Trump talked Netanyahu out of a significant Iran strike: Sources

[0:00] CNN is now learning that Israel was preparing to launch a new significant attack in Tehran [0:05] when President Trump stepped in earlier this morning. [0:08] An Israeli source and a U.S. official familiar with the matter say that President Trump [0:12] told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on any more retaliatory strikes. [0:17] This was during the pair's second phone call in fewer than 24 hours. [0:22] Let's go now live to Tel Aviv with CNN's Jeremy Diamond. [0:24] Jeremy, what more are we learning? [0:28] Yeah, that's right, Boris. [0:29] This last night, President Trump did not succeed in his earlier conversation with Prime Minister [0:34] Netanyahu in getting Israel to hold off and not retaliate against Iran. [0:38] We saw overnight two waves of Israeli strikes inside Iran, one targeting military sites, [0:44] the other targeting a petrochemical facility after Iran fired multiple barrages of ballistic missiles. [0:50] But then earlier today, the two got on the phone once again, and President Trump again [0:55] urged Prime Minister Netanyahu not to retaliate further against Iran. [1:00] And despite the fact that Israel, according to these sources, had several additional waves [1:05] of attacks planned in Iran, bigger even than what we saw overnight, the Israeli Prime Minister [1:11] seems to have called those attacks off at the urging of the U.S. presidents. [1:15] And then this is what Prime Minister Netanyahu told the public. [1:18] At the moment, the fire has ceased. [1:25] Because after we struck the terror regime in Tehran, it stopped attacking us. [1:30] If the terror regime in Iran makes the mistake of attacking us again, we will respond with force. [1:36] And so while we have now reached a point where both Israel and Iran have said that they will [1:44] not attack each other any further for the time being, there is still hanging in the air this [1:50] very real possibility of this conflict resuming once again. And that's not only because of what [1:55] you just heard from the Israeli Prime Minister, but especially because of what we've heard from [1:59] Iran. Iran's military command saying in a statement that should Israel attack Iran, but also should [2:07] Israel carry out additional attacks in southern Lebanon, then Iran will retaliate and will [2:13] retaliate with more force than what we saw in these initial waves of ballistic missile attacks [2:18] over the last 24 hours. That is a very new and very concerning new red line from Iran because it [2:25] goes much further than what we had heard before. Iran previously warned that should Israel strike [2:30] Beirut, the Lebanese capital, then Iran would strike Israel. And that's exactly what happened last [2:35] night. And so now for Iran to be saying that this red line has moved, that it's now about [2:39] southern Lebanon, you know, presents the real possibility of this conflict resuming because [2:45] Israel is vowing to intensify its attacks against the Iranian proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, whose [2:52] stronghold is indeed in southern Lebanon. And so this remains a very tense situation. That being said, [2:58] in Israel, the restrictions on activity have been largely removed across the country. Students [3:04] are expected to go back to school tomorrow after classes were canceled today. But again, Israel's [3:10] military and the region at whole at large remains on a heightened state of alert again because of [3:16] these threats as it relates to Lebanon. Boris, it's notable, Jeremy, that Netanyahu did not actually [3:22] mention the ceasefire in his statement. Do we know where talks stand right now? The last we'd heard [3:27] there was an impasse. CNN reported through Fred Plotkin, who is in Iran right now, that their position [3:33] was that until the United States froze some $24 billion in assets, there was not going to be a [3:39] memorandum of understanding. Yeah, I mean, listen, President Trump seems convinced that they are still [3:46] in those final stages of negotiations. But we've been hearing that from the president for several [3:51] weeks now, effectively. But the president told said that to Prime Minister Netanyahu, it seems to have [3:56] been part of his argument to the prime minister for holding off on additional strikes because he believes [4:02] that a deal may be at hand. So it's very hard to judge and to assess at this stage how close these [4:09] two sides truly are. It seems that there are still disagreements over some of the very same issues that [4:13] there were disagreements over several weeks ago, over the state of the frozen assets, how quickly [4:18] they would be released, as well as Iran's commitments to actually remove its enriched uranium that remains [4:28] inside of the country in further rounds of negotiations. The Israeli prime minister, it should [4:33] be noted, still has very little confidence in those negotiations actually going forward. And now there [4:39] is still this there is this very real threat of additional Israeli attacks in Lebanon, bringing forward [4:46] another round of ballistic missile fire from Iran. And that could again complicate further these [4:51] negotiations with Iran. That's why President Trump has been intervening directly to get the Israeli [4:57] government to kind of pare back and scale back its attacks on Iran, its retaliation. All of this [5:03] hanging in the balance right now, Boris. First of all, I think it's important to remember how this [5:08] started. This started with a negotiated ceasefire under Trump administration auspices last week between [5:15] Lebanon and Israel. And it's Hezbollah in Lebanon that violated that ceasefire. And now it's the Iranian [5:21] regime in Tehran that's trying to challenge it by sending missiles at Israel for what it accuses Israel [5:27] of doing violating a ceasefire. So really, this is about Iran trying to flex its muscles in those [5:32] final days before there's some sort of negotiation between the United States and Iran over that war. [5:38] Yeah, Iran has been demanding that the U.S. agree to unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen assets [5:43] held in foreign banks. Trump is, of course, concerned about any comparison to the JCPOA and the Obama deal [5:50] and his repeated refrain about pallets of cash being sent to Iran. Ultimately, if Iran is saying [5:58] that unless these assets are unfrozen, there won't even be a discussion over a memorandum of [6:04] understanding, isn't that a step that the United States may have to take? [6:10] Yeah, these are really difficult choices for President Trump. I think what we've seen in the [6:15] recent days is Iran testing his resolve. Is he willing to go back to war or is he really desperate [6:21] for an off-ramp to this war? And what they are saying is, you know, this $24 billion, and clearly [6:29] he is feeling boxed in by Republicans in Congress who were so critical of that Obama-era deal. And so [6:35] I think the challenge for him is how does he save face, make the case that this war was worth it, [6:41] given the situation we're in now? And I think then there's a challenge of, is some level of [6:48] sanctions relief or unfreezing these funds going to be something that Trump can justify to those [6:53] hardliners who want to see a maximalist negotiation, when clearly what his team is doing here is a [7:00] quite minimal, almost an open for open, open the straight-of-form moves and end the U.S. naval blockade [7:05] and push everything else down the road. [7:07] The U.S. apparently is planning to allow Iranian assets to be used to support rebuilding [7:13] Gulf countries, U.S. allies that have been impacted by Iranian attacks. Iran is calling [7:18] that plan absurd. Is there anything Tehran can do to push back? Could this ultimately be [7:24] a bargaining chip in the broader negotiation? [7:29] Well, first of all, Tehran certainly still has chips that they can play. They continue to [7:34] demonstrate that they're capable and willing and prepared to launch missile and drone attacks on [7:39] Gulf countries. About this potential using of Iranian frozen funds to reconstruct Gulf countries, [7:45] I don't think I've seen any Gulf reactions to this. It's very reminiscent of European decisions [7:50] to ring-fence frozen Russian funds in Europe for Ukraine reconstruction. And I don't recall the Gulf [7:56] countries being very supportive of that a couple of years ago. So there's much more to this story, [8:00] and we'll see how it evolves at the same time that Gulf countries are talking about some sort [8:05] of reparation fund to help Iran rebuild their country.