Live on Sky News. This is Sharry.
Good Evening. It's a massive show tonight with huge interviews after America's strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. Major guests coming up live on the show Israeli military star Jonathan Conricus, former British Commander Richard Kemp, who led forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Liberal Senator James Patterson, and radio legend Ray Hadley all joining me live this hour. We'll get the full astonishing details of Trump's midnight attack
and the pathetic Albanezy response. And let's start with the new details emerging of how President Trump made the decision to strike and exactly how this extraordinary military operation unfolded. Where Trump was on Marine one flying over New Jersey when he took a call from Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth. He said it was time for a final decision on the strikes. Just two days earlier, Carolyn Levitt, his press secretary, had told the media that Trump would decide in the next week or two.
Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future. I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.
But that comment was designed to keep the world guessing. It wasn't a reflection on the President's indecision. It was just meant to throw the enemy off the scent instead of giving advance warning of what was most likely coming. And once the President gave Hegseeth the go ahead, he then returned to Washington and called his closest advisors to the White House Situation Room. And these are the images
from that meeting. You can see Trump with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseeth, the CIA director John Ratcliffe, Vice President JD. Vance, and security Advisor Andy Baker, and under their watch, Operation Midnight Hammer began. There was a clever deception plan with some B two bombers heading west captured by public flight trackers, but the actual B two bombers headed east toward Iran. It was a thirty seven hour round flight for the pilots of these B two stealth bombers,
and it's been reported they flew in silence. They took turns to sleep, and even had a microwave and fridge on board for food. A flight of fighter jets accompanied the B twos as they approached Iran for added protection, and at the same time Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from American submarines. In total, one hundred and twenty five aircraft were involved in this mission, including dozens of air refueling and intelligence aircraft. The risk was reduced by Israel's
supremacy over Iranian airspace. This operation took place under the cover of night, the bombers and missiles entering Iranian airspace at two ten am local time. The nuclear sites of fo Do, Ntanz and Esfahan were all hit in the operation that lasted twenty five.
Minutes the attacked and the dead of night. These pictures from Esfahan capture the site and sowned of the US assault on Iranian nuclear sites.
And just to get an idea of how massive those bombs are. They weigh thirteen thousand, six hundred kilograms, but look how big they are in size compared to the height of a six foot tall man. Now, fourteen of those were dropped on the Nutance and the four Door facility. And as you know by now, the four Door facility, that's the one that some eighty to ninety meters beneath Mount Alvind south of Tehran. Both President Trump and Hegseth said the nuclear sites had been destroyed. Trump was flanked
by Rubio, Hegseth, and JD. Vance when he announced that the mission had been a success.
Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear and Richmond facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.
Speaking the next morning, Hegseeth agreed the nuclear program had been destroyed.
We devastated the Iranian nuclear program. Iran's nuclear ambitions have been obliterated. Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the final blow to Iran's nuclear program, and none could until President Trump.
Now this was a single operation to demolish the nuclear sites. But Trump has now left open the possibility of further action if Iran retaliates, and his warning sends a clear.
Message around the bully of the Middle East must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left, but if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed, and skill. Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes.
And further to that, if Iran doesn't come to the table and agree to peace, Trump now threatens there could be regime change. He wrote on truth Social it's not politically correct to use the term regime change, but if the current Iranian regime is unable to make a run great again, why wouldn't there be a regime change? And this comment came really not that long after Vice President Jade Vance said the strikes and Iran's nuclear sites had nothing to do with regime change.
But our review has been very clear that we don't want a regime change. We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it's already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program and then we want to talk to the Iranians about a long term settlement here.
Now, the Iotola and his Mullers are irrational extremists, and the world would undoubtedly be safer if they weren't in control, and Iranians would be better off without their cruel oppression, But there is the unpredictability of who the Supreme Leader Kamani could be replaced by, and there's the possibility it would be an equally extremist leader or even worse. It's up to the Iranians to rise up and demand democracy. This is not an easy feat and it is a
long shot. So for now, Trump threatens a round with regime change or more attacks if it doesn't choose peace. But the President's actions this weekend have also shaken the axis of evil that consists of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Trump has now re established American deterrence, which was surrendered with Biden's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Beijing and
Moscow have reason now to take pause. There are new limits on their aggressive ambitions, and Albanize should also be taking serious notice of the changing dynamics unfolding and global politics, and he should realize that he's been on the wrong side of his The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pennywong today said, perhaps through gritted teeth, that they endorsed the
American strikes in Iran. It took one twenty four hours to work out that she did support America's action to obliterate the nuclear sites.
