leaders. what are you going to be watching for when they speak? >> i'm going to be watching for how are they going to try to tamp down these tensions? there are some players that do have an important role. turkey could play an important role here in terms of counseling restraint on the part of both israel and iran. russia also could play a role with iran given the burgeoning military relationship between moscow and toronto. china also pick a thing more voices on the world stage really need to be counseling, as much restraint as possible. but unfortunately, as frequently as the extremist insult of these countries come inside of the occupied territories, these are the ones that will tend to inflame tensions and try to make the conflict even worse. but this is where leadership is so incredibly important and i know the biden administration, all the folks at the white house, the ones that are

probably still convening their, the white house situation room on secure videoconferences, they're looking for ways to be able to ensure that this is not going to trigger what could be, in fact, a very very bloody, costly, and very dangerous escalation in the coming days and weeks. >> director brennan, thank you so much for joining us tonight. we appreciate your time. ali velshi picks up our breaking news coverage right now. allie? thanks, stephanie pick more of this nbc's breaking news coverage right now, nbc news has confirmed that israel has carried out an airstrike inside iran tonight. the united states was not involved in israel's strike in iran, a source familiar with the situation confirmed but israeli officials had notified u.s. officials earlier today that that response was coming. the strike tonight could signal a potential escalation in an already tense situation between those two countries.

israel vowed that it would respond to iran's attack on saturday after iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles at israel, which was retaliation for an israeli strike on and iranian consular building in damascus, syria, earlier this month. at this hour, prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office has declined to comment. joining us now is nbc news pentagon and national security correspondent, courtney kube the pick you had this news very early, courtney, in terms of what was happening. it is less clear than what happened on th saturday where we knew that there were waves and waves of drones followed by missiles in e the air, directed at iran. what has happened tonight as far as we know? as it is interesting, we actually had a much better sense of what was happening with the iranian italian tory strikes against israel over the weekend and we have really gotten the sense of what is happening here tonight. but what we know so far, allie, is that israel did carry out an operation in iran tonight. that is pretty much all we know about what happens in iran with

the exception of what we are hearing from iranian state media, one of the state run media agencies in iran is saying that there were a number of explosions in the isfahan region. now, of course that is where iran has a nuclear facility, an important nuclear facility. but, again, according to iranian state media, they are saying that that is not where this explosions occurred, there is some reporting that may have been, there may have been some sort of targeting of an iranian air base and that region. instead there are some reporting on social media and again with the iranian state media. that is pretty much all that we know here tonight u.s. officials and israeli officials are not commenting. i will say, as we have been reporting on this back-and- forth, you mentioned the april 1st attack in damascus that killed a number of senior iranian officials that was carried out by the israelis,

iran vowed to respond last week and we saw them lunch about 300 projectiles toward israel. most of which were intercepted but not all of them and of course, israel vowed to respond to that. according to a number of u.s. officials, israel did brief the u.s. on some of their potential response options to this iranian attack over the weekend and one of the things one of the options that they did brief them on was a possibility of going after iranian proxies in the region or iranian officials, not inside iran but neighboring areas, and that brings me to some more reports that we are trying to run down here tonight. that is of some explosions pl inside syria. now one of the most complicated factors in what is a very complicated situation is the fact that israel rarely acknowledges when they carry out these sorts of strikes and attacks, whether it be in syria or even in iraq or other areas

inside the region. we are waiting to see if israel even acknowledges what is going to be happening there tonight, allie. >>, to pick up on the last point you make. attacks inside of syria, israele had targeted iranian infrastructure and iranian personnel inside of syria point talk to me about that relationship syria is a country that has been at war with israel sent the creation of israel, i believe. or at least since the '60 they are in an actual state of war. they are a third country but they're not really a sovereign country. they are a sovereign country but they're mostly run by iran and russia. and israel targeted diplomatic mission of another country there talk to me about the role that syria plays in this thing. >> so, keep in mind, israel carries out airstrikes inside of syria very often but they almost never, and maybe even st never acknowledge them. what they are generally going after him as he pointed out rightly, allie, they're not going after syrian locations, they are going after some of

