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00:18Hello and welcome to Global Eye, a program that brings you the very best of our reporting
00:24and investigations from across the BBC World Service. With reporters who are embedded in
00:31their communities around the globe, our mission is to help you make sense of the world we live in.
00:37I'm Karine Torbay, the BBC's correspondent here in Beirut, where I was born and grew up. I've
00:44reported on the extraordinary power shifts here in the Middle East for over a decade,
00:49but the events of the last week have been seismic.
00:57Over the next half hour, I'll be your guide to what brought us to this point and what the coming
01:04weeks could break.
01:08Coming up on the program, Nawal Al-Makhafi reports on the events of the last week
01:13and looks at how BBC Persian, banned from operating in the country, gets information from inside Iran.
01:23And the ultimate act of defiance. Star of an Oscar-winning film, Tarani Ali Dosti,
01:30whose photo without a headscarf on social media became one of the defining images of the 2022
01:37anti-government uprising in Iran, speaks about the impact of the protests and her time in prison.
01:46Lebanon is the second front in the war, with Israel pounding large parts of the country
01:51and displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
01:55This came after Lebanon's Shia group, Hezbollah, acting in alliance with Iran,
02:01launched rockets on Israel to avenge the killing of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei
02:07and retaliating to near-daily attacks by Israel despite a ceasefire that put an end
02:14to another full-blown war just over a year ago.
02:19So how did it come to this?
02:20An entire region now consumed by an escalating conflict.
02:25Nawal Al-Makhafi reports on the events of the last week.
02:31Operation Epic Fury, one of the largest, most complex military offensives in modern history,
02:37is a culmination of long-standing tensions that on February 28th finally erupted into open conflict.
02:45A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
02:54Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating eminent threats from the Iranian regime,
03:04a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
03:10Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas,
03:16and our allies throughout the world.
03:21Israel and the U.S. went to war with Iran just after breakfast time,
03:25hitting the capital and sites across the country.
03:29Donald Trump wants to bring down what he described as a very wicked, radical dictatorship.
03:35Meanwhile, millions of ordinary Iranians are caught in the middle.
03:40This is a country scarred by months of protests and deadly crackdowns.
03:44In January, 92 million people were cut off from the Internet
03:49following the deaths of thousands of anti-government protesters.
03:53Now, within hours of their attacks,
03:55Iran once again fell under an almost total Internet blackout.
04:00Getting accurate information out of the country is a challenge.
04:05This is the heart of our coverage, BBC Persian,
04:08which broadcasts across multiple platforms
04:11and is consumed by 24 million people a week around the world.
04:15The majority in Iran,
04:17despite being blocked and routinely jammed by Iranian authorities.
04:22Within hours of the offensive,
04:24reports came in of a strike at a school in Minab, southern Iran,
04:28near an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base,
04:31which has previously been a target.
04:33Iranian authorities say 168 people, including children, were killed.
04:40BBC Persian teams cannot visit Iran.
04:43They have a forensic journalism team
04:45dedicated to sifting through video material
04:48that's coming out of the country.
04:50They were one of the first media teams in the world
04:52to report details of the school attack.
04:55When I first heard about the school being hit,
04:59the first thing that came to my mind was where it was exactly
05:03to geolocate the school on the map
05:06and see maybe there was any other military targets around it
05:11and it was a mistake.
05:13So that was initial thought coming to my mind.
05:17And you could see on some satellite images
05:19that there are marks on their playground
05:22that you could see this is a school.
05:24Initially, we thought that this is just a girl's school, primary school,
05:27but then we're trying to verify the killed children
05:30and there was this massive funeral for them
05:34and we looked at the pictures
05:35and we realised more than half of them were boys.
05:39I wanted to ask you about who was responsible for this attack.
05:44We are digging on videos and everything online
05:48to see if we could see any remnant of the missile.
05:52So it would have given us some clues about the make of the missile,
05:57where does it come, which army uses this kind of missile.
