In the world by far. I will be making a statement tomorrow michael jordan. The missiles, more than a dozen of them, Ballistic Missiles hit two bases, one in al asad, the other in erbil. It was a country to country attack aimed at iraq, but aimed at the United States, retaliation for the killing of general Qassem Soleimani last week in a drone strike. He was buried shortly after tonights attack. Irans foreign minister on twitter, as well as tonight apparently signaling restraint, quoting now, we do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression. At the same time the Islamic Revolutionary guard is warning of further bloodshed if iran is bombed, threatening to target dubai, the United Arab Emirates and israel. We have reporters on every angle tonight on Late Development inside the white house, in tehran and baghdad. Pamela brown starts us off. What is the reaction at the white house . Anderson, Administration Sources say theyre waiting for a full Battle Damage assessment as they weigh potential Response Options. One official i spoke to tonight said its no surprise iran chose to target the air bases in iraq housing u. S. Forces. They have been viewed as a possible iranian target for many months. The initial assessment, anderson, is that the iranian missiles struck areas of the al asad base not populated by americans. And a source familiar says that u. S. Personnel had enough Early Warning of the missiles so that they could get out of harms way and go into bunkers. Now one theory white house officials are floating tonight is that iran was trying to perhaps send a message more than inflict harm on the u. S. But its still too premature we should note to know irans intent. And we still dont have a full picture of the battle assessment. Now the president tonight appears to be minimizing the strikes, tweeting that all is well, that so far so good in response to the assessment, as you pointed out with that tweet. Just a few days ago, anderson, youll remember the president drew a red line, saying if iran struck any americans or american assets, that iran would be hit hard and hit fast. At the same time, this president has campaigned on getting out of foreign entanglements. The administration has said it does not want to go to war with iran. Well see if the president follows through on the red line he set for hlf or whether he deescalates the situation. We saw secretary of state mike pompeo and secretary of defense at the white house tonight. Do we know much about their visit . I think it lasted about an lower or so. Shortly after the iranian strikes, the president s Top National Security officials, defense secretary esper, secretary pompeo arrived at the white house to meet with the president in the oval office. They were there for about an hour. An official tells me that they discussed the strike. They looked at different Response Options that had already been worked up. But of course the administration had been preparing for retaliati retaliation. But ultimately, the decision was made to take a more cautious approach, learn more about the fallout from the iranian strike as they weigh these response. Both esper and pompepompeo, othp officials were proponents of the strike against soleimani that led to this counterattack from iran tonight. Anderson . And the president said he is going to make a statement in the morning, or the white house said he will. Thats right. And we dont know exactly what he is going to be saying in that statement, what it will entail, whether hell discuss any retaliation from the u. S. Side. By that time, a battle assessment, Battle Damage assessment should be made because there will be plenty of hours in daylight in iraq so the u. S. Will have a much better understanding of the missile strikes coming from iran tonight. All right. Pamela brown from the white house. Thanks very much. Appreciate it, reporting on the white house tonight. Lets go to Fred Pleitgen who is in tehran for us. What else are you learning about the attacks . Well, the iranians, anderson, seem to be confirming that this was their retaliation for the killing of Qassem Soleimani. And apparently, at least from what were reading into this, it seems to be that this is it and the iranians are saying it doesnt have to go any farther than that. You already mentioned a little of what the foreign minister javad zarif tweeted. He tweeted iran took and concluded proportionate measures in selfdefense under article 51 of the charter, u. N. Charter targeting a base which cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials were launch. Essentially what the iranians are saying that at least according to their assessment, they attacked the base from which the drone, the plane whatever hit Qassem Soleimani took off of. So the area from where the u. S. Attack originated, thats what the iranians wanted to hit. I think a key word in what javad zarif said is concluded. So the iranians are saying they have started their counterattack, and now they have concluded it. So essentially theyre saying none of this has to go any further than this. It is now in President Trumps hands. Whether or not it stays this way or whether it escalates any further. Another thing that was really remarkable is the iranians used their Ballistic Missile program really for the first time, certainly enns u. S. Targets to conduct these strikes that is something that in itself is probably a good deal of messaging from the iranians towards the United States, but also towards the audience here at home as well. One of the things