Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Is Interviewed About U.S.-Iran Peace Talks Set For Tomorrow In Pakistan; Vance En Route To Pakistan To Lead U.S.-Iran Talks; UNICEF: Over 1 Million People Displaced In Lebanon. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:08]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Erica Hill. Wolf Blitzer is off. Pamela Brown is on assignment.

We begin this hour with the breaking news. We are now just hours away from these peace talks aimed at ending the war with Iran. Vice President J.D. Vance, at this hour, is on his way to Islamabad, Pakistan. His delegation will include Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Here's what the Vice President had to say just before leaving a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're looking forward to the negotiation. I think it's going to be positive. We'll, of course, see. As the President of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive. So we're going to try to have a positive negotiation. The President has gave us some pretty clear guidelines, and we're going to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: One of the major topics of those talks, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. So the image that you're looking at there, you can see just how shipping has come to a virtual standstill. You see all of the boats there that are not able to go anywhere. And this, of course, is a route that supplies some 20 percent of the world's oil.

Reopening the Strait was a condition of the ceasefire. Analysts, though, say it is still at this point too risky for ships to make that journey. Another threat to derail this fragile ceasefire, Lebanon.

Today, Israel and Iran backed Hezbollah exchanging more attacks. Israel says it has agreed to direct peace talks with Lebanon as soon as possible. We also have some new CNN reporting here. Sources telling us that just before the announcement of those Israel-Lebanon talks that President Trump held a tense phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli source telling CNN Netanyahu came to understand that if he did not call for the direct talks with Lebanon, Trump might simply declare a ceasefire. Netanyahu's office telling CNN yesterday's call was a friendly conversation.

For more now on the war in Iran, I want to bring in Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. He serves in the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees. Congressman, it's good to have you with us at this hour.

Let's start with where things stand and specifically with that call and what is happening earlier this week, you had said the U.S. needs to finish the job here, highlighting the accomplishments of the U.S. military, but also telling "Fox Business" that we can't in your words here, leave, "The entire developed world vulnerable still to this regime." How vulnerable do you believe the U.S. is going into these negotiations, given that Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz now, which is not the case before the U.S. and Israel launched this war?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Well, I mean, Iran could have controlled the Strait of Hormuz at any time they wanted to. And this just demonstrates that they're -- that this is what they will do in the future. Can you imagine a nuclear-armed Iran now putting, you know, basically a gun to the world's head and says, well, now you have to pay us $10 a barrel for every barrel that flows through the Straits and we're going to control it and there's nothing you can do about it, especially after they already have a nuclear weapon. That's why Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.

Part of the negotiations has to be that the Strait of Hormuz has to be open to international shipping and that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. Now Iran wants to have a nuclear weapon and they want to control the Strait of Hormuz. So I guess I think we're a little bit, we're far apart on what we want and what Iran wants. So it'd be interesting to see what happens with these negotiations.

HILL: What is the leverage that the United States has going in, given that there has been much made of Iran's increase in leverage, because it is, as you noted, you said they could have controlled the Strait of Hormuz before, they didn't. The reality is right now they are essentially holding that waterway hostage.

GIMENEZ: Yes, right now they are, but eventually they will succumb to American military pressure and military dominance. And so we can operate on Iran anytime we want, we can touch them anytime we want. And so they have to understand that. They do understand that. And so we're dealing with a regime that uses its own people as shields for legitimate military targets. We're dealing with a regime that has killed between 30 to 50,000 of their own people two months ago.

We're dealing with a regime that is attacking neutral ships in international waters. All those are war crimes. And so, you know, I'd go into it with my eyes wide open. I don't trust this regime at all. And even though the Trump administration is saying it's a new regime, it sure looks a heck of a lot like the old regime. And so, you know, we have our work cut out for us.

This is not going to be easy. But listen, Iran is a cancer, all right? And whenever you're trying to cure cancer, the medicine is going to be painful. But we have to go through it in order to cure that cancer and rid the world of this menace, which is this regime in Iran.

HILL: So just picking up on what you're saying there, we know the President is keeping assets in the region. These are going to be difficult talks, is what I'm hearing from you, which is what we've heard from a number of folks. What I hear from you, too, is if this diplomatic effort does not work, are you comfortable then with the U.S. resuming these attacks? And if so, what does that look like to you?