06:01But so far we haven't found anything
06:03and we carry on investigating
06:06and we are pressing both Pentagon or a reporter in Washington
06:11asked the US Defense Secretary about
06:15did you hit the school?
06:17And the Secretary said that
06:18we never deliberately hit any school.
06:22But he didn't deny it that it was them
06:25and he didn't confirm it.
06:29Hello, welcome back to you.
06:30This is a great news for us.
06:32The news of the Islamic Republic of the Islamic Republic
06:35was the President of the Islamic Republic of the Islamic Republic.
06:40Thirty bombs are thought to have hit the Supreme Leader's compound,
06:44killing Ayatollah Khamele'i
06:46and a significant number of other senior intelligence,
06:49military and security personnel.
06:52The Iranian regime hit back in a series of attacks
06:56aimed at the extensive network of US bases in the Gulf,
07:00sending shockwaves across the region.
07:04Thousands of supporters of the Iranian regime
07:07gathered for the first of 40 days of mourning for the Supreme Leader.
07:11This was a city under attack.
07:14But the regime maintains a solid base of support
07:17and its power is centred on a complex network of political and religious institutions.
07:23Iran is not a Malone leaf.
07:25There are different groups of people in Iran.
07:28There is a minority who fully support the Islamic Republic of Iran
07:32and its aggressive agenda and anti-American, anti-Israeli agenda
07:39think that Iran is right to follow a path of resistance.
07:43There is also another group of people who are so fed up with the Islamic Republic
07:49that they are cheering the bombings
07:51and they think it's a price worth paying in order to see a regime change in Iran.
07:59But there is also a third group that you may not hear from them all the time
08:04who want a major change in terms of how the country is run
08:08and want a different Iran and would welcome a regime change.
08:16But they think regime change couldn't and shouldn't come through bombings
08:21from 20,000, 30,000 feet.
08:24Throughout the day, Israeli forces carried out airstrikes against targets in Iran.
08:29Again, the retaliation was swift.
08:34Nine people were reported dead in the Israeli city of Bishamish.
08:40America suffered its first casualties.
08:43Donald Trump promised to avenge their deaths.
08:46Yet even as Washington hardened its rhetoric,
08:49the conflict was spilling deeper into the Gulf.
08:52Iran striking targets across at least nine countries.
08:56Israel, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Jordan and Kuwait.
09:03This is a war that most Arab governments didn't want and tried to prevent.
09:08And now they found themselves on the front line.
09:13March 2nd saw significant escalation with a new front opening up in Lebanon.
09:18The Lebanese health ministry reported at least 50 people dead from Israeli strikes.
09:24And as missiles continued to strike Iran,
09:28the Iranian Red Crescent reported more than 550 fatalities.
09:32For BBC Persian, reaching audiences cut off inside the country became even more critical.
09:38We are on satellite.
09:40We have a satellite TV.
09:42They even try to jam that.
09:44And we have tried to diversify our ways of getting the information to people.
09:50We have started a lifeline radio that you can listen to on, you know, shortwave or mediumwave.
09:59Here's the thing.
10:00There is a need for BBC Persian in Iran because there are no independent, impartial media outlets in Iran.
10:08And people rely on the BBC and BBC Persian to have accurate, up-to-date information.
10:16Iran is the seventh nation in which Trump has authorized strikes in his second term.
10:22The U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the operation wouldn't lead to endless war.
10:42But critics argue the White House had failed to make a consistent case for why the war started or what
10:49America hopes to achieve.
10:52By the fifth day, the war had escalated far beyond the Middle East.
10:57A U.S. Navy submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka,
11:03raising further questions about the legality of America's claim that this is a war of self-defense.
11:10For some Iranians living under daily bombardment, the only option was to flee.
11:15BBC Persian spoke to some of those crossing the border into Turkey.
11:19Honestly, people are completely stressed. The situation is critical. No one is really themselves.
11:25Because of the rising prices and everything that was already going on, people were already under a lot of pressure.
