00:05And we got across to more breaking news coming in.
00:07The International Atomic Energy Agency has said on Tuesday that the latest satellite imagery
00:12shows some recent damage to entrance buildings at Iran's underground Natanz fuel enrichment plant.
00:18The agency has said that it does not expect any radiological consequences
00:22and has detected no additional impact at the facility itself,
00:25which was severely damaged during conflict in June.
00:29On Monday, the UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, said it had no indication that Iran's nuclear facilities were damaged in recent
00:38military attacks.
00:39In fact, it said they had no contact with Iran regarding that.
00:42They said that regarding the status of the nuclear installations in Iran,
00:46up to now we have no indication that any of the nuclear installations have been damaged or hit.
00:52This was said by the IAEA chief, Rossi, but now it has been revised
00:58and they say that some sites have been impacted, especially the Natanz site in Iran,
01:05which is the main uranium enrichment facility, has long been central to international concerns over Tehran's nuclear program.
01:12And it was one of the sites that was hit in June as well by U.S.
01:17And now it seems that damage has been to the access points of the Natanz facility.
01:23The exit and enter points are the points which are being considered that have been hit in this strike this
01:31time.
01:31And also importantly, Suhaesha, yesterday, even the ambassador of Iran to IAEA had clearly stated that Natanz was hit.
01:42They had given that confirmation that Natanz facility has been hit.
01:46It is a uranium enrichment facility.
01:50Oh, yes, absolutely.
01:52And while we continue to get further details on that,
01:54on day four of the escalating Iran-Israel war,
01:57the spotlight has shifted sharply to Iran's nuclear infrastructure.
02:01Tehran has claimed that Israel struck the Natanz nuclear facility,
02:05a site central to its uranium enrichment program,
02:08calling it a dangerous and deliberate escalation.
02:11Iran's envoy Reza Najafi has accused Israel of directly targeting nuclear facilities,
02:17warning of serious consequences.
02:19The Iranian media has also reported loud explosions near the nuclear facility
02:23and the airbase in the central city of Isfahan.
02:27However, the UN Nuclear Watchtok, which is the IAEA,
02:31it says it has seen no indication so far that Iran's nuclear sites have been successfully hit or impacted
02:39in terms of any radiological leakages that could happen.
02:42At the same time, the IAEA has cautioned that the risk of a radiological release cannot be ruled,
02:47without underscoring the gravity of the situation.
02:50U.S. President Donald Trump, on the other hand,
02:52has hailed the operation, emphasizing that Iran will never have nuclear weapons
02:57and that Iran, with nukes, would be intolerable to U.S.
03:04So far, no elevation of radiation levels above the usual background levels has been detected
03:12in countries bordering Iran.
03:17Regarding the status of the nuclear installations in Iran, up to now,
03:23we have no indication that any of the nuclear installations, including the Boucher Nuclear Power Plant,
03:32the Tehran Research Reactor, or other nuclear fuel cycle facilities, have been damaged or hit.
03:39Let me provide a brief update on Operation Epic Fury.
03:46Today, the United States military continues to carry out large-scale combat operations in Iran
03:52to eliminate the grave threats posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime.
04:00following our obliteration of Iran's nuclear program in Operation Midnight Hammer a short while ago,
04:09we warned Iran not to make any attempt to rebuild at a different location
04:14because they were unable to use the ones that we so powerfully blew up,
04:19but they ignored those warnings and refused to cease their pursuit of nuclear weapons.
04:25In addition, the regime's conventional ballistic missile program was growing rapidly and dramatically,
04:31and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas.
04:38The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases both local and overseas,
04:44and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.
04:51The purpose of this fast-growing missile program was to shield their nuclear weapon development
04:56and make it extraordinarily difficult for anyone to stop them from making these highly forbidden by us nuclear weapons.
05:05We were the ones that were complaining.
05:07We were the ones that wanted it stopped.
05:10But everybody was behind us.
05:11They just didn't have the courage to say so.
05:15An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East,
05:23but also to the American people.
05:27Our country itself would be under threat, and it was very nearly under threat.
05:33I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran nuclear deal by President Barack Hussein Obama.
05:40That was a horrible, horrible, dangerous document.
05:43They would have had nuclear weapons three years ago, and they would have used them.
05:49But I'll not let that happen.
05:52The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused.
05:56Destroy Iranian offensive missiles.
05:58Destroy Iranian missile production.
06:00Destroy their Navy and other security infrastructure.
06:03And they will never have nuclear weapons.
06:07We're hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly, and unapologetically.
06:13With every passing day, our capabilities get stronger and Iran's get weaker.
06:18We set the terms of this war from start to finish.
06:34And now the question on everyone's minds.
06:38When can we realistically look at the end of this war?
06:41India Today's Sandeep Unathan tells us who decodes the Israel-Iran strategy games
06:46as well as the weapons arsenal that could turn out to be key.
