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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Iran And Lebanon Launch Missiles Toward Israel; Military Base Across U.S. Ordered To Step Up Security; James Talarico Wins Senate Democratic Primary In Texas; U.S. Lawmakers To Vote On War Powers Resolution This Week; State Department Says No Evacuation Points for U.S. Citizens; Travelers Stranded by Flight Disruptions in Middle East; Qatar Arrests 10 People Suspected of Links to Iran's IRGC; Iran Strikes Largest U.S. Military Base in Mideast; Oil Prices Surge as War in Middle East Disrupts Global Markets; War in Middle East Roils Global Markets and Shipping; Trump Orders Insurance for Tankers Amid War With Iran. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:01:12]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome to a special third hour of THE STORY IS, I'm Elex Michaelson, live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

We're following two big breaking stories. We start though in the world of politics, it is election night in Texas, and CNN just moments ago, projecting that James Talarico will win the hotly contested Texas Senate Democratic primary against Jasmine Crockett. James Talarico advancing to the next round.

The other big story at this hour is the intensifying war with Iran. Let's begin in the Middle East, where the U.S. and Israel's war now entering day five. Just moments ago, we could see smoke in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital of Beirut, several explosions that we witnessed within the last hour, all that coming after the Israeli military issued an urgent warning for residents to get out of the area, claiming they were in close proximity to Hezbollah facilities.

Now, hours ago, Israel launched what it called a new broad wave of strikes against Iran. They have targeted what the IDF described as command centers used by Iran's domestic security apparatus, a U.S. based human rights group says more than a thousand people, including children, have been killed in Iran since the war there began on Saturday.

Meanwhile, concerns are now growing across the region about the stockpile of weapons needed to defend against Iranian attacks. Sources tell CNN that at least one U.S. Gulf ally is already running low on crucial munitions used to defense against those Iranian missiles and all the drones that Iran have been sending up in the air as well.

Now, all this as the Trump administration is touting a number of early successes in the conflict, while also trying to get its messaging straight on why it went to war in the first place. President Trump also faced scrutiny over the fact that U.S. citizens are now trapped in the Middle East days after the U.S. and Israel launched the first strikes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why wasn't there an evacuation plan and will you send planes to get people out?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, because it happened all very quickly, we thought, and I thought maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack others. You're seeing that right now.

And a lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries.

So, I think I was right about that. We attacked first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: CNN has team coverage live around the world right now. Paula Hancocks standing by in Dubai. Let's start things off with Oren Lieberman live in Tel Aviv. Oren, it seems like the Israeli military is busy right now.

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Absolutely on two fronts. First in Iran where, as you pointed out, the Israeli military has conducted airstrikes against what it says our command and control (AUDIO GAP) elite force within the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as other targets. They've gone after the IRGC. They've gone after the regime itself and its mechanisms, its compounds, its facilities, and they continue to strike ballistic missile arrays and launchers.

There have been more of those incoming over light -- overnight, or at least warnings of those two in Jerusalem, one in the early morning hours and one just several hours ago. Many of those have been intercepted, especially in the last day or two, but earlier in this war, which is only five days old now, some of those were able to get through.

[02:05:03]

Regardless, Israel continues to strike Iran at a furious pace, a conflict that, even if it's not intensifying as we speak, is already and remains very intense.

At the same time, Israel is also striking Dahieh in Beirut, that Israel views as a Hezbollah stronghold, and now they say they're going after Hezbollah infrastructure. Lebanese state media saying at least one residential building has been hit in Beirut, with several killed there. We have reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

For Israel, this is an ongoing, effectively simultaneous war on two fronts as they try not only to take out the Iranian regime and they've taken out its leadership, but are now going after from the top down, essentially, but also trying to, trying to disarm and take out Hezbollah. The Israeli military chief said just yesterday they wouldn't stop in Lebanon until Hezbollah was fully disarmed.

MICHAELSON: Yes. And Oren, yesterday, the Israeli military struck the compound in Iran where they believed that the vote was being held for the next Supreme Leader. What more do you know about that and who was potentially killed?

LIEBERMAN: That was a strike on the holy city of Qom, on what's called the Assembly of Experts, an 88 member council of senior clerics that's supposed to vote and meet to pick the next Iranian Supreme Leader.

Israel believes they were striking that compound as the vote was happening, and even some officials had expressed some optimism that that they had hit their target, that they had killed at least some members of that council. Iranian state media, however, said that the council itself was meeting virtually and none of the members were in the building, or at least not a -- not a large number of them.

