been negotiating, I think, in a good day. We've had total regime change. You know, the people there now are much more reasonable than the lunatics that you had in phase one and phase two. They were lunatics.

The people that we're negotiating with now in -- on behalf of Iran are much more reasonable. You can call it what you want, but I call it regime change. And I think most people are giving us credit for that. The first regime was taken out. The second regime was taken out. Now the third group of people that we're dealing with is not as radicalized, and we think they're actually much smarter.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- in that Truth Social post.

TRUMP: Only to make my point. I think you've heard it before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Mr. President why did you say, frisbee to Iraq?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you spoken to the families of that airmen that was staged?

TRUMP: I'm going to be doing it right now.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: They're foolish because the war is about one thing. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Had we not broken the Barack Hussein Obama agreement, you know that, you what I'm talking about, the Iran nuclear deal. This is years ago, my first term. You would have had a total. Israel would have been gone, extinguished. Israel would be -- would have been wiped off the face of the earth, and the entire Middle East would have been, at a minimum, in big trouble. But I did it.

That was phase one. We killed Soleimani. Without Soleimani, if they had Soleimani, it would be a whole different thing. Maybe. We'd still be winning, but it would have been harder. Because we are obliterating their country. And I hate to do it, but we're obliterating. And they just don't want to say uncle. They don't want to cry as the expression goes, uncle, but they will. And if they don't, they'll have no bridges. They'll have no power plants. They'll have no anything.

I want to -- I won't go further because there are other things that are worse than those two. And we might have, well, the thing, if I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil. Because it's there for the taking. There's not a thing they can do about it. Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I'd take the oil. I'd keep the oil. I would make plenty of money.

And I'd also take care of the people of Iran much better than they've been taken care of. It's been horrible. They've killed 45,000 people as of a month and a half ago, 45,000 protesters. We don't do that. So if I had my choice, I'd keep the oil. But I also want to make the people of our country happy. I think most people wouldn't understand that.

I'll give you an example. Venezuela has worked out so incredibly. We have 100 million barrels of oil right now in Houston being refined. It's been great. The relationship with Venezuela, the leaders, has been fantastic. And I think we're going to have a long term, very good relationship.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: And it might be and it might be beyond long term. You understand.

(CROSSTALK)

[11:20:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, when you say the American people don't want that, how do you know that? Are you listening to polls?

TRUMP: Well, I tell you what, I'm pretty good at this stuff. And I go around and I check. They'd like to see us win and come home. And I appreciate CNN for the first time maybe in my life, they did a poll. And everyone said, oh, is Trump losing MAGA? No, I'm not losing MAGA. MAGA loves what I'm doing. And CNN did a poll of MAGA voters, a big poll, very important poll, Harry. And he went on, he said, this is amazing, 100 percent support.

He said, I've never had a 100 percent poll at anything before. And it's do you support Trump, MAGA people, which is, by the way, mostly Republican. If you look, I would say MAGA makes up a majority like about 95 percent of the Republican Party. All right. So they went out, they did a poll and CNN come back, 100 percent support. So they support what we're doing.

But they would like to see it end and come back. But remember wars last years, we're in there for 34 days. And we've obliterated a very powerful country in 34 days. Yes, if it were up to me, I'd like to keep the oil. I just don't think the people of the United States would really understand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-five-day ceasefire. Forty-five-day ceasefire, do you like that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is it taking care of the Iranian people if you're bombing?

TRUMP: Yes. Who are you with? Who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: PBS, sir.

TRUMP: Well, that's a radical left group of lunatics that you're with. Let me just tell you, let me just tell you, a very fair question. The Iranian people, when they don't hear bombs go off, they're upset. They want to hear bombs because they want to be free. And the only reason they're not out protesting, you know, that is because they were informed that if they protest, like the wrestler and his friends, if they protest, they will be shot immediately. And that's an edict, that's in writing.

If they protest, if they go out in the streets, they will be immediately shot. They don't have guns. You know, we sent some guns, but the group that was supposed to give, which I said would happen to my people, I said it, I called it exactly. We sent guns, a lot of guns. They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them.