So we support action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that is what this is.
But Albinizi is so weak that he refused to speak publicly until he'd held a national security meeting. He needed a meeting to tell him what to do. He could have called one on Sunday, of course, right after the strikes, but that would have been asking too much of the Prime minister. He's only paid over six hundred thousand dollars after all. So he had his meeting today and then he finally fronted the press.
The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon, and we support action to prevent that.
That is what this is.
I mean watching Albanize in Wong, it seemed like they've been to a funeral having to come out and endorse Trump's action in support of Israel. But they couldn't, in all seriousness have opposed such an important move that's for the clear benefit of mankind, stopping a depraved extremist regime develop an atomic weapon. They had to support that. Now the UK has confirmed it knew about the strikes ahead of time, but Australia was kept out of the loop.
Richard Miles was still calling for a return to dialogue and de escalation less than two hours before the strikes took place.
In this moment is seeking for greater diplomacy and dialogue and a de escalation of the current conflict that's playing out in the Middle East.
PHAPS. He would have taken a different tune had he known the American strikes were in action, even I'd heard a whisper and the hours before they took place, But the Albanezy government hadn't. That is alarming and my national security sources have told me that Australia was not given fore warning before the strikes, but the UK was. The Prime Minister was too embarrassed to admit this today that he didn't know. He wouldn't directly answer the question.
The UK has been one of the countries that's been at the negotiating table with Iran for many years on its NEWCOO weapons program.
Your government breathed prior to the Attabitan.
This was unilateral action taken by the United States. This was unilateral action taken by the United States.
So embarrassing for him, and he abruptly ended that press conference after just nine minutes walking out, our journalists still had questions to ask and I'm going to speak with James Patterson about this shortly. But the fact that the UK was briefed goes to the good relationship that Keir Starmer has managed to forge with Donald Trump. It's a relationship that is nonexistent for Albanesi. Australia is out in
the cold thanks to this pathetic government. Albinizi and wog have made our nation irrelevant on the global stage through absurd, confused and morality free foreign policy. And you'd have to say now that Alberinizi is the most inconsequential prime minister in global politics in a long time. It's coming up to eight months since Trump won the election, eight months and Albanizi has never had a face to face meeting.
This is a new low in American and Australian relations and the only worse international leadership has come from the United Nations. Antonio Guteris should be celebrating America removing the nuclear threat from Iran. Instead he's objecting to it. Here's what he said on social media. He said, I am gravely alarmed by the use of force by the United States against Iran today. This is a dangerous escalation in a region already on edge and a direct threat to
international peace and security. He said, at this perilous hour, it is critical to avoid a spiral of chaos. There's no military solution, he says, the only path forward is diplomacy. The only hope is peace. I mean, that is the worst possible analysis of the situation. It's Iran that has continued to use force and terrorism against the West for decades,
most recently financing and sparking the October seven massacre. Yet even after this, Tehran was given the option of deploymacy and five months of negotiations with the Trump administration, and it's still refused to give up its nuclear ambitions. Compare Trump and edin Yahoo's courage with Albanezi's spineless timidity and the United Nations appeasement of terrorism and moral depravity. There's no comparison Trump and Nettignao, who have formed quite the
formidable partnership of our time. It's a conversation I'll come back to later in the show with Timothy Lynch. He's a professor of American politics, and there's no question that Trump made the right call in taking this military action.
It's the only sensible decision. Another trade deal with Iran, like former US presidents chose to do, would have only given this dangerous and murderous regime billions of dollars, billions to finance another wave of terror against Israel and the West, billions to finance and re empower their proxies Harmus and Hesbela, after Israel has spent the past twenty months weakening them, and in doing this action and the way he went about it, the President of the United States showed he
is capable of calm, rational decisions. He followed a careful and considered process. He didn't rush into this. He weighed his options and the consequences. He has shown himself to be a leader of our time.
OGA.
That's cross live to Israel now, where I'm joined by retired Lieutenant Colonel, former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus, who's now senior Fellow at the Foundation for Devents Democracies and co founder of bottom Line Media. Jonathan, thank you very much for your time. Once again now just to start the breaking news this evening, Iran's foreign ministers meeting with Russia as we speak. Do you think there is a chance that Russia could support a run against Israel.
