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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Intense Israeli Strikes Target Iran And Lebanon; Trump Fires Kristi Noem As Homeland Security Secretary; Rep. Tony Gonzales Ends Reelection Bid After Admitting To Affair; Qatar Says It Intercepted Drone Attack on Al-Udeid Air Base; Qatar Air Defenses Intercept Drone Targeting U.S. Base; Interview with American Man Stranded in the Middle East Matt Cowan; CIA Working to Arm Iranian Kurdish Forces; War Driving Up the Price of Oil; Some Asian Markets Have Only Weeks Left of Fuel Stockpiled. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired March 06, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: And working class people. He died February 17th at the age of 84. Thanks for watching our first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
MICHAELSON: Thank you for watching The Story Is. I'm Alex Michelson live in Atlanta this week. Tonight, the top story is the war with Iran. Israeli military says it is carrying out a broad scale wave of strikes on regime infrastructure in Tehran.
Iranian state media report loud explosions and a CNN team on the ground says they've been hearing jets flying overhead.
Wow. Frightening moment there for a reporter on Iranian state media. Meanwhile, Israel is once again pounding Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. Major evacuations are underway. And for the first time in this conflict, Israel is also striking targets in the north of that country.
Back in Israel, video from Tel Aviv shows the aftermath of an Iranian missile strike. Firefighters scrambled to put out flames. We get to that video as frightened residents rushed to bomb shelters. There is a look right there of the aftermath. You see the firefighters mopping up after that attack. We have team coverage once again. CNN's Brian Todd tracking the developments from Washington. First though, to our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson in Hong Kong. Ivan, what is the latest?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, Israel says that it's carrying out a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on what it describes as regime infrastructure. Our team on the ground has seen not only herd jets overhead but see smoke rising over Tehran. Iranian state media describing a major shopping street, one of the busiest streets in the center of Tehran, Jomhuri Avenue being hit, a bus station there being destroyed as well as a home.
And we have reports From Iranian state TV of more than 1,200 people killed since the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign began on Saturday. The U.S. military says the amount of drones and ballistic missiles that Iran has fired has dropped substantially over the course of the last 24 hours.
And yet countries in the Gulf all report that their air defenses have been at work in the pre-dawn hours on Friday, firing to try to intercept suspected missiles and drones. The fighting in Lebanon continues to intensify. It was a terrifying night in the capital evening on Thursday after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for Dahya. That's the name for the southern suburbs of Beirut.
But the area encompassed basically all of the south of the Lebanese capital, home to about a half million people and triggered real scenes of panic as tens if not hundreds of thousands of people were trying to leave before of anticipated Israeli bombardment.
And the fear was exacerbated by this warning coming from an hardline Israeli cabinet minister speaking on the border between Israel and Lebanon Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEZALEL SMOTRICH, ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER: (through translator): We're here along the northern border after the IDF issued an evacuation order to all the residents of the Dahiyya. You wanted to bring hell upon us and brought hell upon yourselves. The Dahiyeh will look like Khan Yonis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: And that's a reference to the city in Gaza that has been all but flattened during a two-year war between Israel and Hamas that the Israeli military says killed around 70,000 Palestinians. So that's adding to the fear.
The Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah continues to declare that it is carrying out attacks into Israel and onto Israeli military units in southern Lebanon, defying an order from the Lebanese government to suspend its military operations. Elex.
MICHAELSON: And Ivan, what do we know about a drone carrier strike?
WATSON: Right. Well, the U.S. military says it is continuing with its campaign to destroy the Iranian navy. You have a CENTCOM commander who says some 30 Iranian ships have been destroyed. And he added what he described as a drone carrier, which he said was about the size of a World War II aircraft carrier. We don't know where this ship was when it was hit, but the U.S. military releasing these images of the ship on fire.
I might add that our own one investigation using satellite imagery shows that Iran appears to have been successful hitting a number of radar installations, including a radar for a U.S. THAAD anti-missile battery in Jordan.