11:31And now that the war has started again, the situation has become even worse.
11:35I don't really know what will happen.
11:37The only thing I do know is that I absolutely don't want anything to do with the clerics.
11:41I think most people feel the same way.
11:43The U.S. and Israel argue that their actions will pave the way for peace and stability.
11:49But in a country almost three times the size of Iraq, further violence and instability could lead to a new
11:56refugee crisis across the Middle East and beyond.
12:01As this conflict goes into its second week, with the news Iran has named Mushtaba Khamenei,
12:07a son of the deceased Supreme Leader, as his father's successor,
12:11BBC Persian staff focus on what they are there to do, despite the many challenges.
12:17We try our best to be there as storytellers.
12:25Our job is to find out information and share that with our audience anywhere we can.
12:32And that is what we try to focus on.
12:35It's not easy.
12:39You see people in tears.
12:41You see people very upset.
12:43And we try to support each other as much as we can.
12:47But it has never been easy.
12:49If it was easy, there wouldn't be a need for BBC Persian.
12:54The reason there is a BBC Persian is that there are people who need us to do this job.
13:03Iran's geographical location is key to understanding the regional and global impact of this conflict.
13:09In particular, its ability to curtail the flow of oil and gas through one of the world's most important shipping
13:17lanes, the Strait of Hormuz.
13:19It gives Iran huge leverage over the world's economy.
13:23The BBC's global journalism team has taken a look at how the geography of the region could affect the future
13:31direction of the war.
13:35This is the Strait of Hormuz.
13:37It's what is called a choke point.
13:39It's a narrow strategic route for global trade that is used 24-7.
13:45This bit here is just 39 kilometers wide.
13:50This shipping route is how we get 20% of the world's oil and gas, as well as 30%
13:56of urea that helps us make fertilizer to grow food.
14:00Iran is using its military to disrupt traffic through the Strait, which is something they've done before.
14:06It's a very important trump card.
14:08Shipping companies are no longer going to the Strait of Hormuz because they're worried their tankers or their ships might
14:13get stuck.
14:14Gulf countries use the Strait to import some food and products from other parts of Asia.
14:19So closing it comes at a price for Iran, too.
14:24This is something the Iranian regime has decided.
14:26We're just going to have to bear the economic cost of this, bear the burden of this, but we're just
14:31going to make everybody hurt as a consequence of this.
14:35And we can see the impact of that already.
14:37The price of oil has gone up, and you can see from this time-lapse how the Strait was incredibly
14:42busy before, and now it's not.
14:47And there's another choke point that could disrupt global trade.
14:51It's not in Iran's control, but it's close to one of its remaining allies, the Houthis, the militia group based
14:57in Yemen.
14:59Ships cross the narrow Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to go through the Suez Canal and up into the Mediterranean Sea.
15:06The Houthis have attacked ships in this region before.
15:11And the alternative route, going around the Cape of Good Hope, is longer and a lot more expensive.
15:18The Middle East and this region, really, it's a key point in the global supply chain.
15:23It just depends how long this conflict is going to go on for.
15:27You could well see an impact in terms of security, in terms of inflation.
15:33So what began with strikes in Iran has had a ripple effect through the region and beyond.
15:40Please raise your right hand and repeat after you.
15:43Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency on a commitment to restore America's greatness and a pledge to stay out of
15:50foreign wars.
15:51They said, he will start a war. I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars.
15:54But since he returned to office last year, he has expanded U.S. military reach, removing former Venezuelan leader Nicolas
16:02Maduro from power,
16:04and now going to war with Iran in what has the potential to become the biggest U.S. military campaign
16:11since Afghanistan and Iraq.
16:13But Washington and Tehran were once closed allies. So how did their relationship become so fractured?
16:22Oil was discovered in southwestern Iran at the start of the 20th century.
16:26This redefined the role of the country on the global stage and began a complex journey with the West, and
16:33especially the United States.
16:35A British company that would later become BP set up Iran's oil industry, and business was good.