Hello, Sherry, thanks for having me on. I think it's the first time on your show, but I'm very happy to be here. Regarding Russia, you know, the interesting statement that apparently was released by the Kremlin is that Russia seeks to support the Iranian people. And that's an interesting statement. It could indicate that the Russians are hedging their beds and they are assessing the situation with regards to the regime. And if I were an Iranian regime spokesperson, I wouldn't
be very happy with that statement. I would have wanted something much stronger from Iran's closest strategic ally, and they're not getting it. So, you know, there's never any telling what Putin will do, and decision making in Russia is always very complex and interesting, so I wouldn't want to assess. I just you know, observe that there is They have
a full plate of their own, do the Russians. They are challenged by the situation, and usually the saying in military affairs and strategy is that you never throw good money after a losing horse, and Iran in this case they're losing, So it wouldn't make sense for the Russians to invest resources that they apparently don't have a lot of after someone who one of their allies that is apparently not doing very well on the battlefield. So I'd say a cautious no, and I'll be watching the space
of you know, the messaging here. Interesting that they chose to focus on the Iranian people and not Kaminai so called supreme leader, and not the Islamic regime.
No, a very good point there. Now, there's been a lot of discussion since the strikes yesterday over whether the nuclear sites were completely obliterated. With you military background, what's your assessment of this question.
I mean, my military background says that we have to be patient in order to get final intel, which is based on real, hard evidence that can indicate what exactly is the extent of the damage that has been inflicted at four Dou. I think the other sites are a little bit easier to assess because most of the infrastructure is above ground, and therefore it's easier to understand. For DOAU is underground and it will take longer time, but
I think we can. You know, Israel reportedly conducted strikes air strikes on four Door just a few hours ago after the American strike, So perhaps there's need for additional targeting. I don't yet know the reason why, but I think one thing is pretty clear this conflict, this war will only end once four Doau is totally destroyed, dismantled, and this destroyed to such a level that the Uranians won't be able to salvage centrifuges or any other part of
their critical infrastructure. So whether it was destroyed now or we will need to do a second and a third run, I think it's less pertinent. The end will be a destruction of FODO and an effective end to Iran's malign nuclear weapons intentions.
There's also the International Atomic Energy Agency. They release the statement today saying that Iran has a stockpile of more than four hundred kilograms of highly enriched uranium, which agency inspectors last verified a few days before the military conflict began. So Jonathan, again, this is also something that needs to be addressed if it hasn't been already. Does Israel know where this is located and will it be destroyed or removed?
So I think we can and the viewers at home and people around the world, can I think assess that Israel has pretty good intel when it comes to Iran. Israel has been collecting, assessing intel, and preparing itself for this moment for quite a few years, and I think, you know, I don't think that is what would you forget to deal with such an important and critical.
Piece of asset.
So my bet is that Israel is not only following, but actually knows where that material is and is taking the necessary steps in order to make sure that they are never turned into weapons. Now, of course, dealing with radioactive or highly enriched material is a different bargain. Israel
has to be careful and there are certain safeguards. I don't think that Israel wants to create an environmental catastrophe, And of course, wherever the Iranians have tried to hide it, I'm sure that Israel is on top of that and
following it. But bottom line, I understand that journalists around the world, especially those who wish to minimize President Trump's achievement and the Israeli achievement against the Iran's nuclear program and to show that, oh well, not everything has been taken care of, I would recommend that they be a bit more cautious and a bit more modest in their assessments and judge by action.
So far, so far, I.
Think Israel has demonstrated complete intel dominance and operational dominance, and I think we should assume that Israel is pretty well aware of the whereabouts of said enriched uranium.
Just quickly before you go. In a message this evening the Prime Minister Benjaminetti and Yao who said that Israel is very close to achieving its war goals in Iran, and he said the next step is the expansion of the Abraham Accords. I mean this clearly is how the Prime Minister is hoping to reshape the Middle East.
Well, it's more.
How I think he and many Israelis are hoping to finally have Israel live without terror organizations that constantly attack us, and without the fear of extinction by a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of a absolutely crazy and fanatical regime.
And I think that's where we're heading. I hope that it will.
Be prosperous and good and positive for the Iranian people, for other people in the region, and definitely the Abram Accords. That is an excellent vehicle to do exactly that prosperity, peace, normalization, trade, economy, commerce, all of those beautiful things that usually benefit people and also companies and countries. I hope that will happen, and I think by defeating Iran, Israel will be doing a great service to the region, enhancing the chances of prosperity.
