Trump considers 45-day Iran ceasefire after issuing Tuesday ultimatum

[0:00] CNN has now learned that countries working to end the war with Iran are calling for a 45-day [0:06] ceasefire. A White House official says the president has not signed off on the proposal, [0:11] but Iran has already rejected it. It comes as the president threatens to escalate the conflict [0:17] big time, demanding that Iran reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz by tomorrow evening. [0:23] He tells Axios that if that deadline expires, and I'm quoting the president now, [0:27] I am blowing up everything, end quote. Do you know how seriously the president [0:31] is considering this ceasefire proposal? Well, look, what we know as of now is that he is [0:38] considering it. It's unclear, though, how serious he is actually taking it. As you mentioned, [0:43] a White House official told us that he has not signed off on this proposal yet and that it's [0:49] just one of many ideas under consideration. But what I can tell you is that obviously we are now [0:55] only 36 or 37 years old. We are only 36 or 37 years old. We are only 36 or 37 years old. [0:58] We are only 36 or 37 years old. We are only 36 or 37 years old. We are only 36 or 37 years old. [0:58] We are only 36 or 37 years old. We are only 36 or 37 years old. We are only 36 or 37 years old. [0:58] Hours now away from that new deadline that the president had set for Iran to either reopen [1:03] the Strait of Hormuz or face a serious and much more aggressive escalation in U.S. attacks, [1:10] particularly, the president said, on energy infrastructure sites, civilian infrastructure [1:15] sites. So we'll have to see. I think this proposal, and I should note this proposal, [1:19] was drafted by U.S. intermediaries in this war, countries like Pakistan, [1:24] Turkey, and Egypt, which have been passing messages between Washington [1:27] and Tehran. They are the ones who had drafted this proposal. They delivered it [1:31] to both countries last night. And so now we just are trying to get a sense of whether or not this [1:36] is actually something that we could see happen. The idea, of course, behind it is they're hoping [1:41] that a 45-day ceasefire could allow, could be enough time for both sides to really have much [1:48] more substantial negotiations that could potentially provide an end to the war. [1:54] But again, we don't really know if this is something that could actually, [1:57] potentially move forward. But of course, the hope is that such an agreement could stave off [2:02] with the United States and really what the president is issuing with those threats of [2:06] escalation. I will say the Iranians, for their part, have said that they reject this idea of [2:12] a temporary ceasefire. They said essentially, in so many words, that they want any sort of deal [2:18] to be an end to the war. Unclear if that's something that could actually be thought about. [2:23] I think certainly not within the short deadline we're now facing at 8 p.m. [2:27] tomorrow. All to say, the president's press conference will hopefully shed a little bit more [2:31] light on this, as well as also give us a little bit more sense around the timing, of course, [2:36] because that's been a huge question this entire time. The president has shifted deadlines [2:41] regarding how long he expects this to last. His most recent one was saying two to three weeks [2:46] before he thought the war could be wrapped up. We'll see if that's still the case when he addresses [2:51] reporters at 1 p.m. today, Pamela. Right. And I'm just wondering, we've seen the president in this [2:57] case, and I'm just wondering, are you getting a sense from your sources how serious he is about [3:02] this threat of going after civilian infrastructure in Iran if it doesn't open up the straight of [3:07] Hormuz by tomorrow night? Yeah, look, I've been talking to a lot of people in that building behind [3:12] me, as well as throughout the administration on this idea. I will say part of the reason we've [3:16] seen that deadline shift previously, I mean, it initially gave one deadline, he pushed it 10 days, [3:21] he's now pushed it again by another day, is because the Trump administration recognized [3:25] to escalate in such a way. And of course, some of the things that we've seen in the past, [3:28] things the president has threatened to attack could potentially amount to war crimes if he went [3:32] through on, say, attacking desalinization plants in Iran. But there's also, of course, Iran has [3:38] threatened to reciprocate and retaliate should the United States actually move forward with [3:44] attacks of that magnitude. And that is something, of course, many United States allies and partners [3:49] in the Middle East, in the Gulf region, are very much concerned about. Iran's saying that they [3:54] would go after similar civilian infrastructure should the United States, [3:58] follow through on that message from the president. And so there is some hesitancy there. [4:02] And I do think there are many people in this White House who do want to see diplomacy prevail here and [4:07] do want to see this staved off. The question, of course, though, is whether or not that's something [4:12] that the president is willing to do, if he's willing to push this deadline even further or [4:17] try to come to an agreement before we face 8 p.m. tomorrow night. All right, Elena Treen from the [4:22] White House for us. Thanks so much. Wolf. I want to go to our own Jeremy Diamond right now. He's [4:26] reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel. [4:28] Jeremy, as Tehran rejects the idea of a temporary ceasefire, it's also responding to President Trump's [4:34] threats to Iran's infrastructure. There's a lot going on right now. I know you're covering all of these [4:40] developments, including the Israeli, apparently Israeli move to kill the director, the head of the [4:47] Revolutionary Guard Corps' intelligence chief. First of all, tell us about that. Have the Israelis [4:54] confirmed that they went ahead and assassinated the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps? [4:58] Yes, that's right, Wolf. The Israeli military has confirmed that Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps' [5:08] intelligence chief was killed in an Israeli strike. He is just the latest of a slew of