the other groups that operate there specifically, has below. hezbollah has an enormous present inside syria and iran sends weapons, parts, to hezbollah through syria and that is generally what we see is really airstrikes against advanced missile parts, components that would be used en by hezbollah at the israeli military takes more often take strikes inside there but again they don't acknowledge them. i will say the other group that is operating inside syria is pe the u.s. military. they have locations in southern syria and in eastern syria. what we see when israel is generally operating in these strikes inside syria is they will be conflict these strikes with the u.s. military point that is everything from giving them a heads up when the aircraft are already in the air that something is coming, just to make sure that no one, there is no miscalculation, no

mistakes, that no one is operating in the same area at the same time. but also there is disagreement that exists that if israel is going to carry out some sort of a strike or an attack, that could have negative repercussions back when the u.s. and u.s. personnel in the region, that they will give them a little bit more of a heads up in advance of that so that the u.s. can shore up any defenses or do whatever they need to do that is one of the reasons that the strike in damascus really caught a lot of people here by surprise and frustrated some u.s. officials we spoke with israel to tell them when the planes were in the air that they were carrying out the strike, they didn't give them much of a heads up on something that really proved toh be very, potentially very escalatory. including for americans in the area in the region. >> this order, deconfliction is one word you will be hearing about an awful lot in the next few days, as everybody in the region tries to figure out, for a technical military term, in terms of getting planes in the air or missiles in the air you inform everybody about what is going on and you say this is what our target is, let's not make this into the next world

war but that is the danger we have got because we have got belligerent parties cannot just israel and iran but america does not enjoy relations with iran so this is a hard conversation for everybody to tamp down on because all the parties don't talk directly to each other. >> that is tlright, but this is another thing that has been unusual ever since his april ua 1st strike in damascus we have really seen some unusual diplomatic movements and one oft those was on that same day the u.s. reached out to iran directly, the u.s. was not involved in that strike in damascus but that just underscores how important it was for the u.s. to know that they didn't have anything to do with that and how concerned they were about that strike and implications it had for the region. >> courtney, excellent reporting, as always we will stay close to you through the course of the night. joining us knows nbc news white house correspondent, mike mellie. i heard something interesting from you which is unusually in the circumstances and that is not the white house is

characteristically and unusually quiet about this right now. at this point, over an hour into what we know to be reported attack between two belligerents, two very heavily armed belligerent but this is more than a proxy war when you got israel and iran going at it with each other one is the delay? you think they're sitting in the situation room trying to figure out what the response is going to look like? >> i think what the white house is doing is being reported, just like we are. they are spending a lot of time right now speaking across the inter-agencies, speaking with officials of the pentagon, within the intelligence community point also speaking with we would call them our sources, they would call them their allies around the world to try to gather as much information as they can about what exactly has transpired. what might still be to come and how, in this very early stage, the iranians might be responding to the united states does not want to get ahead of what the situation is and respond in a way that might make things more complicated, more difficult, just restain the presidents options going forward. there is a word we have been

using a lot over these last few hours which is the fear of escalation. this has been at the heart of the concern for president biden and his senior team since october 7th, about what that initial attack by hamas into israel would lead to in terms of not just israel and palestine and hamas and gaza but also the wider region and now there is another term to think about at this moment, though, allie, which is acceleration. it was, on april 1st, we saw that strike in damascus, on the iranian diplomatic compound. it took a full 12 days for iran to respond to that in the form of that drone and missile attack we saw over the weekend which was largely and successfully repelled. the cia director saying it was a spectacular failure pick will now we are only five days removed from that response where it does appear now that israel has responded. so what the white house will be doing at this stage is doing, pulling out every lever they