At this point it's still unclear, but a short time ago, Defense Minister Israel Katz from Israel said, no matter who is picked as the next Iranian supreme leader, Israel considers him a legitimate target and will continue to pursue him.

So, Israel not just going for the -- for the current regime change, but trying to make sure there's no mechanism by which it can pick its own future.

MICHAELSON: And wouldn't you think at this point it would be smart for Iran to be meeting virtually?

LIEBERMAN: It would seem that way, which is why we were kind of surprised by the first reports that they struck while they were meeting. And again, Iranian state media says they had been meeting virtually.

Look, I think Israel's intelligence on Iran has been exquisite, I would say, at this point since the beginning of the conflict, but we're now on day five, as Israel moves down that target list that it says it's developed over the past several months.

MICHAELSON: And of course, sometimes we have the fog of war after some of these attacks. Oren Lieberman in Tel Aviv continuing his great reporting for us. Thank you, Oren.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says all personnel are accounted for after a drone struck a parking lot near the U.S. Consulate in Dubai. Paula Hancocks is live in Dubai with more on that. Paula. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Elex, the U.S. Consulate in Dubai not far from here that was targeted. We understand it was the parking lots are just close to the building itself. Now we understand that there have been no casualties, no one hurt. There was no one there at the time. We know that the consulate here in Dubai, the embassy in Abu Dhabi, had already been closed. They had said that they wouldn't be, at least taking appointments until March 4th, so until today, that's clearly going to change, now that the consulate itself has been targeted.

But they say that there was also a CIA station in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia that has been targeted. We understand the significant damage to that building, but again, no casualties.

And also two cruise missiles were targeting an area near Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. It's close to a Saudi military base, but it's one that we know U.S. military aircraft have been using in the past.

And in Kuwait, we know that there have been overnight strikes as well. In fact, there was several projectiles that were intercepted by officials. They say the debris of one of those interceptions hit a residential building and killed an 11-year-old girl.

So, the incoming is continuing to these Gulf nations. In fact, just about 10 minutes ago, we heard two interceptions overhead here in Dubai, we've heard from the Revolutionary Guards in Iran that they are expanding their scope when it comes to what is on their target list, saying that also American political centers are now going to be targeted, not just the military targets.

Although, as we know, certainly here in Dubai, there is far more than military targets and political centers being targeted. We have seen hotels, we have seen city centers. We have seen energy infrastructure around the region being targeted as well, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes, when you joined us about 24 hours ago, at this time, there had just been an interception before your live shot. And again, that happening once again 24 hours later. What have you seen, in terms of that, in the last 24 hours, just personally being there? What have you seen? What have you heard?

[02:10:13 ]

HANCOCKS: Well, it's interesting, because much of what we are hearing from officials is quite staggering when you -- when you hear the numbers. I mean, obviously we hear the interceptions overhead, we see certain areas being impacted.

But when you hear the numbers, it's impressive. I mean, more than 1,000 missiles, drones, cruise missiles, have been fired towards the UAE. The UAE really does appear to have been singled out by Tehran as the main target in these Gulf nations. You see Kuwait fairly close behind as well, with more than 500 missiles and drones. Here in the UAE, though, at this point, the air defense systems are doing what they should be doing. As we can understand it, more than 90 percent is being intercepted. There have been three deaths here. We understand some injuries as well. I can hear fighter jets overhead at this moment as well.

What we have been hearing is definitely a more significant fighter jet activity in the air today and yesterday.

So, we're not necessarily seeing the number of missiles incoming that we saw certainly in the first two days, and that is reflected in the numbers officials are giving us, but certainly drones are very high here in the UAE. More than 800 drones have been fired, and we're on day five, Elex.

MICHAELSON: And an impressive showing from the defense of the UAE as well, knocking all those down. And we're grateful for your safety that that is happening. Paula Hancocks in Dubai, be safe. Thank you for this.

Now we want to go to our breaking news in the political world here in America, and that projection in the most closely watched race in the country that just came within the last 10 minutes, that projection that state representative James Talarico will win the Democratic Senate primary defeating Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. There's been confusion throughout the last few hours. Confusion over where to vote led election officials to extend their hours at some locations. It's not clear if those late votes will cast -- will count. Crockett has threatened legal action, but according to CNN's data, even if they counted, it would not be enough for Crockett to make up the difference that Talarico is going to win this thing either way.

