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The Brief with Jim Sciutto
Trump Threatens Escalation With Iran If No Deal Is Reached; Iranian Attack Hits Vital U.S. Radar Aircraft In Saudi Arabia; Fed Chair: Can Wait Before Worrying About War's Effects; Israeli Offensive Expands In Southern Lebanon; Israel Makes Death Penalty Default Sentence For Palestinians Convicted Of Fatal Attacks; Influencer Grandson Of Fidel Castro Speaks To CNN. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired March 30, 2026 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:00:51]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto joining you live from Tel Aviv, and
you're watching "The Brief."
Just at this hour, President Trump threatens to obliterate Iran's oil wells and power plants, unless they reach a deal soon.
U.S. crude oil settles above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022.
And I travel to Israel's border with Lebanon as the IDF pushes inside Lebanese territory.
We begin with carrot and stick diplomacy out of the White House today on Iran, on day 31 of this expanding conflict.
On Truth Social, the president threatened to, quote, completely obliterate Iran's power plants and oil wells if Tehran does not agree to reopen the
Strait of Hormuz.
At the same time, he said that the U.S. is talking to a, quote, more reasonable regime. All this as more American troops are arriving here in
the Middle East.
At the White House, reporter asked the president's press secretary to square that circle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Americans sit at home hearing him say, I want to talk, but I keep seeing them send troops to that region. What are they to
make of what's going on?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If there's ever a chance for a deal, again, the president is open to listening, but it does not deter
him from focusing on the military objectives that he set out 30 days ago and that our military is continuing to achieve day by day.
Kristen Holmes is at the White House. And, Kristen, I know this has been a consistent message from the White House that the president puts forces in
place in case a deal doesn't work out while pursuing diplomacy. But after all, he did go to war when diplomacy failed.
Is any closer to diplomacy now? Or -- or are we looking at an expansion of the war in the coming day?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly depends on who you ask. I mean, we heard from Karoline Leavitt. She said
these negotiations were going in a positive direction, that they're actually much more positive behind the scenes than they are publicly
because, of course, as we have been reporting, Iran has said, there aren't any direct talks happening.
They have negated the fact that they've agreed to anything in the 15-point proposal sent over by the United States. Something President Trump said
that they had agreed to most of. And in fact, they said that it was unreasonable and unreachable when it came to that document.
When it comes to President Trump, he continues to also tout this idea of good negotiations, positivity behind the scenes.
But even within his own administration, you're hearing mixed messages. We heard from the secretary of state who said it was really unclear who was
making the decisions in Iran.
He said -- he said, Marco Rubio said at one point that they needed to really be focused on these -- the possibility or probability that these
talks weren't going to go anywhere, meaning that likely the next step will be some kind of military action in the form of boots on the ground.
So whether or not we're actually getting there, it is unclear. And just a reminder, I mean, we've heard nothing publicly from any official on who
exactly they're dealing with in Iran.
President Trump today told the "New York Post" that they were talking to the parliamentary speaker, but that's the first time that we had heard
that. It was in a one-on-one interview. And even Marco Rubio, who was asked earlier about who they were talking to said, he wasn't going to give out
any names because he thought that that might harm them or put them in danger with other people in Iran.
We do know there has been a lot -- a lot of issues figuring out who is in control of what over their sense, of course, the fact that most of their
leadership was taken out.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Another risk for leaders identified publicly there.
Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.
Well, President Trump is once again threatening specifically to attack Kharg Island if they do not reach a deal, the U.S. and the Iranians, and if
the Strait of Hormuz is not open.
[18:05:06]
The fortified island handles some 90 percent of Iran's oil exports. In an interview with the "Financial Times," President Trump said his preference
would be to, quote, take the oil.
The Pentagon is, as we noted, sending more troops to this region. U.S. Central Command says a Navy ship carrying some 3,500 sailors and Marines
has now arrived.
This comes as Iranian attacks on its neighbors continue. One of those attacks destroyed a U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry early-warning aircraft at
Prince Sultan Air Base inside Arabia.
This image here shows its tail broken off, its distinct rotating radar dome on the ground. That's a loss.
Joining me now, retired U.S. Army Colonel Peter Mansoor, senior fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Professor of
Military History at Ohio State University. Thanks so much.
Good to have you, sir.
