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Watching at fubo tv. Com, a cnn special event, the Vice President ial debate. Tuesday at nine everyone, welcome cnn this morning it is saturday, september 28. Im Amara Walker alongside Danny Freeman and jim sciutto. We begin this morning with major breaking developments in the middle East Cnn Breaking News the concerns continue to grow about the possibility of a widening war. Now that hezbollah has confirmed its leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in israeli airstrikes In Beirut. Nasrallah, who led the iranbacked Militant Group for more than three decades was killed in a targeted strike on hezbollahs headquarters and Lebanons Capital know there are concerns about the possibility of a retaliatory Response Hezbollah launching rockets into northern israel before acknowledging nasrallahs death. Meanwhile, iran Supreme Leader says its forces are standing with hezbollah and the chief of Israels Army warns that israel knows how to reach anyone who threatens its citizens. All right, lets go back to jim sciutto, whos been standing by live in tel aviv. Jim well, just a short time ago, hezbollah confirmed that its leader Hassan Nasrallah, is dead killed in an israeli airstrike. It is a significant development in this ongoing conflict between Israel And Hezbollah. And of course, the concern now is of a wider war in the Region Cnn senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman is In Beirut then i understand you interviewed nasrallah in the past. Can you describe just how central he was to hezbollah as an Organization Today . Following his leadership of the group for more than 30 years only leader hey followers and hezbollah knew many of them who grew up with him. He, i interviewed him back in 1997 in the middle of when hezbollah was totally focused on trying to drive israeli forces out of south lebanon. And i can tell you hes, he was very intelligent, wellspoken man who clearly had the managerial abilities to run not just a Guerrilla War against israel, but also to expand the organization beyond merely a guerrilla force. Into a political force as well. One that many lebanese have found it very hard to reckon with if forced a political force that oftentimes through its weight around. But he was somebody who even the israelis had grudging respect for it as a formidable foe, who really put israels abilities to the test, not only during that protracted Guerrilla War in south lebanon, but for instance in 2006 when the israelis thought they would be able to easily defeat or even destroy hezbollah during that war. But in fact they were essentially fought to a standstill. By hezbollah. Now, just to give you a feeling that weve been hearing occasional heavy machine gunfire, hear from our position In Beirut clearly hezbollah followers very angry at this news and the worry is that this could become a somewhat unstable security situation. Given that many of the people who lived in South Beirut where hezbollah has a strong presence, have now left that area and are dispersed throughout the city. We understand that many of those who left South Beirut and are camped out on the roadways in parks and whatnot. Many of them are deeply distressed to hear this news. As i said, hes a leader whos been around since 1992 to a very strong presence, certainly in the shia community, but also in lebanon broadly, somebody who this as the saying goes, he was a terrorist to some, but a Freedom Fighter to many others. Jim and presided over the organization as it grew its Arsenal Norm Asli with iranian help, Ben Wedeman In Beirut. Thanks so much. Cnn international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is here with me in tel aviv. I wonder you and i have discussed this for some time that this strike on nasrallah did not develop over hours or days . Weeks, or months, but over many, many years that he was a target of israel for years. And that i imagine what was behind this attack took years so developing, development of intelligence and other means to carry this out successfully. Undoubtedly, but ultimately it took the sign off from the prime Minister Benjamin Yahoo and his office released a photograph of him signing off on this strike yesterday, and the idf and the Air Force would have known exactly what they were doing precisely where he was precisely how many meters below ground precisely which bombs to use precisely how long the fuses should be he set for how deep those explosive should go, that Big Red Plume we saw coming up, that was all the result of what the idf would say was 20 years of planning that developing the Intelligence Source knowing which wifi systems to tap into which Cctv Cameras in which corner stores, unwittingly became eyes and potential ears for the idf in this multifaceted system, which has only grown, one can say wings because of the ability and the omni presence. Now of drones that now just changed not only the landscape of a battlefield but the landscape of the preparation for that battle. So all of this information, the idf would have had can we presume that there was a Human Element to this . Intelligence as well, given not just the strike on nasrallah, but other Hezbollah Leaders, as well as this enormous attack on pagers that targeted thousands of hezbollah fighters. But does that signal that hezbollah is infiltrated . And it part of its reaction now is trying to figure out where are those holes are hezbollah has always been a very secure but he conscious, very aware of not only the internal enemies with Inside Lebanon as ben was mentioning there, but the external enemies that they declared, like israel and they would have recognized since roe was incredibly sophisticated and would have tried to penetrate them with intelligence operatives and organizations like the mossad, a very skilled at doing putting that witness. They havent said they were responsible, but witness the pagers. And how long that Wasnt Planning that they went into the pockets of 5,000 hezbollah commanders and then essentially exploded. So Patient Business where you try to find people who have a grievance with the organization or have so a. Financial reason or a Honey Trap or whatever the multitude