US and Israel carry out joint attacks on Iran

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The US and Israel have launched what Donald Trump calls major combat operations against Iran, bombing Tehran and, Iran says, five other cities. We're going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be Obliterated. We're going to annihilate their Navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies

can no longer destabilize the region or the world. The President urged Iranians to use the moment to overthrow the Ayatollah. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. Also in this podcast, the Israeli military says Iran is trying to retaliate. There have been explosions in Bahrain where the US has a Navy base. We'll bring you international reaction to the strike.

Plus reporting from our correspondents in the region and analysis from our team, including experts from BBC Persian.

It was a little before ten o'clock on a bright Tehran morning when the first missiles struck, arriving out of a clear blue sky. Blasts were heard in cities across Iran as the United States and Israel carried out multiple strikes. In a video message on social media, President Trump accused the Iranian regime of waging an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States.

The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxy

can no longer destabilize the region or the world. He had this warning for members of the Iranian security forces. To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces. And all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death.

And he urged the people of Iran to use the opportunity to overthrow the Ayatollah and his regime. To the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered, don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for a generation.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also had a message for the people of Iran. Together with the United States, we will strike the terror regime harshly. We will create the conditions that will allow the brave Iranian people to rid themselves of the burden of this murderous regime.

This is your chance to establish a new and free Iran. Take your fate into your own hands. Raise your head, lift your eyes to the sky. Our forces are there, pilots of the free world. Everyone is coming to your aid. Help has arrived. Reaction from inside Iran itself has been limited as there are restrictions on communications in place. But earlier the BBC spoke to Fahud Izadi, who's at Tehran's university.

I'm in Tehran and we are hearing Israeli bombs falling in the city. Everybody is covering it, all news channels, all television stations. You you don't have to watch television. You you can just hear the bombs falling off the sky. And Hamidreza Golamzada, who works for a think tank on Iranian foreign policy in northern Tehran, told us what he has heard.

And after a while we had reports of some explosions in the downtown. Right now I'm in my office in northern part of Tehran, in which uh about one hour ago I heard two more explosions. Uh when the news came out yesterday about President Trump saying that he wants a deal with Iran. Many people were saying that It seems to be dangerous and it seems to be a cover for possible attacks against Iran and and we see that uh seems to be true about the distrust that they have in the United States.

Mr. President, what is Iran's opposition saying? Reza Pahlavi is the son of Iran's last Shah and is a leading critic of the Iranian regime. He's currently in exile in the US and addressed the Iranian people directly. Now that the Islamic Republic is collapsing, my message to the country's military, police and security forces is clear.

You've sworn an oath to protect Iran and the Iranian people, not the Islamic Republic and its leaders. Your duty is to defend the people, not a regime that's taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime. Join the people and help bring about a stable and secure transition. Otherwise, you will go down with Khamenei's sinking ship and his regime.

To find out more about the reaction inside Iran, I spoke to GR Gol from BBC Persian. Mm-hmm. Well the footage we are receiving from inside the country and the voices we hear from the people f in the street all indicate. There has been a massive attack on many different locations in Tehran and several cities across the country. And in one video a lady was shouting The office of the supreme leader head, another woman joyfully said finally he was head.

and it all indicates the mood in Iran for so many people who just More than a month ago, thousands of people had been Thousands of protesters were killed and gunned down and so many people are not happy with the situation in the country. But of course there are also many people are who afraid of the war. They don't know what is the outcome. just a few minutes ago, Iranian officials said eighteen student have been killed in the city of Minam.

And what we are seeing also, we see the the anti riot police and security forces also being deployed to different locations in the city in Tehran. But it is not just Tehran which witness So many explosions and airstreak also in several cities.

In the border city of Karmancha we know from last year there are numbers of uh missile launching sites there. There have been also attack It seems what we are hearing from them and what we are hearing from underground, also they are targeting revolutionary guards bases in different cities, in a small towns, in hopes of some of those people come out to the street. So rise up again the against the government.

