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Both U.S. and Iran Claim Victory in Two-Week Ceasefire; Israel Says, Most Strikes on Lebanon Today Since Start of War; Now, NATO Chief Meets With Rubio as Iran Ceasefire Starts. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 08, 2026 - 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, quote, overwhelming victory. That's the message from the Pentagon this morning as this fragile ceasefire with Iran holds, but making it very clear the U.S. is ready to resume combat operations at any moment.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And right now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio meeting with the NATO secretary general, as President Trump remains critical of the alliance.

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're following the breaking news, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, just a little while ago, after a two-week ceasefire, has at least paused the war with Iran. Hegseth says, the U.S. and Israel have wiped out most of Iran's military and the allies are ready to resume strikes on Iran if the ceasefire fails. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: -- streets of Baghdad and Samara Iraq ceasefire, and we all know it. As the president's Truth this morning, a big day for world peace, Iran wants it to happen. They've had enough. Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital V military victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Iran's government is also claiming victory in the ceasefire. This is video right here on your screen from Tehran, and you can see Iranians gathering in the streets waving the national flag and celebrating what they view as the White House backing down. The ceasefire agreement was expected to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but there are still many questions this morning on how that will be managed with hundreds of ships and backlog waiting to pass through.

And this morning, Israel says it has carried out its largest strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the start of the war. Pakistan, which helped broker the truce between the U.S. and Iran says the ceasefire also includes Lebanon, but Israel disputes that. BLITZER: We're following all of these developments and we have our correspondents with new reporting from the Middle East and Europe, as well as here in Washington and New York. But we begin this hour with the breaking news.

CNN's Nada Bashir is joining us live from Beirut, Lebanon, right now. That's where there is an active military campaign happening. Israel's military launching attacks at more than a hundred targets, I take it, Nada. What do you see? What's happening right now?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. We have seen a series of powerful strikes here in the capital, Beirut. We've actually just returned from filming at one of those bombed sites, seeing the aftermath firsthand, a huge amount of destruction in an area that is densely populated in typically a very busy area with shop on the roadside.

This is, of course, reflective of what we have been seeing over the last few days, but this is a little different. As you mentioned, the Israeli ministry describing this as the largest wave of attacks that has carried out on Lebanon since the beginning of the war. They say they targeted what they described to be a hundred Hezbollah targets across the country in the space of just ten minutes.

And, of course, we have seen that wave of attacks across the country here in the capital. What is different this time is that we are not seeing the traditional areas engulfed in those evacuation orders just alone being targeted. We actually have seen parts of Central Beirut, Hamra, nearby, being targeted in those strikes as well during a time of the day where many people would've been busy getting on with their day out and about.

Now, we have heard from the Lebanese Health Ministry. They say that at this stage, they believe hundreds of people have been killed and wounded over the course of those strikes across the country. We've seen firsthand on the ground the emergency response effort on the ground, ambulances, first responders, fire trucks on the ground, the military, a heavy presence of the military on the ground.

And, of course, in many of these areas, those first responders are still working to recover bodies from the rubble.

BROWN: All right, thank you so much.

I want to go live now to CNN's Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv, Israel. Nic, how is Israel viewing this ceasefire?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Prime Minister Netanyahu has said in an English statement, and it's notable that he hasn't made one in Hebrew to the people of Israel yet, of course, it is the Passover holiday still, but his statement in English said, we support President Trump and his ceasefire against Iran.

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But he made it very clear that he does not believe that the cease -- that he has to abide by a ceasefire against Hezbollah targets Lebanon and continues, as Nada was just describing, and as the IDF has described this largest coordinated round of attacks in a very short space of time, just a few hours ago today.

So, in that way, the prime minister is framing a message of support to the United States, but at the same time continuing what he has described as a need to take down the Hezbollah threat inside of Lebanon and on the ground in Lebanon. Of course, the targets as the IDF has been saying, are within civilian neighborhoods. They blame Hezbollah for that.

But I think when you talk to people here on the streets, there's something of a little bit of disappointment that President Trump has now called a ceasefire with Iran. There's criticism from opposition politicians here that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hasn't achieved the stated goals and the plans in the conflict with Iran. That has been cut short.

And I think that was a concern of the leadership here, that, at some point, President Trump would pull out of that war with Iran and leave Israel short of what its objectives are. It still views the current leadership, the new leadership, as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth described it, new leadership in Iran to the Israeli leadership. It looks like the old leadership with the same rhetoric.

And it's not clear yet where the positions are going to meet between Iran's ten-point plan, the United States 15-point plan, even if a text is even agreed between the sides against what is expected to be the possibility, according to Pakistani officials, of talks at top level hosted there in Pakistan between Israeli, U.S. and Iranian officials.

BLITZER: Nic, thank you very, very much. Nic's in Tel Aviv.

I want to go live right now to the White House. CNN's Alayna Treene is on the scene for us. Alayna, Pakistan, as you know, has invited the U.S. and Iran to talks this coming Friday. What do you think? Is the White House likely to accept that invitation?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think they are, but I will say they have not officially confirmed that the U.S. is going to be attending. I'll say this, from the conversations I've had with administration officials, they said that they are preparing to have this meeting in the coming days. They would not commit firmly to the Friday deadline, but it is likely that they will be there.

