Is it safe to say it appears hes not listening to him here john, i think what its safe to say at the moment is that it appears as in all likelihood that israel has struck iran now has if this has happened, has israel has the Prime Minister dial back what he might have otherwise planned . Certainly theres been a Huge International push. You had the British Foreign secretary of the German Foreign secretary. Here are a couple of days ago with repeating that message to all the ministers they met the Prime Minister defense minister, the Foreign Minister, the president for do not escalate the situation, but both seem to accept that israel was going to go ahead, john the Gravity Force live in jerusalem with the early reporting. Nick, appreciate that hustle very much coverage will continue immediately right now, Cnn News Night with abby phillip starts now these cnns Breaking News Explosions in iran on good evening. Im abby phillip in new york. Theres Breaking News tonight reports that israel may have hit back irans semiofficial Fars News Agency, citing local sources, says tonight and explosion was heard northwest of isfahan. That is about four hours south of the capital city of to her on and we cant say anything right now about what caused that explosion. But if israel did in fact strike that decision would ignore persistent pushing from the United States and its allies all across the world to show restraint. Cnn supporters are here with us standing by. Lets start with Alex Marquardt. He is live tonight and washington alex, what do we know at the center . Our well, abby, details still very much coming in, but we have had percolating reports about explosions blast heard in iran. Of course, the immediate assumption is this is indeed the israeli retaliation for a rons massive strike against israel last weekend with more than 300 drones and missiles. But what we know so so far is simply that explosions have been heard. This comes from now, multiple iranian semiofficial news outlets. The latest from a press tv he reporting that an explosion was heard near a rons central city of s for khan, the reason is still unknown, and that echoes what we heard just moments ago from another semiofficial news agency called fars. So here we have Iranian Media itself reporting an explosion or explosions. And one of rons most prominent cities, s. Behind it is in the middle of the country towards the western part of the country it does have a prominent Nuclear Facility, but i will note that this was near s for khan. So it is very much unclear here what the target may have been. Indeed, how this was carried out. We have not heard anything abby, from the idf, from any israeli officials. Weve not heard anything from any american officials we of course, are checking with our sources. This is something that we have been anticipating for several days now it has always been a question of how israel would try to thread the needle of responding to this historic attack by iran without escalating the situation that has certainly been the priority of the us and its allies that israel should be allowed to do what it, what it wants to because its a sovereign country, but not escalate this already incredibly volatile situation and abby, i would just note that about twoandahalf hours ago right here on cnn, the Iranian Foreign minister said in no Uncertain Terms that if israel were to strike iran directly, that there would be an immediate and maximum response from iran. But for now, abby, were still trying to learn what these explosions or this explosion was. But is now being reported by Iranian Media abby. Yeah, very important if you to underscore the seriousness of this particular moment and those comments from the Iranian Foreign minister are incredibly significant alex standby for us. I want to go now to cnn, International Diplomatic editor, nic robertson. Hes joining me live now from jerusalem nick, as alex pointed out, it has been at the urging of the United States that israel, take a beat and perhaps back down in this moment to cool off tensions, we dont know who is responsible or what these blasts mightve been. But this could be the moment that of expansion of this conflict that everyone has been warning us about for months yeah. As alex was saying, that the iranian for a minute, so just a few hours ago youre saying that there would be a decisive Immediate Response that essentially israel would regret it the skies over this city acquire theres no sirens going off here were not aware of sirens anywhere else in israel at the moment we are beginning to get a few more details of the strikes or these explosions, at least as far that we know about now in s4 khan, northwest service for khan is what the Fars News Agency in irans semiofficial news agency, there is reporting. So we are beginning to build up a slow picture and i think a couple of other details to bring into the picture that weve been tracking over the past few hours flight Radar Tracking of flights in the skies above iran have indicated within the past hour or so, flights have been changing their flight path to avoid iranian airspace well aware that in the last half, an hour or so a no Tamar Know Flay Declaration has been made for the west of iran, which would be the side of iran that if there were israeli fighter jets on their way into iranian airspace, they would be coming from potentially from the west of iran. They could come from the south as well, but perhaps a more direct, more covert route