Of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, the US has indicated this is about regime change. What are the chances that the Ayatollah will have been hit by any of these strikes? I think we know they were expecting some sort of attack and we know from the last year also when he was

the target of Israeli airstrike, he was moved to the safe an underground bunker. That was what we are hearing. That's what we were expecting. Yes, his office may have been hit, but most likely he has been moved to a safe place. But what we are hearing from President Trump, if you would have asked me before President Trump's speech today, what is the purpose of this attack, I might say

You know what, maybe this is a limited attack against Iran to get more concession on a negotiation table. But what he said today. It was clearly a declaration of war and for the first time, very clearly, President Trump said they want regime change in Iran. That's why he said after the bombing is finished.

people should come out and finish the government and so many people inside the country are not happy with the situation, the economy is crippling, Iran is isolated and also the regime has lost legitimacy within even their own supporters because the killing of thousands of people just less than two months ago. And the Mossad of course do have extraordinarily good contact

and the assassination of Iranian officials, Iranian scientists, Iranian missile scientists, I think Israel has infiltrated Iranian security forces in the highest level. Even one of the former intelligence minister. He has said to the Iranian uh official that Musad is closer to our ears than anything else.

GR Gold from BBC Persian. Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher gave us his assessment of the unfolding situation. We've just had the Israeli military saying that it launched hundreds of attacks. on targets in Iran. What we don't know from Iran at the moment, there's lots of rumours obviously flying around, lots of videos.

of uh smoke rising from various areas, particularly in the capital, whether uh members of a leadership, the political, the military leadership, have been targeted successfully, there does seem to be a sense that that was what the Israeli mission may have been to some extent. We know that the US

is also very much trying to target the offensive capability of Iran in terms of its ballistic missiles. But we're seeing In comparison to the twelve day war back last June, uh between essentially Israel and Iran with US involvement at the end, which is about its nuclear weapons, its nuclear programme potentially leading to a nuclear weapon. that Iran has responded more quickly, more widely. I mean it has fired several volleys towards Israel so far, a number of missiles.

But Israel very much um on alert across the whole of the country. We're waiting to see if any of Iran's proxies in the region take action. They've all been uh markedly weakened uh over the past year and a half Hezbollah, the Houthis. Iranian affiliated militias in Iraq. One of those uh groups in Iraq has said that it will target uh US military bases Soon they didn't do that in the twelve day war. Hasbullah there is going to be a statement

a speech made by the leader of Hezbollah in a few hours. We'll see what he says, but I think it's pretty clear that the capabilities of Hezbollah much less than they were two years or so ago. Also again Hezbollah didn't

fire or carry out any military attack or intervention during that twelve day war last summer. So you know, those are big questions. And then how these Gulf Arab countries which have come under attack I mean it i it's almost certainly the US military bases in the region but of a target. but how they will respond. We've heard from Jordan and I think we've heard from a couple of other Gulf countries.

that they are ready to take whatever military action they deem necessary. I mean clearly they do not want to get involved in any direct military confrontation with Iran if they can avoid it. their voices were very strong in trying to dissuade the US from taking this this action. And where we are as far as the US is concerned, I mean a you know, most people who've been following this will now have heard most of what President Trump had to say in his eight minute address.

And that had several messages, part of it very similar to what we heard last year about the nuclear uh programme about Iran's nuclear amb ambitions. So obliterating that but also talking about obliterating ballistic missiles in the navy. But I think more more so than anything else. calling on on the Iranian people to rise up.

Yes, Seb, I mean Iran's response now. We uh we have had reports of retaliatory strikes. Just take a listen to this. Of course, multiple explosions in Bahrain, where the US Navy Fifth Fleet is based. We had this voice note. From a mother sheltering with her children.

Hi, I'm here in Bahrain in the SAR area. It is a painfully beautiful day, but everybody of course is sheltering inside after several air raid sirens have gone off. Slightly after Uh we had the reports of the bombings on the US bases about the U.S. thirty minutes afterwards we had another set of what sounded like bombs going off. We had a couple that were near enough to shake our house. Do keep in mind Bahrain is a very small country.

And so everyone is pretty packed together here and so one area being targeted puts civilians at risk. There's a lot of fear. I've got my kids sitting under the dining room table watching cartoons and that's what I'm hearing from most of the mums across the country, that they're just doing everything they can to keep everyone calm.