of different ways it is to coopt somebody at times, beginning theyre not even realizing that. I mean, look, israel has just prosecuted a man here in israel for essentially being in the pocket of the irradiance and possible sibley unwittingly to a degree is some of the accounts of some of the developments that weve heard over recent weeks that theyre theyre always vulnerabilities and one could imagine that israel exposed and took advantage of those in the case of hezbollah, Nic Robertson thanks so much there are so many repercussions yes i do want to go now to ian bremmer. He is with the international Eurasia Group political Risk And Research firm ian bremmer, the country crn, has been for some time about an expansion of this war that started In Gaza following the October 7 Terror Attacks by hamas you now i what can only be described as an expanding conflict on the northern border here perhaps war already but are we already in that greater multifront conflict that many had feared. Sure, we are jim but the question is whether israeli intelligence, technology and military asymmetries means that the impact of that war at least in the near term it is a lot less than many of us would have feared. Ive been talking to a lot of the Middle East leaders in New York over the last several days. And of course, theres a lot of outrage, but theres also a lot of sense that hezbollah is a Paper Tiger. And those views well only get stronger over the last several hours given what israel has been able to inflict damage, theyve been able to inflict on hezbollah. So i mean, youre going to have an enormous number of palestinians and others that, that will be radicalized on the back of them. All of these acts. But what can they concretely do . What would it mean if Hezbollah Today decides to declare All Out War On Israel what would the implications of that actually be in terms of the fighting both for israel itself and more broadly. And the answer may be less severe then people have thought. So, i think this is a really big deal clearly in terms of the degrading of hezbollahs capabilities. And of course, the country that is, has to be thinking the most seriously about this strategically is iran a country whose least i had repeated that they do not want to fall into the israeli trap of hitting israel and getting itself drawn into a war with israel and the united states. The Risks Attendant to that have to feel a lot greater if you are tehran today let me ask you if hezbollah has proven to be a Paper Tiger has below is one of irans biggest points of influence against israel up a Proxy Force capable. It was thought to striking israel with great effect as part of the projection of irans own power. So if hezbollah is weaker than a imagine, is iran weaker than then imagine as relates to israel . Thats the right question i mean the iranian Vice President , who i spoke with a few days ago was talking about how iran had proven that the Iron Dome was not invulnerable because they were able to penetrate it when they hit back in april, that certainly not my view. Thats not the israeli view or the american view. I think the broader view is that iran is weaker and more vulnerable. I think that says two things. There are two questions that should be on everyones mind. The first is to what Extent Israel would consider itself expanding this war to iran in order to neutralize not only their military, but also their nascent nuclear threat. Does israel have that kind of intelligence capabilities thats an open question. The second is, if youre a ron the desire to get a nuclear deterrent yourself becomes far more important. In this after these attacks, i mean, you remember the united states has been talking for many years about a complete verifiable, Irreversible Denuclearization of North Korea. Well, they werent able to accomplish that in fact, North Korea strength even got former President Trump to go and talk and negotiate with kim jong un. Well, i mean, iran would be in a radically different Position Today if they had no nokes i mean, whos saying would have been in very different position if he had nukes as opposed to just people thought he was its getting nukes, right . He probably wouldnt be lying dead. So i do think that there are a lot of big questions that are in the backs of leaders Minds Today that are a little different, a little sharper than they were a week ago. Jim to your point, i mean, i think the comparison to North Korea is not undo and the thinking had been that North Korea calculated its only means of survival was a nuclear weapon out gun as it were by South Korea and the u. S is iran more likely to make that same conclusion. And then the question becomes, if so how does israel respond . Does it immediately attack those facilities i think iran is more likely to conclude that they need a nuclear deterrent quickly. But theyre also more likely i plead to conclude, given how risky that would be that they should try to reach out and engage with the united states and the old gang is back together. I mean, you know, the president , who was a surprise when reformist in the iranian context but his Vice President has Foreign Minister has chief negotiators. These are the people that put together the jcpoa, the old iranian nuclear deal with the united states and the international community they have clearly said over the past several days that they want to read engage, and they have clearly said that they hope that Thats Something that can be done quickly. Should they be trusted absolutely not should they be quietly engaged with in this environment shore, there were a lot weaker. I think thats going to be interesting. So i think both of those things are likely happening at the same time the question as to the results of the u. S election, because one might presume quite different approaches to the region from Harris And Trump in bremmer. Thanks so much as always good to see jim and we will continue our breaking News Coverage on the death of Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah now confirmed by the group will be back right after a short break tim Walz And Jd events in their first and only facetoface debate. 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