- 4 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:07A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
00:17Operation Epic Fury, unleashing the firepower of the US and Israel.
00:22This is not only an act of aggression, it is a war crime and a crime against humanity.
00:30American and Israeli jets have dropped thousands of bombs on Iran.
00:38It's catastrophic.
00:42The barrage of attacks and the level of devastation is unbearable.
00:50In response, Iran has fired ballistic missiles and drones at Israel.
01:01Go, go, go!
01:02Get in, get inside!
01:05Countries across the Gulf dragged in, with thousands of Britons caught up in the conflict.
01:10Then we saw them overhead, we saw rockets, missiles over our heads being shot down.
01:17With the US and Israel intensifying attacks, how will it end?
01:22Once you kick off a war like this, you don't have full control over where it's going to end up.
01:27So what does this war mean for the Middle East and for all of us?
01:51Saturday morning, in Iran's capital city, Tehran.
01:55The start of the Iranian working week.
01:59Then Israel struck.
02:02The office of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei,
02:06was targeted by around 30 Israeli long-range missiles.
02:12Israeli intelligence had tracked his exact movements down to the minute.
02:17Intelligence surfaced that Supreme Leader Khamenei
02:21was meeting with a large number of his aides at his palace during the daylight hours.
02:28I think the Americans and the Israelis were able to piece together
02:31data from all manner of sources inside Iran, of course mobile phones,
02:37and they tapped into the traffic cameras in the streets of Tehran
02:41to monitor the movements of regime leaders.
02:44The Israelis had also created a trail of misinformation
02:47to lull the Iranians into a false sense of security.
02:52It appears that the Iranian leadership was fooled by the Israeli leadership
02:56and Israeli generals who made it look like they had gone home for the weekend.
03:01Yeah, we seized the opportunity.
03:03What we're basically saying is that there's no safe haven for you.
03:06We will find you all over the world, and we will hit you.
03:14The supreme leader was killed, along with other top officials.
03:18The attacks didn't stop there.
03:24The United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation
03:29to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship
03:33from threatening America and our core national security interests.
03:41On the first day of the war,
03:43a missile hit a girls' school in southern Iran.
03:55Iranian authorities reported 168 deaths.
04:10Iran blames the U.S. and Israel.
04:14Israel says it wasn't carrying out operations in the area.
04:20Footage verified by the BBC shows a U.S. missile
04:24hitting a military base 600 metres from the school.
04:29President Trump had previously denied hitting the school,
04:33saying from what he'd seen, Iran was responsible.
04:37His administration said it had been investigating.
04:42We, of course, never target civilian targets,
04:46but we're taking a look at investigating them.
04:52Iran retaliated with a volley of drones and missiles aimed at Israel,
04:56Israel, which was also hit by rockets from Iran's ally, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.
05:05Israel struck back hard.
05:07As the conflict escalated,
05:10Iran also launched attacks on U.S. allies across the Gulf,
05:14including Qatar,
05:16Kuwait,
05:19the United Arab Emirates,
05:20the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
05:29In Dubai,
05:31thousands of Britons who were on holiday or live there
05:34have also been caught up in the war.
05:49Go, go, go!
05:50Get in, get inside!
05:52This footage was filmed by Trevor and Lisa Davies from Tamworth.
05:57They were in Dubai for Lisa's 60th birthday.
06:02Go on, quickly!
06:04We were round by the pool,
06:07just chilling out.
06:09And then we heard these loud explosions.
06:12And then we heard another one,
06:15and then another one.
06:16The next thing we know is that we saw them overhead.
06:18We saw rockets, missiles,
06:19over our heads being shot down.
06:22Oh, my gosh!
06:24Debris was coming down,
06:26and some of it landed in the hotel fountain.
06:30But at that point,
06:31we were all running for cover, for shelter.
06:35Straight to the airport.
06:38Dubai Airport was then hit,
06:40and the airspace was closed.
06:43So, like countless others,
06:45they were now stuck.
06:48I'd managed to get hold of Trevor and Lisa,
06:51but our call didn't last long.
