CNN‘s senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen and his team crossed the border into Iran on Thursday and are now headed to Tehran.
CNN said it was the first U.S. network to enter the country since the start of the war. Outlets have shown images from Tehran provided by wire services and other sources. U.S. correspondents have been fanned out in Tel Aviv and other major cities in the Middle East.
Pleitgen appeared on CNN riding in a vehicle, telling viewers that the Iranian government had granted a visa and to report from there.
“We’re now trying to make our way to the capital Tehran as fast as possible. But of course, the distances in this huge country are immense, and we know it is going to take many, many hours for us to get there. We also don’t know what the situation on the road to Tehran is going to look like, how many checkpoints there’s going to be. And of course, we know at the same time there are massive combat operations also going on. The United States and Israel are continuing their huge aerial campaign against targets inside of Iran. At the same time, the Iranians continue to retaliate, not just with ballistic missiles, but with their drones, mostly hitting Israel, but then also American military installations.”
Last year, when Iran and Israel engaged in a military conflict, Pleitgen and his team also entered the country, eventually reporting from Tehran. That was days before the U.S. conducted airstrikes on Iranian nuclear targets. At the time, the network said that Pleitgen was the first western journalist to enter the country.