16:41But over time, there were growing calls from Iranians for more control.
16:46The problem was there was so much wealth to be gained from the oil that was being extracted that then
16:52they could see all of that money just leaving the country.
16:55And so it's that history of feeling that this is oil on Iranian territory, under their ground, and they're not
17:03getting any of the benefit from it.
17:04One of the strongest voices was Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
17:10He came to power promising to nationalize Iran's oil, which he did in 1951.
17:16As a result, Britain, supported by America, boycotted Iranian oil, causing exports to all but collapse over the next two
17:24years.
17:26Then, in 1953, American and British intelligence agencies orchestrated a coup to push him out.
17:34So America saw Mossadegh as being someone who would develop ties between Iran and Russia.
17:41So basically, it was an opportunity that then allowed American oil companies to get a foothold in the Iranian market.
17:48The coup cemented control of the Western-backed shah, or king of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
17:55For the next 26 years, with support from the U.S., the shah built infrastructure, started land reforms, improved education,
18:03and gave women the vote.
18:04These very fast-paced social changes that are happening alongside this influx of enormous amounts of oil wealth into the
18:12country.
18:13And we see very fast transformations within society.
18:17The reforms boosted the economy, but not everyone benefited equally, and some religious leaders felt they were a threat to
18:24Islamic values.
18:25Then the shah increased political control over society.
18:29In Iran, under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, becomes much stronger, and he has American support to train up his secret
18:38police to interrogate people and to try and stamp out any possible areas of opposition.
18:46In time, the shah's feared secret police, his opulent lifestyle, and pro-Western policies sparked riots, strikes, and mass protests
18:55from across Iranian society.
18:57And all this led to the Iranian revolution in 1979, which changed the country completely.
19:07The religious leader Ayatollah Rouhala Khomeini returned from exile and established an Islamic republic.
19:14This transformed not only Iran, but how it saw the world.
19:31The shift from friends to enemies starts in 1979, partly just because of where the revolution ended up going under
19:40the leadership of Khomeini, whose rhetoric was anti-American.
19:46In November 1979, a group of students who said they were angry about America's treatment of Iran stormed the U
19:53.S. embassy in Tehran and held dozens of Americans hostage inside for more than a year.
19:58When the hostage crisis happens, the relationship fundamentally changes.
20:04Iran was no longer a friend and overnight becomes an enemy.
20:11In response, the U.S. applied economic sanctions for the first time, banning all trade with Iran, including oil.
20:20Since then, U.S. concerns that Iran could develop a nuclear weapons program have strained relations further and meant more
20:28sanctions.
20:29Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program was only for peaceful purposes.
20:34There were attempts at reconciliation, but a breakthrough didn't come until 2015,
20:40when after more than a decade of negotiations, Iran signed an agreement to limit its nuclear program.
20:47In exchange, the U.S. and others stopped crippling economic sanctions, allowing Iran to once again sell its oil internationally.
20:55This fell apart during Donald Trump's first presidency.
20:59He took the U.S. out of that agreement and re-imposed sanctions.
21:03At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction, that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear
21:13energy program.
21:14In June 2025, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said Iran had breached its nuclear obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
21:23Iran condemned the resolution as political and has always said it has never looked to develop a nuclear weapon.
21:30Israel launched a series of strikes on Iran, resulting in a 12-day war between the two countries.
21:37This culminated in direct U.S. involvement, including airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
21:44Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat.
21:51Since the Iranian revolution, the U.S. and Iran were fighting each other in different arenas, diplomatic, economic, political, espionage,
22:05cyber.
22:06The only thing that had not happened was the use of military force.
22:12But he broke that taboo.
22:14With that final taboo broken, the course towards a much bigger conflict was set.
22:20And the two countries' journey from close friendship to deadly hostility was complete.
22:28While access to information from Iran remains limited, social media has long been a vital communications lifeline for the Iranian
22:36opposition.