[01:05:11]
That is really important because and it looks like it was hit this radar installation in the first hours of this war, which began on Saturday. Quite a week we've had. That's important because there are only 8 U.S. THAAD Anti-Missile systems in existence right now, and one of them appears to have been seriously damaged.
And there were also images that showed damage to other radar installations in the United Arab Emirates showing that in this vicious air war, the Iranian missile and drone attacks do appear to have hit some significant and strategic targets. Elex.
MICHAELSON: And that is in itself significant. Ivan Watson in Hong Kong, thank you. The logjam of people trying to get out of the Middle East starting to clear a bit. CNN's Brian Todd has been following that for us the last few nights. Brian, you got some good news tonight.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Elex. You know what a difference 24 hours makes. You know, when you and I were talking about this 24 hours ago, we had very little information about flights leaving the Middle East, flights containing stranded Americans and the plight of those Americans. Well, 24 hours later, we know a lot more now simply because some of those Americans off those flights and talking to reporters.
They're giving their first real insights now into the chaos and confusion that Americans who were stranded in the Middle east faced in those first couple of days of the war starting on Saturday. Some Americans made their own way out. Others were on that initial State Department evacuation flight that now we know took off from Abu Dhabi and landed at Washington Dulles Airport on Thursday afternoon.
Now, Americans who landed in New York, who we presume made their own way out on other airlines that trickled out of there very slowly. Well, they spoke to a CNN affiliate about that chaos and confusion in the first couple of days of the war. Take a listen to what those Americans who landed in New York said about their experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We reached out to a lot of just, you know, Senate and then representative offices as well. They -- it seemed they were like organizationally just wasn't really a plan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We could see the U.S. Consulate in Dubai from our window. And for three days I'm looking at it, I'm like, oh, OK, it's right there. That's kind of cool. We ended up actually checking out that morning and that same night actually there was a drone attack on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: And again, those were Americans who landed in New York who we presume made their own way out. There were other Americans who were on that first State Department evacuation flight from Abu Dhabi to Washington, Dulles who gave other accounts. Here's one from Bruce Immell, a gentleman from Pennsylvania who was on that evacuation flight to Dulles Airport. He said they struggled at the beginning to get any information from the State Department. His quote is it was tough at first, but then they started getting it through figured out.
Another very interesting component of this is the operational security that the State Department had about these flights and how they depended on the people on those flights and their relatives outside to keep that a secret.
Relatives of those evacuees said while they were able to make contact with their relatives and loved ones who were traveling, that they were told to keep the evacuation flight a secret and were not given any information, such as a flight number to track.
So people who are on that flight and their loved ones taking part in the operational security, basically told by the State Department, you can't tell anybody about this flight, where it's taking off from and where it's landing. Don't talk about this thing until it's -- till well after you deplane that flight.
Now, we have inquired, Elex, tonight with the State Department about how many other flights that they have arranged to get out of there, how many may have taken off since that first one left and landed at Dulles Airport. How many Americans have left at this point and whether they're going to surge more flights into the region. They have not gotten back to us on any of that and frankly, we don't expect them to because of that operational security blanket that they're putting on these operations.
MICHAELSON: We understand that as well. You wouldn't want to have one of those flights targeted. Meanwhile, I put up on the screen some comments that President Trump made to NBC News. He said this. We want to go in and clean out everything. We don't want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period talking there about who will potentially lead Iran next.
What do you make of what he's saying there and what could potentially come next in that country, Brian?
TODD: Well, it's clear, Elex, that President Trump wants to not only have a say in this process of choosing the next Iranian leader, but that they are -- he actually intimated with NBC News that they're keeping track of people who they might like to take the leadership of Iran and trying to keep those people alive. His quote is, yet we are watching them. Yeah.
Meaning, you know, we're tracking them to see if they're OK. And they're working to ensure that those people survive the war.