The situation on the Republican side not entirely settled. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn is headed to a May runoff with State Attorney General Ken Paxton, you need to get 50 percent to move on. Neither one did, so there will be a runoff between the top two. Cornyn and Paxton.

Want to bring back Jeremy Wallace, political reporter for the Houston Chronicle, you joined us last hour, but since you joined us last hour, there is now a projection in this race. James Talarico, moving on, your reaction to that news?

JEREMY WALLACE, POLITICAL WRITER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Yes, it's really amazing news, when you think of it. He had to come from so far back at one point, he had to, like, slowly get back in the polls. When she did -- when Jasmine Crockett race back in December, she kind of set the world on fire. Remember, she was all of a sudden leading in the polls. Money was coming in everywhere. She had all the support, you know, kind of building around her, and it looked like she had a pathway.

But he kept, you know, going, you know, he didn't back out of the race like, you know, former state -- former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred did. He stuck in it, and he kept plowing away.

And for him to overcome the numbers that she has put up in places like Houston and in Dallas and still win, it defies some of the core basics of the Democratic playbook in Texas. It's like you're supposed to win those two areas and then win the nomination.

Well, Jasmine Crockett just won those two areas, and she's not going to get the nomination because of the valley, because of San Antonio and because of places like Tarrant County and Travis County, you know, big numbers for Talarico in all those places.

MICHAELSON: And what a contrast in styles between the two of them. Crockett literally entered the race with an ad showing how against Donald Trump, she was taller Rico, not as partisan, at least blatantly so trying something very different.

WALLACE: Yes, right. It's like, you could see, like, you know, he was almost taking a little bit of a page from Beto O'rourke's old playbook back in 2018 when he came so close to beating Ted Cruz. Remember, he was like, you know, less about this is about Ted Cruz. It's not about fighting Ted Cruz. It's about you giving people something to vote for.

And I think you saw a little bit of that kind of reflected in what Talarico was trying to present himself as. It was less about, you know, fighting Donald Trump. And you know, more, you know, like, what can we do together, that kind of same philosophy.

[02:15:10]

And as you mentioned, Crockett came in this with like, OK, you guys want somebody who wants to fight. You want somebody who is who's going to fight and stand up to all members of Congress no matter who they are, right? And she perfectly fit that bill.

But clearly, you know, in the end, you know, Talarico was able to, you know, win over a lot of people. It's interesting, because we're almost this tale of two states at this point. If you look at people east of I-35 it's like you'll see a lot more votes for, you know, Crockett and those along I-35 in, you know. Further out west, it starts becoming more taller Rico and that kind of tells you who won this time.

MICHAELSON: So, the Democrats haven't had a winning senator in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen, which is before a lot of our viewers were even alive. So, what does a successful democratic coalition look like? And does that mean independents and Republicans, do you need to win some of them over to get there?

WALLACE: Yes, you're definitely going to have to win some of the but you got to think of the independents in Texas, or Texans, by their nature, were distrustful of government, of politics, of big businesses in that kind of way. If you go out into the -- into the countryside of Texas, people want to hear that message, whether you're Democrat or Republican.

And so, there's a lane there for taller Rico to kind of use that populist message that similarly, like Bernie Sanders. You heard him, you know, when he got, you know, he was doing pretty well in Texas at one point, it was because of that message.

You know, so, Talarico has a potential there, but he's got to, you know, do what he's just did, which is, win really big in the valley and really do well with Hispanic voters. Then he has to figure out the big problem, which is, how are you going to excite the Black voters of Houston and Dallas, who are really, clearly super energized by Jasmine Crockett. Can he keep them in the fold? That's going to be the key to the whole thing.

If you can bring those two elements together with the general changing nature of the state. As I mentioned before, we've added 2.8 million additional voters since 2018. You all, this is not the same state. We basically added the entire state of Connecticut in the middle of all of this stuff.

So, you can see it's just added a volatility to the election cycle that both Republicans and Democrats know is dangerous, at least the ones who are paying attention.

MICHAELSON: What's the nature of their relationship? Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico. Do you see her being helpful to him? Do you see folks that endorsed her, like Kamala Harris, or maybe somebody like Barack Obama getting involved? Because this has potential to be one of, if not the, most high profile Senate race in the country, because the Democrats probably cannot get there in terms of winning back the Senate if they don't flip this seat.

