The Trump administration denounced CNN on Thursday for airing a portion of the new Iranian supreme leader's public statement, the second time in three days that he's targeted the network for reporting on how the regime is responding to the American attacks.
The attack illustrated the care news outlets must take in reporting during wartime, and the responsibilities of American journalists to report the perspective of countries its government views as enemies. It also exposed inconsistencies. The message of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during his first public statement since he succeeded his father, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, was widely available elsewhere.
The White House said on social media that “fake news CNN just aired four straight minutes of uninterrupted Iranian state TV, run by the same psychotic and murderous regime that prided itself on brutally slaughtering Americans for 47 years.”
Two days earlier, White House communications director Steven Cheung took issue with CNN anchor Erin Burnett's interview with Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian nuclear negotiator. Burnett asked Mousavian what he had been hearing about the Iranian government's interest in having talks with the United States. There wasn't much, he said.
“Ever notice how CNN just regurgitates quotes and unverified information from Iranian terrorists?” Cheung wrote on X. “Total disgrace. They have become the murderous Iranian Regime's version of Pravda,” he said, referring to the official newspaper of the former Soviet Union.
CNN did not address Cheung's statement but did respond to the White House attack on Thursday. It noted that CNN, Sky News and Al Jazeera also showed portions of the ayatollah's statement live.
“The world is watching with anticipation which direction this war will take,” CNN said. “Purported remarks from Iran's new supreme leader are a critical component in helping audiences understand where this conflict is heading and were aired for their obvious news value.”
Other news outlets, including The Associated Press, sent out alerts on what Khamenei said. His vow to keep up attacks on other Arab countries in the region and plans to choke off the world's oil supply were headlines. The New York Times led its website with a story on the speech in its immediate aftermath, later writing that the speech “was an early indication of how the new supreme leader would approach the war, as well as how he would lead the country.”
CNN has long been a favored target of President Donald Trump, dating back to his first term. It's a particularly vulnerable time for the network with Paramount Global's agreement to purchase CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, raising questions about its future editorial independence.
CNN showed a news anchor reading a portion of Khameini's remarks in Farsi, with an English translation. It did not air them in full. After the speech, correspondent Nick Paton Walsh gave a debrief to anchor Kate Bolduan, noting how the non-appearance of the leader — reportedly injured in an air attack — was as important as what he said.
“We were waiting to see the face of the man to have proof of his health and survival,” Walsh said, “and they've not met that moment. Instead, a handwritten message, it seems, that mostly reiterates things we kind of already knew.”
The Tech Transparency Project has reported that several Iranian leaders and institutions maintain verified accounts on X, formerly Twitter, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk. CNBC said Thursday that Khamenei has one of them, and an X account with his portrait posted the text of his remarks, available in Farsi and in an English translation.
Even though Khamenei's father is dead, an account with his portrait was active on Thursday, mainly reposting messages from his son. “The revenge we have in mind is not just because of the martyrdom of the illustrious Leader of the Revolution,” read one message posted Thursday. “Every member of the nation martyred by the enemy is a separate case that demands we seek revenge.”
X is officially blocked in Iran, though many use a virtual private network to bypass restrictions. A message sent to the platform on Thursday was not immediately returned.
There's a long history of journalists seeking interviews with world leaders, even when they are regarded as enemies of the United States. Most notable was “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace's interview with Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, when that country was holding Americans hostage.
Thursday's remarks by Iran's new supreme leader were absolutely newsworthy and legitimate for CNN to air them, said Jane Ferguson, a veteran international correspondent and founder of the journalism platform Noosphere. It's not the job of government leaders to pick apart what CNN is reporting, she said.
“We've always faced this,” she said, about when reporters interview leaders or other figures hostile to American interests. “This has been a bit of low-hanging fruit for awhile.”
Historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University said that it's unfair for CNN to be singled out in this instance. He, too, believes it is newsworthy to learn what leaders of an adversary are thinking, but it's important to make sure that journalists are careful.
“You have to be leery of being used as a propaganda tool by the Iranian regime,” he said. “On the other hand, knowing what the enemy is saying and looking for a sign of a peace offering or a nuance is important … It's a difficult balance.”
AP correspondent Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, attends the annual Quds, or Jerusalem Day, rally in Tehran, Iran, May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
In this image taken with a slow shutter speed, President Donald Trump speaks during a women's history month event in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.
Early Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat online to Iran, writing: “Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.” Trump tallied the damage inflicted on Iran and its leaders and called it a “great honor” to be responsible for it.
The remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's attacks were creating conditions for the Iranian population to topple the government.
“It is in your hands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference, addressing the Iranian people. “We are creating the optimal conditions for the fall of the regime.”
Since the start of the war, U.S. and Israeli strikes have targeted security checkpoints in Iran to undermine the government’s ability to suppress dissent, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, the U.S-based independent monitoring group known as ACLED.
Intense airstrikes hit early Friday around Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as outlying areas. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted.
Netanyahu denounced Khamenei as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guards."