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It's an extraordinary intimation there by the president. He clearly wants to have a lot of input into who Iran's next leader is. And it was just reported that the Iranians are close to possibly naming a new supreme leader. So let's see how that plays out juxtaposed against what the President says he wants to do. He has made it clear he wants to have heavy involvement in the selection of Iran's next leader. It looks like the Iranians are kind of pressing forward without his input at the moment.
MICHAELSON: especially if they select the Ayatollah son would be something that President Trump doesn't want to see. That's what he did in Venezuela, by the way. You know, Delcy Rodriguez, who's now running the government there, clearly working with the Trump administration --
TODD: Yes.
MICHAELSON: -- bringing the energy Secretary in, bringing in American oil companies. We'll see if somebody in Iran follows that same pattern. Brian Todd in Washington, thank you for that.
Meanwhile, President Trump says the U.S. military is far ahead of schedule in Iran and is calling for fighters there to put down their arms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And I'm once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police to lay down their arms. They're only going to be killed. And now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country. You're going to have a chance after all these years to take back your country. Accept immunity. We'll give you immunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Making those comments with the inter Miami soccer team behind him, which is an interesting background for that. Let's bring in Guy Smith. He's a former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton. Thanks so much for being with us. Thank you for staying up late with us.
Is there a risk now of a humanitarian crisis in Iran and the wider Middle East? And how do you avoid that?
GUY SMITH, FORMER WHITE HOSUE ADVISER TO PRESIDENT CLINTON: You're probably not going to be able to avoid it. I mean, Iran is already in a very fragile state. Even before the big protest of a couple of months ago, there was like in Tehran, they just ran out of water. And with the disruption of the attacks, you're going to have even more disruption.
The leadership is -- in the country is in disarray at the top. It's not in disarray at the local level. And this is this -- if the problem is where's the food going to come from, where's the -- where's medical is going to come from? And that could very, very quickly turn into a humanitarian crisis.
MICHAELSON: And we saw so many protesters in the streets of Iran over the last few months. Today, the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated that Iranian people should actually stay inside right now and wait for the moment to seize their advantage. What's your read on that? And the fact that he's saying that out loud.
SMITH: At least, well, because we're dropping bombs there. But the dilemma we have. The only thing about this that is working beautifully is the United States military and their kinetic actions, all the non- kinetic actions aren't taking place, aren't being planned, haven't been planned. And here's an example.
There are about 6 people in Iran that heard what Hegseth said because the Internet shut off over there.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SMITH: And what the Trump administration did a few months ago was they gutted the Voice of America Farsi language. That's the language they speak in Iran. It's gutted. So there's like three people working on, there's no one, no effort being made to get radios to people or to get Starlink connectors to people. And so there's nobody hearing that.
MICHAELSON: Well, and of course, a lot of that was the work of Kari Lake, a former journalist who --
SMITH: Yes.
MICHAELSON: -- went into the administration to get rid of journalists working around the United, around the world to get those messages out. And now you're seeing the after effects of that.
SMITH: Yes.
MICHAELSON: So you --
SMITH: You have accepted journalists that the head of DoD.
MICHAELSON: Yes. So you have advised presidents, presidential candidates. If you were advising President Trump, what would you tell him right now?
SMITH: Declare victory right today. And the leadership is going to -- they've got -- they're going to appoint somebody that we won't particularly like, but there isn't going to be anything that they can do to harm the United States. There was no imminent threat to start with. And Trump walked away from the nuclear deal.
I mean, today he wants to appoint the president. The other day, wanted to get rid of the nukes, but he said back in June that the nukes had been taken -- had been obliterated.
[01:15:02]
Well, I guess they haven't been. But are they, we don't really know. But what he needs to do from a political standpoint, declare victory. And because Iran is damaged severely, they're not going to be able to do anything to anybody. I mean, they've been -- they even made us -- they made a very stupid decision lobbing the missiles at the neighboring countries because that drove them more -- those countries more to support the U.S. effort.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SMITH: And that isn't going to help. And it's -- the nuclear deal that Trump walked away from in 2018 was even signed by China and Russia. Well, we're not going to have that back. I mean, it's not a good situation. And the end game is just not clear at all.