can to gather information and to make sure they can try to slow it could be further responses and responses to that one thing to look at, allie, as we head into these overnight hours is what might be happening in just a few hours in italy by coincidence of the schedules, secretary of state, tony blinken, someone who has been at president biden's side in the foreign-policy business for more than two decades now is meeting with his counterparts at the g7 minister summit. they do have some public forums, some public sessions, as well as the secretary giving what is typical of the end of one of the summits, solo press availability. so at a time where we haven't heard very much from officials at the white house or at the pentagon, that might be the first opportunity for us to get a response from a senior u.s. official in just a few hours. >> michael, you make an interesting point that they are doing their own reporting, they're trying to get good information before they spread it, in a tense situation like this. it is kind of remarkable that america would need to do that as it relates to an israeli

attack obviously in an iranian attack on israel we do not enjoy diplomatic relations with iran so they aren't calling us to tell us stuff but in this particular case, america's influence over and support of the israeli military would suggest to me that it would be automatic that america would know these things. please it is so interesting to see how this past week has played out. we have, of course, a direct conversation over the weekend between president biden and prime minister netanyahu, two men who have known each other for decades, know a lot about how one another thinks and knows how to potentially push one another's buttons but also lead one to a place at the other one to get to pick and so that was an important conversation to start the week, one in which we know from reporting that the message was made by president biden to take the win, not to take any escalatory steps at this point. obviously as the week has gone on there have been a series of conversations in informal means by top israeli officials and news officials to follow up on

those conversations and then there was a more formal conversation that we know happened earlier today. it is what is known as the u.s.- israel strategic consulting group and there was an initial very small conversation involving jake sullivan, the national security advisor, his israeli counterpart as well as e senior minister in the israeli cabinet to talk about the iranian attack purposes encoded terms of what we called the information that the white house did provide after that call to lace. within that conversation that we would expect that the israeli officials might have laid out the range of options, if not the specific option that they were preparing to move forward with. president biden spent most of the last three days out on the campaign trail in pennsylvania. i was with him just 24 hours ago in scranton. he was today in philadelphia. when he came back to the white house tonight just before 5:00 p.m. he went not to the residence as he might typically do at the end of a workday but he went straight to the west week where we know jake sullivan was working, as well as other officials through the night. s that would have been an

opportunity for the president himself to get briefed on those conversations that happened earlier in the day and to begin thinking through these next few hours and what moves forward. we haven't gotten any information about whether the president has been briefed about these initial reports of dental strikes within iran or other places as courtney is mentioning, potentially in syria, as well. this is going to be something that obviously officials are closely monitoring tonight that the president would be notified of any significant of elements that america's own engagement, potentially getting on the phone himself, potentially moving into the situation room. he does have working spaces in the residence, of course, that he could take calls and speak with his staff but obviously this is something that will be looking at closely overnight se and into the morning hours. the president does have a public event scheduled tomorrow . the union conference here in washington so the first glancest of how the president would be engaging in this would be what that schedule looks like, does h it change ahead of what is already going to be in the we

can, of course pick some significant gems including on and is really aid package. >> michael brownlee fourth in washington, d.c. joining us now is nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent and chief washington course monday, andrea mitchell, i know you have been working all night to get us confirmation of what, in fact, is going on here. and this becomes very important because we know something has happened. we know that it is inside iran and we know that israel has the capacity to hit inside iran, we have seen it before. the question is, is this a major escalation? is this a response to last week ? how much bigger does a and how might it be contained? >> that is a big question. and it we don't know precisely what has happened. and i was saying, there was that conversation, a very important conversation between the national security advisor and importantly, ron dermer, who is the closest longtime o adviser to benjamin netanyahu. he is the most important diplomat, had been in