And I'll say this too, we know that the vice president is currently in Hungary, he's in Budapest, and speaking about the war will say he was also very involved throughout yesterday in some of these negotiations toward the ceasefire that was initially struck last night he could extend his current trip to travel to Islamabad.

I think both the Iranians and the Pakistanis, they have made clear in private talks that they want Vance to be there, hoping he can lend a certain presence, not only, of course, because he is the number two, he is the vice president, but also because of his past anti interventionist views and his open desire to see this war end swiftly and decisively.

Other people, we're told, that are likely to attend that meeting is the president's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, as well as the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Also people have really been at the forefront of all of these negotiations.

And the way it's been described to me, Wolf and Pamela, has been that this would be the start of what they believe would be several intense negotiations over this two-week period to ensure that they can find some sort of more permanent and lasting type of deal.

From all of the conversations I had with administration officials yesterday, I was told that they really did want to find some sort of diplomatic off-ramp, you know, to try and stave off what the president had said was going to be very aggressive and escalatory attacks if Iran did not meet their 8:00 P.M. deadline.

And so they still want that. They don't want to have fighting resume and military operations to continue, I'm told. And so it's going to be hard though, I think as well, to see if they can, you know, cross the daylight between these two different proposals that we know both the Iranians and the United States are looking at as the basis for these negotiations.

BROWN: Yes, and so many questions still about the Strait of Hormuz.

Thank you so much, Alayna Treene from the White House Forest.

And let's go live now to CNN's Melissa Bell and Budapest, Hungary, where Vice President Vance spoke earlier. Melissa, what did the vice president have to say?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard more about those late night negotiations that he was closely involved in. He repeated what he'd already said here in Budapest yesterday, that the American administration's goals in Iran militarily had been largely achieved. What we found out from him this morning was that the negotiations had allowed that ceasefire to be reached because he said the Iranians had accepted to work towards the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and yet he said this was a fragile truce.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: If the Iranians are willing in good faith to work with us, I think we can make an agreement. If they're going to lie, if they're going to cheat, if they're trying to -- going to try to prevent even the fragile truce that we've set up from taking place, then they're not going to be happy. Because what the president has also shown is that we still have clear military diplomatic, and maybe most importantly we have extraordinary economic leverage. So, the president has told us not to use those tools.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BELL: What he said, his negotiations with the regime in those fateful hours late last night had shown him was that some could be trusted, like the Iranian foreign minister that he singled out. Others, he suggested, continued to lie about what the United States had achieved militarily. And so as far as he was concerned, the fragile truce was there, but needed to be watched very carefully. For the time being, we don't know whether he goes on from here towards Pakistan or not.

BLITZER: All right. I am Melissa Bell in Budapest for us, Melissa, thank you very, very much.

I want to go right down to CNN's Clarissa Ward. She's in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Clarissa, what's the response there to this ceasefire and is it holding?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, make no mistake about it, there has been just a wave of relief across this country and indeed across the region. People were so fearful that if President Trump had gone ahead with his threat to decimate Iran's civilian infrastructure, that it would've been countries like Saudi Arabia that would've paid the price with Iran's retaliatory attacks.

Now, there is at least some hope that cooler heads are prevailing and that there is some kind of a mechanism for a path ahead.

At the same time, there are very real concerns, as you can imagine, at the daylight that exists right now, or should I say, the glaring chasm that exists right now, between the 15-point peace plan that we have seen the U.S. putting forward, and the ten-point plan that the Iranians are suggesting, and particularly we're talking about three or four key issues. Number one, that highly enriched uranium and the future of Iran's nuclear program. Number two, Iran's ballistic missiles, which have been severely degraded, but, clearly, they are still able to fire them off. Number three, Iran's regional proxies, which are still operating. And, number four, crucially, the Strait of Hormuz.

For the Gulf countries, in particular, that is a red line if Iran remains in control, even in conjunction with the U.S. with some joint toll mechanism or whatever it is exactly that is being discussed or explored. And these Gulf countries also want to make sure that their interests and their security will be at the heart of any agreement in Pakistan.

Though, frankly, at this moment, Wolf, it's important for our viewers to understand. Despite the ceasefire sort of holding, there have been multiple violations today. We have seen Israel hammering Lebanon. We've seen 17 missiles intercepted in the UAE, 35 drones, Kuwait, at least 28 drones, attacks in Bahrain, in Saudi here where I am, at least nine drones intercepted and multiple reports of a drone strike on Saudi Arabia's crucial East West Oil pipeline. That is their only artery at the moment to export their crude oil.

So, all of this just underscoring how vulnerable and fragile this ceasefire really is. Wolf?

BLITZER: Clarissa Ward, thank you very, very much. Pam?

BROWN: Thank you so much, Clarissa.

Still ahead here in The Situation Room, reexamining the United States and NATO. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting right now with the NATO secretary general. We are live at the State Department.

BLITZER: And we're also watching Wall Street and gas prices amid this very fragile ceasefire. Why it could take a while for prices of the pump to get back to pre-war levels.