MICHAELSON: Well, that traditionally has been what President Trump has done, by the way, sort of short military interventions and then get out and move on to the next thing. He has been hesitant to get into long wars. We'll see if this is different. We'll see if he's able to avoid it. Yes, real quickly then we've got to go.
SMITH: He's not likely to ask my advice, but that would be it.
MICHAELSON: OK, there. Maybe he's watching. Sometimes he does. Good evening, Mr. President, if you are. Guy Smith, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will remain shut down while there is a shakeup at the top. The Senate blocked a bill to fund the agency on Thursday night. This is a live picture right now from Capitol Hill, where it's after one o' clock in the morning.
Democrats are refusing to back off their demands for changes to immigration policy and tactics. The vote came the same day that President Trump announced that he had fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and has tapped Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to replace her.
The Republican says he will work to earn everybody's vote, talking about his colleagues there for confirmation as that process now kicks into gear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Listen, I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at a -- not a complete surprise, but it came at a little bit of surprise for us. And so the president and I, as you guys know, we're great friends and we get along great. I look forward to working with him and his Cabinet. Of course, we still got to go to this little thing called confirmation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Kristi Noem has now been under scrutiny recently for her conduct in her position. But it appears everything came to a head after her congressional hearings this week. CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes has the latest on what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now, there have been a series of events leading up to President Trump's firing of Noem that just continue to make the situation exacerbated. But we are told there was one final event that kind of served as the breaking point for President Trump. And that was earlier in the -- now, there have been a series of events leading up to President Trump's firing of Noem that just continue to make the situation exacerbated.
But we are told there was one final event that kind of served as the breaking point for President Trump, and that was earlier in the week when Kristi Noem had her Senate Judiciary hearing. And this hearing was incredibly contentious, not just between Democratic senators and Kristi Noem, but also between Republican senators and the Department of Homeland Security secretary.
At one point, and this is a particular point of contention for President Trump, he was she was asked if President Trump knew and had signed off on a $200 million ad campaign in which Kristi Noem was featured heavily. It was her talking to people in America who are here illegally and asking them to self deport. And she said, yes, that President Trump had.
Well, that enraged President Trump who started calling members on the Hill to tell them essentially that he had never signed off on this. And he started floating names immediately. One of the names that kept reoccurring was, of course, Markwayne Mullin. And then today, two days after those series of calls happened, we saw the actual firing.
Now, White House officials, they do believe that Mullin will be easy to confirm. He is a senator. He has a lot of bipartisan support. Of course, we are in very politically polarizing times. So we will see if that is, in fact the case. It does appear that Kristi Noem's last day is going to be March 31st. That is the day that President Trump said that he would want to have Mullin approved or confirmed by.
There is one other point that I do want to make about all of this. We are told that Kristi Noem was told that she had been fired by President Trump directly before he made this post on social media. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Republican Representative Tony Gonzales is ending his reelection bid. That comes after the Texas congressman admitted to an affair. The former staffer who later died by suicide. Gonzales says he plans to finish out the rest of his term.
[01:20:00]
The announcement came just hours after the Republican Party leaders called for him to withdraw his candidacy. He was set to face fellow Republican Brandon Herrera in a runoff for the Republican primary for Texas's 23rd district on May 26.
Flights out of the Middle East are slowly returning, but many remain stranded in the region. I'll speak with an American trying to get home to LA, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: Welcome back. Live pictures here from Beirut, a city that Israel has been pummeling for hours. You can see smoke there on your screen. The strikes came after Israel issued evacuation orders for two neighborhoods on the city's south side that are considered Hezbollah strongholds.
[01:25:03]
Beirut was then rocked by a series of explosions that continued into the predawn hours. Israel military says it was targeting Hezbollah's infrastructure. But now the aftermath of those strikes still being seen.
