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The Situation Room

Iran Talks Stalling?; Destructive Storms; Israel Conducts Strikes in Lebanon. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 27, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're following breaking news in Southern Lebanon right now.

That's where Israeli military says it began striking what it calls Hezbollah infrastructure. This is the latest test for an already fragile cease-fire in the region. And this video shows Israeli military at the border with Lebanon.

Israel and the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah have increased their attacks on each other despite a U.S.-brokered extension of their 10- day agreement. Lebanese health officials say 14 people were killed, including two children, in this latest Israeli strike on Sunday.

CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond is here with us in Washington in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Jeremy, first of all, tell us about these latest strikes.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, well, this seems to be the most intense activity that we have seen in terms of cross-border fire since the cease-fire came into effect. And it is the biggest test for the cease-fire to date.

Yesterday, we saw Israeli strikes in Lebanon, as well as Hezbollah rocket attacks not only against Israeli troops in Southern Lebanon, but also in Northern Israel. Fourteen people were killed in those Israeli strikes in Southern Lebanon, including two children, as a result of that.

It's also important to note that, even before that heavy day of activity yesterday, we had seen near daily Israeli strikes in Lebanon that have killed some 47 people since this cease-fire went into effect. Hezbollah attacks also killed an Israeli soldier and injured several others.

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And, today, we are already watching the reaction in Northern Israel, as some of those communities are starting to shut down schools as a result of that intensified rocket fire. So, it's really -- this cease- fire is only being held together by kind of the political will that still exists for it to continue because of that diplomacy that we have seen President Trump launch as it relates to Israel and Lebanon.

Today, the Lebanese president also quite -- being quite critical of Hezbollah, saying that they are acting in another country's interest, that they have brought this war upon them. Remember, it was Hezbollah that began firing on Israel shortly after the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran.

They did so, of course, very much at the request of the Iranians. They are considered an Iranian proxy.

BLITZER: They certainly are.

You were at the Saturday night White House Correspondents' Dinner. Normally, I run into you either at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem or the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. And I was surprised to see you at the Washington Hilton Hotel Saturday night, especially when shots were ringing out as they were.

Describe where you were in the ballroom and what that chaotic situation was like for you personally, as someone who has covered all these kinds of similar incidents going on in Israel.

DIAMOND: Well, when I first heard the pops, I heard at least one of the pops go off. And, in my mind, that was immediately...

BLITZER: A gunshot.

DIAMOND: Immediately sounded like gunfire to me.

Of course, we couldn't be sure in the moment. But it was muffled, which told me that it wasn't in the room. What we immediately saw then was everyone kind of getting down on the floor. I started kneeling down, began filming with my phone. And it was really the chaos in the room that was perhaps most frightening, I think, to people around them.

They saw the tactical team come out with their guns drawn. And there was a bit of uncertainty about whether there was somebody actually in the ballroom. Now, again, because I heard the sound of it and recognized the sound of gunfire, it's pretty clear to me that it wasn't in the room, but, nonetheless, a very frightening situation.

Of course, you, Wolf, saw it closer up than anybody else. And we're so glad you're OK. And you did the extraordinary journalism that you're known for.

BLITZER: Thank you very much. Thank you. It was a very terrifying situation, very frightening for me.

DIAMOND: Yes.

BLITZER: But you have seen these kinds of incidents... DIAMOND: Yes.

BLITZER: ... these terrorist-related incidents, over your last few years covering what's going on in Israel.

But you're a former White House correspondent here in Washington as well, so you had some clear identity issues of what was going on.

DIAMOND: Yes, for sure.

And you know that gun violence is an issue in America, and these things can happen. We have seen the political violence escalate, in particular, in the United States. But, obviously, coming from a place where I am used to covering a war, it was not exactly my first expectation coming to Washington that I would be hearing gunshots and being in the middle of that situation, but glad everybody's OK on this one.

BLITZER: You got a question for Jeremy?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: No, I was just agreeing with him on the chaos in the room and not knowing...

DIAMOND: Yes.

