Morning. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. Im Jim Acosta in washington. We begin this hour with Breaking News. The White House is preparing for a chilling new threat that iran could be about to launch a Missile Attack on israel were covering all the angles at this hour, their correspondence around the world. Lets begin with the White House and what theyre saying in cnns are arlette saens. Arlette, were just getting this word within the last hour or so. What can you tell us yeah, jim, this is a pretty stunning warning coming from the u. S. Senior white House Official tells us that the u. S. Believes that iran is preparing to imminently launch a ballistic Missile Attack against israel. It comes at a time when the u. S. Has been watching with great concern to see what irans a posture might be and whether they might try to launch any type of retaliatory attack against israel amid the heightened tensions that have arisen over the course of the past two weeks. Now, in this statement from a senior a white House Official, they note that the u. S. Is actively supporting defensive preparations to defend israel against this attack. And said, a direct Military Attack from iran against israel will carry severe consequences for iran. Now, its unclear what exactly the scope of this possible attack might be. Ben exactly it will occur or where in israel they will be targeting. But us officials have been prepared for the possibility that iran could launch some type of retaliatory attack. Officials have gone as far to say that if iran or any of its partners are proxies, tried to use this moment to target american personnel now or interests in the region that the u. S. Would respond to defend their people. Now, youll remember back in april, the u. S. Lead this multinational coalition to help israel defend itself in the wake, or as they faced a barrage of drone and Missile Attacks by iran. Many of those drones and missiles were intercepted by that effort. And a us official tells us that the u. S. Is prepared to help israel in a similar way. Now, we do know that the pentagon has noted they have significant capabilities in the region, including a carrier strike group. So we will see how this situation unfolds and how exactly the u. S. As comes to israels defense. If iran does in fact, launch this Missile Attack. And of course it comes at a time when President Biden has said they need to avoid an allout war in the region is something that white House Officials are monitoring very closely at this moment. Yeah, im sure they are or let me go to Jim Sciutto, who is in Tel Aviv for us. Jim, maybe this is a very stark warning from the White House for the White House to put this out at this at this juncture is significant. What happens now . Well, we just heard from a spokesperson for the idf acknowledging this white House Warning and saying that as of this moment, we do not identify, we the israelis any aerial threat launched from iran yet, but they are certainly looking and watching and listen, this is exactly the escalation direct conflict between Israel And Iran that so many had worried about, including the u. S. President and other white House Officials when they were making attempts for a ceasefire between Israel And Lebanon prior to that strike that. Killed Hassan Nasrallah and prior to the events of just the last 24 hours in which you now have israeli boots on the ground in southern lebanon. Yet one more escalation from the israeli point of view. Its a natural Security Step to take. Theyre trying to push back hezbollah forces so they cannot threaten northern israel. But the concern from us officials and some here at israel had been that might tempt a response from iran, which we should note has largely been holding back in recent weeks and months going back to the killing of the Hamas Leader inside tehran is my all haniah killed in tehran or in recent days following the killing of nasrallah. The question had been was iran keeping its Powder Dry was around worried about directly confronting israel because the costs that it might incur from doing so, including potential threats to its nuclear facilities. But if, if iran acts on this warning that it does indeed launch these missiles, that the u. S. Says theyre preparing for. Were in a new phase of this Conflict Flex because you could then imagine as so often happens, one Strike Sparks and other retaliatory Story Strike and you can imagine, as israel is warning right now that they might strike back directly against iran right . I mean, theres this warning from the White House, a direct Military Attack from iran against israel will carry severe consequences for iran. That is a direct quote from a senior white House Official in this statement, im going to Colonel Leighton Colonel leighton is also with us if you can dissect what that means, i think its very clear what that means, but what would a Missile Attack look like at this point . Would iran go after civilian areas . Potentially causing high casualties of civilians . What do you think nothing is definitely a possibility . Jim andrew, when you look at the way in which iran does, its targeting, it is not generally very precise. Generally what they do, they will say that theyll go after targets like lets say the intelligence the quarters of the mossad in israel, or Idf Headquarters or something like that. But i mean historically, all, many of their missiles that have been lobbed into israel, israeli airspace have basically gone there indiscriminately and thats the big worry that they could, in Fact Hit Hes civilian area in quite frankly, they may deliberately targets civilian areas because in irans view that is something that gets more bang for the buck, so to speak. Then just striking military targets. So they are not averse to striking a civilian area at all. And thats think the biggest danger here we could see some pretty big casualties if the defense systems dont work Jim Sciutto, let me go back to you. Might this potentially look like what we saw back in april . Its possible that April Attack was significant and it was dozens of missiles and drones, but the combination of israeli Air Defenses and Missile Defenses, us assets in the region, but also other partners, including a partners such as jordan. They together shot down the vast Majority Jordi of them and listen, it comes down to a game of numbers, right, jim, because if iran were to attempt to overwhelm those defenses, it might fire a great number of them at the same time are quite quite close proximity with the intention of overwhelming those defenses. Its not unlike frankly, what what russia attempts to do in ukraine, right . It is to overwhelm its Air Defenses and get some through but its also possible, jim, that there could be some calibration here, right . Where you fire a smaller number of missiles, still significant, but less likely to impose severe damage or that iran chooses to attempt to strike military facilities as opposed to villian ones listed a range of options, right . And we dont react, but we do know this given the warnings from the u. S. And israel that iranian leaders know that such an attack would that