06:53But that was nothing to watch.
06:58They're frozen.
07:00Wait a minute,
07:01I don't know if you can hear us, guys,
07:02but the line's frozen.
07:04Just a sec.
07:05Do we know why that is?
07:07Oh, what's happening, Trevor?
07:09What's happening?
07:11Hello?
07:11We've just had an emergency alarm
07:13through the phone from the government.
07:16Get somewhere safe and call us back.
07:18Good luck.
07:25This is the second time in less than a year
07:28the U.S. and Israel have joined forces to bomb Iran.
07:37They suspected the regime was getting close
07:40to making nuclear weapons.
07:43Last June, Israel led an assault
07:45on three key nuclear sites,
07:48backed by the U.S.
07:50Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities
07:53have been completely and totally obliterated.
07:56If President Trump was right,
07:59why the need for more strikes now?
08:02The nuclear problem was hurt very much,
08:05but it was not obliterated,
08:07as the President Trump has said.
08:09And since the end of the war,
08:11in June,
08:12the Iranians started,
08:14as they proclaimed openly,
08:16to work 24-7
08:18in order to enlarge the number
08:20of launchers and missiles that they have.
08:25In February this year,
08:27Iran agreed to talks
08:29with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff
08:31about its nuclear program,
08:33the aim to get it to reduce
08:35its stocks of enriched uranium.
08:39We just heard from the envoy of the President,
08:44Steve Witkoff,
08:45that said that during the meetings
08:47with the Iranians,
08:48they have mentioned to him
08:49that they still have enriched uranium to 60%,
08:53which can allow 10 to 11 nuclear devices.
09:00While the talks were taking place,
09:02the President was deploying more warships to the Gulf.
09:08Forad Izzadi is an associate professor
09:10at Tehran University,
09:12who has expressed support for Hamas
09:14and the October 7th attacks.
09:18Two weeks ago,
09:19Iran was negotiating in good faith.
09:22Iran was willing to give huge concessions,
09:24maybe because Iran was trying to avoid war.
09:28Trump was interested in having war.
09:31He was not interested in an agreement.
09:32It looked pretty clear to me
09:34that the Witkoff had expected the Iranians
09:39to just capitulate.
09:40When they failed to do so,
09:41that led the Americans to conclude,
09:43well, this is the end of the negotiating process.
09:48Two days later, the bombs were launched.
09:51Then President Trump gave his justification for war.
09:54Our objective is to defend the American people
09:58by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.
10:04The US administration didn't seek permission from Congress
10:08or the United Nations before the first strikes.
10:12It argued its actions were legal
10:14because Iran posed a direct threat.
10:19There really was an imminent threat.
10:21And that was an enormous surge in its missile program
10:25that would have made it so formidable
10:28that it wouldn't have been possible
10:29to conduct a pre-emptive attack like we're doing right now.
10:33Was there an imminent threat
10:34that justified the start of this war?
10:36I have not seen any sense of an imminent threat.
10:40I don't think the intelligence shows
10:43that the Iranian regime had restarted
10:47the most dangerous bits of their nuclear program.
10:50This is an unnecessary war.
10:52It was not required for American
10:55or even Israeli defense interests.
10:59Israel has long called for a change
11:02to the leadership of Iran,
11:04which has said the state of Israel shouldn't exist.
11:10We have a window of opportunity right now
11:18to boost and hit the bad guys
11:21and hopefully change their leadership.
11:23So it was about regime change, simple as that.
11:26Well, we hope so.
11:28From our perspective,
11:30that regime has to be replaced
11:32by peace-seeking leadership.
11:38In Israel, families are counting the cost too.
11:43Beit Shemesh is a city southwest of Jerusalem.
11:47An Iranian missile destroyed a synagogue
11:50and nearby houses in this Orthodox community
11:53the day after the war began.
11:56My house is all over.
11:59It's all over.
12:02It's all over.
12:02At the time,
12:03Avi Johanna and his wife
12:05were taking shelter underground.
12:07We went to the hospital.
12:09I was standing on the left side,
12:10two meters away from where I fell.