for them might be from the west. So, so that piece of information, i think it is telling an important and i think what first caught our attention here earlier on this evening, which could be completely unrelated, but a number of small earthquakes, were recorded in several iranian a Desert Locations outside of cities. Now, theres no, theres no detailed information that we have about these yet, but this evening that this sort of gathering picture of strikes or explosions heard in other cities we know of at least two other cities where the local population that we cannot confirm at the moment, i should stress that cannot confirm have reported unexploded unexplained explosions. Now, of course, in iran, people can be concerned about the possibility of this upending israeli airstrike threat. And people can misread things that can be as much as an exploding town around the road outside of where they live. So i stress all this information has to be tracked down. And of course, iran controls the Information Flow inside the country the internet is not really available in twitter is not ready available. And, you highspeed Cellular Network connection is not so ready for people. The iranian government controls that because they want to control the message and information, whether its about protests on the street or the explosions that may be happening in the country. So the fact that were only through the News Channels that are sanctioned by the government of iran hearing about explosions in one city or close to one city is for khan is only is only as far as we can tell at the moment. Part of the picture of what we think may be happening. But its going to take time for us to look at what were here, look at the details were getting crossreference them and try and try to get some better clarity on them yeah. In there because youre talking there. I just want to reset for people who may be just joining us. We can report now that there have been explosions heard inside of iran at near the City Of Isfahan. Thats about a few hundred miles South Of Tehran thats a city that is the third most populous city in iran. We also know a couple of things about isfahan. It has one prominent nuclear sayyed. It also has an army base nearby. But as nick was just telling us there, we dont have a clear picture of who might be responsible, what might be responsible for those blasts. We dont have a clear picture of what else might be going on because of how locked down iran is. But nick, i do want to ask you just generally zooming out here. A strike inside of iran. What is the significance of that well for israel, it would reestablish deterrence, which is what iran said last weekend. They had established in their favor the ability to strike back with the intent to deter israel from striking them. Israel has relied historically in this region that is that is oftentimes very hostile to its existence iran for example, denies the existence of the israeli state. It is an existential threat to israel and deterrence is the way that israel has deemed is the d only effective way to put off a potential aggressive in the region. So if they have struck tonight, it will be an effort to reset that deterrence. Now the Iranian Foreign minister was very clear if theres any sort of strike whatsoever, then there would be a swift and decisive response from from iran. Now, they could use proxies in lebanon, such as hezbollah. And ive been talking to sources and 11 in this evening and they feel that the situation is very tense place in lebanon at the moment in respect of hezbollah potentially hezbollah expecting themselves to be to be targeted however, i think what that means, but the moment in a Bigger Picture is it really adds to the very, very tense nature of whats, whats happening. And what could happen as an outflow of the early indications of what we believe that were seeing in iran. But it is, this is going to be a decision that comes down to the iranian government to determine what they need to do when theyve assessed what has caused these explosions around the country tonight their language has been very clear, on bolden would indicate that theyre not going to shy away from responding. But but it will be and it appears to be as if the ball is shifting to their court. It was in israels and it shifted back to theres luck. Thank you for all of that. Please stand by for us. We do have to continue to emphasize that at this moment there is very Little Information that we know about what is happening inside of iran. Iran is not a place where theres a lot of information that comes out, but we do know according to some Semi Official News Sources inside of a rhonda, some explosions have been heard near the City Of Isfahan that is in the central western part of iran, South Of Tehran, as well i want to bring in now former dni director of national intelligence, James ClapperDirector Clapper, this is a very serious moment as we wait to find out exactly what has happened here the reports as of right now of explosions are obviously not in a vacuum. Its in the context of this intense a Counter Attack by iran on israel over the weekend the United States had been trying to push retaliation off. Do you see indications tonight that those efforts ultimately failed . Well as you indicated, Abbe First Reports never quite accurate or certainly in this Case Complete but if the inferential evidence that we have so far is accurate it would appear that israel has retaliated which we knew was