washington for years and the most important adviser and diplomatic. two netanyahu and there were so many divisions within the israeli war cabinet all week, watching as they were having eating after meeting they all agreed, all the factions and there were so many factions and that potentially right-wing coalition led by netanyahu, so many factions all agreed that they had to retaliate and that was directly in contradiction re to president biden's urging and now call. last saturday, saturday at 9:00 our time when he very emphatically told netanyahu as been reporting all week, take the win, your air defenses, you will overwhelm the iranian missiles for us, the cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. nothing, 99% of it did not get into israeli territory, there

were no real casualties. take that win, don't retaliate. we will be with you to defend you but we will not take part in any offense of operation. so here we come, inside the israeli war cabinet, as to what to do, not whether, but what to do. they made their decision how big it is and how many locations , do we know that something happened inside iran, i was able to confirm that to a colleague. of course, at the pentagon. so it is definitely inside iran. we think it was, we think it may be that airbase there but there is a very important nuclear processing plant there. this is clearly retaliation inside iran was it calibrated? was it proportional? was also in syria? we just don't know. we do know that turner did pre- informed, pre-notify jake sullivan today and that while

we have confirmed that the white house had that notification, we were also told by those familiar that the white house was not participating, that the administration of the u.s. did not participate in any way in this operation and instead it would not, that is the difference also the foreign ministers for both germany and the uk were in israel, with israel's president, just yesterday. and they were urging that israel not retaliate. for all of europe and the brits, the french came to israel defense, as did jordan. all of the region as well as saudi's, permitting certain operations over their airspace and from their airspace, from bases there. so all that came together but that coalition is also urging israel not to do what it apparently has done tonight and

how that will determine and perhaps in part iran's the responses but we need iran's foreign minister, and we heard from him earlier today, actually on cnn, set for an nbc interview tomorrow he has been v saying that any retaliation from israel will be met with an overwhelming iranian response. you know what that means because already they have been somewhat humiliated in the u.s. has contributed to that by describing their military action against israel as a spectacular failure. including actually on thursday, his speech, that was repeated in so many words by the cia director, that iran failed to attack israel. try to point out to israel, again, that it had succeeded in the eyes of the world and iran's aggression was not being

rewarded but now iran's, it says, retaliate and depending on what israel did and how iran makes that decision, will they miscalculated as many of the u.s. government believes israel miscalculated it but it is just damascus, we started around, turning it had been a shadow war, which has been going on for years and years to all-out kinetic, phonetic war and of course, you can be miscalculation upon miscalculation and this could lead to, you know, a terrible outcome. if it is not continued in some way. >> nulet's go back into history before the days of the iran nuclear deal. you just mentioned that we st believe that there has been a strike on isfahan in iran. it is in central iran, tehran is in the north. in isfahan you mentioned there is a new facility. there is the nuclear technology center of elisa hahn but within that there is something called

the miniature neutron source reactor. it is a chinese made nuclear reactor. the concept of iran and nuclear weapons has been benjamin netanyahu's result for about 15 years. his whole argument, while ignoring the palestinian situation, is that iran and its nuclear power pose an existential threat to israel. in three years, you'll remember, there were discussions about iran attacking the nuclear facilities or america attacking him and benjamin netanyahu is a tell america either you will do it or we will do bottom-line as nobody did it and iran doesn't sn probably have nuclear capabilities but they are certainly moving in that direction. >> your point is exactly well taken. in fact, reporting from our intelligence and from the state department that iran is within a week or two having enough nuclear material to create a

weapon. to create a bomb that is how sort the breakout stage is now, it would have been a year if the iran nuclear deal were still in place because they were eyes on them they had, according to all of the u.n. inspectors, iran was living within limits, they were observing those. as you know, in 2008, it was canceled by the trump administration and they had an agreement and that u.s. bowed out of it but europeans try to keep them in it but then iran waited about a year and they started breaking out big s time and as they were increasing the sanctions by the u.s., they believe that they had the right to do that because the u.s. had broken its part of the deal pick whether they did or not, they were violating other agreements. but the fact is, that they are now where they are, the u.n.