Lots going on, stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Right now, we're following a very closely watched visit right here in Washington, D.C. After President Trump's announcement of a two-week ceasefire in Iran, the head of NATO, Mark Rutte, is meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over at the State Department just hours before Rutte is set to make a very high stakes trip to the White House for a meeting with President Trump.

BROWN: Yes, that'll happen later this afternoon.

So, let's discuss that and more now with CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger. He's a White House in national security correspondent for The New York Times, and he is the author of the book, New Cold Wars, China's Rise, Russia's Invasion in America's Struggle to Defend the West. David, nice to see you.

So, Secretary General Rutte is considered to be the so-called Trump whisper. With all of these attacks NATO has been facing from the president, do you think Rutte will be able to hold the alliance together?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think he can hold the alliance together. The question is, will the president actually instill enough confidence that he would come to the alliance's aid if needed? And I think that's the damage that's been done over the past month.

Now, Secretary Rutte, who used to be, of course, the prime minister of the Netherlands, is, as you say, the Trump whisperer.

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He's the one who called Trump NATO's daddy. He's the one who, at every stage, goes out of his way to compliment the president and find something in his initiatives to celebrate.

And a number of months ago, that was Trump's pressure on NATO to spend more on its own defense, something the NATO countries were far behind on, and I think many people applauded. But the problem he has now is that the president has said that much as he likes Rutte, he can't stand the NATO allies themselves who he thinks abandoned him during his excursion, as he called it, in Iran.

And so that's the damage that's got to be fixed. Because if at this point no one believes the president would actually come to Europe's aid, then the alliance isn't worth much.

BROWN: Yes, understandably.

So, I want to turn to the ceasefire the president announced last night giving the U.S. and Iran two weeks to negotiate a peace deal. There's still a lot of daylight, right, between Iran and the United States. Do you see this as the beginning of the end of this war, or just a temporary pause?

SANGER: Well, I think it's a temporary pause, but I also think it would be very difficult for the president to resume military action. You know, he started this with no consultation with the allies, and really very little warning or explanation to the American people. You saw the results in the polls. You saw the results in the market drops. You saw the results in the soaring price of oil. And I don't think the president's willing to risk that again. I think he is now forced into this negotiating track, and the Iranians know it.

BROWN: So, on that note, a lot of this negotiating is over the Strait of Hormuz, and President Trump is talking about some sort of joint alliance with Iran overseeing the strait. Is that practical?

SANGER: I'm not sure that it is. Let's remember for a moment, the Strait of Hormuz was not an issue that led to the war. It was an issue that was caused by the war, right? The Iranians shut it down in response to the American and Israeli attack, and suddenly discovered that they had this huge economic weapon that they had underutilized in their minds before.

So, what the president is doing by getting the Strait back open is basically bringing the situation back to where it was on February 28th. But if it's open under the control of the Iranians, if in fact their military decides the pace at which ships go through, then we've got less than we had when the war broke out.

The negotiations are going to have to focus on all of the old issues that we're looking at back in February, the nuclear program, whether or not Iran can enrich, whether it needs to ship its bomb-grade or near-bomb-grade uranium out of the country, whether it will put limits on its missile program. Those were all the hard issues. And the Iranians have added a few saying they want reparations for damage done during the war, and they want an end to all sanctions.

BROWN: And Iran is claiming victory here, and so is President Trump calling this, quote, total and complete victory. Is he right?

SANGER: This is a total and complete ceasefire, and whether it's a victory is going to depend on how well he does in the negotiations. If at the end of the process here we are left with what the situation as it exists today, well, then the president will have gotten less nuclear fuel out of the country with the military action than President Obama did with the 2015 Nuclear Accord, where 97 percent of the stockpile at that time was shipped out of the country. I'm not sure that's the kind of record the president's looking for.

He declared in a social media post today that the Iranians had agreed to no enrichment and to shipping the fuel, the existing fuel out of the country, that isn't what we've heard from the Iranians. So, we have a lot of facts to sort out today.

BROWN: Yes, we certainly do, a lot of work for journalists ahead.

And Secretary Hegseth spoke earlier about Iran and the enriched uranium and basically said that that is part of this, that the U.S. would need to get that enriched uranium in Iran for this to be complete. Do you see that happening?

SANGER: Well, you know, it's interesting that he said that because it was the president who said a week ago, oh, I don't care about that.

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It's deep underground. We can watch it by satellite. Of course, he cares about it. It was one of the reasons that he said he went to war because that uranium makes it possible for the Iranians to develop a weapon in relatively short order. Whether that's months or a year, we don't know, but it's pretty close.

The best way to get the uranium out would be with Iran's cooperation and inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency because this stuff is pretty unsafe to go deal with, particularly if you had to do it in a military operation.

BROWN: Yes, and there's a big question if Iran would actually cooperate with that.

David Sanger, thank you so much, as always, for your analysis. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also coming up right now, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, but who will be in control and how will this actually play out? These are just some of the questions that still need to be answered amid this very fragile ceasefire. We'll discuss with a retired U.S. Army brigadier general. That's next.

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