[11:05:08]

GIMENEZ: Well, look, if the effort does not work and the President has basically called a ceasefire for two weeks, our leverage is our ability to hit and strike Iran at any time in any place of our choosing and really crippling the regime. And that's what we need to do if it gets to that. And so the regime has to understand that. They do.

I mean, we've been operating there for 40 days, and they've been basically able to do nothing about it. And so that's where we come in. And then our capacity to eventually open the Strait of Hormuz anyway, regardless of what Iran wants to do, by crippling their coastal defensive systems and offensive systems, and then bringing NATO in eventually to start to convoy these ships through.

We cannot allow a nuclear-armed Iran to hold the world hostage. And if they become a nuclear power, they will. We also have to obtain the 500 kilograms of nuclear material that Iran has right now. So that's got to be some of the things that are non-starters for us. And yes, we're going to be far apart, but then, you know, Iran is going to have to suffer the consequences if, in fact, they don't come to the negotiating table.

HILL: In terms of suffering the consequences, of course, earlier this week, the President threatened to, in his words, eliminate a, "Whole civilization in Iran." That has prompted a lot of pushback for obvious reasons. You mentioned war crimes on the part of Iran. That has brought up questions about war crimes potentially, if the U.S. were to act on that, along with the threats of taking out energy infrastructure. Are you comfortable with the President's language?

GIMENEZ: Look, I mean, the president has his way of trying to negotiate, and so a lot of times what I'll do is I don't listen to really a lot of what he says. I just look at what he does.

HILL: Would you be comfortable if he ordered the military to wipe out an entire civilization?

GIMENEZ: Absolutely not. I mean, that's not something I'm going to be comfortable with, wiping out a civilization. But again, I'm not also comfortable with Iran threatening to wipe out Israel and America for the last 47 years, death to America, death to Israel. I'm not comfortable with that either.

But the only people that have really actually have war crimes against them is the Iranian regime. Like I said, using their own population as human shields on legitimate military targets, striking neutral flag ships in international waters. Those are real war crimes at this regime. And then killing thousands of their own people when all they want is freedom. Those are war crimes, OK?

So we're dealing with a regime that has been, you know, perpetrating war crimes for decades. For the President of the United States to say that, which I wish he hadn't, but that is not a war crime, all right? That's his negotiating style. And so I'll leave it there. I'll leave it there.

HILL: There are multiple players, of course, in this war. As I noted, Arne reporting, President Trump in an interview, well, he had said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to be a little more low-key in his Lebanon operations. Is Israel and the continued back and forth between Israel and Hezbollah, is that complicating these diplomatic efforts going into discussions tomorrow?

GIMENEZ: Yes, probably, and maybe, but also Israel has a right to defend itself. And Hezbollah continues, you know, launch rockets at Israel, and Israel has a right to defend itself. What is interesting is that the Lebanese government is starting to become more and more friendly to our side, and is asking Hezbollah to disarm. That's a heck of a development, that the Lebanese government would do that.

And so, you know, I think the pressure campaign is working. Hezbollah, Hamas, they need to be disarmed. And Iran has to be convinced that they can no longer fund these proxy, you know, these proxies that create havoc in the region, along with the Houthis down in Yemen.

HILL: I do want to ask you before I let you go, so we're just getting some new numbers in this morning. The first inflation report since the war began, the annual rate of inflation, up now 3.3 percent. That's up from just 2.4 percent in February. It's the highest annual inflation rate in nearly two years. The highest annual inflation rate for any month of either of President Trump's terms.

Consumer prices, as you know, also up 0.9 percent month over month. When we look at consumer sentiment, we were just talking about that number before our segment plummeting to its lowest level on record due to frustration with these price spikes. The President was elected on his promises to bring down prices, to bring down inflation. The opposite is happening. Is the president taking his eye off the ball here, Congressman?

GIMENEZ: No, I don't think so. Look, like I said, Iran is a cancer, OK? And once we eliminate that cancer, the price of oil will start to drop. And I'm certain of it. And like I said, whenever you have a cancer and you're trying to cure that cancer, it's going to be painful. The cure is not easy. And so but you have to do that cure.

[11:10:12]

HILL: How long is that pain going to last for your constituents?

