Transcription
Trump warning moments ago, and I quote him: everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran, as Iran is warning that a ninth wave of attacks against Israel is now underway and will continue until dawn. This is now the fifth night of a conflict between the two countries.
And just moments ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posting on social media, and I quote: he said, "I directed the deployment of additional capabilities to the Middle East region." So what does that mean? Now we know that the U.S. Navy Nimitz carrier strike group is already heading towards the Middle East right now, and more U.S. naval assets capable of defending against ballistic missiles are expected to be moving into the eastern Mediterranean, closer to Israel, in these next coming days.
The latest Iranian attacks coming after the IDF released these new images of Israel destroying what it says are two Iranian fighter jets. And earlier today, an unbelievable moment unfolded live on Iranian state television. Let me show it to you. First of all, you go on all you want. Instead, you—Had any of the watchmen who? I know what I mean. It's stunning to even watch that Israel hit the headquarters of Iran's state television.
Now, the IDF said that this wasn't a mistake. They said it was a precise strike based on intelligence, that the building was being used for military purposes.
Now, an Iranian source sent me these letters that Iran sent to the secretary general of the UN and the U.N. Security Council earlier today, in which Iran demands immediate action following what it calls Israel's deliberate attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. The letter goes on to demand that the U.N., quote, "hold Israel and its accomplices fully accountable." Now, the accomplice—the use of that word—is a very thinly veiled reference to the United States.
But while the U.S., of course, backs Israel at this point, clearly the two countries are not entirely on the same page. Sources tell CNN the president—Trump—opposed an Israeli plan to assassinate the supreme leader, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to take that option off the table. Today. It's not going to escalate the conflict; it's going to end the conflict.
Lauren Lieberman is OutFront in Tel Aviv to begin our coverage. And, Oren, what is the latest that you're learning?
As we understand it, Iran is saying that missiles will be coming—from where?—from now all the way until dawn. Well, we at least got some sense just a short while ago. We had to run to the bomb shelter downstairs in the hotel about one hour ago, where we spent 20 minutes there because of warnings of more incoming missiles, including here to Tel Aviv in the heart of Israel, at least according to Israel's emergency responders. So far, like Magen David Adom, there were no impacts. So either those missiles were intercepted or weren't able to strike the targets and hit in military or residential areas. That being said, it's two in the morning here, so there are at least 4 or 5 hours until dawn. And we saw missiles incoming at about four in the morning last night. So there's very much the potential for more ballistic missiles and more drones as the night goes on here.
Meanwhile, as you pointed out, Israel has continued its strikes in Iran and in Tehran. In addition to hitting Iran's state broadcaster, they took out two aircraft on the ground and have continued to go after other targets as well. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said so far Israel's strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities have set the nuclear program back many years. He wouldn't give a specific number on anything like that—how much they really have damaged the nuclear program. But Israel's former defense minister told CNN earlier that it was some years that they had set the program back.
Meanwhile, there are rising casualties on both sides: 24 killed so far in Israel. Meanwhile, a much higher death toll in Iran: 224 killed there. And it doesn't look like this is going away anytime soon. Iran has vowed it will not negotiate under attack.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu spoke of what he called, quote, "complete victory." That is a phrase we've heard in the war in Gaza, which is past 600 days now. And this fight, although it's incredibly early here, shows no sign of an off-ramp right now, no matter what President Donald Trump promises about perhaps finding a way to end this conflict, quote, "soon."
All right, Oren, thank you very much. Live in Tel Aviv. We'll be checking back in with you this hour. OutFront now, Ophir Akunis, the consul general of Israel in New York. And consul, I really appreciate your time. So yeah, just, you know, just start—you know, President Trump had said he's going to come back from the G20, and he's going to get this over with. But then he also said Tehran should be evacuated right now. Just to take that statement, that one statement: Iran should be evacuated right now. Is he right?