Khamenei is close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and is widely seen as even less compromising than his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei said in a statement read by a state TV news anchor that he was keeping a “file of revenge.” He did not appear on camera and has not been seen since his father and wife were killed in the war’s opening salvo, which also wounded him, according to an Iranian ambassador.
The war continued to escalate on its 13th day as oil prices spiraled up again to $100 per barrel, and stocks sank worldwide over fears that the conflict could drag on longer than hoped.
To relieve the surge in prices, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it was further easing sanctions on Russian oil by granting a license that authorizes the delivery and sale of some Russian crude oil and petroleum products for the next month.
Trump signaled earlier this week that he would take more action to address the squeeze on oil flows. The move follows the administration’s decision to grant temporary permission for India to buy Russian oil.
The new exemption applies only to Russian oil already at sea. Last week, analysts estimated there were about 125 million barrels loaded on tankers. To put that in perspective, about 20 million barrels of oil per day usually pass through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency.
Iran has made clear it plans to keep up attacks on energy infrastructure across the region and use the effective closure of the strait as leverage against the United States and Israel. A fifth of the world’s traded oil flows through the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean.
At a news conference Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to Tunisia, Mir Masoud Hosseinian, said Iranian naval forces “have established full control” over the strait and “carried out precise strikes in response to attacks on our oil infrastructure.”
“Global energy security is contingent on respect for Iran’s sovereignty,” he said.
The pinch was being felt worldwide. South Korea reinstated government-set caps on oil prices for the first time in three decades as it sought to calm soaring fuel costs. The two-week caps, which took effect Friday, set maximum prices for petroleum products supplied by refiners to gas stations and other businesses.
Hosseinian told The Associated Press the new supreme leader was wounded in the attack on his family’s home, but “it is not serious.” The hope is he will attend the massive, state-organized Eid prayer next week that his father traditionally led. However, Khamenei remains a target for the Israelis, who have vowed to kill him.
Hosseinian said Iran’s strikes on Gulf nations have been strategic. “Even when we targeted hotels, we had precise information that they were hosting American and Israeli soldiers,” he said.
Khamenei called on Gulf Arabs to “shut down” U.S. bases in the region, saying protection promised by Washington was “nothing more than a lie.”
He also said Iran has studied “opening other fronts in which the enemy has little experience and would be highly vulnerable” if the war continues. He did not elaborate, but Iran has been linked to previous attacks on U.S., Israeli and Jewish targets around the world.
Attacks on Gulf states continued Friday with Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry saying its air defenses downed more than three dozen drones headed toward the kingdom’s Eastern Province over the span of a few hours, marking an unusually large barrage.
Trump said in a social media post Thursday that ensuring Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon was a higher priority than soaring oil prices.
Hours later, Netanyahu announced Israeli attacks had killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist and hit others but gave few details.
Israel said earlier it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days that it had destroyed with an airstrike in October 2024. Earlier this year, satellite photos raised concerns that Iran was working to restore the facility.
The U.S. military said American forces have now struck more than 6,000 targets since the operation against Iran began, including more than 30 minelaying vessels.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said a French soldier was killed in an attack targeting Irbil in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. France earlier said six soldiers had been hurt in a drone strike in Irbil, where French troops are deployed as part of a multinational counterterrorism mission supporting Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic State militants.
In the same region, British officials said several U.S. personnel suffered minor injuries Wednesday when drone strikes hit a base in Irbil that houses both British and American troops.
And on Thursday in western Iraq, rescue efforts were underway after an American military refueling plane went down. U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely, and that the cause was not related to friendly or hostile fire.
Israeli warplanes pummeled Lebanon, targeting even the busy heart of Beirut, in response to missiles from Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters launched into Israel. One strike hit in a neighborhood that is close to Lebanon’s parliament, United Nations offices and international embassies.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said forces were targeting a “facility affiliated with Hezbollah.”
An Israeli strike hit in the vicinity of Lebanon’s only public university, killing a professor and the director of the science faculty at the campus in Hadath, on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs. There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Israeli strikes also killed 15 other people, including five children, in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. An AP photographer saw several buildings flattened in one village where rescue workers searched through the rubble.
Ben Mbarek reported from Tunis, Tunisia. El Deeb reported from Beirut. Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers from around the world contributed to this report.
Israeli authorities inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel, central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Residents watch as smoke rises from a nearby building during an Israeli strike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A woman gathers belongings from her family's home after it was damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel, central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Workers inspect damage caused by a drone strike overnight at the Address Creek Harbour hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo)
A woman sits on rubble across from a residential building damaged last Monday during the U.S.-Israeli air campaign in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Israeli authorities inspect homes damaged by a projectile launched from Lebanon, in Haniel central Israel, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Israel Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during a meeting of the Security Council at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A family enjoys the sunset with the view of the city skyline and Burj Khalifa, at Dubai Creek Harbour in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Smoke rises after an explosion at the airport in Irbil, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A man inspects a car damaged in an Israeli airstrike at the Ramlet al-Baida public beach in Beirut, Lebanon, early Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
