Hours before the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran was set to go into effect, CNN’s Erin Burnett took to her show OutFront Monday evening to get away ahead of her skies to deny the existence of the ceasefire agreement. And even after one of her CNN colleagues confirmed its existence and reported how it was achieved through mediation from an outside party, Burnett could be seen grimacing and still denied it was real.
Burnett kicked off her show by actively denying the ceasefire that was reported during the previous hour of CNN. Ignoring the fact that ceasefire announcements don’t typically signal the start of the ceasefire, and how the parties usually slug it out right until the bell rings, she leaned on senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, who was in Tehran, Iran, to suggest it wasn’t real:
[A]nd certainly right now, Erin, the Iranians saying that their retaliation is going to continue and that their retaliation, if anything, is going to become more intense.
Of course, one of the things that we heard is that the Iranians believe that they are in a conflict both with Israel and the United States, feeling that Israel has dragged the United States into a conflict directly with Iran -- Erin.
“All right. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much. Of course, the literal eyes and ears on the ground to hear those explosions,” Burnett proclaimed.
Pivoting to her panel, Burnett first called on CNN political and global affairs analyst Barack Ravid, who she boasted had “some new reporting” she didn’t seem to be aware of.
Much to Burnett’s chagrin – given how much she was grimacing during his reporting (pictured above) – Ravid supported the reality of the ceasefire agreement by disclosing what his sources had told him about how it was negotiated by the Qataris and paraphrasing what was said between the parties:
What I'm learning is that this ceasefire has been mediated, and according to President Trump, also achieved through mediation of Qatar and the United States, two countries that have been in touch, close touch before the U.S. entered this war or a day before the this war started, there were meetings between U.S. and Qatari officials about the possibility of the U.S. joining this war, and those contacts continued all along the last three days.
And today when, after the Iranian attack on the Al Udeid base, Iranian officials sent a message to the White House through the Qataris, saying, ‘we're done. This is our response. We're not going to do anything further.’
The White House sent a message back through the Qataris. ‘We are not. If you're done, we are not going to retaliate. And we want to talk. We want to now get a deal.’
In the hours since then, there were talks between the U.S. and Israel and Qatar and Iran to tie the final knots and agree on the final conditions of this ceasefire.
Immediately following Ravid’s report, Burnett was trying to discredit him. “Of course, all happening as Barak is laying out over several hours, we have not yet heard from the Israelis or the Iranians,” she declared. “Literally what we are hearing actually is explosions in Tehran right now that Fred is reporting.”
But come Tuesday morning, even CNN’s graphics admitted there was a “fragile ceasefire” (pictured above).
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
Hours before the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran was set to go into effect, CNN’s Erin Burnett took to her show OutFront Monday evening to get away ahead of her skies to deny the existence of the ceasefire agreement. And even after one of her CNN colleagues confirmed its existence and reported how it was achieved through mediation from an outside party, Burnett could be seen grimacing and still denied it was real.
Burnett kicked off her show by actively denying the ceasefire that was reported during the previous hour of CNN. Ignoring the fact that ceasefire announcements don’t typically signal the start of the ceasefire, and how the parties usually slug it out right until the bell rings, she leaned on senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, who was in Tehran, Iran, to suggest it wasn’t real:
[A]nd certainly right now, Erin, the Iranians saying that their retaliation is going to continue and that their retaliation, if anything, is going to become more intense.
Of course, one of the things that we heard is that the Iranians believe that they are in a conflict both with Israel and the United States, feeling that Israel has dragged the United States into a conflict directly with Iran -- Erin.
“All right. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much. Of course, the literal eyes and ears on the ground to hear those explosions,” Burnett proclaimed.
Pivoting to her panel, Burnett first called on CNN political and global affairs analyst Barack Ravid, who she boasted had “some new reporting” she didn’t seem to be aware of.
Much to Burnett’s chagrin – given how much she was grimacing during his reporting – Ravid supported the reality of the ceasefire agreement by disclosing what his sources had told him about how it was negotiated by the Qataris and paraphrasing what was said between the parties:
What I'm learning is that this ceasefire has been mediated, and according to President Trump, also achieved through mediation of Qatar and the United States, two countries that have been in touch, close touch before the U.S. entered this war or a day before the this war started, there were meetings between U.S. and Qatari officials about the possibility of the U.S. joining this war, and those contacts continued all along the last three days.
And today when, after the Iranian attack on the Al Udeid base, Iranian officials sent a message to the White House through the Qataris, saying, ‘we're done. This is our response. We're not going to do anything further.’
The White House sent a message back through the Qataris. ‘We are not. If you're done, we are not going to retaliate. And we want to talk. We want to now get a deal.’
In the hours since then, there were talks between the U.S. and Israel and Qatar and Iran to tie the final knots and agree on the final conditions of this ceasefire.
Immediately following Ravid’s report, Burnett was trying to discredit him. “Of course, all happening as Barak is laying out over several hours, we have not yet heard from the Israelis or the Iranians,” she declared. “Literally what we are hearing actually is explosions in Tehran right now that Fred is reporting.”
But come Tuesday morning, even CNN’s graphics admitted there was a “fragile ceasefire.”