inspectors are not anymore with watching with their cameras and their inspections. and iran has reached these incredible levels. and you're right, netanyahu has always wanted to take that on others and the other facilities that they manage to surgically decapitate, assassinate iran's top nuclear scientist but a lot of that knowledge was, did not eliminate the program. as you know, the obama administration had tried to forge that multilateral deal with constantly plagued by netanyahu, any invitation to washington, speaking, invited by the republicans, asking the y white house to give a speech to a meeting of congress, speaking at the united nations, making offensive accusations about what iran was doing and

threatening them and john bowman, just this week, said, the former u.n. ambassador for the trump administration, said that what israel should do is retaliate by attacking a nuclear facility. so he was one, and there were also members of the right-wing coalition. this is the moment to take the excuse of iran launching against israel by finally going after they are nuclear facilities. i doubt very much that that is what they did because that would be such. >> that would be a bigger deal, yes. please such an escalation against what the u.s. let me point out that it was specifically mentioned, from cans, from netanyahu, they finally, obviously, the greed of something, notify the u.s. today, they did it, how big it

is, we don't know. >> at this point, this point you made a few minutes ago, just really important to you and i talked about this in 2018 when the united states pulled out of the iran nuclear deal pick whether they like that deal or not, what god was relations between the united states of the highest levels, including the nuclear energy levels and iran and one of the consequences of pulling out of that deal was the hardliners in iran got to say to the moderates and to the people of iran, see, that deal didn't work. and as a result, there are fewer and fewer moderates in the iranian government right now. please you were absolutely -- this is probably the most hard- line iranian government we have seen in quite some time. i we meet with the iranians, certainly once a year, at the u.n.. they are supposed to be the foreign minister an interview by nbc news tomorrow, friday, today he did speak with cnn and was threatening very strong retaliation if israel struck back. so they have now stated exactly

what they will do and whether or not this escalates out of control is anyone's guess right now. but you are absolutely right, there aren't very many moderate in iran. we have seen the crackdown on women in iran and a lot of the harsh, harsh crackdowns and imprisonments we are really not following. you know as well as i how hard it is to cover things there. but also all of the publicity that, for women who are getting for their response against the regime, has evaporated in the west and the focus has turned as now to gaza and i was hearing the prime minister of ukraine pr today, the attack in ukraine is not getting the attention it desperately needs right now because of all the focus in the

middle east. >> remarkable, your discussion about the fact that iran may be a week or 10 days away for having enough nuclear material to start weapon icing. andrea, thank you as always. we will be right back. >> let me just quickly point out, that is a nuclear device, is not something that can be hi put on a missile. and delivered. >> thank you for the clarification, we appreciate that, andrea mitchell joining us we'll be right back with our continuing coverage on israel's attack on iran tonight. an toni you know, i spend a lot of time thinking about dirt. at three in the morning. any time of the day. what people don't know is that not all dirt is the same. you need dirt with the right kind of nutrients. look at this new organic soil from miracle-gro. everybody should have it. it worked great for us. this is as good as gold in any garden. if people only knew that it really is about the dirt. you're a dirt nerd. huge dirt nerd. i'm proud of it!

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our continuing coverage of the israeli attack on iran continue today for joining us and now from tel aviv, the staff writer for the new york times, he is the author of the important book, rising kill first, the secret history of israel's targeted assassinations . thank you for joining me

point i know it is the middle of the night for you. what are you hearing, what is the reporting that you are getting as of now we have confirmation of an attack of some sort, which we believe to have taken place in isfahan from iran but there is precious little information flowing right now both from the israelis and the u.s. government and the iranians, what do you know? palley so two is really sources, and three iranian sources confirm an attack, the is really sources confirm israeli attack iran and one side, the iranians confirm an attack on a military base air force base by elisa hahn. and also nuclear facility. thereby, that well. but it seems in general, we talk about we take everything that we already know and take into consideration what we don't know yet and we don't, probably become more clear in the next two hours and then this