GIMENEZ: Until we cure the cancer, all right? And so that's what we have to do, because at the end, if we don't, then we're going to be suffering these high oil prices forever, because Iran will control the Strait of Hormuz, and then they'll have a nuclear weapon, and then they will drive oil prices up as far as they want to. And they will extract a huge price for oil tankers to go through the Strait. So yes, there is temporary pain for long-term gain.

And so, you know, I'm willing to look at that for a while. And by the way, we're nowhere close to the 9 percent inflation rate that we had during the Biden administration. And so we're one-third of that. And yes, we've had a jump because of this war, but again, we can't keep our eye off the ball of what it is we're trying to accomplish in Iran. It's peace in the Middle East, peace throughout the world, and a regime that no longer can threaten the oil supply of the world. It's not going to be easy to obtain.

I'm never going to say it's going to be something that we can do right away or very easily done, but we have to keep our eye on that ball. And I hope that the President keeps his eye on that ball, too, because the worst thing that could happen is go through this, and then have Iran have and obtain a nuclear weapon, and then also have them in control of the Straits. That would be the worst outcome. I don't believe this President is going to allow that.

HILL: Congressman Carlos Gimenez, appreciate your time. Thank you.

GIMENEZ: Thank you.

HILL: Still to come here, the world anxiously waiting to see whether these talks will lead to anything concrete. You heard the congressman lay out the stakes there. The U.S., Iran, Israel, they all appear to have somewhat different goals. We'll take a closer look.

Plus, the Artemis II astronauts now set for the ride of their lives. Their spacecraft is sending back to Earth at breakneck speed. We are live at Mission Control in Houston. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:26]

HILL: Right now, the U.S. and Iran are actively preparing for critical peace talks beginning tomorrow. A new video shows tightening security around the city of Islamabad, Pakistan, where American and Iranian delegations will be meeting for the first time since the start of the war. New strikes by Israel, though, against Hezbollah militants today in Lebanon are raising concerns about the two sides being able to reach a long-term deal.

Joining us to discuss, CNN global affairs analyst, Iran expert, Karim Sadjadpour, as well as CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Gentlemen, nice to see both of you this morning. Karim, I want to start with you. I noticed in a piece in "The New York Times" this morning you spoke with "The Times" talking about, you know, where we are heading into these negotiations and that what had started, essentially, as a story about Tehran massacring its own people has now turned into a narrative of, you know, Tehran successfully resisting America and Israel. How does that set us -- how does that set up, rather, these talks, moving into the talks this weekend?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's an important question, Erica, because the Iranians feel that they have triumphed, that at the outset of this war, the United States and Israel wanted to change the regime to eliminate their nuclear program, eliminate their missiles, eliminate their proxies, and now the entire conversation has shifted away from American and Israeli demands to Iran opening up the Strait of Hormuz.

So, both publicly in their public statements, but also their private statements, I think the Iranians feel that they've triumphed, they've survived, and now they have demands, which I don't think they would have asked for even six weeks ago.

HILL: Which is fascinating to think about where we are. The U.S. has been focusing some of its attention in terms of the successes on the military successes, Colonel, and just how much of Iran's military has been taken out. And there have been some important successes there when it comes to looking at what the U.S. and Israel have been able to do, but the reality is Iran is not -- Iran's military is not totally obliterated at this point.

We've seen with continued attacks on Gulf states as well that they do have the ability to attack. Can you just put in perspective for us what those capabilities are in this moment?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, sure, Erica. Well, the Iranians have a lot of capabilities that are in essence hidden in some respects because what they do is they have this profound system of underground bunkers, underground tunnels, where they store a lot of their missiles.

So we think that there are about 50 percent or so of their missiles still remaining. So that's a significant number of missiles. The next question becomes how many launchers do they actually have, which then gives them the capability to actually launch those missiles.

And they do still have a considerable number of those. There have been a lot that have been destroyed, but they still have enough to create havoc in places like Israel, places like Saudi Arabia and other countries along the Persian Gulf periphery. So this is, you know, one of the critical elements.

And then, of course, we can't forget the drones. The drones are critically important, and they're part of really the types of tactics. In essence, they're tactics designed to overwhelm the existing air defense and missile defense systems in the Persian Gulf region and in Israel. And they've kind of perfected those tactics and techniques over the years. And what they're able to do is conduct attacks on places like the United Arab Emirates and on Saudi Arabia, where they hit that east-west oil pipeline and caused damage there.

