00:01We are now once again joined by our correspondent Yunus Zoner who is currently in Turquie.
00:07We were speaking with him previously and now he is once more with us to continue to provide more updates
00:12on the current situation.
00:14So, Yunus, what can you tell us? We spoke briefly, we spoke a short while ago, but what is new?
00:20What can you tell us of what is happening in Iran and the repercussions that have occurred so far right
00:25now?
00:28Yes, to remember, to remind our viewers, Israel and the United States have started an attack on Iran today's morning
00:39on Saturday morning, early hours local time, approximately 10 hours in Iran, which the Israeli Minister of Defense, Israeli Kats,
00:52called a preemptive strike.
00:55In this strike, we have noticed that several points in the capital city of Tehran received an impact of Israeli
01:06missiles.
01:06Among them were the presidential palace, some government buildings, but also we received reports of elementary schools in Iran being
01:15also targeted by Israeli missiles that killed five pupils, five children in this elementary school, according to Iranian news outlets.
01:28Donald Trump, U.S. President, made a speech afterwards claiming that a major operation had started against Iran.
01:38He called on the Iranian people to rise up against their government, against their state, or they would face devastation
01:48and annihilation, a clear-cut threat of the U.S. President against the population of another country, calling them to
01:57rise up.
01:57An incredible incident in international politics, rarely witnessed.
02:04The Iranian state has responded, has retaliated.
02:10Before that, Iran had always stated that in case of an attack on Iran by Israel or the United States,
02:19Iran would respond region-wide.
02:22That means Iran had already declared that besides of Israel being the aggressor, all military bases of the United States
02:34throughout the region, and there is a number of them, would be legitimate targets.
02:39And Iran has fulfilled that promise as of today, it has attacked and has succeeded to strike a number of
02:53U.S. military bases throughout the region.
02:56One of them is, for instance, in Manama, capital of Bahrain, here, the service center of the U.S. 5th
03:04Fleet, a major navy compound, was struck, was struck successfully by Iranian missiles.
03:13Another attack occurred in the United Arab Emirates, where the Al-Udeid base was attacked by Iranian missiles.
03:22Also successfully, further attacks were reported from U.S. military bases in Qatar and also in Kuwait, as well as
03:32in Arbil, a city in the north of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, which hosts the biggest U.S. embassy throughout the
03:42region, and also a major U.S. military base were attacked by Iranian missiles.
03:49And besides that, of course, Iran also responded, attacking Israel, which has already declared statewide national emergency sirens are sounding
04:05throughout Israel.
04:07And there are already reports of Iranian missiles landing in the north of Israel with the first news of casualties,
04:20injured people being reported by Israeli media from successful Iranian missile attacks on Israel.
04:30So, as Iran had promised, its response came region-wide.
04:36In addition to that, the Ansarallah movement, an armed group in Yemen, Yemen is a country that is at the
04:43entrance of the Red Sea, which leads to the Suez Canal, made the major connection between the Indian Ocean and
04:50the Mediterranean, or between Asia and Europe.
04:54This movement has also stated that it will be on the side of Iran and announced military action against Israeli
05:05forces or Israel-heading ships, which will enter the Red Sea.
05:11In prediction of that major global shipping companies, such as Maersk, had already advised their ships to avoid the Red
05:23Sea and instead to take a detour around the cup of the good hope, that is, South Africa, to get
05:30from Asia to Europe,
05:34which will prolong by days, which will prolong by days, if not weeks, the arrival of major commercial traffic from
05:41the Indian Ocean to Europe.
05:45And also, in that context, it is a question how Iran will act in the Persian Gulf, in the Strait
05:53of Hormuz.
05:53The Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are the major route of transporting oil, which is produced in the
06:01Gulf countries, but also in Iraq and, of course, in Iran as well.
06:05So, Iran previously had threatened, in case of an aggression, to close this strait for commercial traffic as well.
06:15That would affect, that would cause a major oil crisis in the global markets and would cause the increase of
06:24oil prices in the global market already on increase since the aggressions and the threats by the United States and
06:35Israel against Iran.
06:36So, this remains to be seen.
06:39There are diplomatic reactions already.
06:42One noteworthy came from Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, the vice chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, stated that all the
06:53negotiations with Iran by the United States were a detour, were false,
07:00and indicated that the United States is not a reliable partner for diplomatic relations.
07:08This, of course, might affect also the Russian negotiations with the United States around the topic of Ukraine that remains
07:17to be seen.
07:18But it is clear that in the midst of ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran in Geneva, we
07:29just finished the day before yesterday, the last round on mediation of Oman,
07:35and then came this attack, which is a clear disruption of these negotiations and which presents the United States as
07:44an unreliable counterpart in any kind of negotiations.
07:49We shall remember our audience in that context that the foreign minister of Oman, Oman is another Middle Eastern country
07:57which has been the main force in mediating these meetings between US officials and Iranian officials.
08:03That foreign minister had just yesterday given an interview to a U.S. TV channel stating that both sides, United
08:12States and Iran, were close to an agreement that the talks were ongoing very productively.
08:17And then came this attack again showing that to the global public opinion that the United States is not a
08:27very reliable source.
08:30On the ground in the Middle East, we have mentioned that the Ansarullah movement has already declared it will join
08:37Iran's struggle.
08:39Another call came from Islamic Jihad, an armed movement in Palestine, a Palestinian movement, closely allied.
08:46With the Hamas movement.
08:49They also called the peoples of the Middle East, West Asia to rise up against the Zionist aggression against Iran.
08:58This is important because eyes are also on what other actors, regional actors will do.
09:04Eyes are on how Hamas will act.
09:08Remember that we have the Trump established Board of Peace, which is basically a colonization of the Gaza Strip.
09:15And also question marks around how will the Hezbollah organization in southern Lebanon will react.
09:23Calls were made already by Lebanese politicians on Hezbollah to stay out of the conflict.
09:32But just today's morning, Israeli Air Force also bombed Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.
09:38So it's quite unclear how Hezbollah will react.
09:44But if the conflict continues, it's quite probable that Hezbollah also will start some military actions towards Israel,
09:55which would then place Israeli defense capacities under huge pressure facing simultaneously Iranian and Hezbollah missile attacks.
10:05That would be a hard thing to defend against.
10:09On the other side, in Europe, the European Union's High Representative Callas made a statement saying that the EU is
10:18exploring diplomatic paths to settle the issue of Iran's nuclear program.
10:25She reminded that the EU has adopted strong sanctions against Iran and supported diplomatic solutions.
10:34And she mentioned that she spoke to Israel's Foreign Minister Tsar and other ministers in the region to explore diplomatic
10:42paths.
10:44of the European Union and so on.
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