I hope that the Iranian people will be able.
To free itself of that horrible, oppressive, coronen malfunctioning regime that has been oppressing them for forty six years.
But that's up to the Iranian people to decide.
Jonathan Conricas really appreciate your time in the show. Thank you very much. That's Jonathan Live in Israel.
Now.
It wasn't that long ago that Joe Biden was withholding weapons from Israel and demanding a cease fire. And it's no wonder that Israelis are extremely grateful to Donald Trump, with billboards in Tel Aviv lit up with the words thank you, mister President, let's bring you now. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Scott, thank you very much for joining us.
Great to see you. Do you agree this is true leadership from President Trump in taking the necessary action to eliminate the nuclear threat from Iran.
Yes, I do.
This is something that presidents have been seeking to achieve, and that is the distruction of around's nuclear capabilities for decades. And you know, they've tried diplomacy over and over again. The JCPOA, which was as President Trump described it many years ago when I was Prime Minister, it was a bad deal. It was a bad deal. It wasn't achieving
that deal. Some years later, October seventh, we saw the most vile defilement of a nation in what occurred to the Jewish people on that day, the worst day since the Holocaust. And you know what we've seen now is finally after the fall of Hamasaf, the fall of his Blah. And along the way there was the fall of the Sad regime, and now the Iranian regime hangs by a thread. And you know, I think it's extraordinary what he's been able to do. And it wasn't it wasn't an easy
thing for to do. It wasn't something he rushed to do. It's not something it's not his preferred option, but he was prepared to take the action.
And I think he should be commended for it.
Absolutely. I agree with you, And it's not just the Democrats who are saying he should be impeached, but there's even critics within Ay his own party who were mounting the argument that America shouldn't be involved in a foreign war. They say it's not their war. But Scott Morrison, what threat does Iran pos to the West, even Australia, not just Israel.
When I was PM, I talked about an ark of autocracy that went all the way from Pyeongyang to Tehran and took in Beijing and of course took in Moscow. And Iran have been an important part of that ark, and they have worked together, as we saw in Ukraine. I mean the Uranians working together. What was happening in Ukraine.
We've seen them swapping notes, encouraging each other. You know, we've got the Iranian foreign minister who's ducked off to Moscow, and we've got the Chinese government which is criticizing the United States. You know that they're swapping notes and they're working together, and they've been doing it.
For some time.
And this is a very significant blow to that ark, I believe, and I think it. I mean, I mean, when you just stop and think about the fact that Iran's nuclear capability has been destroyed. I mean that is a Middle East game changer, and not just for Israel, not just for Israel, but I think it is the opportunity to create a stability in the Middle East that'll be welcomed by golf countries and to ensure that they can return to pursuing peace for their own countries, for commerce,
for engagement, for all of these sorts of things. I think this is potentially a major turning point for the Middle East after so many decades of where it's just been a woeful tale of despair.
So well said, I couldn't agree with you more, and I wish more of that sentiment was reflected in the media and in political commentary now it Scott Morrison, I have to ask you this, If you were Prime Minister right now, would you have taken over twenty four hours to come out and express the port for America's strikes against Iran.
No, And there was no need for it to take that long. And I mean, of course you would have taken constant you would have taken advice in terms of what had actually happened and where it had happened, and what had been the nature of the strikes and what intelligence did we have and what had we been informed of by our allies and so on, And that's quite reasonable.
If it was necessary, I would have convened the National Security Committee on the Sunday if it was indeed necessary for the simple sake of actually being able to make a statement as Prime Minister. That potentially could have been done just simply between the Minister for Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. But if the Prime Minister wishes to do that with a full National Security Committee, that's fair enough and that should have been convened on a Sunday.
I can't remember how many National Security Committee meanings I've convened on Sundays and Saturdays and all sorts of ours, given the issues we were dealing with at the time.
So it's not irregular.
You know, our national secure officials are not shocked to be called at short notice to attend the National Security Committee.
And it was significant.
It was a moment of opportunity, I think for Australia to make a very clear statement. And I must admit, when you know I was asked about this yesterday, Sharriet, it wasn't really something I was looking to get engaged with publicly. But there's been so much ambiguity about the government's position on the Middle East and on Israel and October seven, and honestly that.