PETER MANSOOR, SENIOR FELLOW, MERSHON CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES: Thanks for having me on.
SCIUTTO: So I wonder, are there any low-risk ground operations in this region, right? Because you have a whole menu of potential options, ground
troops to take the enriched uranium, ground troops to take Kharg Island, ground troops to secure area around the Strait of Hormuz.
If the president were only to choose one of those, say Kharg Island, is that a manageable risk? Or is that a significant escalation?
MANSOOR: All of them are significant risks. For one thing, you have to either sail in or fly into the Gulf, putting you -- making you a target for
Iranian air defenses or Iranian missiles and drones once you land. And -- and that -- that makes you a target.
So it does -- doesn't matter whether we go into Kharg Island or an island alongside the Strait of Hormuz or into the Iranian mainland proper.
This is going to be a significant escalation if the president decides to use the forces that are en route to the region now.
SCIUTTO: You have said that the U.S. may be winning the war tactically, but not strategically. Explain why.
MANSOOR: As long as Iran can convince the world that it has the capability to close off the Strait of Hormuz, it will win this war. And it doesn't
really have to have a foolproof capability. All it has to do is convince the civilian crews of oil tankers that it's not worth the risk to go into
the strait, and they will remain outside.
And that gives Iran the leverage it needs at the negotiating table to strike a -- a bargain, a harder bargain than it would get otherwise.
Because if these crews on these ships were merchant mariners, and -- and this -- or the Battle of the Atlantic, and they were, you know, they had to
sail into the harm's way, the strait probably is safe enough now with U.S. naval escort that they could make it.
But they're not going to take the risk of some of them being hurt and killed. And so it's got to be 100 percent safe for the civilian crews to --
to make the journey. And that's why Iran is winning the conflict strategically.
Recent U.S. military history is full of stories of mission creep. Of course, you experienced it firsthand in -- in Iraq.
Do you see mission creep here? Something that, well, was advertised initially early as -- as a quick, relatively quick war. It's going -- it's
going longer, and at least some of the scenarios point to something even much longer from where we stand today.
MANSOOR: Despite the best intentions of the Trump administration, this will not be a quick war. And -- and there -- therefore, if you want to end it on
terms acceptable to the United States, there has to be mission creep.
I don't see how bombing gets you to the end state that you want to achieve. And if you put in ground forces, it becomes somewhat of a forever mission,
because once they're there, they have to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. They have to remain there. Absent some sort of overarching bargain with the
Iranian regime, which doesn't seem to be forthcoming.
So I think the Trump administration right now is --
SCIUTTO: That was --
MANSOOR: -- is not in a great place.
SCIUTTO: I mean, that point you just raised is something that struck me was that, let's say you open the Strait of Hormuz with -- with a ground
operation of some sort.
At what point can you confidently take those troops away? Or does that become, as you -- as you mentioned there, something longer term.
[18:10:01]
Especially if Trump says for Kharg -- regarding Kharg Island, he wants to control the oil. How long would you need forces there to control or take
Iran's oil, presumably a long time?
MANSOOR: You would have to leave the troops there either to keep the Strait of Hormuz open or to retain control of Kharg Island as long as there is no
diplomatic agreement with Tehran to end the conflict, which right now the terms that the Iranian regime such as that is -- has set are all red lines
for the United States.
And many of the 15 points that the Trump administration has submitted via Pakistan to Tehran are also red lines for Pakistan.
So it doesn't seem like there's a lot of shared negotiating space right now, which means the troops have to remain until that happens.
SCIUTTO: Before we go, I want to talk about the vulnerability of U.S. forces in the region. Because we -- we've spoken individually about
damaging strikes, the loss of that E3, for instance, the -- the deadly drone attack that killed those seven service members early on.
But -- but there also -- there's also evidence that multiple radar sites that form part of the broader missile defense system in the region have
been struck.
Taken together, have U.S. forces shown themselves to be more vulnerable than the administration is letting on?
MANSOOR: I think that's the case. I -- I believe that Iran is getting intelligence from Russia, which is pinpointing these high-value assets, and
then Iran is targeting them with drones and missiles. And some of them are leaking through the air defense systems and hitting these very high-value
targets. And so U.S. forces are more vulnerable than we would like them to be.
And if you put ground forces in to say Kharg Island, they're going to become a magnet for every drone and missile that Tehran can launch at them.
