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China's Role in Iran Negotiations?; Will Fragile Iran Cease- Fire Hold?. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 09, 2026 - 11:00   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 HOST: Happening now, breaking news: cease-fire tested. Another day of widespread Israeli strikes on Lebanon, as Iran threatening to walk away from the cease-fire talks. How the Trump administration is responding today.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And brand new threats. A day after meeting with the head of NATO, President Trump is still attacking the NATO alliance for not helping with the war, and he says the U.S. potentially could leave. What would that mean for NATO? What would it look like without the United States?

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.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with the breaking news.

The United States and Iran are due to hold direct talks this weekend in Pakistan. Will a fragile cease-fire hold that long? Iran says Israel violated the terms by striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, the largest strikes since the war began. But the U.S. says Lebanon was never part of the deal.

The U.S.-Iran peace talks are now scheduled for this Saturday, once again, in Pakistan. The stakes for the entire region are enormous.

BROWN: And in a late-night post on social media, President Trump warns that all U.S. ships, aircraft, and military personnel will remain in place in and around Iran until there's a real agreement.

Note that real agreement is in all caps. Then he warns that if there is no agreement -- quote -- "Then the shootin' starts bigger and better and stronger than anyone has ever seen before."

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us.

So, Alayna, are officials there confident the cease-fire will hold with the peace talks just two days away?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're certainly hoping it will.

And I will say, from the latest conversations I have been having this morning with White House officials and officials throughout the Trump administration, is that those talks are still scheduled to move forward. And, really, that is going to be, I think, the key test of whether or not this fragile cease-fire, as you put it, is actually going to hold.

I'm told that that meeting is likely to be the first of several intense negotiations that are expected to happen over this two-week span that the cease-fire covers. I will note as well that officials tell me that it's very well possible, if they believe that negotiations are going well, if they leave Pakistan on Saturday with another meeting, they believe they need more time to really hash out a much more longer-term, lasting agreement.

Because, of course, that is the goal here, is to have a much more longer-lasting kind of off-ramp to this war. They could potentially, they say, extend this two-week cease-fire to be longer. But, of course -- and you saw this with the president's post early this morning -- they still have all of the military in place in -- kind of waiting in the wings in case this does actually fall apart.

But I think Saturday is really going to be the key test to see where this could lead. And I think part of the reason really of some of the confusion that has really emerged in the last 24 -- 24 hours or so is, it's still not very clear, Pamela and Wolf, what exactly has been agreed to.

For example, it's not just what we're hearing about the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, whether Lebanon was covered in the cease-fire, but it's also about the specific 10-point plan that we heard both the president and the Iranians say would serve as the basis for these negotiations.

We saw, in the immediate aftermath of this cease-fire being declared by President Trump, the Iranians, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran put out what they said was their 10-point plan.

That is something I was told that the president was very livid about Tuesday night, saying that was not the terms that they had agreed to. We obviously saw him come and attack CNN for reporting on it.

All to say there's a lot of confusion. We have not specifically seen the exact points and details of what they are planning to discuss, and all of that is really going to be crucial to seeing what is actually laid out on Saturday when these officials meet in Islamabad.

BROWN: Yes, we shall see. Alayna, thanks so much -- Wolf.

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BLITZER: Also new this morning, Israel's military has issued a broad evacuation order for several neighborhoods in Southern Beirut in Lebanon.

Yesterday's Israeli bombardment of Lebanon is being blamed for killing at least a 182 people. Nearly 900 others were reportedly wounded. Overnight, more and more countries, as well as the United Nations, are condemning Israel for these strikes.

Here's one example. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called the strikes indiscriminate and said they -- quote -- "pose a direct threat to the sustainability of the cease-fire.'

Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's joining us live from Tel Aviv right now.

So, Jeremy, what can you tell us about the new evacuation orders the Israelis gave to various folks in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it is the latest indication that the Israeli military is showing no signs of paring back or checking itself in terms of its strikes in Lebanon, as the vice president, J.D. Vance, suggested Israel might do just yesterday.