Ambiguity must cease.
I mean, surely now, surely now we can have a clear position and understand that what the United States is.
Doing is the right thing to do.
It's And the other thing I'd say is this show.
But this is your message to the alban Easy government. Now you're saying, stop being ambiguous when it comes to foreign policy. Support our allies. That's what you're saying, isn't it.
Of course, I mean the United States. For those who want to live in the fairyland that thinks that without an alliance with the United States we somehow have a defense arrangement, that somehow Australia would be the only country other than the United States that would be able to resist the type of potential offense that would be leveled at Australia and do it in isolation. This is absolute, La La land. The United States is our most important ally.
And whether it was the Howard government or was with my government, whether it was you know, during times of the rug government, the Guillaud government, there was an instinctive, an instinctive alignment with the United States. And I can't tell you why he waited until today before saying something. I don't know the answer to that question. Was it to align with what other governments like the UK and Canada and to align with their messaging. I don't know.
Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. But you know, if you in the United States and you take an action like this, and it wouldn't have been an easy call for the president. This is not something he would have been rushing to do, itching to do, but you'd want to know your allies were with you. And how hard is it to go? Well done, mister President on taking out the new killer capabilities of a despotic authoritarian regime that you know imposes all sorts of extinguishment of liberties on their.
Own people should be regime that should be. I don't know.
We need to be careful about offending.
I mean, it's the most uncontroversial thing to say. Scott Morrison. We miss your moral clarity more than I can say. Thank you very much for joining me tonight.
Nice to talk to you, Sharon.
Good for you too, Thank you.
Now my national security sources have confirmed that Australia was not given advance warning like the UK was of America constrikes, and as I said, this is a reflection of the fact Albanezi has no relationship with the President joining US now Liberal Senator James Patterson. James, if Australia had a close relationship with the United States, we might have been brought into the loop like our British ally was.
Sharry, I don't know the reason why we weren't informed, as your reporting indicates in advance about this operation. There are perfectly plausible and innocent reasons why that might have been the case, for example, operational security on a highly
sensitive mission that was very tightly held. But it is also possible that one of the reasons why we weren't told is because there is a lack of trust or a lack of rapport between the president and our prime minister, who has failed to establish a personal relationship with the president now seven months on from when he was elected. And I think it is instructive to see the other world leader who was informed was Keir Starmer, who has done perhaps better than any other world leader in establishing
that personal relationship with President Trump. So that may be the reason why the UK was informed and we were not, And if that is the case, then that will be a very worrying development, but something that the Prime Minister should be aiming to remedy as soon as possible by going to Washington, DC, meeting with the President and establishing that personal relationship.
I'm going to get back to alban easy in just a minute. But why do you support this action, Jameson, and why do you think this is so important for American deterrence.
I support it in its own right for its own merits, because I think it is a good thing that hopefully Iran's nuclear enrichment program has been set back many years, if not a decade. That will be good for its own reason. But I also support it because I think it is very important to reassert American deterrence, and not just in the Middle East, but globally, including in Inno Pacific. There's been some pretty low rent strategic analysis out there
in recent months about so called Taco Trump. Trump always chickens out that this has punctured in a very welcome way, and it also pushes back on the more sophisticated analysis that's been running the line that Trump is an isolationist. This proves in fact, the President is not an isolationist, that he is comfortable with the judicious deployment of American military power, and he's willing to do so in the
service of America's national interest. And I hope that every would be dictator and aggressor around the world has taken note of this and now factors that in to their own calculations about their own plans for expansion or aggression in their own region, and has more doubt in their minds this week than they did last week about whether or not America will push back, because it is a much better thing for all of us if dictators are worried that America under President Trump will do something about
their ambitions.
Indeed, completely agree, James. We just heard some extremely strong comments from Scott Morrison about the delay and the weakness of Albanese's comments to this. Do you agree that the Australian official position has been unacceptable?
Shary.
I think it's a good thing that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister eventually arrived at the correct position this morning to support the United States and welcome their action, but I am baffled as to why it took them twenty four hours or longer to get to that position.
This should have been an easy one. Our closest ally, our most important strategic partner, took action to prevent a theocratic autocracy from obtaining a nuclear weapon which they have said they intend to use to one day ripe Israel off the map. And a regime which has been at war with the United States and its allies for forty years, which chanced death to America, and whose supreme religious leader that Aetolahamine, has said that those chants are not just a slogan, it's a policy.