BROWN: ... who's the good guy, bad guy, or not just -- just not knowing what was going on.

BLITZER: It was pretty scary, the whole thing.

DIAMOND: Yes.

BLITZER: And I'm sure you were scared. We were all scared. We didn't know what was going to happen, unfortunately.

DIAMOND: Yes.

BLITZER: It could have been a whole lot worse, as we all know.

DIAMOND: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Welcome to Washington.

BROWN: Good to have you in THE SITUATION ROOM.

DIAMOND: Good to see you guys.

BLITZER: You're going to be heading back to the region soon, I assume.

DIAMOND: Heading back in a few days.

BLITZER: OK, good. We will miss you.

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: All right, thanks very much, Jeremy Diamond. Appreciate it.

BROWN: And just ahead: Dangerous and destructive storms are bearing down in the middle of the country today, as we get shocking new video of the tornadoes those storms are generating.

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BROWN: Breaking news: Millions of Americans could face violent and dangerous weather today as a line of storms sweep across the country. Storm chasers in Oklahoma captured these incredible images on Sunday.

And you can see not one, but two tornadoes in the distance. And this is video from Kansas, where storms blew several freight train cars right off of the tracks.

CNN meteorologist Chris Warren is tracking the severe weather threat.

What's the latest, Chris?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, there are some strong storms out there right now, Pamela.

The yellow-shaded areas are severe thunderstorm watches. So conditions are favorable for the development of storms, where we are right now, seeing storms developing. Another way to think of watches is, we're watching for warnings. And if there is a warning, that means there is severe weather happening or about to happen.

And that's what these orange-outlined areas are. Those are severe thunderstorm warnings, so dangerous storms because of the large hail and/or some strong, damaging winds. But there's also a tornado threat that's going to unfold and develop throughout the day today. We have even had a few warnings already this morning.

That's likely to increase throughout the day, so still large hail, damaging winds, not just tornadoes, but it's possible there could be some strong violent tornadoes. And these strong storms can live longer. And the longer they are in progress, the better chance, unfortunately, they have of hitting stuff, so something to watch out for throughout the day.

The future radar gives us a general idea of what the radar can look like. And it does give us some clues into what's going to happen today, how the atmosphere could unfold. When we look at this at 6:00, here's St. Louis and there's storms to the east and to the west.

These individual storms, when they're by themselves, this is when they could have the big tornado threat with them, and then that damaging wind threat as it moves through tomorrow, not as great of a threat, but still the possibility for some strong storms here.

And, Pamela, when we look and think about the fires that are burning in the Southeast, not getting a whole lot of relief. Any relief that does come will be mid to the end of the week. BROWN: All right, Chris Warren, thanks for bringing us the latest on

that front.

And new this morning, the biggest measles outbreak the country has seen in decades is now over. There were close to 1,000 confirmed cases in South Carolina since October and most of the patients were not vaccinated. But health officials there say it's been long enough since the last new case to determine there's been no more transmission.

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But because of that outbreak and another one in West Texas, 2025 was the country's worst year for measles since it was declared eliminated in 2000. And this year is on track to be even worse. Health experts say falling vaccination rates are a large factor in the rise. So, we will have to wait and see what happens.

BLITZER: That's worrisome, indeed.

And coming up: President Trump set to huddle with his top national security adviser, that according to sources, this as talks with Iran appear to lose steam nearly two months into this war.

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BLITZER: We have some breaking news.

President Trump is meeting with his top national security officials today after talks with Iran broke down over the weekend, that according to two sources. CNN is also learning that the latest Iran proposal focuses on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but moves the Iran nuclear question further and further down the road.

Joining us now is CNN military analyst retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, and Beth Sanner. She's a CNN national security analyst, former deputy director of national intelligence.

Beth, let me begin with you.

As the president meets with his top advisers today, presumably the White House Situation Room...

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

BLITZER: It's another Situation Room over there.

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BLITZER: What are the options they're likely giving him?

