Iran Vows Revenge for Death of General; U.S. Assassinates Top Iran Military Commander.
HARLOW: Take a look at these live pictures. These are the streets of Tehran this morning. Tens of thousands of Iranians taking to the streets protesting the killing of Iran's most powerful military and intelligence leader. Iran, this morning, vowing harsh revenge on the United States. Global leaders prepared -- preparing for any sort of retaliatory attacks. Our Clarissa Ward is with us now on the significance of all of this. Clarissa, as John said at the top of the program, and I don't think it can be overstated, who he was, how powerful Soleimani has been, and for how long, right? This is not just taking out a terrorist. This is much more significant than al Baghdadi or even Osama bin Laden.</s>CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, this is a massive escalation, Poppy, and certainly more significant than killing Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. He is the second most powerful man in Iran. He has been described as essentially a mixture of the head of special forces, the head of CIA, and the foreign minister all wrapped into one. But beyond that, he's almost something of a living legend in Iran. And when I spent time in the capital just last year, you could see that clearly. We visited the Museum of Holy Defense, the entire gift store is full of souvenirs bearing his image. You turn on the television, look online, you see people sharing videos of him reciting poetry. He's attending the funerals of fighters who have been killed. Not only that, he is the architect of Iran's so-called access of resistance. This cannot be underestimated. This building up of proxy forces across the Middle East, from Iraq, to Syria, to Lebanon, to Yemen. This man has been responsible for the creation and shaping of Iran's foreign policy and military policy for more than two decades. So this is a huge, huge escalation.</s>BERMAN: And responsible, we should note, according to the U.S. military, for the deaths of 600, at least --</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>BERMAN: U.S. military personnel in Iraq fighting, you know, over the last 15 years there. So he is someone who has menaced U.S. forces overseas for some time. Clarissa, you spent significant time in Iraq. I'm very curious as to what the long-term impact of this or even short-term impact of this might be on the U.S. military presence and diplomatic presence in Iraq. Will the United States be in Iraq six months from now after this?</s>WARD: Well, that's a really good question, John. Certainly it puts the U.S. in a very awkward, uncomfortable, potentially vulnerable position. We've already seen Iraq's prime minister come out and say essentially that this killing and the killing of an Iraqi militia leader who was with Soleimani is a violation of the U.S.' agreement and conduct in Iraq. So there's a very real palpable sense that this could ignite sectarian tensions in Iraq, but also really put U.S. troops potentially and also diplomats and various civilian contractors who are working in that country at risk as Iran goes about pursuing some course of retaliation. And make no mistake, there has to be some kind of a retaliation for this. The question is, are we looking at an all-out war? And what does an all-out war look like in this day and age? It's not going to look like the Iran/Iraq war fought in the trenches with front lines that we saw in the 1980s. You're talking about asymmetrical warfare targeting potentially U.S. contractors, U.S. civilians, U.S. military personnel wherever they may be in countries where Iran has strong proxy forces. And as I mentioned before, that is quite a few countries.</s>HARLOW: Clarissa, before you go, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who will join us here in just a few moments on the program, just tweeted about calls he's making around the world. And he said, I just spoke today with Chinese Politburo Member Yang Jiechi to discuss the president's decision to eliminate Soleimani in response -- and this is key -- in response to imminent threats to American lives. I reiterated our commitment to de-escalation. But that gets to the question, Clarissa, of why now. Why now did the U.S. target Soleimani? Was it just the opportunity or was it, it appears, an imminent threat to American lives, as he's saying?</s>WARD: And one can only imagine, Poppy, that this opportunity had presented itself before. Certainly there are indications that previous presidents had not gone with that option simply because it is seen as the nuclear option.</s>HARLOW: Yes.</s>WARD: Now we are hearing the Pentagon saying that, yes, lives were in danger potentially of U.S. diplomats and other U.S. citizens overseas. There's no way, really, to confirm that or to know exactly how much voracity there is to that claim. But certainly what people want to know now is, no one is really shedding tears for Qasem Soleimani, but people do want to know and feel that there's a strong strategy going forward now.</s>BERMAN: It's a great point. Again, what this man did not in question. What happens next very much in question this morning. Clarissa Ward, thank you so much for -- excuse me -- coming in for us in West Palm Beach.</s>HARLOW: Clarissa, thank you very much. As we said, we're going to speak with the secretary of state in just a moment. Stay right here.