Thursday's evacuation orders covered an area believed to be home to tens of thousands of people. Israel's announcement led to chaos and panic as people scrambled to get away. You see some of that right here, the long lines, traffic gridlock. It all happened while CNN's Matthew Chance was reporting from the area. Here's his remarkable story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: They said there's been a warning from the Israelis that there could be a strike coming in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we're going to get out of here, Alex.
CHANCE: I don't know, but we need to get out. OK, can you hear right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CHANCE: But we've just been trying to film at this location here in Dahieh and we've been told to move away quickly now. People were showing us their phones saying look, there's a warning coming in. Go round, go around this guy.
We've come into what is the most dangerous part of the Lebanese capital which is a very important stronghold of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group. It's the place where Israel has been focusing and you can hear the gunshots outside there. But Israel has been focusing its activity, its intensive campaign of airstrikes against the Hezbollah group.
That's often we're told a warning to local residents who don't have cell phones or don't have that communication to tell them there may be an Israeli strike incoming. So we're going to get out of here.
I mean this chaos that we're getting a glimpse of in south Beirut, it's all happening, remember, because in the hours after the Iranian supreme leader was killed last weekend in those U.S. and Israeli airstrikes in Iran, Hezbollah, which hadn't struck at Israel since 2024, fired rockets and drones across the border into Israel. And this has been the response.
Israel is absolutely pounding south Beirut, forcing thousands of people out of their homes and really dragging Lebanon into a conflict that many Lebanese tell us they're not ready for and they do not want. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Matthew Chance with some remarkable reporting from on the ground. That really gives you a sense of what it's like there right now.
Meanwhile, this right here is a live picture from Qatar's capital city Doha, where it's just before 9:30 Friday morning. Countries in the Gulf continue to fend off retaliatory strikes from Iran as the conflict enters its seventh day.
As we notice here, very different look, not a lot of traffic. Qatar's air defenses intercepted another drone attack targeting the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East that happened earlier in the day. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain also fending off ballistic missiles and drone attacks in recent hours.
We go live now to Doha, Qatar and CNN's Bijan Hosseini. And we saw the crazy traffic in Matthew Chance's report. Not seeing those kinds of images behind you, right?
BIJAN HOSSEINI, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Yes. For seven days now it's been very quiet here as authorities continue to tell people to remain inside. We were woken up at 3:45 in the morning to an emergency alert system saying that the security threat had been elevated. Fifteen minutes later, luckily we got the all clear that threat had been eliminated.
And then shortly after that, the Ministry of Defense did confirm that there was a drone attack on El-Udeid Air Base and that attack was successfully intercepted. As you mentioned, El-Udeid, the largest U.S. air base in the region. Normally some 10,000 U.S. troops would be stationed there at any given time. And we know that evacuations of nonessential military personnel started taking place around six weeks ago.
We also heard yesterday from the UK's Prime Minister Keir Starmer that the country would be sending four additional Typhoon fighter jets here in country. We know that the U.K. and Qatar operate a joint Typhoon squadron and those fighter jets have been instrumental in helping intercept some of these attacks. We got confirmation from the U.K. Ministry of Defense back on March 1st that they were intercepting drones over Qatari waters.
We also know that other planes here, the F-15s from Qatar's Air Force, repelling an attack or stopping an attack that was two minutes away from hitting Al-Udeid air base. That's exclusive reporting from my colleague Mustafa Salem (ph).
[01:30:00]
Authorities telling him that this was the first aerial combat mission the Qatari Air Force had conducted and a very successful one in stopping that attack.
MICHAELSON: Bijan, glad to hear that you're ok. Real quickly when those alerts happen, is there a shelter to go to? What do you do?
HOSSEINI: I guess it depends on the buildings. I know my building doesn't have a shelter. It's not like Israel where every building kind of has underground bunkers.