WALLACE: Yes, and that's what they're going to they're going to need an intervention from people on the outside maybe to do it.

But look, you know, Talarico and Jasmine crock were actually in the Texas House at the same time, so they already a little familiar with each other. It's not like they're complete strangers. Look, this campaign got a little, you know, messy at times, but not really super negative, like it got into a personal nature.

So, I think there's enough to kind of rebuild back. This isn't like one of those scorched earth primaries that they're coming out of. The question is just, can they get that excitement back together?

So, certainly, you know, there's going to be a lot of outreach to Jasmine Crockett saying, hey, like, there's no way Talarico is going to win this thing unless you bring your full spirit and energy into this, and I think that's where you're going to have people like Kamala Harris, maybe a Barack Obama, like you mentioned, you know, kind of sitting everybody down say, look, you know, we got to think about what's bigger for the team at this point.

You know, it's like, at this point, getting everybody together in the Democratic Party in Texas is the only way that you can even have a shot, you know, before you even start talking about trying to pull over some Republicans, you got to get the whole Democratic base together.

And that's just something we really haven't seen in Texas since that 2018 U.S. Senate run that Beto O'rourke had.

MICHAELSON: And he got a lot of people together and raised a lot of money, and then came up short. And so, we'll see if history repeats itself. A lot of that's going to be dependent on who the Republicans run, which we don't know. That's going to be a whole other discussion.

Jeremy Wallace, thank you so much for joining us again on this breaking news. We want to continue our breaking news coverage right now with n of CNN, who is live in Austin, Texas, on the phone shortly after leaving that event covering James Talarico throughout this process. Jeff, your reaction to this breaking news CNN projection that James Talarico pulls it out in the end.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, this really is certainly something that Democrats have had their eye on this Texas Senate race, and James Talarico, who did basically come out of nowhere, at least nationally speaking, but such a rising star in the view of many now, could Democrats actually have a shot at Texas?

[02:20:17]

So, it really opens up, also a bit of a challenge for Democrats, and a bit of a question like, how much money are Democrats willing to invest in Texas? It is always the race for so long. Long the one that just gets away for Democrats in Senate races. Think better O'Rourke, most recently, and many others.

But for this moment, at least, I think that our great colleague at the Houston Chronicle was just saying, I mean, I think unifying the party is the big challenge. There's no doubt.

But Republicans, boy, I mean, this is going to be the -- this is going to give John Cornyn a bit of a boost, because he, of course, is running in a runoff, and he is going to make the argument that with James Talarico on the Democratic side, if Ken Paxton is the Republican nominee, Democrats could lose that seat.

And it's an argument that many Republicans in Washington actually think has some credence, so for several different levels. As you were saying, on the Democratic side, it offers a bit of a roadmap for the party in terms of what type of brand the Democratic Party is going to become. But in terms of the real math of the Senate, it's going to make the rest of the next eight months here very interesting.

MICHAELSON: Yes, it's been very interesting. Privately, how many sources have said to you, me and so many others, that they were much more scared to run against James Talarico than Jasmine Crockett. They thought that Jasmine Crockett would be easy to defeat for the Republicans, but that James Talarico would potentially be problematic. We will see what happens next.

Jeff, thank you for your exhausting or long hours on this, we appreciate you staying up late and covering this breaking news. It's been great watching your coverage all throughout the process.

ZELENY: It's my pleasure. Elex, one quick thing to look at. Will this make Trump get into the race faster? I think it might. So, keep your eye on that.

MICHAELSON: Which way -- which way does he go though? ZELENY: Well, we'll see about that. But don't forget that two of his top campaign allies are working on behalf of John Cornyn, so this is going to certainly make his decision an interesting one.

MICHAELSON: Yes, Chris LaCivita, his campaign manager, and his pollster, both working for John Cornyn, they have a direct line to Donald Trump. Thank you, Jeff.

We got more on what's happening in Texas and what's happening in Iran. Our breaking news coverage all over the world continues right after this.

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[02:27:03]

MICHAELSON: U.S. lawmakers remain largely divided along party lines on President Trump's end goals for the U.S. military action in Iran this despite Tuesday's briefing from top administration officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did you get an explanation on what the end game is here?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): There's no explanation as to what actually prompted the decision to pursue this war of choice, in the absence of any evidence that there was an imminent threat to the United States of America or American interests in the region.

REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): To me, this is a no brainer. They had a window of opportunity to take out very specific military assets in order to defang the Iranian regime. We will be safer as a result. However, if it goes beyond that, they need to come to Congress.

RAJU: How do you know that the next regime that may come in may not be more hard line than the last regime.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I bet somebody asked in 1935 what happened if we killed Hitler? God, I wish would have known it will only get better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: That is a live picture from the Senate where we saw Manu Raju talking earlier with those folks. The Senate set to vote as soon as Wednesday on a war powers resolution that will require President Trump to gain congressional approval to continue the military campaign. The House voted to vote on a similar measure Thursday. Both are likely to fail, even if they pass, President Trump would veto them.

Brian Todd is live with us from Washington. Brian, talk to us about the Americans who are stuck in the Middle East right now with no real way to evacuate. BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elex, thousands of them are stuck. They don't have a way to evacuate. They're not getting great communication, and they are very frustrated, and frankly, they're very scared.

Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he's confident that the U.S. is going to be able to get all of its citizens out of that region who want to get out, but they don't -- they did not have a plan before the airstrike started, and they're playing catch up.

At the moment, Rubio saying that they're looking at military aircraft and charter flights to try to get them in there, to get Americans out. They want people to register at STEP.state.gov so that they can communicate with people to get them the word on how they can evacuate.

But again, they're scrambling to try to make that happen. And a telephone number that Marco Rubio gave out earlier for Americans who want assistance to call the State Department, this is a recording that they heard earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you are calling about the crisis in the Middle East, please press one, if not press two. Please do not rely on the U.S. government for assisted departure or evacuation at this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points. Please continue to check the Embassy's website for updated information in the event of ongoing military action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: I called that same number a short time ago. I did get a live person on the line. I asked her about possibly evacuating an American from, let's say, Saudi Arabia.

[02:30:00]

She said there are no evacuations going on. She said to go to step.state.gov where they're telling Americans in Saudi Arabia at least, to shelter in place. So, not offering really any way out there.

Here are a couple of quotes, Elex, that you'll just find astounding from Americans. One unnamed American told CNN, quote, "I feel like a sitting duck in the region." A gentleman named Forrest Harrington, a U.S. citizen who is stuck in Dubai, said, quote, "It would be hilarious if it wasn't so frustrating."

Harrington said he was supposed to have only a short layover in Dubai off a trip -- coming back from a work trip in India. Here's what he said, though, quote, "The UAE government has housed and fed me since I got here, and I've received nothing from my own government." He's not getting any updates either. He's been stuck in Dubai.

A lady named Katie didn't want to give her last name. She is an American stuck in Bahrain. Here are some quotes from her, quote, "The State Department tells me to evacuate, but there's no way to do so. I was just supposed to have a short layover, and now I'm here for the indefinite future, getting more and more trauma by the day."

Just a few accounts, Elex, from Americans stuck in the region. Very, very frustrated, very confused, and, frankly, a lot of them are scared. How long are they going to be there? Is the U.S. government going to contact them? Their efforts to contact the U.S. government by phone and even online are just seemingly met with frustration.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST OF "THE STORY IS": Yeah, well, that message you played, just not good enough if you're stuck in that region. Brian Todd, staying up late with us in Washington tonight. Thank you. A live picture from Doha where it is now Wednesday morning. We will be going to that region for an update next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:35:50]

MICHAELSON: -- it is in the war with Iran. Qatar now says it has arrested 10 people with suspected links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. And Bahrain's government is calling Iran's attack on an American military base in its capital treacherous.

CNN Senior Producer, Bijan Hosseini, live in Doha with more. Bijan?

BIJAN HOSSEINI, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Hi, Elex. How are you? Yeah. We -- the team here, we did see some of those interceptions taking place last night. Sorry, rather, we heard those interceptions taking place last night. We know at least one of those missiles did get through and hit Al-Udeid Air Base.

That was confirmed to us by Qatar's Ministry of Defense. Obviously, Al-Udeid, a very significant U.S. base, normally housing 10,000 military personnel. We know about six weeks ago, they started evacuating some of the non-essential military personnel.

But we also saw a buildup of equipment at that base happening over the last four weeks. Air transporters and air refueling jets that were brought in there. We also, you mentioned earlier, these arrests that we've heard from Qatar's state news agency citing authorities, two cells linked and working on behalf of the IRGC, Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

We know that seven of those, according to authorities, seven of those detainees were sent to gather information on key facilities and infrastructure. And that the other three, according to authorities, were given these roles of sabotage and that they were trained in the use of drones. Authorities also added to that statement that these people who were detained had information on them. They had coordinates and key locations of sensitive facilities, as well as communication devices and technological equipment. Elex?