12:14And all the equipment that fell on us.
12:18I didn't believe that I was alive.
12:23Nine people were killed in the missile strike.
12:26Avi's brother-in-law was one of them.
12:30Rabbi Yitzhak Biton's three children
12:32were also killed.
12:56Israel has also suffered civilian casualties.
12:59The missiles that Iran has fired at Israel
13:01have caused deaths also.
13:03So they can stop the war today.
13:05They started it.
13:06All deaths,
13:07whether Israelis or Americans or others,
13:10Iranians,
13:11are the responsibilities of Netanyahu and Trump.
13:14They can stop it today.
13:21Access to film inside Iran
13:23is extremely restricted by the regime.
13:27Colleagues from the BBC Persian service
13:30have helped us contact an Iranian man
13:32willing to tell us what life is like.
13:36We're not showing his face.
13:38It's catastrophic.
13:40The barrage of attacks
13:42and the level of devastation
13:45that it brings about is unbearable.
13:52It's just carpet bombing
13:54whenever it's possible.
13:56There's loads and loads
13:57of civilian casualties.
14:00And it's horrifying.
14:06It's devastation for this equipment.
14:08They try to cripple Iran for good.
14:12More than 1,300 civilians
14:14have been killed in Iran so far.
14:17Iranian civilians are dying
14:19in these attacks by Israel.
14:21This is your responsibility.
14:23Well, you know,
14:25the big difference between
14:26the terrorist regime
14:28and Israel
14:30and the United States
14:31on that behalf
14:32is that we have no intention
14:33of killing any,
14:35God forbid, civilians.
14:36God forbid.
14:37We do,
14:38we go out of our way
14:40to make sure
14:41that we just target the bad guys.
14:46At the turn of the year,
14:47just two months before this war began,
14:49Iranians were taking to the streets
14:52to protest over rising prices.
14:55It resulted in a brutal crackdown.
14:59President Trump waded into these protests,
15:03promising Iranians that help was on its way.
15:06And I think those were very fateful words.
15:10We're watching it very closely.
15:12If they start killing people
15:14like they have in the past,
15:15I think they're going to get hit very hard
15:17by the United States.
15:17And I got it.
15:21I think it certainly did raise significant hopes,
15:27bring people on the streets.
15:28The fundamental problem at the time
15:31was that the U.S.
15:32didn't actually have sufficient military assets,
15:34even if it wanted to provide help
15:37in the form of bombing the regime,
15:40of going after regime targets.
15:42The figures are disputed,
15:44but regime forces are estimated
15:46to have killed at least 6,500 protesters.
15:58Nelu has family in Iran.
16:00Her boyfriend lives there
16:02and took part in the protests.
16:04This is my boyfriend's leg
16:08after being shot twice in the protest.
16:11So this is a video,
16:12one of the many videos that surfaced
16:14from the protests.
16:15And from descriptions from my family
16:18and my boyfriend,
16:18I think that that might be my boyfriend
16:21standing...
16:21Right in the middle...
16:22Right in the middle with the flag.
16:24Her boyfriend's recovered from his injuries.
16:28Since the war started,
16:29the regime has restricted the internet
16:31and she's only been able to reach him once.
16:35I spoke to him yesterday evening.
16:37He managed to call me
16:38for about 45 seconds really.
16:40So I haven't been able to know much really.
16:43It's just kind of a,
16:44I'm okay, I miss you
16:46and I love you kind of situation.
16:48We just want freedom
16:50and we want hope
16:50and we want Iranians' voices inside Iran,
16:53our families, our friends
16:54and even strangers,
16:55their voices to be heard
16:56and to be spread.
17:02Iran's response to the US and Israeli attacks
17:05has been to lash out at some of its neighbours.
17:10Particularly those hosting American military bases
17:13in the Gulf.
17:26Iran has targeted an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia
17:30and Qatar's industrial area.
17:35liquefied natural gas production was halted.
17:39Something Qatar said
17:41could bring down the world's economies.