[11:20:02]

HILL: Yes, and we're certainly seeing the impact of that. I'm also struck by there are, of course, multiple players when we look at these negotiations. And this very fragile ceasefire, the role that Israel is playing in this when it comes to those attacks on Hezbollah and Lebanon. And CNN reporting that Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu had a, "Tense phone call yesterday." This was just before Israel announced that it would seek ceasefire talks with Lebanon. There's been a lot of back and forth here. I just asked Congressman Gimenez of Florida whether Israel is complicating these talks, complicating the situations heading into the negotiations tomorrow. And he said yes. Karim, would you agree?

SADJADPOUR: So, Israel and the United States have somewhat different interests here. Israel sees Iran and its regional proxies as an existential threat. And they see this as a continued opportunity to decimate those proxies, in this particular case, Lebanese Hezbollah. I think President Trump obviously has different interests.

He has been prosecuting this war for six weeks. But he recognizes that the continued spike in oil prices is not good for global public opinion. It's not good for his base, for American public opinion. So I think that the Iranian perception is that President Trump wants to wrap this war up, but Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't. And so I do think that there are divergent interests at play here.

HILL: And when it comes to, Colonel, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, you were just talking about the drone capabilities. This has come up so often as we talk about what it would take to secure the Strait. Moving forward, is it possible to secure the Strait at this point?

LEIGHTON: Well, it's certainly possible, at least temporarily. And that's where the rub is, basically, Erica. Because when you look at the geography, of course, Iran is going to stay where it is. And it's going to be in a position where it can control the northern part of the Strait of Hormuz. Now, having said that, there would be, you know, technically speaking and operationally speaking, it would be possible to create a zone, basically it's a no-fire zone, where no Iranian missiles, no Iranian drones would be in a position to attack any shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and in the rest of the Persian Gulf.

But particularly in that choke point, in that particular choke point, it becomes really essential to keep freedom of navigation alive. And so when the negotiators go to Islamabad, the Vice President and the other members of his team, that becomes a, should be a critical aim of the United States. It should be to go back, in essence, to the status quo ante, which means the time before this war, where the Strait of Hormuz was part of the free flow of maritime travel, maritime commerce. And that's what both countries need, and that's really what the rest of the world needs right now.

HILL: Colonel Cedric Leighton, Karim Sadjadpour, really appreciate your insight and your expertise this hour. Thank you.

LEIGHTON: Thank you, Erica.

SADJADPOUR: Thank you.

[11:23:08]

HILL: Up next here, as we continue our focus on Lebanon, Lebanon says Israeli airstrikes have killed nearly 2,000 people. More than a million people are displaced. The United Nations offering up a dire new warning about the growing humanitarian crisis. We are live in Beirut ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Breaking news. The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah says it has targeted Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon earlier this morning. This comes with Israel continuing its strikes across Lebanon, which Iran says could threaten the fragile ceasefire deal. Israel, the United States, and Iran, of course, still debating whether Lebanon is actually part of that agreement. UNICEF, though, says more than a million people have now been displaced in Lebanon since the start of this latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABED SABRA (through translator): There's something unbelievable, destruction. Very massive destruction. I mean, even someone who isn't afraid would become afraid. I feel fear and anxiety. Where is this country headed? What are we going to do with our lives? Where are we staying and where are we going? No one knows what's going to happen. We have children, livelihoods, property. People want to live. Enough. We've had enough war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Again, more than a million people now displaced. CNN correspondent Nada Bashir joins us now from Beirut. This is a growing humanitarian crisis and there are growing concerns as we just heard from that gentleman about how long it will last. What more have you found in your reporting?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There certainly is growing fear here in Lebanon, Erica, around the potential for a further expansion of Israel's aerial assault on Lebanon. Of course, the Israeli military says it is targeting Hezbollah command and military targets. But what we've been seeing on the ground throughout our reporting is the impact that these strikes have had on civilian infrastructure, including shelters, where those displaced by the war over the last few months have sought safety, only to then be impacted yet again and directly by Israeli airstrikes.

[11:29:52] We've been speaking to families on the ground, many of whom, of course, are desperate for an end to the war and are of course, really reeling still from Wednesday's devastating attack. We did see that large scale wave of aerial attacks by the Israeli military, not just across the country, but also here in --