06:53What weapons is Iran using to strike at all the Gulf Cooperative Council countries,
06:59the Arab shikdoms throughout West Asia, and of course, as far as West as Cyprus,
07:06and of course, Israel?
07:08Well, Iran has a very unique military in the sense that it has an extremely weak air force.
07:14It has air force that dates back to the 1970s and 80s.
07:18It has a coastal navy.
07:20It does not have conventional forces that other countries have.
07:25But what Iran has and what they've invested in over the years
07:28is a very strong drone, cruise missile, and a ballistic missile force.
07:35Now, one of the biggest weapons in Iran's arsenal is the Shahid-136 drone.
07:48Now, this is a one-way kamikaze drone.
07:52And Iran has perfected these in very large numbers.
07:58They built these very cheap, very inexpensive to build, something like $30,000 or $40,000.
08:03They carry an explosive charge of something like 50 kilometers out to 2,000 kilometers.
08:12I mean, that is how powerful this platform is.
08:15It's very cheap, it's easy to build, and Iran has built these in the tens of thousands.
08:22In fact, they're so good at building this platform that they have exported production lines of the Shahid-136 to
08:30the Russian Federation as well.
08:34They've set up production lines, which the Russians have now produced, and they're using it in the Russia-Ukraine war.
08:43They call it the Gehran.
08:45But of course, the father of all of that is the Shahid-136.
08:49Iran has used these against the Gulf countries of late.
08:53In the last three days, they've been showering Shahid-136s into the Emirates, into Kuwait, into Bahrain, all of these.
09:02It's a very low-cost, low-visibility, slow-moving drone.
09:08It gets the job done as far as Iran is concerned.
09:12And it's so effective now that the United States has copied this model.
09:16They call it the low-cost...
09:21It's so effective now that the United States has copied this platform.
09:25They've deployed it and used it even in West Asia.
09:28They call it the Lucas, which is a reverse-engineered version of the Shahid-136.
09:34Now, Iran's second capability is for cruise missiles.
09:40Now, these are jet-powered cruise missiles of the...
09:51Something like the Russian KH-55 is believed to be the origin of these cruise missiles, these Iranian cruise missiles.
10:01They're called the Saumar, among many others.
10:06But this is one of the most effective ones.
10:08It has a range of over 1,000 kilometers.
10:10It is a turbojet-powered, a slow-moving platform.
10:15This is something that Iran has in the thousands.
10:18And the third and the most effective part of Iran's IRGC Aerospace Forces, these are all under the Islamic Revolutionary
10:30Guards Council Aerospace Forces.
10:33They're all directly controlled by the Aerospace Forces.
10:36The third and the most important leg are the ballistic missiles.
10:41Now, these are solid and liquid-fueled missiles that the IRGC operates on transporter-erector-launchers.
10:54They are both liquid-fueled.
10:57The liquid-fueled rockets, of course, carry more payload, more than a ton, one ton of high explosive.
11:04The solid-fueled ones are, of course, faster.
11:07They fly faster with a lighter payload.
11:09So, this is the third anchor of Iran's weapon, you can call it a triad.
11:18The Iranian military does not have, as I mentioned, they don't have a competent air force.
11:25They don't have warships.
11:27They don't have too many sophisticated warships.
11:29So, they have invested in this so-called triad of weapons, which is low-cost kamikaze drones,
11:36cruise missiles, and, of course, ballistic missiles of these liquid and solid-fueled missiles.
11:45They are, they have names like the Sejil and the Khuram-Shahir.
11:53And this is what Iran has been using in the 12-day war to overwhelm Israel's missile defences.
12:00And this triad of weapons is, again, something that Israel has, and this triad of weapons is something that Iran
12:06has been using in the current military operations in West Asia
12:12to retaliate for Israel's and the United States' offensives against Iran.
12:20They have been firing these triad of weapons in two countries, starting from Cyprus to the West and Oman to
12:30the East.
12:30Something like eight or nine countries are in the firing line of all of these three weapon system platforms that,
12:38you know, Iran has developed over the years.
12:41It's a unique category of weapons.
12:44It is something that Iran has developed over the years.
12:48It is something that they have perfected and now they've exported to the rest of the world.
12:53So this essentially is what Iran has.
12:57If Iran were to lose any of these, this triad of weapons, then Iran becomes defenceless because, as I mentioned,
13:04they do not have a military as capable as the ones used by other countries.
13:11They have been under sanctions for several decades, but they have focused on these type of platforms to give them
13:17that edge.
13:18And today, if they're able to resist Israel and the United States, it's primarily because of this triad of weapon
13:25systems.
13:26So they have something like 5,000 ballistic missiles almost, 30,000 to 40,000 of these Shahid-136 type
13:33kamikaze drones,
13:34and several hundreds of these cruise missiles of the Somar class.
13:40And these are typically what make up Iran's arsenal, this aerospace force is run by the IRGC.
13:47And this is what makes them relevant in West Asia even today.
13:51And this is one reason that they have been able to continue fighting the fight.
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