17:43Because Iran does not have
17:47anywhere close to equal military capabilities
17:51as the United States or Israel,
17:53it wants to regionalise this war
17:55to spread the pressure,
17:57even all the way to Europe
17:59and the United States
18:00at the petrol pump
18:04so that everyone feels the pain
18:06of what they see as an unjust war.
18:12For a country like the UK,
18:14that's going to show up in higher costs
18:16for businesses and households.
18:18You might see hits to confidence,
18:19so you might see a slower growth
18:21and maybe falling household living standards.
18:24If this conflict ends quickly,
18:27there will be disruption,
18:27but it won't be catastrophic.
18:30If this drags on
18:31and we do see a step change
18:33in the price of oil and gas
18:35and energy and food,
18:36that will clearly have consequences.
18:43Ships can no longer pass safely
18:46through the Middle East's
18:47most important waterway,
18:49the Strait of Hormuz.
18:52Iran says it's already hit several tankers
18:55and has threatened to set alight
18:57any vessel passing through.
19:01Iranian military has said
19:03that they have not closed straits.
19:05They have encouraged ships
19:07not to go through
19:09because this is a war zone.
19:10You know, missiles fly everywhere.
19:13And they have claimed hitting,
19:17I think, two or three American ships.
19:20Well, then it has a huge economic effect,
19:23does it not?
19:23And isn't this what Iran is trying to do,
19:25to put pressure on?
19:27It has economic effects.
19:29Who to blame?
19:29Trump and Netanyahu.
19:31They started this war.
19:35We decided we were going to go to the airport
19:37and take our chances.
19:40It's been six days since Trevor and Lisa Davies
19:43found themselves in a war zone.
19:52In the small hours of last Friday morning,
19:56they finally arrived back home from Dubai.
20:00I'm willing to thank them to be back.
20:02To get on that flight and it took off.
20:05We'd checked on the website
20:06to see whether the flight was still going
20:08and we had to make a decision
20:11that if it was still going to go,
20:12do we jump on it and risk being blown up out of the sky?
20:16We thought we'd got to get out of there.
20:17And quick.
20:18We took that gamble.
20:19That's everybody else who's in the hotel
20:21wanting exactly the same.
20:30As the war widened,
20:32so did a rift between Western allies.
20:35At the start of the conflict,
20:37the Prime Minister, Sakir Starmer,
20:39refused to allow the US to use UK bases
20:42for the first attacks.
20:43We all remember the mistakes of Iraq.
20:47And we have learned those lessons.
20:51Amen.
20:51Any UK actions must always have a lawful basis.
20:58Amen.
20:59And a viable thought-through plan.
21:02Why is it that under this Prime Minister,
21:05international law always seems to be at odds
21:07with our national interests?
21:10President Trump wasn't happy either.
21:12This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with.
21:19President Trump has said,
21:20we're not dealing with a Winston Churchill.
21:22He's been pretty outspoken in his criticism of his darmer.
21:25Well, we're not dealing with a Franklin Roosevelt.
21:26So it's, you know, it takes two to tango.
21:32After RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an Iranian drone,
21:36the Prime Minister ordered more military hardware to the region.
21:41He's been accused of being too slow.
21:45President Trump says he doesn't need people to join wars
21:48after he's already won.
21:51Once the war started, very quickly,
21:54Prime Minister Starmer did come out and say,
21:57look, we will allow for defensive support to especially our Gulf allies.
22:02The basing that is needed.
22:04It's had a huge impact on the war, frankly,
22:06because it's meant that the U.S. can take much shorter flights,
22:09not having to cross the ocean to get to the region.
22:12I think, ultimately, the U.K. and the U.S. will be able to overcome this.
22:16But clearly this has thrown a wrench in the works.
22:24In America, messaging about the consequences for Iran
22:28of defying President Trump couldn't be clearer.
22:30And I'm once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,
22:35the military and the police to lay down their arms.
22:39They're only going to be killed.
22:40And now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people
22:43and help take back your country.
22:46You're going to have a chance, after all these years,
22:49to take back your country.
22:51Accept immunity, we'll give you immunity.