is a limited capacity attack. it is far away removed from the initial plans that israel before and after iran attacked on saturday and in a way, maybe comes with israeli hopes that this will end this cycle of violence. on one hand, but also send a message to i think many people in the israeli cabinet and the military trying to send which israel will not accept such an iranian fast attack, even with the very limited damage thanks to the coalition to american air force and is really air force, most of the, the rest of the attack but iran will not be able to go with impunity on that this was a symbolic act to signal them to

iran. and of course, now it is important to see whether iran could take and or start another round. >> roman, let's talk about this concept of containing versus not containing with respect to israeli and iran for you and i have talked about this for years. intimate netanyahu, iran is the thing that he has used cannot deal with a lot of domestic issues in terms of saying, iran is the existential threat to israel. iran health bison staying on a regular basis that it would like to be the existential threat to israel. but the one thing domestically in israel that this last week has done is it puts netanyahu in a stronger position for himself, maybe not for israel, but for himself because netanyahu getting to say this is the only thing i have warned everybody about, that iran will come for us, how has that affected the thinking both militarily, and strategically

in israel? >> i understand that the nature to, any country that is under attack, and such a severe attack of more than 300 cruise missiles, listing missiles, and drones last saturday putting everybody in israel in fear and also i think demonstrating how much israel is dependent on how other countries, of course, mainly the u.s.. the nature of many people will be too high behind the leader but i'm not sure that this is the case with israel now pick israelis sort of ptsd, combat post dramatic syndrome after the october 7th surprise attack. the israelis, maybe netanyahu's talking about also resources, massive attention to understanding iran but in the end, the most devastating attack as the holocaust was created by

a militia or a terrorist organization that netanyahu did very little to liquidate. and i understand, i also leave the israelis, the number of israelis thinking that netanyahu should resign immediately is always on the rise kept rising this week, there are israelis who say he needs to resign, more israelis say he needs to resign now and there is no real significant change in the polling and voting . i don't think this will have a significant effect that the only thing this is really regretful, the attention for what is happening in gaza, the crisis in gaza and the immediate need of israel to sign the hostage deal. >> that's right. >> this violence will end now and the attention will be tore everybody should be. >> that is interesting, roman, because you are not a guy who

usually comes on and imagines the most optimistic viewpoint but if that were to be the case, if that were to end the potential starvation before to mitigate the deaths of 30,000 people, if it would get those hostages free, then something good will have come of it. let us hope, let us hope tonight that something good comes out of a whole lot about, my friend. thank you for joining us for joining us from tel aviv joining us now, by the way, as well, from tel aviv is nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard i have been looking to speak to you it is early morning for you, and to get your perspective on this whole thing as it is unfolding. a response by israel to iran that looks relatively contained at the moment, does not look like it is an attack on civilians, it looks like it is in isfahan but not at the nuclear facility in a salon and romans comment, that typically when a country comes under attack like israel did last week, everybody rallied around the leader, but

that is not necessarily happening in israel at the moment. >> so, good morning, i am actually in jerusalem and we are hearing similar reports to what roman was just talking about a moment ago that sources confirming to nbc news that israel did carry out what is describing as a limited strike, there has been no official is really confirmation on a, what seems to be a military base just outside of isfahan. but iran is downplaying it. if you look at iranian state television there have been some reports denying that an attack took place, there are pictures coming out of iran, on iranian television, showing the main square and is a honk, a traffic circle there was traffic flowing as normally as normally as pictures coming out, showing the nuclear facilities which are embedded into a mountainside in east on, also

looking normal. more reports from iran saying that the explosions that people heard in the city that were explosions this morning that the population could both see and hear were air defenses, but that they were not the major air defense systems, the s 300 or significant military systems that they were of a smaller scale. so so far at this stage, iran is not even attributing blame to that attack and is barely acknowledging it. so it could be that both israel and iran are trying to limit this israel had said that it would respond, israel has been hinting at this for days. there has been a lot of pressure on israel to either not do it at all, to try and contain this crisis because this has been a -for-tat already with two weeks ago now pick israel carrying out a