So, you know, we had best take our air defenses seriously and -- and get more air defenses flowing to the region.
SCIUTTO: Colonel Peter Mansoor, we appreciate you joining.
MANSOOR: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: For more now, joining me is Dan Diker. He's the president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Good to have you.
DAN DIKER, PRESIDENT, JERUSALEM CENTER FOR SECURITY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Nice to see you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: So you heard our -- our conversation there. And you have said that Israel is in it to win it, this war. Are you convinced the U.S. is in it to
win it? Or -- or do you see the president seeking some sort of off-ramp now?
DIKER: Well, it seems that way, Jim. I mean, the -- the president has made all kinds of statements. And in fact, he's -- he's really delivered
messages, conveyed messaging the way the Middle East conveys messaging, which is to say something and then say that the picture opposite and the
same sentence.
But if you look at the ground, the 70,000 U.S. servicemen and women that are on their way, Special Forces are on the way, the president -- the
president trying to negotiate with an Iranian regime, which is -- and let's face it, this regime is a messianic, jihadistic regime that has declared
since 1979 when they kidnapped 52 American diplomats and held them for 444 days, its intention to destroy Israel as a -- Israel as an ally to the
United States and the United States and the Western alliance. That's what it's been doing through its sort of terror and proxy terror operations for
47 years.
So if -- if you look at what the United States is doing, it is -- it is speaking through its actions on the ground, and it looks as if, and
according to what Secretary Hegseth has and what the president is saying, that they're about to engage in -- in a very forceful, targeted operation
to -- to lock -- to -- to create a lock on the Strait of Hormuz --
SCIUTTO: OK.
DIKER: -- and liberate the -- the economic hold that the Iranian regime has on the straits.
SCIUTTO: I want to get to what that would look like. But regarding the regime, President Trump has said he's already achieved regime change. He's
got reasonable people in there now he's dealing with. Does Israel buy that?
DIKER: Unless the Ahmad Vahidi, who was responsible for murdering hundreds of Jews in 1994 at the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires and also
destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, he is a key figure until he -- as well as his other regime associates, hand over power to the
opposition.
It's the same opposition, it's the same regime.
SCIUTTO: Same regime.
DIKER: -- different players.
SCIUTTO: So you're saying there has been no regime change?
DIKER: There's no -- there's no regime change. There are certain figures within the regime that apparently have laid a honey trap to try to get
President Trump to -- to go down this rabbit hole.
[18:15:05]
And listen --
SCIUTTO: You're saying it's a honey trap for the president?
DIKER: We can never underestimate the cunning of the Iranian regime. This is a -- this is a culture that -- that taught the world chess, carpet
weaving, they're patient, they're cunning, they're foxy, and they lie for a living, Jim.
SCIUTTO: You're saying President Trump's getting fooled by them?
DIKER: I'm saying that they're doing everything they can to try to fool the president. The president has very strong intuitions about this regime, and
that's why he's -- this is called, I think, Trump maximum pressure negotiations, but it really looks at this point.
Look, the Iranian regime are -- has made demands on the United States that it didn't even make before the war started.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DIKER: So, how can the United States even think about conceding more than it -- than it had before the war even began?
SCIUTTO: Well, that's something I want to drill down on because prior to the war, the strait was open. Now, the strait is closed. And the president
is negotiating to open the strait or -- or maximum pressure, whichever way he gets that. Is that a win? Or is that a step back?
DIKER: Jim, the -- the -- the Straits of Hormuz is an international waterway. What the Iranian regime has done, and unfortunately, the U.N. has
done nothing about it, is -- is to engage in massive violation of international law by controlling -- they control the straits before and
after.
Now, the fact is they have suicide -- they have suicide speeds boats.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DIKER: They have -- they're -- they're laying mines.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DIKER: They've got -- they've got --
SCIUTTO: Drones.
DIKER: -- drone. Killer drones and missiles, so they've sort of, in an asymmetrical way, they've locked up the straits.
But they did it before. It was always up to the regime who passed through and who didn't pass through. There are a thousand ships waiting in line in
order to get through the straits.
SCIUTTO: Well, to open that up, I mean you heard Colonel Peter Mansoor, a great experience in command --
DIKER: Absolutely.
