00:00Let's now try and pull it all together and bring in our correspondent Reza Sae, who, of course,
00:05is waiting for us live in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Reza, good evening to you.
00:09Tell us first, what's the latest where you are now?
00:14It's approaching 11 p.m. on this Wednesday, the fifth day of this war in the capital city,
00:21Tehran, continues to be pounded with airstrikes and air raids. It's impossible for us to verify
00:28if it's Israeli jet fighters or American jet fighters flying overhead. But you can oftentimes
00:36hear them. And then a couple of seconds later, you hear the huge explosion and then the plumes
00:43of smoke. A couple of hours ago, a series of intense explosions over my left shoulder. That's
00:49about the area of northern and northeastern Tehran. And earlier today, eight massive explosions on
00:56eastern Tehran. Israeli officials have openly admitted that they're not only targeting military
01:03sites, sites linked to the Revolutionary Guard, but they're also going after government building,
01:11government linked buildings and police headquarters. These are locations that are not part of the
01:17hostilities, that are not part of the war. And increasingly, many government officials here,
01:22analysts are saying that that's a violation of the U.N. charter and a war crime. But we continue to
01:29see
01:29it in surrounding these buildings, these police stations, these government buildings. Obviously,
01:35many, many residential buildings, the death toll going up again for a fifth straight day.
01:41According to the Red Crescent Rescue in Eighth Group, the death toll is now more than 1,000 people,
01:49more than 1,000 people killed, hundreds of them civilians. Iranian officials are saying 153 cities
01:57have been hit in these five days, and more than 1,000 locations have been targeted. And increasingly,
02:05we are seeing more and more videos, pictures, gruesome images of civilians who are paying the brunt,
02:13bearing the brunt of this war. Men, women, and children being killed, dragged out of the rubble,
02:21and no one seemingly able to stop this awful cycle of violence.
02:26The images that you're describing, Reza, are horrific. Today was meant to have been the funeral of the
02:33Ayatollah Khomeini, who was killed on Saturday. This has been postponed. Is this linked in some way to the
02:39ongoing campaign by the US and Israel bombing Iran? I think so. I mean, the government has said it's
02:47because of logistics that they haven't been able to hold the event. We should point out that they
02:52never announced a specific date. Yesterday said they were planning for it, planning to have
02:59the farewell ceremonies here in Tehran, and to bury the late supreme leader in Mashhad, his hometown at
03:07the shrine of Imam Reza. But obviously, this is a huge, challenging project for the Islamic Republic.
03:15On one hand, they want to project continuity and stability to honor the late supreme leader,
03:22who in their eyes, in the eyes of the supporters, died an ideal death. He was martyred in the month
03:28of Ramadan at the hands of the very two countries that he preached against for decades. So they
03:34want to use this event to honor him and energize their base. But obviously, this is a country that's
03:42being pounded by bombs. How are they going to hold this event? When are they going to do it? What's
03:47going to be the reaction of US forces and Israeli forces? We'll wait and see.
03:52And Reza, in terms of Iran's response going forward, clearly we've been reporting what's been
03:57happening across the Gulf states. There's been the incident today of a missile apparently from Iran
04:02heading towards Cyprus, veering towards Turkey. Clearly, as this continues, one wonders if there
04:09will be some kind of error which leads to a tragic escalation. The escalation is here already.
04:18There's increasingly more fronts to the war. We saw the events in the Strait of Hormuz.
04:23Now there's talks about the Kurdish separatists possibly coming according to the CIA. And there's
04:31no end in sight. We should point out that the deputy foreign minister, S. Mali Babaji, in a television
04:36interview today, explicitly said that Tehran views this war as an existential war. And when asked,
04:45could you reach out for negotiations? Would you accept negotiations? If Washington were to reach out,
04:51and I'm just paraphrasing this, he said it'd be ridiculous to accept an offer after all the times,
05:00according to him, the US betrayed them in negotiations. So no end in sight for this war,
05:04at least for now. Reza, can I ask you about the incident regarding the sinking of the warship?
05:10There are some people who are questioning the way this was carried out. Peter Hexler has been very
05:14gung-ho about it, talking about quiet death, the phrase he used. They thought they were safe in
05:20international waters. There are some people drawing parallels with what happened to the Belgrano
05:26ship, the warship, the Argentinian warship, and the Falklands War, which was sunk whilst turning away
05:30from any kind of battle area. How has this sinking been received where you are? Clearly, it's been
05:37perceived with great horror. But what is the sense of what this means in terms of international law?
05:45Well, Tehran, state media, Iranian officials have not addressed it. The information that we're
05:53getting are coming from Washington, US officials, and Israeli officials. This was a vessel that was not
06:00in the theater of war. It was an event, an exercise, and coming back to Iran off the coast of
06:08Sri Lanka
06:08when it was sunk by a torpedo. Obviously, Iran's Navy is playing a role in this war. And that role
06:17is to do its best to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, to create economic pain for the US. But
06:26clearly,
06:27the Iranian Navy is no match for the US Navy. They've sunk a couple of vessels, several vessels.
06:33We haven't verified how many. But that's another front where this war is happening. And I think in
06:39what is a tug of war for authority over the Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and the US, who wants
06:46to
06:46open it, who wants these vessels to go through. I think a lot of people will be keeping an eye
06:50on
06:51events in the coming days there as well.
06:53Reza Say in Tehran, thank you very much indeed. Do stay safe. Thank you, Reza Say, our correspondent
06:58in the Iranian capital.
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