one of the question of whether it was a question of when we do need more clarity on what the targets are and the nature of damage done were there are casualties. Et cetera . I think there are two major questions that the president will look to his National Security team for one is to intelligence okay. The israelis have attacked apparently attacked or ron how will the iranians retaliate . And secondary, thats a question for the Intelligence Community and then from a policy perspective, we had stated that we would not support an attack by israel against iran well, well we support israel when iran counter retaliates so we could be in for a, for tat that could rapidly get out of control. So this is a pretty serious Turning Point i had commented earlier that it looks like the iranians crossed the rubicon by attacking is, or attempting to attack israel proper well the other side of that rubicon appears now has been crossed by israel. So what Where Do We Go From Here . Where do we go from here at the question of the hour . It just so happens that the cnn interviewed the Iranian Foreign minister just a few hours ago, live on this air. I want you to listen to what he told Erin Burnett Parcel her mob i response tuesdays Israeli Regime was the limited in that hollywood and have honest theme stayed within a minimum of frameworks we will not continue however, in case Israeli Regime but dom embarks on adventurism again, takes action against the interests of iran then next response its from we will be immediate and at a maximum level it will be decisive as a, trained intelligence official, when you hear that pretty absolutist language, it will be immediate and at a maximum level, it will be decisive. What do you hear . Well i take him at his word. I think right now the Radian Regime is very hard line more more so than perhaps alonso history and so i take him at his word. I think they will they will respond in kind. And of course the question is how, how can this be deescalate it if it can be at all. But my take seriously what hes saying i believe the iranians will respond. I dont believe they cant stand another embarrassment like the first attack where they mounted this mountain massive pack, which essentially was its completely ineffective Director Clapper please stand by for us. Im gonna go live now to the pentagon where Oren Liebermann is. Theyre standing by or in anything youre hearing right now from military officials in this country . Not at this point right now. Us officials are being very quiet here. We havent gotten confirmation or information about what theyre seeing in this case, but i certainly agree with James Clapper that its difficult to see this very much so as anything other than israels response, which had been promised by Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu by defense minister yoav gallant so its difficult to see the situation were playing out right now with reports of explosions in isfahan, iran, as well as some explosions in syria and iraq as anything other than the israeli response that they had been promising a few interesting points to make here over the course of the past six months, we have seen israel openly talk about some of its strikes in a smaller number in syria here it seems if this is indeed israel, israel once again, choosing to be quiet and this is a policy they had followed for many, many years, not talking about actions and strikes that they would carry out in syria sometimes in iraq, there were a number of reasons for that. One of those was simply not to be seen as boasting or bragging about an attack, not to add insult to injury. So potentially, israel, once again, following that policy right now, aware of not only how sensitive the entire situation in the region is, but also the desire of the United States, not to see the situation escalate any more here. Now the question of explosions in syria and iraq, if israel were to have attack act iran, how would they do so . Knowing that some of the countries that aided in the defense from the iranian attack several days ago, did not want to see anything coming through their airspace. Once again, jordan, for example, would be an example of that. So how would israel, if it wanted to seek out the strike iran . Obviously, the obvious choice there is going through syria and then over iraq directly to iran, likely with some sort of longrange missile taken from a fighter jet. Now the question of where does this go from here . Ill go back to erin burnett interview with Iranian Foreign minister, which as you pointed out, just a couple of hours ago, despite the fact that that was a completely ineffective iranian main attack on israel, the Foreign Minister claimed victory. So itll be interesting to see how they describe this attack when theyre able to say more, do they simply call it a complete failure . And what does that mean for their response . Thats something the us in all likelihood, israel are right now watching very closely, abi, one more question. The countries that participated in the defense of the iranian attack, given the fact that this was or at least appears to be the israeli response, do they do so again given what were looking at here and thats another question that the us and others have to answer. A lot of questions at this hour, oren. Thank you. Standby for us again. I do want to reset for folks who may be tuning in right now, there have been explosions heard inside of ron tonight. And of course, this comes just days a