22:36In 2022, acclaimed Iranian actress Tarani Ali Dusti expressed solidarity with the Women, Life, Freedom protests when she posted her
22:47picture online without a headscarf.
22:50The image went viral and she was taken into detention.
22:54Speaking before the current conflict, she sat down with BBC Persian.
22:59This is her extraordinary story.
23:10I was in the 19th century in the 19th century.
23:35The story of the
23:36I need to create a job.
24:09A leading Iranian actress, Taraneh Ali Dousti.
24:12She expressed solidarity with the anti-government protest.
24:14She's one of the most prominent actresses in Iran.
24:17One of Iran's most famous female actors has been arrested.
24:20Taraneh Ali Dousti, today, was arrested in her house,
24:23in the front of her daughter's daughter.
24:25I think that she has her daughter's young daughter.
24:28She will put her in Iran and put her in her house.
24:31I have the security of her daughter's house.
24:34I have a selfie of myself and I have a million-million followers.
24:39They have something they say.
24:40They are the most prominent people who have a dog.
24:45There were many other things.
24:47It was a lot of work that was possible to see the actors.
24:51It was the actors, the actors, the actors, the actors, the actors,
24:55the actors, the actors, the actors, and the actors.
24:59But I think that all of them should be able to
25:03and it became possible for me to be able to do this.
25:12I was living in my family,
25:15and there was no need for me.
25:19I could have been able to get myself,
25:20I could have been able to stay,
25:22I could have been able to do something,
25:24I could have been able to do something.
25:26I was surprised that I was not in my family,
25:28but I didn't have all of my daughters.
25:29I didn't have all of my daughters.
25:32My daughter,
25:33from the metro,
25:34who was coming to me,
25:35after two, three,
25:36one of them,
25:37what happened to me?
25:38In the beginning,
25:39this journey,
25:40for me,
25:42one of the most common people,
25:46that,
25:47because of the hijab,
25:50it became a bad feeling.
25:55Do not do it!
26:01When she was having fun,
26:06she had to be Chapter 1 in July.
26:08The name of the girl of the girl,
26:09she made the arrival of the girl,
26:09but then there was an appearance on her.
26:11every step and the journey for her.
26:12She never died here with her.
26:13She never died there,
26:17that was a real life.
26:18She never died there...
26:19He took the girl,
26:24it was just a miracle,
26:25she never died.
26:25He is my father, my son, my son.
26:37I don't know why this is a joke.
26:41But one of them, one of them,
26:45they thought that they can't help us.
26:50And in this case,
26:50But many of us can't help this country,
26:53which is Zahedan, which is Tabor,
26:58Esfahan, Shiraz, Roustahak,
27:01the people of Kurdistan.
27:12Until they started, they started...
27:18I was able to give him a message to me.
27:22Because I was there, they got to him...
27:26and I thought that I felt that it was okay with my grief.
27:31And I would like to give him a message.
27:34I asked him to give him a message.
27:41They asked him to ask yourself, who are you?
27:42. . .
27:44and I told her, give this my name and tell you
27:46I told you, I told you, I told you, I told you
27:50I told you, is she?"
27:50and I told you one of your daughter who has a job
27:53She told me that she didn't have a job
27:57and I told you, she told me
28:01She told her, she told me, she told me
28:03and I told her that she was all they were
28:05and she didn't have a job
28:07and I started doing it
28:08and it was a lot of sexual upbringing
28:10she had a lot of experience
28:14and I was free from them.
28:16They said to me,
28:18you know what you think?
28:20These were all the people who had 50-60 days
28:23of their own family.
28:25But I couldn't do that.
28:30I was 19 days ago,
28:41I found my good friends.
29:05Thanks for joining me in Lebanon.
29:06We want your feedback on Global Eye.
29:08Let us know what you think on social media using the hashtag BBC Global Eye.
29:15We'll be back next week.
29:17Goodbye.
29:38Bye-bye.
29:41Bye-bye.
29:42Bye-bye.
29:43Bye-bye.
29:45Bye-bye.
29:46You
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