Because they said, what a beautiful gun, I think I'll keep it. So I'm very upset with a certain group of people and they're going to pay a big price for that. But the Iranian people will fight back as soon as they know they're not going to be shot and as soon as they can get weapons. If they had weapons, not many of them, if they had weapons that would go in the other way, and you know what would happen? Iran would give up in two seconds because they wouldn't be able to take it.

But in Iran, they have absolutely no weaponry. And they've been told point blank, if you come out, if you come out to the streets, you will be killed. As of this morning, and we have this pretty good information, 45,000 protesters have been killed. Pretty bad.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said Iran has been obliterated. Why are we still out here like this? TRUMP: It's a good country. They can't fight back. They have no capability. I mean, they have some missiles left, they have some drones left, but essentially they have no capability. They had a lucky shot with an airplane, but we got them back out. The rescue was incredible. And it wasn't of one person, it was of two persons. There are those that say that's never happened before. Because usually when you're shot down in strong enemy and deep enemy territory, you can't go after them because you'll end up losing 250 people to get one.

So it's a terrible thing. But we had to make a decision. Do we do it or do we not? And we did. And, you know, we have some helicopters with a lot of bullet holes in them right now, probably you know that. Now, I'm very honored by -- I'm very honored to have rebuilt our military. We rebuilt our military in my first term.

I'm using it in our second term. And we are the most respected country anywhere in the world with the greatest military anywhere in the world. Thank you. So we have a news conference. You'll all be there. So you could ask the question. And we have a news conference in a little while. What would you like to ask?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, all of this is happening for their future. So they will be safe in years to come.

TRUMP: We're fighting for our children that are now in a war zone. We're keeping them as safe as we can possibly keep them. But we're fighting for their parents, their grandparents. We're fighting for them. We're fighting for their future. And I will tell you, it was given to me loud and clear. The time the Iranian people are the most unhappy when you hear bombs all over is when those bombs stop. That's the problem. When they stop, because that means that are they coming back? We want to have them back.

[11:25:02]

And, you know, everybody knows that, everybody sees it. So hopefully it could be over with quickly. Again, there are lots of different alternatives. We have many alternatives. We could leave right now and it would take 15 years to rebuild what they have. We could leave right now. But I want to finish it up. Iran ready cannot have a nuclear weapon.

They are lunatics and you can't put nuclear weapons in the hands of a lunatic. Thank you.

BLITZER: All right. So we just listened to the President of the United States answering reporters' questions, Pamela. At the White House, it's pretty extraordinary, the White House traditional Easter Egg Roll. A lot of kids there. And you see what's going on. You hear the music behind them. But he was answering serious questions.

He said this war could end very quickly if they, the Iranians do what they got to do. He did say that the current regime in Iran right now is much more reasonable, not as radicalized as the previous regime, suggesting once again that there has been regime change. But he made a major point at the beginning and middle and the end, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

He said if the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran had continued, he ripped it up on the first days of his first term, if that had continued, he said Israel would be gone today. Iran would have launched nuclear bombs against Israel. Israel would be gone. And he said if there's no deal, there's going to be no bridges, no power plants. He's really also suggesting, really for the first time, that what he really wants to do is take the oil, the Iranian oil, and make plenty of money, if at all possible.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: So he was going through a lot of substantive stuff, which we assumed he would talk about at his 1:00 p.m. White House news conference. But at this Easter Egg Roll, he decided to answer reporters' questions.

BROWN: Yes, he's giving us a little preview ahead of that 1:00 p.m. press conference. And it's interesting, he talked about sending guns to Iran for the protesters to be armed, and they ended up in the hands of another group. I spoke to an Iranian who recently fled just a couple of weeks ago after the war, and this person told me that, you know, initially when this bombing campaign started, there was a lot of hope that this would cause a lot of change in Iran and that the U.S. and Israel was finally coming to help them.

But there is concern the longer there goes on that there could be this scenario where, you know, the IRGC, which the U.S. and Israel has not been able to take out yet, is even more emboldened and even more powerful, and, you know, potentially there is infrastructure that's taken out as well. So there's a lot of concern, and it will be interesting to hear the details from the President coming up, but one also about that heroin rescue in Iran of those two airmen as well. There's still a lot to learn about that. We'll be right back.

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