What authorities say is to stay away from windows, to try to separate yourself with at least two walls. The real fear here is the shrapnel and the debris, because the efficacy of these interceptions has been extremely high.
So it's not necessarily a threat of a -- of a missile or a drone hitting, but more so that debris and that shrapnel. So the advice from authorities, you know, get to safe cover put some distance between you and windows and hunker down until you get the all clear.
MICHAELSON: A scary reality, nobody wants to be woken up to that in the middle of the night. Glad you are ok. Bijan Hosseini, thank you.
Let's bring in now Matt Cowan. He is an L.A. resident who is one of the many western nationals now stranded in the Middle East region due to war.
Welcome to THE STORY IS.
I hear you just got a call from the State Department about a flight. What did they say?
MATT COWAN, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT STRANDED IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Yes. So about I would say 45 or so minutes ago now, I received a call from the State Department informing me that there was an evacuation flight set for 8:00 a.m. out of Ben-Gurion, bound for Athens, Greece.
MICHAELSON: And can you make it or what -- what's the deal?
COWAN: So, unfortunately, I am further away from the airport than they gave me enough time to make it. So there was no chance of me ever making it to the airport.
MICHAELSON: I mean talk to us about your journey. How long you've been trying to get a flight. What's happened with you?
COWAN: So I got notice on Saturday afternoon after the war started, that all flights for the time being were going to be canceled. I got a notification from United. I was very easily able to rebook myself for a flight that was originally going to be next Wednesday. I got notification two days ago that that flight has also been canceled.
And so right now we're really just waiting to find out when the airspace here in Israel is going to open up.
There have been news reports that that might happen for outbound commercial flights as early as Sunday. So really we're just waiting here to get information from any of the U.S. carriers about when they are expecting to resume flights.
MICHAELSON: I know you went there to run a marathon, right? And this has been a marathon, I guess, trying to get home. We spoke to a fellow Los Angeleno last night who was a professional basketball player, who was there for that. She took a bus to Cairo, which I know some were being advised to do.
Did you think about doing that? Were you uncomfortable with that and fly out of Egypt?
COWAN: So yes, they -- the State Department and the Israeli government are running shuttles down to Taba, which is about one hour outside of the border of Israel in Egypt. From there you can catch a flight over to Athens.
I have considered that, at the time, I feel safest here in Tel Aviv. There are plenty of places to shelter. There are restaurants, coffee shops -- everything is open and accessible.
And so for the time being, I feel safest here where I know that there is infrastructure in place, like shelters and all that type of stuff.
MICHAELSON: So I guess, how do you feel this -- this news that there is starting to be chartered flights that the U.S. Government finally is sort of arriving to take people home?
COWAN: It does feel nice to know that they are now getting permission to fly U.S. residents to Athens, Greece. I look forward to hopefully receiving another call from them in the coming days, hopefully with a little bit more lead time so that I can make it to the airport.
[01:34:51]
MICHAELSON: All right. Matt Cowan, who may need to have his bags packed and be ready to go at a moment's notice, it sounds like thank you so much. And maybe we'll see you back home in Los Angeles soon. Appreciate you being with us. Safe travel.
COWAN: Thank you so much.
MICHAELSON: Some analysts say that Kurds could play a pivotal role in Iran. We'll talk about who they are, their place in the region and their history with the U.S. That's next.
[01:35:16]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.
What you're looking at right here is a map that shows the Kurdish- inhabited area of the Middle East. That's all this area in red.
President Trump says he would be, quote, "all for the Kurds launching an uprising in Iran".
CNN has reported that the CIA is now working to arm Iranian-Kurdish forces. The Kurdish people are a regional minority who make up about 8 to 17 percent of Iran's population. CNN's Clarissa Ward reports from the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Everyone is watching to see whether Kurdish fighters will launch a ground offensive into Iran.
So who are the Kurds? They're one of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world, about 30 to 40 million people spread across a mountainous region spanning Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago, they were promised a state of their own. It never materialized.