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Bijan Hosseini from Doha. Still to come, airspace across some Middle Eastern countries remains on lockdown, making it nearly impossible to enter or leave the area. Peter Greenberg, live with more on the travel chaos, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:41:45]

MICHAELSON: Breaking news, yet another explosion in Beirut. Over the last couple hours, we have seen multiple examples of this. Israel warning people in the area that they might strike. You see how close this particular incident is to the airport.

You can see right there as well. And speaking of that, the travel nightmare is continuing for people around the world. Large parts of the Middle East have closed off their airspace due to conflict.

You can certainly see why they would want to do that in Beirut right now. Some travelers have been stranded for days since there are limited flights going to or from the region. Some major airlines like Emirates and Virgin Atlantic have resumed limited flights out of the affected areas.

Countries across Europe are working to evacuate their citizens as conflict escalates. Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio says the U.S. is also actively trying to secure evacuation flights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: We have identified and continue to identify charter flights, military flight options, and expanded commercial flight options, meaning working with the airlines to send bigger airplanes with more seats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining me now live from Los Angeles is Peter Greenberg, a travel expert and travel editor at CBS News. Peter, good to see you. What are my options if I'm watching right now from the Middle East? I'm stranded. What do I do?

PETER GREENBERG, TRAVEL EDITOR, CBS NEWS: Well, there are some connections that you can do through the ground, meaning into Jordan. That airspace is being opened on a limited basis. You already heard about Dubai.

Critical for them to keep that airspace open there because Emirates is only based there, and their flight operations were completely shattered over the last 48 hours. So, they're starting to reopen the airspace at about three hours or four hours at a time during daylight hours on a limited basis. Other than that, you don't have many options.

You mentioned the State Department trying to get charter flights in. What they're not telling you is whether or not insurance companies are writing policies for the very airlines they're trying to charter, if they're going to continue to insure those airlines, if they determine this is an act of war. Once that does that, those insurance policies become void during that time.

MICHAELSON: And if they're void, then what happens?

GREENBERG: They're not going to fly. Same thing with cruise lines. Same thing with ships trying to transit the Suez Canal. Same thing with other countries like Egypt. If the insurance companies won't write the policies or it's an exclusion in their policy that if it's an act of war, you're not going to be covered, what airline or cruise line or shipping company is going to put their vehicles at risk if they're not covered? So, that's one of the concerns they're having right now.

MICHAELSON: OK. So that's the situation if you're on the ground in the Middle East. There are people that are watching us right now from Europe where they're waking up. They're watching in the United States, and they want to go somewhere else that's not the Middle East. What are the ripple effects of all this in terms of travel disruption?

GREENBERG: Well, if you take a look at just the Gulf countries alone, Qatar, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, if you take a look at their traffic flow, 80 percent of the passengers who fly to those countries are not going to those countries anyway.

[02:45:00]

They're actually flying through those countries. So the connectivity here is what's being disrupted, meaning you can't get anywhere else on those airlines through those countries. And that means other limited service is also affected.

MICHAELSON: What rights do you have as a passenger if your travel is disrupted or canceled, especially at a time of war?

GREENBERG: Well, it's a force majeure situation in the contractor carriage of the airline. Basically, you're not going to get compensation and you're not going to get priority. It's beyond the airline's operational control. Same thing with weather, as you can imagine.

But in a situation like this, the companies can claim and they will claim that this is an act of war, and therefore, they're under no requirement to get you out simply because they have to cease their operations.

Now, when that happens, it becomes critical to reopen that airspace because the economic impact here is severe in an exponential way. So, there's every reason to believe that they're going to try to reopen the airspace before Friday because, otherwise, the economic losses alone will be staggering.

You may remember, after 9/11, air service was grounded for five days. They flew on the sixth. When the volcano erupted in Iceland, air services disrupted for about five days. The airlines flew on the sixth. So the countdown is continuing to see if that pattern will be repeated here.

MICHAELSON: And then what does that look like if they're able to restore it? What could people expect? GREENBERG: Well, let's assume they reopen the airspace tomorrow. That doesn't mean the airlines are going to fly. Their planes are out of sequence. Their crews are out of rotation. It'll take them about 36 hours to get the planes back with the flight crews back into the sequence of the schedule. So, you can count on about 36 hours from the time they reopen the airspace to the time they can actually start operating.