SANNER: Well, I mean, he has to decide right now, is he going to continue this game of chicken with Iran over actually sitting down at the negotiating table and on a more narrow focus, which is opening the strait? Because, clearly, the Iranians are -- despite all the talk of divisions and everything, they are holding firm on they're not ready to talk about the nuclear proposals that we have put on the table. So are we going to back down a little bit on those proposals so we can start talking about them, or are we going to move forward with discussing the strait?

Or are we going to hang tough and think that maybe we can outwait the Iranians in the pain category?

BLITZER: Let me get Colonel Leighton into this conversation.

Colonel, is Iran potentially overplaying its hand, even though it seems to have control over the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. blockade doesn't appear to be fully in effect?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Wolf, I think there's a chance that Iran might be overplaying its hand by a bit, because if the Iranians don't get to export their oil, then that results in a backup within the Iranian petroleum system.

And what that would mean is that they would then, at a fairly soon -- point that's fairly soon in the future, would not be able to pump the oil that they need to in order to gain the revenue that they need to run things, not only their military apparatus, but their entire government.

So it is possible that they're overplaying their hand by a bit, but they certainly do have the cards, as we say, in terms of controlling the Strait of Hormuz for the moment. That is something that is -- gives them a bit of strength. But they do have some vulnerabilities here.

BLITZER: They certainly do.

Beth, Iran's foreign minister is meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, today. Why does this meeting matter?

SANNER: Well, because Iran has been helping Iran -- because Russia's been helping Iran throughout this war.

They have been providing the targeting and the tactical help to Iran to target American troops, ships, and airplanes, in other words, to kill Americans. And President Trump said, that's OK, we do that too, kind of granting impunity to Russia for this behavior.

And now the Iranian foreign minister is there, and I don't really feel like the Russians are trying to help. When you look at Putin's comments coming out of that meeting, he congratulated the foreign minister and the Iranian people for heroically and courageously standing up for Iran's sovereignty and independence.

And I have to say, the irony of that, when they're fighting, taking away Ukraine's sovereignty and independence, is just a little too rich for me. But, clearly, Russia's signaling here that they have got Iran's back. And that may provide a little bit of an escape valve for all this pressure that's on Iran. It may help them keep going a little bit.

BLITZER: Good point.

Colonel, with a third U.S. aircraft carrier battle group now in the region, what is the full range of military options for the United States right now?

LEIGHTON: Well, there are several things that -- from a military standpoint, Wolf, that the United States can do at this point. One of them is to enforce an opening of the Strait of Hormuz and reinforce the blockade that they -- we have already put in place against the Iranians. So that's one area.

The other thing, of course, is that we can restart the war. So there is a possibility that all of these forces, especially the airpower that's being brought to bear with those three aircraft carrier groups, plus the Air Force assets that are land-based in the region, all of that could be used to restart a bombing campaign if the president chooses to do so.

So, there are several options that the U.S. has, and it could be the type of option where force is used to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table, or at least an attempt is made to bring them to the negotiating table, using that military force.

BLITZER: What's the likelihood, Beth, that the United States will resume its attacks, its military attacks, on Iran?

SANNER: So I didn't include that in the options that I think are being discussed today, because I don't really think it's on the table at least this week.

I think that the president has been told this could be resolved pretty quickly. I think that that information about how quickly Iran will have damage to their oil is overstated by the president. I think he's not been given great information on that.

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But there are a couple factors that are arguing against him resuming bombing, domestic politics, clearly, right? But he also wants this summit with President Xi that's in just a couple weeks' time to work out. And I think that resuming bombing, there are other things that are just like -- I think he wants to play this out.

He doesn't really want to restart. But we do have three aircraft carriers...

BLITZER: Yes.

SANNER: ... and about 200 planes in the region. So we can, at the flip of a switch, if the president so chooses.

BLITZER: Each one of those aircraft carriers has about 6,000 sailors and Marines on board as well, and a lot of planes, as you correctly point out. SANNER: A lot.

BLITZER: Beth Sanner, Cedric Leighton, to both of you, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: And thank you all for joining us this morning.

"INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Manu Raju starts right after a short break.