spark a reaction and they would have to be preparing themselves for if they choose to what are such a strike, preparing themselves for the consequences and colonel leighton, correct me if im wrong here, but back in april when we saw that Missile Attack from iran, there were some speculation at that time that it was done in such a way that the of those missiles would be repelled, would be shot down and so on. If we see something like that, again, could it be the iranians trying to send a message without trying to spark a global conflict here. Now an act of war that might provoke a response from washington yeah, jim, thats exactly right. That is a very distinct possibility. And the winds are pretty good at calibrating some of their responses in diplomatic terms and as far as their weaponry is concerned, yes. We thought to and many of us thought when we were looking at the April Attacks, that that was really designed to send a message, but not really inflict great to damage is of note that one of the missiles did strike a runway at an israeli airbase back in back in april, and they could do have that happen again but to theyve in essence make sure that they telegraphed enough of their intention that the Area And Missile defense systems could actually pick up and stop with that kind of an attack and our Alex Marquardt is with us. Alex. I know you were at the United Nations General Assembly last week. I mean, what were seeing right now appears to be the fallout from all the diplomatic talks, really just going nowhere in New York last week. And now were just sitting on the edge of what could be a very serious event yeah, jim, i think one of the things that was really highlighted last week was the u. S u. S. Failure to get to any kind of ceasefire. Both in gaza and in lebanon and so with this escalation by israeli forces into lebanon, where certainly weve all been saying on the edge of something that may be something much more dramatic and much bigger. There has been a sense jim, throughout this conflict of the past year, that iran does not want to engage in an all out war, that they dont want to get dragged into something, but they are more than happy to have their proxies do the attacking for them, whether its against israel or against american interests across the region. One criticism you often hear of iran is that they are willing to fight to the last palestinian lebanese houthi. You choose your Proxy Rebel but right now, i believe that is still the sense right now, but there have been three distinct moments in this conflict, jim, that have really raised concerns that iran would respond or was expected to respond to the first was back in april when those revolutionary guard figures were killed in damascus, we saw that incredible huge response by, by iran on April 13 with hundreds of ballistic Cruise Missiles and drones. And then there was the killing of the Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh which has not prompted a real iranian response. The iranian and so said they wanted to give time for the ceasefire talks to play out. They did not want those ceasefire talks to be derailed, but what was clear after Hassan Nasrallah was killed is that there would have to be some kind of iranian response. I really think that it was a question not of if, but when and how and now we appear to be on the cusp of this onion response. So really the Big Question right now is going to be scale is it going to be designed to really carry out too really inflict real Destruction And Pain on israel, or is it meant to send a message saying, were not going to sit quietly after the death of Nasrallah Jim all alright very good. Thanks to all of you for being with us. We should note our Mj Lee over at the White House saying that the u. S. Anticipates that the forthcoming attack from iran against israel could be similar and Scale And Scope to the one in april. We were just talking about a few moments ago that might be a preview of what were going to see here in the coming hours. But the israeli military said as no aerial threat identified from iran, just yet, were watching all of this, everyone. Thank you so much for the news analysis. There will be right back wait is over. Tim Walz And J. D. Vance in their first and only Face To Face To beat. And cnn has covered with the best political team a cnn Special Event. 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Now, you have some time after launch, though, less depending on the munitions itself, a ballistic missile. Best estimates takes about 12 minutes to get from iran to here in Israel Drones take several hours. Cruise missiles take a few hours. Its all about speed, right but the fact that israel has not seen one yet does not mean that they wouldnt, theyre not going to see one in the coming minutes, hours, or days and depending on the number and the quality of each munition, theyll have a certain amount of warning time here listen, this is this is significant. I think the most significant piece of Information Weve gotten last several minutes is that the u. S. Believes this would be on a scale like we saw in april, because that was dozens, dozens of missiles and drones. And again, us intelligence is such that it would therefore, if its making that assessment, it seems to me have intelligence that they see multiple preparations at multiple locations to fire. Doesnt mean that iran fires all of them. But they at least have the capability to do so. And then if and when they do, you have varying amounts of warning time, right. To act and shoot them down the ballistic missiles being by far the fastest of them and colonel leighton, i mean, just to jump off of what Jim Sciutto was saying, if the u. S is anticipating that this attack could be similar in the Scale And Scope of what we saw in april is as jim was saying, dozens of drones and missiles and nearly all of them were intercepted i suppose we cant i guess overcorrect here and think, okay, well, no big deal. Theyre just sending a message, right . I mean, it could be different this time around in the us has to prepare for all options yeah thats exactly right. And one of the keys to a successful defense of israel, jim, would be to make sure that you consider all possibilities here if theyre just sending a message thats great, but you really have to prepare as if theyre going to legally stroke give you and thats from a Military Perspective as Jim Sciutto was saying, there are very key indicators that weve clearly picked up in this particular instance, where theyre getting the launch sites ready, theyre doing the kinds of things that you would expect to be taking place in a case like this in a situation like this, and when you look at the totality of all all of this back in april on April 13, they were sending around 300 missiles and drones in israels direction the fact that over 90 of those were intercepted thats a major win for the israeli air and Missile Defense systems. And of course, the allied Missile Defense systems that helped with that the issue of oversaturation of those defenses is a real one. And so it really depends on what kind of preparations the iranians are engaging in. And fo