SCIUTTO: -- in Iraq, say that you can't just -- you couldn't just send troops to -- to the banks of the Strait of Hormuz for a couple days or
weeks to open it. You're talking about a long-term military presence there.
Should the U.S. be prepared that -- for that? Would -- would Israel be prepared for that?
DIKER: Jim, it's a great question. It's a great question. Let's be very clear.
The Iranian regime is holding the international community and it's -- an international economy hostage right now.
You know, 30 percent of seaborne energy passes through the Straits of Hormuz. That's why the -- the price of oil is shooting up and that's why
the -- the markets have come down.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DIKER: This is the Iranian regime. This is not because American counter- operations against the regime. But you're right, it could be longer than the administration or Israel and -- and other -- and even Arab allies.
Look, Arab allies have been -- have taken five times the number of Iranian missile hits than Israel has in the entire war.
And -- and so it might take a little bit longer, but let's bear one thing in mind. What the -- the U.S. and -- and its Israeli ally have done in the
last month in terms of destruction of the Iranian regime, missile capa -- ballistic missile capabilities, nuclear -- nuclear program has been rather
an -- you know, has been extraordinary in one month.
SCIUTTO: Right.
DIKER: And so, yes, it could take a little bit longer. But at the rate that they're going, it could be a very -- it could be very swift. And we could
see -- by the way, in the next two weeks, we could see a major possibility of regime collapse.
SCIUTTO: We'll see. To date, they've -- they've managed to survive.
Dan Diker --
DIKER: You're right.
SCIUTTO: -- thanks so much for joining.
DIKER: Thank you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Coming up, $200 per barrel of oil? Financial firms are bracing for that worst-case scenario if this Iran war goes on. We'll discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:14]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. And today's Business Breakout, a mostly lower day on Wall Street. It's trader's way.
President Trump's mixed contradictory messaging on the Iran war. The president said in a social media post, talks with Iran were progressing,
but he also threatened to destroy Iranian energy targets and more if those talks fail. He says he could take Iran's oil. His words.
The president's post comes after Asian markets finish deep in the red with Japanese and South Korean stocks falling almost three percent. And the
energy markets, Brent Crude spiked more than $116 a barrel before pulling back somewhat later in the day. U.S. crude settled above $100 for the first
time since July 2022.
Analysts from the financial firm, Macquarie, are warning that crude could hit $200 a barrel if the war continues into June. JPMorgan says, the supply
crisis could hurt Europe next month.
Despite the energy shock, the Fed's chair Jerome Powell says, interest rates are in a good place for now. He suggests the Fed can wait before
worrying about the war's longer-term inflationary effects.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE: Energy shocks have tended to come and go pretty quickly. Monetary policy works with long and variable
lags, famously.
And so by the time the effects of -- of tightening and monetary policy take effect, you know, the -- the -- the oil price shock is probably long gone
and you're -- you know, you're -- you're weighing on the economy at a time when it's not appropriate.
So the tendency is to look through any kind of a supply shock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Joining us now is Tom Kloza, chief energy adviser at Gulf Oil. Tom, thanks so much for taking the time.
TOM KLOZA, CHIEF ENERGY ADVISER, GULF OIL: Hi. Nice to be here.
SCIUTTO: You've made the point that even if the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz ends in the near-term that we're in trouble for a while, that
there's no quick solution. Explain why that is.
KLOZA: Well, I -- you know, I'm going to borrow or steal from a major investment bank that said, we don't necessarily have a regime change in
Iran, but we have a regime change in the oil infrastructure in the Middle East.
I'm not quite sure what to expect afterwards and if the strait is -- is freed up. But I don't think it'll be like what we were dealing with before
where there's 20 million barrels of hydrocarbons, about 15 of crude.
And we're dealing with, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 million barrels of liquids have been lost in the first month of this
conflict.
So, you know, I -- I -- I hear what you're saying about Macquarie. And it becomes an abstraction among the banks and all the people that analyze the
symmetry of markets as to where this could end up.
SCIUTTO: Now, if the strait problem is unsolved anytime soon, you still have, in effect, a bottleneck there and all that -- that oil held behind,
you now have Iran's allies, the Houthis in Yemen threatening the -- the Red Sea pipeline.
And this is -- this is meant to be something of a backdoor, right, to get some of that Saudi oil to market.