that the iranians have been telling me, have been telling others who have been watching this new crisis unfold is they say look, if the u. S. Is going to start escalating against iran, they need to be aware of two things. First of all, iran controls a bunch of proxy force, we know that in the middle east. But the second thing theyve always talked about has always been their Ballistic Missile program. Theyve always said how much theyve advanced their Ballistic Missile program, how much further their missiles can fly now, how much more accurate they are than they were before. Tonight they certainly have showed that they can hit fairly accurate targets that they pick out and that that Ballistic Missile program is certainly quite dangerous. So the iranians were essentially saying, look, if you want to escalate this whole thing even further, the iranians dont only have to rely on their proxy forces that they have in this region, but also on their Ballistic Missile program as well. Of course the one thing they emphasized shortly after the first hits on that american base, al asad in iraq took place is that it was the irgc, the revolutionary guard corps that conducted this operation. That of course is the unit that Qassem Soleimani was a part of. In fact, the leader of one of the branches of that unit. So that in itself is very important messaging from the iranians, anderson. How much weight should be put in the statement that you read out you think . I mean, one way to read that, as you said, clearly seems to be indicating they said proportional, explained why it was that base, and said its concluded. Now is that something that the u. S. Would put much faith in . Because it doesnt seem like there is a lot of other lines of communication open between iran or certainly directly between iran and the United States. Maybe there is through switzerland or other forces. Yeah, youre absolutely right. Twitter, other forces, and actually us as well. I think i think it certainly appears to be the case that possibly the iranians are trying to message that this can be it if President Trump doesnt escalate any further. One of the reasons i say that, anderson, is because its the kind of messaging weve actually been receiving from the iranians over the past couple of days. I had an interview just two days ago with the main adviser to irans Supreme Leader in military affairs, and that adviser also told me that the iranians are going to strike with their military. Theyre going hit military targets, and that they dont want things to escalate any further than that. They used exactly that same wording, proportional counterstrike to what the u. S. Conducted. And they certainly very much emphasize the point that it doesnt have to escalate any further than that. I had an interview earlier today with javad zarif, with the foreign minister. He also said the iranians are going to take action. Its going to be proportional action, and it can end there if President Trump chooses to have it end there. I think one of the things also that was key for the iranians and that i think might be overlooked sometimes, anderson, is the iranians were very angry about the fact that the americans actually took responsibility for killing Qassem Soleimani. They said to me, look, this is the foreign minister talk, he said look, they killed one of our main generals. They admitted that they killed one of our main generals that makes that an overt act of aggression they said against iran, and therefore the iranians felt they had to retaliate. Now theyre saying look, it can end right here if President Trump doesnt want to take it any further, anderson. Interesting. Fred pleitgen, thanks. If it does and the competing pressures on the president for and against exercising restraint. Joining us for that john king, cnn Global Affairs analyst max boot and cnns military analyst retired army general mark hertling. John, you see the president s tweet, the tone he is taking. Senior Administration Officials saying now is the time for patience and restraint. What does that tell you about a possible u. S. Response . One thing we have learned, anderson, in the last three years is the president s mood and his words and his tone on twitter can change pretty quickly. But what it tells you tonight is the administration is taking a breath. Theyre waiting for the Battle Damage assessment. At this moment they believe there were no american casualties, which is hugely significant here. And what a lot of Administration Officials, especially pentagon officials are saying privately is iran is capable of throwing a much tougher punch if it wanted to. So theyre trying to sort all this out. Was iran doing this for domestic political purposes . Was iran being very careful here . Can iran be trusted . Here is the challenge, his own words on the record in the last 72 hours saying if iran does anything, anything, and iran did something, he would fight back. He would retaliate. He would push back. Those were his words in the last few days. Bhiz instincts as a candidate and president were to not get involved. He called his predecessor stupid for getting into endless wars in the middle east and said he wanted to have no part of it. So the president has to have a conversation with himself before he delivers that speech tomorrow. General hertling, its very easy to stumble into a war and difficult to get out of one. I wonder what your perspective is on where things stand at this hour. And each ven if iran is saying concluded, there are also proxy forces that iran has