Instead, we are seeing this widespread Israeli military evacuation order for parts of Southern Beirut. That is coming just a day after we saw those very heavy Israeli strikes in Lebanon, including in densely populated areas of Central Beirut, with more than 180 people who were killed, nearly 900 others who were injured.

Today, as well, we have seen continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon that have killed at least 10 people, including women and children, according Lebanon's national news agency. We're also seeing Israeli military ground troop activity continuing in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

The military put out several statements today talking about Hezbollah militants being killed by Israeli troops in firefights that we're seeing in Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has also carried out rocket attacks against Northern Israel once again today.

And so it's very clear that this front in this war is not ceasing fire, unlike what we are seeing in Iran, in terms of Iranian activities in Israel, Israeli attacks in Iran. That part has stopped.

But the question now is whether this continued fighting, these continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon are going to undermine this entire cease-fire, because today, once again, we heard from both the Iranian president, as well as Iran's speaker of the Parliament, Mohammad Ghalibaf, who's supposed to be the Iranian negotiator here in Pakistan.

And they have both indicated that these continued Israeli attacks in Lebanon are a serious violation of this cease-fire, and they are warning that it will carry explicit costs and strong responses -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I know Hezbollah rocket attacks have still been coming into Northern Israel, but what about Iranian strikes against various parts of Israel? Has all that stopped?

DIAMOND: It has, Wolf.

We saw Iranian ballistic missile attacks in the first hour or so of that cease-fire agreement coming into effect, at the same time as Israel was continuing to strike in Iran. But after the first few hours of the cease-fire, we saw all of that stop. We have not seen any new Iranian ballistic missile attacks at Israel since then.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us, thank you very, very much. But stay safe, as I always say to you -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: Could Iran's regime actually emerge from this war in a stronger position than before? We will discuss.

BLITZER: Also, oil prices are back up, with only a handful of ships getting through the Strait of Hormuz. And now China, Iran's biggest oil customer, is asserting itself as a potential peacemaker.

Lots going on. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BLITZER: Breaking news.

There's a major backlash this morning after hundreds of people were killed in Israel's largest strikes on Lebanon since the war began. That strike has also put the very fragile cease-fire deal with Iran in jeopardy. Pakistan says Lebanon was included in the negotiations, but the Trump administration and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, say the deal did not include stopping operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Joining us now, the retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley.

Good morning, General. Thanks so much for joining us.

As you probably heard, the vice president, J.D. Vance, the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will all go to Islamabad, Pakistan, for talks with the Iranians on Saturday.

You think they will be able to salvage this cease-fire deal and end this war?

MAJ. GEN. MARK MACCARLEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: I think that they're going to make a very intense and focused effort to do so.

But, as you have pointed out and other contributors over the last couple of hours, this whole cease-fire is incredibly tenuous, and it came into fruition in an atmosphere of ambiguity. And I have to emphasize, ambiguity is characteristic of any initial negotiations, especially for situations such as we have between Iran, the United States, and especially Israel.

And there are certain dynamics going on that perhaps relate to diverging strategic interests of both the United States and Israel. And if we focus on Israel, which is now the pivot point for either maintaining this cease-fire or the termination of cease-fire, Israel has a specific set of objectives, and it has a limited time to accomplish these objectives.

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And that is, for at least a good amount of time, several years, a decade or so, if Israel is successful in decimating its enemies, both its proxy enemies Hezbollah and, of course, Iran, it has met and exceeded its objectives.

But those objectives are not ours. They're not necessarily all of ours. And, of course, for our perspective, we had a list of objectives that the president announced. And whether we're there or that -- there or not is another question.

But these negotiations in Islamabad will be difficult. They will take time. But from a speculative point of point of view, I think both principal players, the U.S. and Iran, are interested in maintaining cease fire, meaning no more shooting for the present period of time.

There's no way any of us with any level of expertise or understanding of the Middle East and (AUDIO GAP) and say that this cease fire will indeed hold and culminate in an actual treaty.

