Amna Nawaz:
Welcome to the “News Hour.”
We’re in the third day of the American and Israeli war against Iran, and the U.S. State Department is now calling on Americans to evacuate more than a dozen countries in the Middle East. Today was marked once again by punishing airstrikes across the Islamic Republic. In response, Iran continues to widen the war, sending volleys of missiles and rockets across the region, targeting most of its Arab neighbors and Israel.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that at least six U.S. service members have been killed in reprisal attacks.
Nick Schifrin begins our coverage.
Today in Tehran, the epicenter of this widening war, the plumes of smoke were massive and the explosions thunderous, some of the capital’s streets engulfed in debris and dread, entire buildings collapsed, a police station converted into a carcass. The Iranian Red Crescent Society says the war has killed more than 550.
One explosion hit one of Tehran’s most prominent hospitals. Nurses evacuated babies in incubators. The campaign is the largest in Israel’s history, targeting leadership and military. And American Tomahawk missiles and airstrikes are targeting Iran’s missile infrastructure.
President Donald Trump:
We continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people.
Nick Schifrin:
The war also threatens service members, three American F-15Es accidentally shot down by Kuwaiti air defense.
Man:
No problem. You are safe.
Nick Schifrin:
One female pilot met by grateful Kuwaiti civilians.
Man:
No problem. Thank you for helping us.
Nick Schifrin:
But U.S. service members were killed on this Kuwaiti base when U.S. officials say an Iranian ballistic missile evaded its air defense.
Man:
Oh, my God.
Nick Schifrin:
In total, Iran has launched more than 1,000 drones and missiles into Arab countries, including its first ever attacks on Gulf hotels and residences. And, today, it expanded those attacks to energy infrastructure, including Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery.
And there was another attack today on a tanker off the coast of Oman. Today, Iran vowed to shut down the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil is traded. And Israel expanded its own strikes into Lebanon. After Iranian ally Hezbollah launched an attack into Israel, Israeli jets pounded Beirut, killing dozens and setting fire to residential buildings.
Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, including this attack on Saturday west of Jerusalem that killed nine. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site and reiterated his goal, the elimination of the Iranian threat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahur:
And if this regime, this terrorist regime of the kind we’ve never seen in the world, if they get nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, ballistic missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles, they will threaten all of humanity.
Nick Schifrin:
At the Pentagon today, Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine made clear the U.S. military objectives were limited to Iran’s missiles and drones and navy.
Pete Hegseth, U.S. Defense Secretary:
This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission, destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes.
Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff: Our mission is to protect and defend ourselves and together with our regional partners prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders and be ready for follow-on actions as appropriate.
President Donald Trump:
They’re never going to have a nuclear weapon.
Nick Schifrin:
But, at the White House, President Trump listed maximalist goals, including the destruction of Iran’s missile capabilities, — quote — “annihilating their navy,” preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon, and blocking Iran’s arming, funding, and directing regional proxies.
President Donald Trump:
Whatever the time is, it’s OK. Whatever it takes, we will always, and we have — right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. We also projected four weeks to terminate the military leadership. And, as you know, that was done in about an hour, so we’re ahead of schedule there.
Nick Schifrin:
But in multiple interviews since the weekend, the president provided varying timelines and goals. He called the Venezuela model, where the U.S. military captured President Nicolas Maduro, but left intact his entire government, the — quote — “perfect scenario” in Iran.
He said he had multiple choices to lead Iran, but then he told ABC News: “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead.” He told “The Atlantic” he’d agreed to resume negotiations, but a senior administration official later clarified the president would negotiate — quote — “eventually.”
Simultaneously, Trump said Iranians would — quote — “obviously have an opportunity to overthrow the government,” the exact opposite of negotiations to keep the regime.
This evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there were no contradictions between limited military goals and expansive long-term vision.
Marco Rubio:
The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can’t rebuild it and make sure that they can’t hide behind that to have a nuclear program. That’s the objective of the mission. That said, abundantly clear we would love for there to be an Iran that’s not governed by radical Shia clerics.
Nick Schifrin:
And, tonight, President Trump warned in an interview with CNN that the biggest wave of U.S. strikes, Amna, is — quote — “coming soon.”
Amna Nawaz:
Nick, tell us more about the goals of this war and some of those varying contradicting statements you just laid out. What are U.S. officials telling you?
Nick Schifrin:
So, the key is what you just heard there from Rubio.
The U.S. military is destroying Iran’s missiles drones and navy. Their mission stops there. U.S. officials reject the Colin Powell Pottery Barn model, if you break it, you own it. But the long-term goal is still regime change. So how do you square that circle?
U.S. officials tell me by focusing on a change in the regime, rather than a change of the regime. So if Iran gave in to all of the U.S. demands at the negotiating table, that would achieve U.S. goals. Or if the Iranian people overthrew the government in some kind of insurgency after the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, that would also achieve the goals.
And here’s the thing. U.S. officials I talked to say they don’t have to choose between these two things. And that’s extraordinary, because, on the one hand, you have relatively limited military goals for an operation, and on the other, you have this vision that would require some messy, likely long-term, very difficult insurgency, frankly, that the U.S. or Israel would have to keep going and fomenting.
So that’s the reality, though, Amna, of the Trump era. The president wants options, and so they believe they do not have to make the choice. And the criticism of that, of course, is that Iran shows no willingness to negotiate. And unless there’s some kind of plan to help Iranians rise up, the mission will fail.
Amna Nawaz:
Meanwhile, you have some new reporting on a key question in all of this, which is why the war started when it did. What have you learned?
Nick Schifrin:
U.S. officials confirmed to me the U.S. intelligence community provided Israel the location of the supreme leader on Saturday morning, alongside some of his most senior leaders.
And so Israel started the war with an initial strike that hit that compound that we saw on Saturday. But Secretary of State Rubio today also argued essentially the opposite, that the U.S. didn’t have a choice when to start the war because the military had to go when it did because of both Israeli and Iranian plans.
Marco Rubio:
We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that, if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.
Nick Schifrin:
So, to underline, Amna, this is now a war simultaneously started to American intelligence provided to Israel and a war that Israel would have started anyway, so the U.S. had to act.
Amna Nawaz:
Meanwhile, as we reported earlier, the U.S. tonight has issued evacuation orders for more than a dozen countries. What more do we know about that?
Nick Schifrin:
Yes, let’s take a look at this graphic, this tweet that was just posted by the State Department.
“Depart now from the countries listed below using available commercial transportation due to serious safety risk.” Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, and Yemen. That is 14 countries.
I just talked to a former senior official. As far as this person knows, this has never, ever been done before. We are talking about hundreds of thousands or millions of Americans who are getting this message tonight, and we will certainly stay on this to figure out whether there’s going to be any facilitating either by the military or the State Department to get them out.
But, clearly, the message is, take civilian transportation,but, as we have been talking about, many of these airports in the region already closed.
Amna Nawaz:
Nick Schifrin, beginning our coverage once again.
Nick, thank you.