I mean, if -- if you have trouble there, what would the combination of those problems mean for oil prices?
KLOZA: That's when you really get frightened by it. I mean, so far, the Houthis have just observed rhetoric and suggested that they were willing to
blockade the strait that's in the south of the Red Sea. But they have the potential to really inflict pain upon that strait as well as the Suez
Canal.
[18:25:03]
If you start talking about three chokepoints in the Middle East, you're really talking about exponential or hyperbolic prices for crude oil, and
let's hope that doesn't happen.
The other thing is, in a few more months, we're going to have another chokepoint, maybe not a single point, but the Gulf of Mexico during
hurricane season, you know, you can see a lot of disruptions there.
And the disruptions for refined products coming out of Persian Gulf are more serious than the disruptions for crude oil at the moment.
SCIUTTO: And in particular parts of the world, I mean, there's a reason Asian stock markets are falling more because they rely on oil coming from
this part of the world. And -- and there are genuine concerns in Europe as well. Folks are talking about not quite rationing, but at least conserving
energy there.
I mean, as this drags on, do you see the energy shocks or crises in those places getting even worse?
KLOZA: Well, we've never dealt with anything like this before. If you go back to the Russia Ukraine war, at its worst, we might have been afraid of
losing about a million barrels a day of crude oil and refined products. This is 10 to 15 to 18 times as much. And then if you get some other
involvement from the Red Sea, you're dealing with more.
You know, the price of refined products in Asia is really concerned now. We're talking about $200 jet fuel on both sides of the Pacific. And diesel
on the West Coast of the United States is $200 a barrel.
So some of those numbers that you think might represent exaggeration from a quarry and others really are just talking about what we're already seeing
in some markets.
Gasoline is not as big of a problem. It's a problem in the U.S. because it's so related to the midterms. But worldwide, it's more or less the --
the non-wanted hydrocarbon from time to time.
SCIUTTO: All right. I mean, I wonder if -- if it's 10 times the impact we saw during the Ukraine war, why is it -- why is the barrel of oil about the
price it was at the Ukraine war? I mean, is -- are the markets underestimating the effect of all this?
KLOZA: I think the markets are underestimating. As I said, we've never been through this before. We were never through something like the Russia-
Ukraine war. But as it proved, it was less about the loss of molecules and more about rerouting the flows of crude oil and refined products.
This is the actual loss. I mean, when you go through one month and you've lost 400 million barrels of hydrocarbons, that's a serious issue. And it
looks as though April is going to be a month that duplicates that.
SCIUTTO: Tom Kloza, sobering words. Thanks so much for joining.
KLOZA: Sorry, I can't be a motivational speaker.
SCIUTTO: Well, check in some of today's other business headlines. Sources say that U.S. federal prosecutors are investigating now whether lucrative
bets placed on prediction markets have violated insider trading and other laws.
It comes after analysis shared with CNN, which shows a trader on Polymarket recently won a million dollars from remarkably accurate bets on U.S. and
Israeli military action against Iran.
Air Canada says its CEO will retire this year after he was criticized for his response to a deadly crash at New York crash -- at New York's LaGuardia
Airport. Michael Rousseau issued a message of condolence in English. Canada's Prime Minister says that showed a lack of judgment, his new CEO,
must be bilingual given the French and English are Canada's official languages.
Australia is cutting its fuel and diesel tax in half to help consumers with rising energy costs there. The three-month reprieve is the latest in a
series of energy security measures adopted by Australia since the start of the Iran war. It will cost the government nearly $2 billion U.S.
Coming up after the break, as Israel expands its operations into Southern Lebanon, I traveled to Northern Israel where incoming Hezbollah fire is
part of everyday life there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:30:32]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back to "The Brief." I'm Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv. Here are the international headlines we're watching today.
A human rights group says at least 70 people have been killed in a gang attack in central Haiti. A spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General says
the attack underscores the gravity of the security situation there and wants an investigation.
Some 61,000 TSA agents provided security at U.S. airports without salaries because of the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Now, some are getting paid. President Trump ordered Homeland Security to find the money to pay them. Security lines now seem to be moving a bit more
swiftly, but the shutdown remains unresolved with Congress on break.
President Trump's press secretary said talks with Iran are, quote, going well, but she would not confirm exactly who the U.S. is talking to.