In Iran, Kurdish armed groups have fought the government for decades operating from bases along the Iraqi border. Multiple sources say the CIA has backed some of those groups as they prepare for a possible ground offensive.
In Iraq, the picture is very different. Kurds here built a powerful, autonomous region after the fall of Saddam Hussein and worked closely with the United States in the fight against ISIS. But they're wary of provoking Iran and are trying to stay neutral, calling for peace and stability.
In Syria, Kurdish militias became one of Washington's most effective partners against ISIS, controlling much of the northeast. But they were ultimately forced to give up some of that territory to the government in Damascus.
Across the region, Kurdish politics and loyalties vary widely, but many share a long history of struggle for recognition, autonomy and in some cases their own state.
Clarissa Ward, CNN -- Erbil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: We want to bring in a Middle East affairs analyst. Shivan Fazil is a doctoral student and researcher at Boston University. He joins us live from Boston right now.
Thanks for being with us. Welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time.
SHIVAN FAZIL, MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to be with you.
MICHAELSON: Are the Kurds a reliable partner?
FAZIL: I would say so. Over the past two decades, the Kurdish forces have been or have proven to be some of the most reliable and capable partners the United States has had, first in the war in Iraq war, and later in the fight against ISIS.
And that's why when there is a crisis in the Middle East, they are usually thought of capable and reliable partners that the United States can call on to for such operations and tasks.
MICHAELSON: Why are they so reliable? What's different about them than the other groups?
FAZIL: Well, they are mostly organized. They're very organized, and they are very clear-eyed about what they want. The Kurds in Iraq, as well as their fellow Kurds in Syria as we have seen during the fight against ISIS, as well as their brethren in in western Iran. They are very clear-eyed about their objectives.
They want mostly recognition and acknowledgment for their ethnic identity, and they mostly want autonomy in the form of federalism, which is the Kurds in Iraq, thanks to the Gulf War and the 2000 Iraq War, were able to achieve.
MICHAELSON: So we hear the CIA already sort of behind the scenes partnering with the Kurds. How would it work if the U.S. more formally partnered with them?
FAZIL: I am not surprised that the CIA is entertaining these ideas, but I would say any such help should be embedded within building a broad cross-ethno sectarian coalition that can also be formed the nucleus for the transitional government if the objective is to topple the Iranian regime.
So far, the war seems to have a very -- it doesn't have a very clearly defined end game and also little planning for the day after. I suggest, for such a plan to be effective, it's very important that there should be a better consultation and coordination with the Kurds. But also with the other opposition groups in Iran as well as outside Iran, so that they can have a minimum consensus about what kind of form of government and institutions would they like to see in the day after.
MICHAELSON: Shivan Fazil, up late with us in Boston for our breaking news coverage. Thank you so much for being with us.
[01:44:51]
FAZIL: Thanks for having me again.
MICHAELSON: The war with Iran has all but shut down the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and it is driving the price of oil up to new highs. A live report on that, next.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president said earlier today in an interview that he would like to have a say in who's the next leader of Iran.
Is this an expansion of your military objective? PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF WAR: Well, there's no expansion.
Ultimately, I think the president's having a heck of a say in who runs Iran, given the ongoing operation we have. So there's no expansion in our objectives.
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MICHAELSON: The Defense Secretary there touting President Trump's plan to help choose Iran's leader. Earlier, the U.S. President dismissed the idea of the late ayatollah's son, who you see right there, taking over. He called him a, quote "lightweight", and said that the U.S. wants someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.
Now days into the war with Iran, oil prices are hitting their highest levels since President Trump started his second term. We are looking right now at live prices. Both Brent Crude and regular crude around $80 a barrel right now.
We've seen some of the highest intra-level trading since the final days of the Biden administration. We do see things settling down a bit as we look at this live picture.
We go live now to Beijing. Mike Valerio has new reporting on some countries in Asia. Just weeks of fuel left, apparently, as this war goes on. What are we talking about, Mike?