influence over but may not fully control that could potentially threaten u. S. Troops in iraq. Yeah, im very concerned about that, anderson, because i think what were talking about is a Ballistic Missile fight. We used to call it in the old days counterartillery and artillery batteries. But this is much more significant from the standpoint of what iran has with regard to weaponry. But it appears to me from a military analyst standpoint is they are definitely sending a message. Not only a message to the United States of hey, its time to back this thing down. Lets have a little bit constraint. Theyre also, make no mistake about it, sending a message to the Iraqi Government and id add even though we havent focused as much attention on the strike in erbil, theyre sending a message to the Kurdish Regional government as well. These are both governments, both the Iraqi Government and the kurdish government have said hey, the Iranian Military has been contrary. Their Paramilitary Forces are contrary to what weve been trying to do in iraq to bring nationalism to that country, even though they have contributed to the fight against isis. This is all very confusing, but i think the message being sent is if you keep americans on your soil and you allow them to strike iran from either al asad or from erbil, there are going to be repercussions against you as an Iraqi Government and you as a kurdish government. And thats problematic in my view that even though we havent heard a whole lot about the effect of the strike in erbil, thats as important as the one on al asad. Interesting. Max, the fact that as far as we know there were no u. S. Forces casualties, still unclear also on iraqi casualties, and again, were still kind of, you know, what five or so hours into this. So who knows what the information will be in the morning, but if there are no casualties, no fatalities, does that give the president , this administration an easier time . It would seem to give them an easier time to deescalate if thats what they want to do. Yes, no doubt about it, anderson. Because trumps primary red line has been about taking american lives. And he reacted very strongly when a contractor was killed in an earlier attack. Now he has also said he would hit back very hard and very fast to any attack on any u. S. Base. But i would hope that this would allow him to show some courageous restraint. And im mildly relieved to see the tone of his tweet tonight which did not include any further bellicose threats, and clearly the iranians are signaling that they want to be restrained because they could have mounted a much larger scale attack, and theyre basically saying that if there is no furthe retaliation from the United States we will let it lie. And so i would hope that President Trump would take this opportunity, because a few hours ago, i think i and the rest of the world, everybody was very alarmed that we were really on the knife edge of an allout war with iran, and i think that would have been much more likely if there had been u. S. Or iraqi casualties. And the knafact that there havet been has been thankful in and of itself. Thank goodness that our personnel in harms way were not harmed. But the larger good news here is that this allows us a way to deescalate and avoid an allout war, at least for the time being. Yeah. John, cnn made an important point earlier tonight. As the situation unfolds, there are only acting officials in some key post, including National Director of intelligence, Homeland Security secretary. At this point, who really has the president s ear . It mainly the Vice President . Secretary pompeo and defense secretary esper . Two sides to this coin, anderson. There is no question from the early days of the trump administration, the failure to fully staff up the government and the turnover that leaves you with an acting Homeland Security secretary is no good. Chad wolf was Briefing Members of Congress Today about what he says are protections here in the homeland in case iran decided to project somehow inside the United States. So the administration insists its working, but anyone else would tell you its by far not perfect to have vacancies in turnover and acts as opposed to Senate Confirmed officials. The flip side is if you go back to the early days of trump administration, even the second year of the trump administration, there is a lot of talk about inconsistency, back stabbing and infighting among the top members of the National Security team, the very top members. Now you hear with the new National Security adviser obrien, secretary of state pompeo, his deputy his former deputy at the cia, gina haskell is the cia director, mark esper, general miley, the relatively new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, what you do hear people at home might not agree with the decisions, but you hear from all quarter, members of congress, people inside those different agencies is that there is much more cooperation, coordination, continuity and effective management of the National Security team at the top. That doesnt mean you dont have some issues when you dont have the worker bees in the second, third and fourth layers of government. But think about the Rex Tillerson days, the jim mattis days. Much less infighting of the people who are closest to the president. And to your point about who has his ear, there is no question that mike pompeo has been a driving force in the iran policy in recent weeks and months. John king, max boot, general hertling, appreciate it. Coming up next, were going