deadly strike on the iranian embassy compound in damascus, then i ran responding with its massive but largely failed drones and missile attack on this country. and then in the early morning of friday, this new attack apparently on this literary base on the outskirts of isfahan, apparently israel is now, according to the source, carrying out a damage assessment but significantly, there have been no instructions given to the population in this country. people have not been ordered to go into shelters. they have not been ordered to take any particular steps for their safety. that was not the case over the weekend when israel, when iran launched its ballistic missiles and drones at this country and cruise missiles, there were hourly updates from the israeli military telling the people to

take these warnings seriously, to go to their shoulders, to stay there for at least 10 minutes and to stay close to radios, televisions, and to follow instructions that will be coming out from the military. so so far it seems that both sides, anyway, are downplaying this and certainly not giving many details, which, as ronan was saying a short while ago, could be a sign that perhaps that there is an attempt to walk back from the brink of what appeared to be a possible, eminent regional war has this escalated. >> i hope that is true, richard, thank you, as always, for your analysis and reporting. richard joining us now from jerusalem. breaking news coverage continues after a break. gles i, blistering rash that can last for weeks.

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and cache in at cache creek casino resort. joining us now from beirut is nbc news foreign correspondent, good morning to you, matt, i've been watching you all day on thursday here because you had an important interview with a hezbollah leader in lebanon and until a week ago, has the low was really the most serious threat or the only threat that almost would be existential to iran because hezbollah possesses not only a lot of weaponry and expertise, but they have the freedom to get all the weaponry

they need into beirut. but that'll escalated a week ago when a direct attack came in from iran pick what is your sense of where we are tonight? >> yeah, i mean, that is the question a lot of people have throughout the region. we were talking about how this looks like a kind of reprisal in kind by by the israelis against iran. in other words, is really attacking iran itself rather than attacking iran's consolation of proxy groups across the region, one of those, in fact, the most powerful as you just mentioned, it's right here in lebanon, further down the coast, right along the border with israel where we have been seeing a lot of fighting, really fierce violence between the israeli military and hezbollah for the past six months, ever since the day after october 7th attacks that kicked off this latest round of fighting. now right up until this moment, we thought that the israeli attack against iran, which was

a reprisal for iran's attack just on saturday night, which itself was retaliation for israel's attack on april 1st against a foreign ministry building of the iranians in damascus, the capital of syria. as you can see we are talking about -for-tat reprisals there was real thinking here in the region israel might not strike iran, that it might strike iran proxies, that would put has bled very much in the cross hills . as well as iran backed groups in syria and iraq also gets a lot of support from the iranians. and hamas also is part of that group and of course, they have been in rapport with the israelis for a very long time point so now everybody in the region is wondering where does this go next? is this going to be contained just between israel and iran or will iran, if it decides to counterattack , activate some

of these proxy groups, as you just mentioned, just a couple of hours before we saw this, i put that question directly to iran's second in command in an exclusive interview , this is a man who doesn't speak to the media very often at all and he doesn't speak to arab media, he doesn't speak to foreign media but he did, he spoke to us and i asked him about this just hours ago before we saw this attack, here is what he told us. click what has tehran told you about hezbollah's role in what could become a regionwide work? >> [ speaking in a global language ] [ speaking in a global language ]

>> and, allie, these are not empty threats, this is not bluster, this is the real deal, this is a man who leads an organization that has been fighting against the israelis for generations and has been sustaining across border or over the israeli-lebanon border for more than the past six months, killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands of people on either side of the border and, you know, if iran decides that they do and to activate some sort of effort against the israelis, they could decide to retaliate as they did on saturday night by launching a huge volley of missiles. that was not a successful operation. ful operation.