This comes after the president earlier threatened to, quote, obliterate Iran's energy sources, including oil wells, if the two sides do not reach a
deal to end the war soon.
Now to another front in this expanding war here in the Middle East, plumes of smoke drifting across Southern Lebanon as Israeli forces push further
north into Lebanese territory, exchanging fire with Hezbollah fighters.
UNICEF says that Israeli strikes there have displaced 20 percent of Lebanon's total population in just three weeks.
Israeli forces are now occupying land nearly up to the Litani River, some 20 miles into Lebanese territory, and are urging civilians there to
evacuate.
Across the border in Northern Israel, air raid sirens ring out throughout the day, a constant risk for residents there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISAN ZEEVI, SECURITY SQUAD VOLUNTEER: Let's go to there.
(SIREN)
SCIUTTO: OK.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): It's a fact of life on Israel's northern border that incoming Hezbollah fire comes frequently and without warning.
SCIUTTO: So this is life up in the north. They say about 40 warnings like that a day. We just had two of them in the span of five minutes.
Combination of rockets, sometimes anti-tank missiles, but also increasingly drones.
(EXPLOSION)
[18:35:03]
And some of them can't be intercepted.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The Kibbutz Kfar Giladi lies just about a mile from the border with Lebanon.
After the October 7th, 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel evacuated communities like these, but during this war, they're staying.
ZEEVI: You know, our children in the shelter for more than 29 days, in a shelter, not -- not allowing to go out. You know, all the -- the economic
ecosystem collapse.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): What's different now is that Israeli forces are pushing into Southern Lebanon. They say to push Hezbollah further back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the hills past the wall, you will see them.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): This company commander, the IDF only allows us to identify him as Captain M, regularly leads operations inside Lebanon.
SCIUTTO: What leads you to go across? Is it a particular threat? Or is it just establishing a regular presence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a bit of both.
SCIUTTO: Mm-hmm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More often than not, it's a concrete threat that we'll get from the intelligence that we have terrorists that are trying to come
near the border, that we have ammunition that is stored somewhere, that there are tunnels that are stored at, whatever it is.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Visiting the north himself Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israeli forces would push even further into
Lebanon.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In Lebanon, I've just instructed to further expand the existing security zone
in order to decisively thwart the threat of invasion and to push anti-tank missile fire away from our border.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): It's a move that Zeevi and other northern residents welcome.
ZEEVI: This time, the IDF actually did what us, the civil society that settled here years ago, expect them to do.
SCIUTTO: Which is?
ZEEVI: To go in front of us, not behind us. We cannot be the first line of Hezbollah.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The Israeli government now speaks of military operations all the way up to the Litani River, some 20 miles into Lebanese
territory.
To create this so-called buffer zone, Israel has now forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians from their homes into southern part of the
country. And yet, Hezbollah fire continues.
Today, the IDF has prepared to operate inside Lebanon for as long as they are ordered to.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that when we get an order, we will do whatever we need to do. And I think, and I want to believe that the Army
will make decisions for what is best for the Israeli civilians that love here.
(GUNSHOT)
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The questions for Israel are, how much further into Lebanon and for how long? For now, Israeli officials leave those questions
unanswered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Coming up on "The Brief," the occupied West Bank has seen a recent surge in violence by Israeli settlers. I'm going to speak to the head of
the Palestinian National Initiative for his views, just after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:40:39]
SCIUTTO: The Israeli military is now suspending all operations of the reserve battalion involved in the detention and assault of a CNN team in
the occupied West Bank last week. This comes following an incident Thursday in a Palestinian village where my colleague, Jeremy Diamond, and his
cameraman and team were covering the aftermath of a violent assault by Israeli settlers.
The Israeli military says the incident represented a serious ethical and professional failure and the standards of conduct and discipline
demonstrated do not align with IDF values.
As violence by Israeli settlers increases, the Israeli parliament has passed a law making it the death penalty the default sentence only for
Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks.
Joining me now is Mustafa Barghouti, president of the Palestinian National Initiative. He's also a member of the Palestinian parliament. Good to have
you on. Thanks so much for taking the time.
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, PRESIDENT OF THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL INITIATIVE: Thank you. Good to be with you.
SCIUTTO: So first, I'd like your reaction to the passage of this law, which imposes the death penalty, but only for Palestinians, convicted of dead --
deadly acts. How do you respond?