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So I think the most staggering number Indonesia, out of our new reporting. We're talking about around, give or take, three weeks of fuel left for, you know, if you don't think about Indonesia in your regular everyday life, no matter where in the world you're joining us, this is the fourth most populous country in the world reporting to us that they have around three weeks of fuel which the energy minister from Indonesia says is above the standard.
But this is not a normal situation when the Strait of Hormuz is almost effectively closed and it is the conduit for energy supplies to this corner of the world, majority of them.
So why this matters, when you're talking about major economies like Australia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and their energy supplies have this potential threat, this potential x factor.
Economies conceivably could slow down, prices go up. And we don't like to hear that at home, prices going up, because that could contribute to higher inflation, which could mean higher interest rates.
And when we're talking about an affordability crisis from here in Japan to back home in the United States, that is a potential wider consequence.
So the other numbers that we have. Australia reporting to CNN this early afternoon here on this side of the world, around 36 days' worth of petrol, 34 days' worth of diesel, 32 days, Elex, worth of jet fuel.
Taiwan saying that they're ok for about this month of March, but they're working for their supply in April. And when you're talking about Taiwan, this is the leader for advanced semiconductors.
So when they are having a potential issue with their fuel supply and their economy as a consequence of that perhaps slowing, if something happens with their energy supply. That affects us everywhere, no matter where in the world you are.
And then finally, Japan reporting 254 days of oil reserves. South Korea 208 days of oil reserves. So that almost brings you up to one year. But it just shows you how this consequence of the Strait of Hormuz is being felt in this economic engine in this part of the world, Elex.
MICHAELSON: So some countries and companies will hear that and say, opportunity, this could be good for us. Is Russia one of them?
VALERIO: Russia is definitely one of them, and especially as it comes to China. You know, funny you ask that. Because China, it imports about 13 percent of its crude from Iran.
But what could make up for that supply? What could make up if the supply of oil from Saudi Arabia is threatened coming here to the shores of China. Potentially Russia. Russia and China have a strategic partnership.
So when we think about all of these sanctions that are placed on Russian oil, potentially China could look to some Russian suppliers to help out its supply at home.
And also worth noting, the United States has given permission, we talked about this, last hour for India to buy sanctioned Russian oil.
Russian oil is just kind of hanging out in the ocean that hasn't made it to port yet. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said, ok India, we know that your situation could be troublesome because of your reliance of oil coming through the Strait of Hormuz. Things are so not normal right now, Elex, that the U.S. Treasury secretary is saying, ok India, you are allowed for at least 30 days to buy Russian oil. So Russia certainly could benefit from this situation at least in this respect.
MICHAELSON: Talk about one giant country to start off with Indonesia, India, another giant country we're talking about.
Just to be clear, Mike, the United States is not running out of oil anytime soon --
VALERIO: Yes.
MICHAELSON: -- right?
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VALERIO: No, and I think that's a good point to make but prices that we pay at the pump in California, Alabama, they are still affected by the global supply.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
VALERIO: If people are really hurting around the globe, that still impacts the price of oil in the United States.
MICHAELSON: And people in Alabama pay a whole lot less than people in California do when it comes to gas.
Mike Valerio from Beijing. Thank you for that.
President Trump is suggesting that Cuba may be next on his administration's agenda once the war with Iran concludes.
Speaking at an event, President Trump said he wants to fix the island nation. He also suggested that it was only a matter of time before Cubans who fled their country would be able to go back home.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What's happening with Cuba is amazing. And we think that we want to fix -- finish this one first but that will be just a question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba, hopefully not to stay.
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MICHAELSON: So he was speaking there with Inter Miami, who of course have a whole lot of fans who are Cuban Americans. Inter Miami won the soccer championship for the MLS last year. They were at the White House for that.
Thanks for watching this hour of THE STORY IS.
The next hour starts right after a commercial break
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