22:53The U.S. says it's been systematically destroying Iran's military.
22:59Only the United States of America could lead this.
23:02Only us.
23:04But when you add the Israeli defense forces,
23:07a devastatingly capable force,
23:09the combination is sheer destruction
23:11for our radical Islamist Iranian adversaries.
23:16They are toast and they know it.
23:21Wake up, Daddy.
23:23Last week, the White House gave this war the Hollywood treatment.
23:28It posted this video called Justice the American Way.
23:39Disgusting.
23:40These are not mature people.
23:42They shouldn't be having the world's biggest military under their command.
23:50These people, if they're successful with what they're doing to Iran,
23:54you're not going to have world peace for many, many years to come.
23:58Among President Trump's most greatest skills
24:01are that he is a phenomenal marketer.
24:03And I think his view is fundamentally
24:06that in order to have success,
24:08you have to convince the people,
24:10and this is part of that.
24:15For Iranians, the war is brutally real.
24:21At the border with Turkey, some are already getting out.
24:27Soheilo fled Tehran.
24:31With no internet back home,
24:33it's the first time she's seen footage of the strikes.
24:37When speaking of the port,
24:39I was accidently swing by the boat from the south.
24:45I was able to find the boats that are the beaches.
24:49I'd love to hear the boats.
24:51I'd love to see the boats again.
24:52It's the same way.
24:55It's the same way.
24:56I hadn't heard of the ships,
24:58I'd love to pass on the boat,
25:03I'd love to see the boats again.
25:04But,
25:04I'd love to see the boats again with this space.
25:06I'd love to see the boats,
25:06and I'd love to see the boats again.
25:11President Trump has demanded unconditional surrender from Iran
25:15and wanted a say in who should become its next leader.
25:45The president is also still urging the Iranian people to rise up and take control of their country.
25:53But we've seen messages from the regime warning some who've already protested.
25:59Individuals will be dealt with decisively as Israeli soldiers.
26:03You talk about people rising up, but realistically they're afraid to.
26:08We'll have to see how it plays out.
26:10My hope is that there will be massive and sustained demonstrations that the regime cannot put down.
26:16I think it's too early to tell how this is going to go.
26:19Ill-conceived, poorly planned, no day after, that seems to be the direction of travel.
26:26And for Iranians that have been agitating and protesting and wanting something different
26:32after five decades of the Islamic Republic, this does not bode well for them.
26:37Iran has now appointed its new supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei's son, Mushtaba.
26:44If you don't approve of whoever is chosen as successor, will Israel kill that person too?
26:50As long as we see threat, current or future threat from that leadership, we will take them on.
26:56We will never allow anybody else in Iran to try to destroy the state of Israel.
27:02So when you say take them on, you mean kill them?
27:04They want to kill us, we'll kill them first.
27:07The Iranian president has apologised for Iran hitting its neighbours, but the attacks continue.
27:14Across the region outside Iran, nearly 500 have been killed, including 400 in Lebanon from Israeli strikes.
27:23Seven US military personnel have also been killed.
27:27The UN has warned the conflict could spiral out of control.
27:33I think that's one of the things that we should have learnt from the last 25 years,
27:37is that once you kick off a war like this, you don't have full control over where it's going to
27:42end up.
27:44But ultimately, most predict it will be President Trump who decides when this latest crisis in the Middle East ends.
27:52President Trump, of course, would like to see the emergence of a submissive Iran.
27:57An Iranian leadership that will concede to whatever he demands.
28:02I think the reality is that they will want to keep going for a little while yet,
28:08but at some point, we will wake up in the morning and discover that Trump has caught an end to
28:12this,
28:12as suddenly as he called Assad to it.
28:1547 years ago, the Islamic revolution put the Ayatollahs in charge.
28:21Since then, Iran has funded armed groups, fought proxy wars with its neighbours,
28:26and brutally repressed its own people.
28:29Now, under a hail of bombs and missiles, Iran is being told to change course.
28:35But can even the world's most powerful military make that happen?
29:10has no doubt if this virus has happened.
29:11You
Comments