BARGHOUTI: First of all, this law is a violation of international law because Israel has no right of imposing laws on occupied people that are
occupied by it.
Second, this law confirms a very serious fascist tendencies in Israel. And it was just enough to see the fascist being re-administer, celebrating the
death sentence and the death penalty law in the Knesset, drinking alcohol with his friends.
And the third, this -- this law is a discriminatory law. It consolidates further the system of apartheid, the system of racial discrimination
against Palestinians because as you said, it is only applied to Palestinians.
If an Israeli kills a Palestinian, it will not be applied to them. And that is not new, actually. It's so systematic in terms of how Israel behaves
towards Palestinians.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this because you're aware of this story where an IDF soldier said that all of the West Bank belongs to the Jews. Of course,
that soldier, that unit, has now been disciplined.
Is it your view, though, that he was, to some degree, saying the quiet part out loud, that that is the Israeli plan to take control of -- of the entire
West Bank?
BARGHOUTI: It wasn't only that Israeli soldier that said that. Before him, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, said it. And Ben-Gvir
said it, and the Israeli finance minister Smotrich said it.
And the American ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, repeated it, saying that this is a land given to Israel by God and calling it Judea and
Samaria, instead of calling it the occupied West Bank. In violation, of course, of international law.
And the settlers' attacks on Palestinians really are encouraged by the Israeli government. These settlers' attacks are organized. They are
systematic. They are supported by the government, and these settlers are weaponized by the Israeli army itself.
And the Israeli army protects them, as you have seen in the case of the assault on your team. And there is no accountability whatsoever.
According to Yesh Din, which is an Israeli human rights organization, out of 10,000 cases of accusations of Israeli settlers' attacks on
Palestinians, only four percent were investigated. And out of the four percent, only two percent were indicted or -- or convicted. Practically,
out of 10,000 attacks, only eight cases were convicted.
So that gives you an idea about how serious and how deep the system of discrimination and oppression of Palestinians is.
[18:45:09]
SCIUTTO: There was a time when American presidents would chastise Israel for the expansion of settlements in the occupied territory. Is that -- that
time is passed with this administration.
What outlet do you have now? Who is -- who is holding the Israeli government to account as it expands Israeli control of the West Bank?
BARGHOUTI: Nobody. As a matter of fact, as long as the international community, and specially the Western governments and, of course, the United
States, abstain from imposing sanctions on Israel or violating international law or committing war crimes like the genocide we've seen in
Gaza, and now these systematic attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank that aim clearly at displacing Palestinians. The -- the goal is ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians.
As long as there are no sanctions, no punitive acts against this Israeli establishment, Israel will just proceed and it will kill if it hasn't
already killed the whole idea of two-state solution which leaves us only with one option, either ethnic cleansing, which we will never accept or one
democratic state would equal rights for everybody, which is negated as you have seen today with this death penalty in new law.
SCIUTTO: Yes. You're saying the death penalty shows there will be no equal rights?
BARGHOUTI: Absolutely. And, of course, the death penalty law is another -- another sign of how far Israel is going in the direction of creating a
terrible apartheid system. A much worse apartheid than what prevailed in South Africa at one point of time.
Even the apartheid horrible regime at the time in South Africa did not dare to say that if a black man kills a white man -- white man, he will be taken
to -- he -- he -- he will be executed. But if a white man kills a black man, he will not be.
What Israel did is that is exactly that, saying that a Palestinian could be sentenced to death penalty, but an Israeli no for the same crime.
Sciutto: Yes. Mustafa Barghouti, sobering words. We do appreciate you joining.
BARGHOUTI: Thank you so much. Take care.
SCIUTTO: Still coming up on "The Brief," we're going to take you to Cuba where Fidel Castro's influencer grandson offers a glimpse of his lifestyle
and political views in a rare on camera interview with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:50:01]
SCIUTTO: Moscow says it has broken the fuel blockade imposed on Cuba by the U.S. Russian state media reporting, a tanker with nearly 730,000 barrels of
oil has now reached a Cuban port.
President Donald Trump who was the one who restricted fuel shipments from Venezuela to Cuba, says he is just fine with the development and will not
retaliate. He says the fuel must only be used for humanitarian purposes, though.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have a tanker out there. We don't mind having somebody get a boatload because they need -- they have to survive. It wouldn't bother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That report is true, as far as you know?