it is by far the strongest number. it benefits the most from iranian. why this man has an intimate knowledge of iran's capitol of tehran, and it has an estimated 150,000 missiles, which are not just blunt instruments, these are sophisticated, directed weapons that have been used to great effect in the past. as we have seen over the past couple of months s huge firefight over this border, as i mentioned. that has been still relatively contained. it is good for the entire region, it is good for the people of lebanon, because israel has vowed to lay waste to this country if this fight escalates, we haven't see that quite yet. there are sort of unstated rules of engagement over this border, hezbollah doesn't really try to escalate, israel is also careful not to escalate. because they are both trying to avoid, not just a full on war,

one against the other, but a regionwide or that would almost certainly dragon the united states, which has vowed to come to the defense of israel and in the past, has passed naval assets right off of my left shoulder in the mediterranean here, not necessarily because they are going to fight against hamas in the gaza strip, but as a deterrent against iran and its proxies, again, hezbollah, the cats pull in the region. so, if we do see this expand beyond just a fight between israel and iran, we could see hezbollah and numerous other other actors. >> despite israel and its allies, including united dates, the united kingdom and others, it doesn't have proxy groups around the area, iran has proxy groups around the area that have remarkable military capability including hezbollah. matt, thank you for your reporting, matt bradley lebanon. joining us now is the executive vice president of the quincy

institute and an expert on iran. one of the things we haven't done enough of tonight, it is good to see you, my friend, is discussed the political situation inside iran. we are acutely liaware of political situation inside of israel, deteriorating political situation for benjamin yahoo, who hopes that this will sure his political support up. running bergman said he is not sure that is actually going to happen, given netnyahu's popularity there, but things are different in iran. things used to have inroads in iran, while we had a nuclear deal with them. we do not now. >> that is absolutely true. during the nuclear deal, there t was extensive diplomatic contact between the united states and iran, in fact, during the negotiation phase that led to the nuclear deal, then secretary of state, john kerry, spent more time talking to the iranian foreign minister than any other foreign minister in the world. and that was quite needed, th

because the u.s. and iran have a lot to talk about, and in order to de-escalate conflict and avoid confrontation. trump walked out of that deal, biden failed to get into it, he hesitated at first and misplayed some of his cards, and now we actually don't have any deal at all, that is still kind of in place in some parts, but much of the diplomatic connectivity has been lost, and that connectivity is crucial importance in moments like this. >> trita parsi, one of the outcomes of pulling out of the nuclear deal in 2018, whether you like the nuclear deal or ar not, is that there were moderates who were empowered by it in iran, there were people in a rod who wanted this nonsense with the rest of the world to stop. those moderates got shamed by the fact that they supported a deal that america pulled out of in the end. and they are now not nearly as powerful as they used to be. what is the situation in iran, ,

with moderates, who do not want to see a work, either with israel or a broader regional work? >> i think you put your finger on something tremendous here which is that pulling out of the nuclear deal and also failure to get back and not only shave those elements from the iranian mission who wanted to find some sort of movement with united states, bury the hatchet and move on, they were really beyond shamed, it turned out that their theory on how to fix iran's economy and foreign relations was wrong, as a result , and that then enabled them to get so strong, i think they cheated in the elections that brought the race, but they were strong know enough to be able to cheat as a result, partly, over what the u.s. did.

right now, the iranian government is essentially entirely in the hands of apartheid's. what we have seen the last couple of weeks here, in fact the last couple of months is that despite the fact that they have their mdt with israel, iran has been very careful and done quite a lot to avoid actually getting directly entangled, and even the attack that they did a couple of days ago was clearly designed not to inflict significant harm, but rather show their capability and avoid further escalation. >> trita parsi think you for your analysis, i encourage people to follow you on social media so they can get up-to- date analysis from you, which is helpful to me. trita parsi joining me now. our continuing coverage continues after this break. we will be right back. right b.

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