Sebastian you can hear the terror in her voice and and and what she's worried about is what many people are worried about that this is going to turn into a much bigger regional conflict. I mean that's what Iran had been threatening during the resumption of the talks as the military build up this this massive military build up by the US was a regional conflagration which actually involved, you know, direct military conflict. with those Gulf countries

with other Arab countries in the region, I think is still relatively slim. I mean it depends obviously to some extent on where Iran chooses to attack next if it has that capability, oil installations, of course.

the economic lifeblood of those countries, that would then represent a major risk, whether those countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain as you were hearing there, then feel that their direct military involvement would be necessitated or they would leave it to the US and essentially Israel to continue, I think is a question that at the moment I'd say that they would

do the latter if they can, rather than getting directly militarily involved where, you know, they don't have the strength To be brutally honest.

as the US and Israel clearly have. So I might leave it to that. That actually was reflected in an interview we heard a little earlier. Lord Peter Ricketts, he's the former UK National Security Advisor. Just take a listen to this. He was Quite sceptical that Iran was planning an imminent attack.

My interpretation of this word preemptive is that the Israelis preempted any risk that the US Iranian negotiations were going to reach some sort of deal on the nuclear programme, and it reminds me very much of June last year. When the same again. The Americans were negotiating intensively with the Iranians. Uh the Israelis interrupted that by striking and they draw drew the Americans into action. That has happened again. Trump, of course, has built up this enormous military presence.

but there's absolutely no clarity what the real political objective here is. And it's very dangerous to launch military action because you got the military forces you don't really have the option of standing aside, but with objectives which can't be achieved by military strikes, obliterating the missiles, preventing Iran from

using its regional proxies. These are not achievable objectives. We are in a dangerous phase where the Iranians are bound to retaliate and try and strike some quite hard blows, I think. Lord Ricketts and before him our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher.

Iran launched retaliatory strikes targeting both Israel and US military bases in the Middle East. Our correspondent Barbara Platasha told us more from the Qatari capital Doha. We just heard another round of explosions here uh echoing across Doha. The Qataris are saying that they have intercepted.

several waves of missiles now. Uh up until just a little while ago they were saying there had been no damage so far. They have sent out push alerts to our phones, to the phones of everyone in Qatar telling them to lay low, to seek shelter and to stay indoors. The traffic on the roads have not entirely stopped, but it has reduced quite significantly. We are hearing similar reports from around the region, from the United Emir Emirates, Kuwait,

Bahrain, saying that they are getting incoming Iranian missiles and that they are intercepting them. Except in the case of Bahrain there was an announcement that the missile had hit The U.S. Navy base there, that's the U.S. Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain. Again, the extent of the damage there is not entirely clear. In the United Arab Emirates.

The government said that one civilian, one citizen had been killed, i apparently from following debris, although that is not entirely clear either. Some of the governments have said they reserve the right to respond. I think that they would calculate very carefully about what impact that might have and whether it would suit their interests to do so. This is exactly the outcome that they have been trying so very hard to prevent.

over the past weeks trying to mediate between the Iranians and the United States. warning about the dangers of a conflict in Iran, warning that it could spread to the region and destabilize it. It's clear now that the Trump administration has not listened to its Arab allies public efforts anyway on this issue, uh rather to it seems its Israeli allies. And so the Arabs are going to be watching very carefully and taking whatever measures they can to prevent the conflict.

from destabilising the wider region. And it's interesting you say that, Barbara, because Oman's foreign minister has said uh that they are dismayed after the attacks between Israel and Iran. So as you mentioned there A lot of effort has gone in, particularly by Oman, to try and mediate some sort of agreement between the two sides. And while that effort was taking place, clearly uh planning kept going for these attacks. Yeah.

And the Iranians um had expressed skepticism all along and uh even now when the attacks took place said, Look, we expected there would be attacks. You've attacked us before during negotiations, but we went along with them anyway, and so they were making preparations as well. having very little faith in the whole negotiating process. But the Omanis who were uh mediating did pull out all the stops, the Omani Foreign Minister having gone to the United States on a sudden trip this week.

To try to urge the administration to continue with the negotiations and saying that they have were making significant progress, he called it a breakthrough. He said That the Iranians had agreed that they would move all the stockpiles of enriched uranium out of the country that this was a a really important move and that it could be built on over a period of time to actually get an agreement. Again, that intervention failed. The planning for this military operation has clearly been in place.

for some time and now President Trump has decided to go ahead with the aim uh of regime change, which is frankly the most drastic outcome that could have been the case. There was questions about what an uh an Israeli uh US military operation might involve. Would it be limited strikes to kind of force the Iranians further along in the negotiations? Would it be strikes on just military targets like the ballistic missiles uh sites, the nuclear sites?