BLITZER: President Trump says the U.S. military will remain, in his words, in place until a full agreement is reached with Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard says they will stick to the cease-fire, but warn they have a -- quote -- "finger on the trigger."

Here's what the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said just yesterday. Listen to this.

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PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Iran would be wise to find a way to get the carrier pigeon to their troops out in remote locations to know not to shoot, not to shoot any longer one-way attacks or missiles, because this is -- it takes time sometimes for cease-fires to take hold.

We're watching it. We're -- we're prepared if necessary.

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BLITZER: Once a cease-fire agreement is reached, General, how long does it usually take typically for word to travel down to ground troops?

MACCARLEY: Yes.

It's dependent upon the organization of the respective armies. So, if you're addressing the Iranian army, none of us have an intricate and deep understanding of the command-and-control systems with the Iranian government.

But as the secretary of war suggested, there are communication time lapses, an order initiated at headquarters in Tehran and the amount of time necessary to get to some field unit that is 400 or 500 kilometers away. That does take time even with electronic tools.

And I will say that a similar situation can, under certain circumstances, result in our Army, meaning that specifics of the commander's objective, our commander being the president, working through the CENTCOM commander, that message takes a little bit of time.

And -- and to go back to that word that I have stressed even earlier -- this whole period is ambiguous and challenging, and a lot of defining work has to be done in Islamabad to get clarity.

BLITZER: Which is all true.

Retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks also for your service.

BROWN: All right, up next on this Thursday, what we're learning about China's secretive involvement in the Iran cease-fire deal ahead of President Trump's planned visit to Beijing next month.

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BROWN: And now to a SITUATION ROOM special report.

The White House confirmed top-level talks took place between U.S. and Chinese officials during the lead-up to the Iran cease-fire. Beijing has been tight-lipped about its involvement.

But, as CNN's Will Ripley reports, China has several reasons to want to end the war.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "No one knows decapitation better than I do," says the eagle in the golden robe.

This A.I.-generated viral video produced by Chinese state media, it portrays the United States as an aggressor, killing Iran's supreme leader, burning through expensive weapons, while Iran responds with cheap drones, eventually running out of missiles, triggering a global oil crisis, satire that hits uncomfortably close to reality.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: South Korea didn't help us. You know who else didn't help us? Japan.

RIPLEY: But President Trump is giving China more credit, telling AFP Beijing helped broker the cease-fire, just weeks before he's set to travel there again for a high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China's Foreign Ministry says, Foreign Minister Wang Yi made 26 calls to counterparts, while a special envoy traveled to the region to mediate.

"China has actively worked to promote peace and push for an end to hostilities," she says. Why? Because a wider war threatens something Beijing depends on, oil.

The cease-fire hinges on reopening Strait of Hormuz. A fifth of the world's supply passes through it, most of it headed to Asia. China is by far the largest buyer of Iranian crude, around 80 to 90 percent, more than a million barrels a day. They've spent years propping up Tehran. Beijing cannot afford a prolonged conflict that shakes global markets.

China also helped broker a breakthrough between Iran and Saudi Arabia in 2023, and now appears to be working both sides again, publicly calling for calm, positioning itself as a responsible global power.

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But, online in China, a flood of comments like these: "Trump is the most incoherent and untrustworthy tribal leader in the history of mankind."

"The U.S. has an artillery shortage. A two-week time-out to replenish weapons stockpiles. After these two weeks, fights and bombardments will probably just resume."

In China, political content like this never goes viral, unless government censors allow it.

(on camera): China is walking a very careful line here, striking a diplomatic tone in public, possibly working behind the scenes, and at the same time embracing the power of this A.I.-generated content, seizing the moment to shape the global narrative, casting President Trump and the United States as reckless and itself as the peace- loving, responsible power, even as it continues almost daily PLA military activity near Taiwan.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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BLITZER: And just ahead, we're talking with a Democrat in Congress who's one of several lawmakers right now calling for President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be removed from office. We'll ask her why.

That's coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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