TRUMP: Well, I -- I would say -- I told them if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Yes. That country is Russia. More from Cuba now, where CNN's Patrick Oppmann sat down with the influencer grandson of Fidel Castro.
Of course, the man who led the island for almost five decades. In an exclusive interview, the two discussed his political differences with his
grandfather and his support of Donald Trump's economic policies.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): In this social media satire video, Donald Trump arrives in Cuba to buy the island.
While this Trump is a fake, he's dealing with a real member of the Castro family. Fidel Castro's grandson, Sandro Castro, an influencer, a nightclub
in Rosario (ph), who says he has no interest in politics, with a very public face of an otherwise still mysterious family that has held power in
Cuba for nearly seven decades.
At an interview in his apartment in Havana, Sandro Castro says he is a sign of the changing times on the communist-run island.
OPPMANN: And what would your grandfather, Fidel Castro, say that you're more capitalist than communist?
SANDRO CASTRO, FIDEL CASTRO'S GRANDSON (through text translation): My grandfather was a person who had his principles like everyone else. But he
also respected others' opinions.
That's the way of thinking.
OPPMANN: But all the capitalists said leave you --
CASTRO (through text translation): There are many people in Cuba that think in a capitalistic way. There are many people here who want to have
capitalism with sovereignty.
OPPMANN (voice-over): When we arrive for the interview, the neighborhood Castro lives in, is in a blackout. A near constant condition these days
with the U.S. oil blockade and power plants breaking down.
Sandro Castro's apartment is lit by an electric generator. But from his balcony, the surrounding houses are in near total darkness.
He shows me his one bedroom bachelor pad, how he lacks paint for the wall, how his fridge is nearly empty, except for the Cuban beer he's always
drinking.
I point out that the appliance is a foreign brand that most Cubans could never hope to afford.
His famous last name, Sandro Castro wants people to know, doesn't come with any special treatment in a Cuba on the edge of economic collapse.
CASTRO (through text translation): We have to fight as we say in Cuba, it's tough, so tough.
OPPMANN: Even -- even for Castro (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
CASTRO (through text translation): Because you suffer through thousands of problems. In a day, there might not be electricity, no water. Goods don't
arrive. It's so hard, really hard.
OPPMANN: But being a Castro must help you.
CASTRO (through text translation): My name is my name. I am proud of my name logically. But I don't see this help you are talking about. I am one
more citizen.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Cuba faces unprecedented U.S. pressure to open politically and economically.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American, has been reaching out to Cuban officials, including members of the Castro family.
In one of his videos, Sandro Castro pretends to receive a call from Rubio, who he then hangs up on.
Rubio has said Cuban needs new leadership. And that could include Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel stepping down.
Despite Fidel and Raul Castro's support for Diaz-Canel over many years, Sandro Castro says he is no fan.
OPPMANN: Do you think President Diaz-Canel is doing a good job?
CASTRO (through text translation): I would not say he is doing a good job. For me, he is not doing a good job.
There are a lot of things he should have been doing for a while now. And today that is hurting our lives.
OPPMANN: Cuba's leaders reject attempts to blame them for the crisis. And Sandro Castro says, officials have questioned him about his often surreal
and critical postings, as well Cuban exiles regularly attack him online, he says.
OPPMANN: What do you think there are people that hate the Castro family so much?
CASTRO (through text translation): It's complicated. Many Cubans would have liked to have been capitalist. I think the majority of Cubans want to be
capitalist, not communist. That has created differences, a hatred which is not productive.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Sandro Castro says, he supports Trump's calls to open the economy, if not his threats against the island.
[18:55:09]
At the end of his video, he takes the U.S. leader on a tour of Havana. Hope from at least one member of the Castro family that historic deal with the
U.S. and opening on the island are possible.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: NASA says it's planned to launch its first crude lunar mission in more than half a century. This week is now 80 percent go. Four astronauts
are due to embark on a 10-day mission flying around the moon, this time on the Artemis II Moon rocket.
It will take them deeper into space than any human has been before. They're aimed to test NASA's systems ahead of a planned moon landing mission within
a couple of years. That'll be fun to watch.
Thanks so much for your company. I'm Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv. You've been watching "The Brief." Please do stay with CNN.
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