But no, uh Mr Trump has made it clear that they're going further than that and again that is a c a source of concern for the Arab neighbors or the Arabs in the Gulf because who knows what will come afterwards and whether they will uh be subject to flows of refugees and weapons coming across the borders if if the worst case scenario comes true. Barbara Platt Usher, she was talking to Mariam Mashiri.

And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a news story available every weekday. Still to come in this podcast, the view from Israel and the internet blackout that's also hitting the people of Iran. This is not the future we were promised. Like, how about that for a tagline for the show? From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world.

This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work and your politics, your everyday life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Hej, välj en firma bilbyggd för nordisk klimat. Från fyridrift finns till alla våra modeller, även elektriska idaskargo och e-transporter. Välkommen till folk en transportbilar. This is the Global News Podcast.

The US government went ahead with its military action without seeking approval from Congress. Here's Helena Humphrey in Washington. Let me just run you through what some of the lawmakers have had to say. Starting off with Lindsey Graham, he is a Republican senator. He is an ally of Donald Trump. And essentially his message which he's posted on X is that he believes that this is an opportunity to reshape

the Middle East. He says that he expects this campaign to be a violent one, but ultimately he expects it to be successful, you can compare and contrast that with what we've heard from another Republican, a congressman Thomas Massey, who is a critic of Donald Trump. And he has called this an act of war unauthorised by Congress. Certainly there had not been a congressional vote.

on any of these strikes. Just some other reaction to bring you now. Uh Roe Karner he is a Democratic lawmaker and he has called for a vote on Monday. He said that lawmakers must come to Washington, they must vote on this, they must put their names on the records with regards to where they stand.

on these strikes. And then we've also heard from the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that is Mark Warner. And essentially what his message has been In a statement of is he says that we have heard claims of urgency of American intelligence before, clearly uh referencing previous wars, uh Iraq, for example, being one of them, and saying that the President must answer questions with regards to the objective here.

basically saying if President Trump can come out and put a video on his social media platform an eight minute video in which he has warned that there could be American casualties. That justification needs to be there. Now certainly we know that Donald Trump has spoken not just about a failure of uh a nuclear deal, but he has also spoken about

ending what he calls a campaign of bloodshed against Americans. But in terms of that objective he also spoke to the Iranian people, didn't he? He said, uh, you know, stay inside for the time being, but when it is safe to do so, come out. Rise up.

topple the Iranian regime. And I think, you know, the greater backdrop to all of this is what we had seen in recent weeks when we had seen that brutal crackdown on protesters in Iran and Donald Trump had The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation would remove what he called the existential threat posed by Iran. Iran is a problem for Israel that needs to be got rid of and today uh it does seem like America and Israel are taking

steps to do that. When you listen to that message from President Trump a little earlier, what he was talking about there is when this military operation is finished, he wants the Iranian people to rise up and take over the government. They want regime change. In Iran saying that this was a sort of once-in-a-generation opportunity. Our hotel in Jerusalem. Uh appeared to be a missile or projectile being shot down by Israel's

missile defence shield a couple of hours ago and further to the west in the big cities of Tel Aviv and high from the coast also explosions there. So Iran's retaliation has very much beg begun. ...how extensive and how long it will go on for. Well, we're just going to have to wait and see. And we've heard from an Israeli official that the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and the President Pezashkion were both... targeted by Israel. What more do we know about that?

Well we don't know much. The Iranians are saying that neither of them were hurt. Uh we understand that the Supreme Leader is been taken to a safe place away uh from the capital. That's what's coming out of Iran. Certainly that is a pretty big step. You know, if Israel and America are trying to decapitate the Iranian regime and remove the supreme leader, that is A huge move really which is going to bring an enormous response

from the Iranians one would imagine. We had that war last year, lasted about twelve days between Israel and Iran and and then We had a strong response from the Iranians. We had casualties here in Israel. And you know, depending on how long this this operation by the Americans, by Israel and Iran goes on. We're going to have to wait and see what the extent of the Iranian response is going to be this time. Their military capabilities have been hugely diminished.

in recent years because of those various conflicts but they still have the capacity to hit all parts of Israel pretty hard. John Donaton speaking to the BBC's Mariam Mashiri.