MICHAELSON: Nobody knows this issue better than Peter Greenberg. It's always a privilege to talk with you. Thank you so much for joining us live from Los Angeles.

GREENBERG: You got it.

MICHAELSON: Our coverage continues in just a moment. The war in the Middle East is disrupting global markets, oil supplies, international shipping. We're looking at more video from the region now. A live report, next.

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MICHAELSON: The war in the Middle East is causing oil prices to surge. U.S. oil prices reached their highest level in more than a year on Tuesday, before retreating. Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained more than 4.5 percent to top $81 a barrel, now it's closer to $80. Prices eventually cooled down after President Trump announced new steps aimed at easing supply disruptions in the Middle East.

The president says he has ordered insurance and other guarantees for oil, energy, and other maritime trade in the region.

Live now to CNN's Eleni Giokos, who is following the markets from Abu Dhabi. Eleni, what are you seeing?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Elex, and as you say, you've got that oil price, which clearly has been rising and that's on the back of two main things. And these are massive risks. Firstly, you mentioned the Strait of Hormuz, there's major disruptions. You have the Iranian Revolutionary Guard saying there isn't going to be a drop of oil that is going to pass through the Strait, where you normally see around 20 million barrels of oil on vessels that head mostly to Asia.

And of course, temper what we're seeing in terms of the oil price. That scenario has dramatically shifted. And as you say, President Trump posted this on social media overnight and, importantly, saying that he's going to offer support and importantly, if required, the Navy, the U.S. Navy is going to assist in getting vessels through the Strait and also insurance premiums which have, frankly, rallied.

I was speaking to Lloyd's Intelligence a short while ago, and they were telling me about how normally, during times of conflict or geopolitical tension, insurers will up their premiums to three percent of the value of the vessel. They don't know how President Trump and this policy is going to be implemented and frankly, we haven't seen a shift on that pricing. But the point is to try and get supply through.

I also want to show you the other big issue, and this is critical energy infrastructure that has been affected by Iranian strikes. And it basically shows from Oman at Duqm Port to here in the UAE in Fujairah, that we've seen fire because of shrapnel and because of the interceptions to Aramco, Saudi Aramco, that refinery and importantly, that LNG facility in Qatar, which has forced the Qataris to stop total production.

That has seen prices surging from the gas price in Europe to what we see on the oil market as well and, frankly, major repercussions across the board. And we know President Trump has an aversion to high oil prices because that means the American voter is going to get affected. And this is at a time where he wanted to see a drop in inflation. He wanted to see a drop in interest rates. This scenario, of course, counter to everything he had planned on the economy front.

MICHAELSON: Yeah, and he wants to see a drop in gas prices as well, Eleni. So let's talk about --

GIOKOS: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: -- what we're seeing in Asia right now. A bit of a bloodbath. Why are we seeing such big losses?

GIOKOS: It is. I mean, it's a bloodbath. And frankly, you know, analysts are saying it perhaps is partly a correction in the market where there was a lot of excitement about A.I. and digital transformation, building of data centers, and specifically, what we see in South Korea, the KOSPI plunging 12 percent in today's session.

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And of course, South Korea is always very sensitive to any kind of geopolitical tension in the Middle East because it is a net oil importer. So, investors are really looking at the repercussions of what this is going to mean because we don't know how long this war is going to last and also, waiting to see whether the Strait of Hormuz is going to see some vessels passing through.

But we also saw the Nikkei in Japan dropping around 3.6 percent, and this is a very negative handover for the European markets. We saw the U.S. markets losing 1,000 points at one point during the day. They only closed much softer. That's after President Trump's announcement.

But there are major jitters, and people are very worried. Investors are crunching the numbers because what we didn't anticipate was a strike on critical infrastructure in the region, on the energy front. We didn't anticipate strikes here in the UAE, in Abu Dhabi, as well as Dubai which, of course, we've seen in other parts of the region as well.

That all having a ripple effect because investors are too scared to park their money into stocks at this point. You're seeing a rally in the gold price today after softness yesterday and purchasing of the U.S. dollar. MICHAELSON: Eleni, thank you. And thank you for watching the last three hours, an extraordinary three hours here on "The Story Is." The news continues. My colleague, Rosemary Church, standing by here in studio. You'll see her right after this.

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