senior Iranian [5:14] officials and senior IRGC officials who have been killed in Israeli strikes just a few days ago, of [5:19] course. It was Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' naval commander who had been killed. We've seen a [5:24] slew of other senior Iranian officials. All of this began, of course, the first day of the war with the [5:30] former Supreme Leader. But now we are waiting to see what more Israel and the United States are [5:35] prepared to do in Iran. Today, we already saw that Israel is increasingly already going after [5:41] infrastructure targets inside of Iran, targeting a petrochemical facility today, one that produces [5:47] about 50 percent of Iran's petrochemicals altogether. And Israel's defense minister has warned [5:52] that Israel will continue and carry out more strikes on Iranian infrastructure targets should [6:00] take place here in Israel, as we have seen them do over the course of this war, including last night [6:05] when four Israeli civilians were killed in a residential building in Haifa that was hit by an Iranian [6:10] ballistic missile. But the United States is also now threatening to join into the fray and strike those [6:15] infrastructure targets, though that is the threat of President Trump with the deadline for tomorrow at [6:20] 8 p.m. All of this as we are seeing that there is this last-ditch ceasefire proposal on the table to try [6:30] to end the 45-day ceasefire. But for now, the Iranians do not seem amenable to that proposal at all. [6:36] They very much want to see this conflict end with a permanent ceasefire, one that avoids a scenario [6:41] where in a few months' time you have Israel and the United States both going back into Iran to carry out [6:48] additional strikes. The Iranians are showing that they are willing to bear the brunt of the ferocity [6:54] of the Israeli and American strikes in that country and use their asymmetric warfare assets instead [6:59] to draw this out of the fray. [7:00] Thank you. [7:00] Thank you. [7:00] Now you are looking at an era in which this might have been a very difficult phase for Iran, [7:05] in which they went from being able to move out into a war of attrition and seeing if President Trump [7:10] will blink. [7:10] And very quickly, Jeremy, in addition to that strike that the Iranians launched against [7:14] that residential building in Haifa, Israel, I take it the sirens have been going off for much of today [7:23] in central Israel and the Tel Aviv area, where you are. [7:25] Yeah, that's right, Wolf. Both overnight and this afternoon we had multiple air-rate sirens going [7:31] off, one after the other, in fact, which is relatively unusual, indicating that Iran was firing several [7:32] in quick succession. Many of those missiles were armed with those cluster munitions. We could hear [7:37] several impacts happening within seconds, milliseconds of each other, indicating small [7:43] cluster munitions impacts, which have happened here. Multiple injuries as a result, but no [7:47] fatalities as a result of those cluster munitions today. I've seen every proposal you can imagine. [7:52] Is Tuesday your final deadline? Is Tuesday at 8 p.m. your final deadline? [7:56] Yeah. Mr. President, do you have any reasons? [7:58] If Iran does not meet your demands, Mr. President, are you willing to continue the war? [8:02] Well, you'll have to watch. Mr. President, do you have any reasons? [8:05] By the way, it's an easy question. The answer is yes, but you'll have to watch. [8:09] Mr. President, what do you think of the latest proposal? [8:13] They've made a proposal, and it's a significant proposal. It's a significant step. It's not [8:18] good enough, but it's a very significant step. They have made, they're negotiating now, [8:26] and they've made it very... [8:26] It's a very significant step. We'll see what happens. [8:32] Have you spoken to his father's son? Also, do you believe the U.K. is a president like [8:36] he is this Easter weekend? [8:38] Well, that's what they need. They have a long way to go. The U.K. has a long way to go. [8:47] We don't want another Neville Chamberlain. Do we agree? We don't want Neville Chamberlain. [8:52] Mr. President, I was here. I was here. I was here. [8:56] How is the airman that was rescued doing? [9:00] He's doing really well. They're both doing well. You know, it was two. And we held off [9:04] the one because we, if you, if they would have known we had him. So we held off the [9:08] one. They are both recovering very well. They were both injured, and they're doing well. [9:12] Mr. President, you said that Iran has no anti-aircraft equipment. How are they able to drop it? [9:26] Well, you know what? When you do thousands and thousands... [9:29] of flights, and you have one plane shot down, and not mortally, the two pilots got out, [9:35] they got a little bit lucky. And you know what? In war, you need a little bit of luck [9:38] also. They got a little bit lucky. That's all they got. [9:40] What's stopping you from ending the war? [9:44] Well, it could end very quickly, the war, if they do what they have to do. They have [9:47] to do certain things. They know that. They've been negotiating, I think, in good faith. [9:52] We've had total regime change. You know, the people there now are much more reasonable [9:56] than the lunatics that you had in phase one. [9:59] Phase one and phase two, they were lunatics. The people that we're negotiating with now [10:04] on behalf of Iran are much more reasonable. You can call it what you want, but I call [10:09] it regime change. And I think most people are giving us credit for that. The first regime [10:14] was taken out. The second regime was taken out. Now, the third group of people that we're [10:18] dealing with is not as radicalized, and we think they're actually much smarter. [10:22] Mr. President, why did you use such vulgar language in that true social term? [10:28] Oh, my God. [10:29] Only to make my point. I think you've heard it before. [10:32] Mr. President, why did you say, praise me to Allah? [10:35] Have you spoken to the families of the Iranians that were saved? [10:37] I'm going to be doing it right now. [10:39] Mr. President, what do you say to Americans who are not a fan of the war? [10:43] They're foolish, because the war is about one thing. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.