I will tell you, one hour ago, they launched ten ballistic missiles toward our civilians. Now they want a ceasefire. After almost 50 years of saying they want to destroy us. Now, we—For your question, we will accomplish our two goals: destroy their ballistic missiles and nuclear capability. And that's what we are going to do, even if it will take weeks. Even if it will take weeks.
Okay, so so I just want to understand, as everyone works to understand more what this means. So ballistic missiles, nuclear program—what's up with the nuclear program? We've got the latest satellite images of Fordow, which of course is one of the main nuclear sites and the one that is at least known to have substantial assets deep underground, which was done in order to prevent Israel from bombing it—it's buried deep in the mountain or more underground, as we understand.
Okay. We have—we understand analysts keep telling us it is the U.S. that has the so-called bunker-buster bombs that have the ability to destroy an asset of that sort. And only the U.S. But I ask you, can Israel destroy the Fordow site and that deep nuclear capability without U.S. help?
You know? First of all, we will not take—we will not take decisions for the American administration. We will do whatever we can, and we are doing it, to prevent the Iranians to hold a nuclear weapon. This is the most dangerous thing to the Western civilization. And I'm talking about this study, this place, this city as well. So we are—we are trying to do it. We are doing very well until now. We want, first of all, to defend our people from their missiles and from the nuclear weapon plan. This is very dangerous to the world and to Israel as well. And we are doing whatever we can to prevent it.
All right. So. So I am just curious, though, when your Prime Minister says that the strikes so far have set back Iran's nuclear program a very, very long time, many, many years—why is that not enough?
It's not enough because we suppose that the—still—they are trying to progress their nuclear program, even though it's almost a week we are—we are there during this operation. We are not counting on them. We must be sure that we will accomplish our two goals. And we are not sure yet about the nuclear sites. We want to be sure about that. I suppose there is more than—But you mentioned the—the—the two of them. And we want to be sure that we will accomplish our goal, and then we can say, you know, what we can do with that. I told us we are not talking about the Iranian regime. I don't know about it.
That's right. Exactly. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. You so much.
All right. And I want to go now to the former defense secretary and CIA director, Leon Panetta. And Director Panetta—you just heard the consul general there from Israel saying that many—you know, setting back many, many years—right, that that is not what the goal is. The goal is more—more than that. They want to get rid of the capability of a nuclear weapon for Iran altogether. And also then he also made a distinction that it was beyond that, that it was also getting rid of the leadership of Iran, of the ayatollahs. What do you hear when you hear that?
Well, I, I hear two goals that are going to be, frankly, difficult to achieve unless the United States goes to war with Israel, which is not likely. But the fact is that to go after their nuclear capability, you've got to be able to go after these deeply buried facilities, and that can only be attacked with—what?—Rusting weapons that the United States has and can be delivered by a B-52. So to totally be able to wipe out their nuclear capability is just not going to happen if it's left to Israel on their own. And with regards to regime change, I think the problem there is that that it isn't that easy to achieve in Iran, that you can undermine their command structure or you can go after their nuclear scientists. But the fact is, even if you go after Khamenei, there are going to be other hardliners that will take their place. So I think Israel has to think about just exactly what it is that they're trying to achieve, that they're trying to weaken Iran. That's an—that's an achievable goal. Beyond that, I think it's going to be difficult.
So specifically regarding the ayatollah, and let's just talk about the Supreme Leader, right? The—the leading Ayatollah Khamenei. Prime Minister Netanyahu said killing him would not escalate the conflict. He said he would, quote, "end the conflict." It sounds like you disagree with that assessment.
Yeah. I don't think there's any question that getting rid of Khamenei is not going to suddenly—not result in regime change. That's the bottom line. You know, you're talking about the Quds Force. You're talking about a lot of hardline commanders that are still very active in Iran. And the fact is, the more Israel attacks Iran, the more the Iranian people will be concerned about trying to protect their own Iran against Israel. So when you look at all of these other factors, the bottom line is that achieving regime change is not easy to do, cannot be done simply by killing Khamenei, and frankly, cannot be done simply by the kind of missile attacks that are going on right now.