Iran is now under an internet blackout, according to NetBlocks, an internet monitoring agency. My colleague Merlin Thomas from BBC Verify. Told me more. There is a near total internet blackout with national connectivity at about four percent and NetBlocks, this uh international watchdog of internet connectivity has basically published this um graph showing a steep fall in the internet connectivity in Iran and this isn't the first time we've seen this.

It was just in January, just a few weeks ago, um, that we saw a near total internet blackout during the nationwide protests, and that remained in place Four weeks, and it meant that it made it really difficult to get any information out of Iran. Um so it meant that any videos, information, messages that were being sent were being sent through um other methods such as SpaceX's Starlink, that's a satellite internet um method that people are using, or VPN, so those are virtual private networks and

It's likely that those who have access to those methods will try to use them again this time round. But it does make it very difficult to Find out exactly what's happening inside the country. Uh and as we're continuing to verify video, we're just seeing, you know, when when these videos first emerge. And Merlin, what is the purpose of the blackout?

It's not clear yet, you know, obviously in the first time this happened earlier on this year it seemed to be an internet a government imposed internet blackout. It's still unclear whether the same thing has been done in this case. Um we've had no reports as of yet that their connectivity issues are due to

strikes, uh but that could very well be the case, but it also could be government imposed, so we're still waiting to see and as I said, it still makes it very difficult to actually find out the causes of that. BBC Persians GR Gole shared his own perspective on the shutdown. Last year when they shut down the internet, one of the main reasons the Iranian regime did that was because Israeli trucking some of the officials, whether there was bodyguard, their family members

and they located them and tracked them down and they hit the location. That was one of the d main reasons. But I think this time around Most likely the Iranian regime also worried about its own people they might rise up. We know less than two months ago when there was a mass protest in Iran, the regime completely reduced this speed of internet totally

or shut it down in order people not to be able to organize and call on each other to come to the street. But one thing for fact I know is in the last month scores of Starlink satellite dishes and router has been smuggled into Iran. GR Gold from BBC Persian.

Let's end this special edition of the Global News Podcast with the thoughts of our chief international correspondent Lise Duset, who's recently returned from Iran. This is a confrontation uh which is very different uh from what happened uh last year where at least when it came to the region, Iran carefully teleg telegraphed its attack. took care uh to minimize the risk of causing American casualties. Iran had warned that this time it would not hold back and that all of

US military bases across the region, including US military personnel, there's more than forty thousand across the region, would be at risk. And President Trump himself acknowledged in his eight minute uh video Uh that uh there would possibly be the loss of American lives. But he made it clear that America as he saw it was under threat. and he was uh ordering uh this war to commence. A war a military operation that the Pentagon has and codenamed uh Epic Fury.

Announcement, President Trump said that regime change was very much on the table. What does that look like in your view? You were just in Iran in the past few weeks. Um is your sense that This is going to target the Ayatollah, the supreme leader, the IRGC. How far do you think this could go? Yes, President Trump and US Commander in Chief uh has we've often reported uh on on BBC that he has

sent conflicting messages about whether this was about Iran's nuclear programme, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, or that it was about broader regime change. He named all of these reasons uh this morning in that in that first post. History tells us. that there has been there's been no example of uh an order uh a government an order being brought down by airstrikes alone.

Uh but President Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to keep his troops out of out of forever wars. He doesn't want to put boots on the ground. He made it clear that it would be up to the Iranian people to do that. Remember he during uh the protests of last month he called on them to take control of your institutions? Well, the Iranians saw that when they take to the streets that the

Security forces have lethal force that they're able and willing to use. The death toll is in the many thousands. Still being counted. There are still people, there are still families who don't know uh the fate of their loved ones. So It is a very unpredictable and a very perilous time. And this time, President Trump, unlike uh the the lead up to the US led invasion of Iraq in two thousand and three, he didn't go to the

uh UN Security Council. He didn't try to build a coalition in the region. He is doing this just with Israel. Uh he seems to believe that right and history is on his side, but we have seen no evidence that This preemptive attack described by Israel that there was an imminent uh Iranian threat on Israel or on the United States. So a new war has been unleashed and this morning in these early hours no one can say with certainty when and how uh it will end. Lise Duset talking to Samantha Simmons.

And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag GlobalNewspod. And don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in depth and behind the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Philip Bull. and the producers were Pete Ross and Peter Hyatt, the editor. I'm Alex Rits and until next time.

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