So for there to be.
Any ambiguity in the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister's position about this, I think he's inexplicable. But I am glad that eventually they found their way to the right position.
All right, James Patterson, you have more forgiving than I am. Thank you so much for coming on now still to come and inside look at this meticulous military operation. I'll speak about that with former British Commander Richard Kemp and shocking scenes on Ozzie Streets as ignorant protesters back the extremist Iran regime. Ray Hadley, we'll rip in next Welcome back, and to further discuss the shocking Australian response and the
extraordinary developments over the past twenty four hours. Let's bring in now radio legend Ray Hadley.
Ray.
Well, let's start with these concerning scenes that we've seen in Sydney yesterday. Pro Palestinian crowd suddenly started supporting this radical extremist regime. There's this one photograph, I mean, never mind the fact they've been executing women for daring not to cover their hair, this photograph shows a protest to holding up a picture of Ayotola Ali Kamani, I mean, Ray, how ignorant are these people of what's actually going on in Iran?
Well, the people who gather, it's no different to what happened October eight nine and ten, I mean ill informed oaths and then Marine Faricki and others there, you know, jollying them along. She should be more concerned about what's happening in Pakistan with India as opposed to what happening in the Middle East. But look the rivet of the sea chant, it's been dispelled. If you're an historian, even with a little modicum of common sense, you understand that
the Jewish faith have been there a lot longer. They're not chlonized in any way being a colony there. They haven't colonized that particular area.
Jews are indigenous to the land. It's nonsense, it's not.
But see, I saw something today that mate sent me. It was an American thing. And they asked a question of a woman and she said, and she was protesting along the same lines of what we're putting up with here yesterday, and she said, well, they're Muslims. He said, here's Muslims. He said, oh, the Jewish. You know, the people in Israel there muslim He said, that's the other side,
you know. And most of the people protesting, not all of them, but most of them are young ones who had no idea what happened during the war, the Holocaust. They've got no idea of what was the Jewish faith was subjected to by Hitler and the Nazis. They're rewriting history and it's so annoying. And any chance to bash up Donald Trump. The rest of the world is applauding him. And I read a thing by Joe Hildebrand today where
he said we should be thanking Donald Trump. Agreed, and everyone should exactly take Jay's leader and thinking, because they get nuclear capabilities, we're all in strife.
Exactly, We're all in trouble, no question. And sometimes I think Albinizi and Pennywong are almost as ignerient as those as those protests.
You've got to forgive the our minister because deep, deep.
Because he was one of those protests.
Thank you, you've got me now, I interject all the time.
Don't worry about it.
No, you're exactly right.
You know, he was in a CAF a few decades ago and he was protesting, you know. And so it's not in his soul, it's not in his DNA. It's certainly not in Petty Wong's DNA. And I gave them a bit of a tickle up this morning on the telegraph and said you've either got to do your business or get off the pot because and he hasn't done that yet. She was everywhere this morning saying, oh, we support Donald Trump, we support We can't allow this, but there was a writer we've got to work towards peace.
How do you have peace with a raving lunatic who puts homosexuals to death, who won't allow women to go to school, girls to go to school. Women are not second class citizens in Iran, their third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. In fact, I think some of the herded animals might come in front of them. And so how do you negotiat How does our foreign minute to say, let's negotiate with a raving lunatic.
You can't not to have nuclear weapons. I mean, it doesn't get more serious. She was questioned on why they took so long to twenty four hours.
To come into the tea party.
Well, probably it would have been more priority. Here's what she said in answer to that question.
Why has it taken almost twenty four hours from Gona to provide support to the US.
I think if you look at our statement release by the government yesterday, we may clear what we have always said, which is the international community, including Australia, I has long believed that Ouran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. I think that was very.
Clear, except that it wasn't very clear. Ray It didn't say the sort of meinly Mouth release said simply we want peace.
I mean, it didn't say we are with our allies. Look, as I've said many times, we are a large content with a small population. The Americans save this in World War II from what was happening up north. There's no doubt they saved us. And if we want to be saved again from some other person that may want a bit of our territory and a bit of our wealth in terms of what we have on the ground here, we're going to be calling the Americans again. I mean, we are not a race of people who will know
dof our caps to people. We're fairly proud, but at the end of the day, we're twenty five twenty six million people and we need the United States of America. Might if something might happen in the future now, Donald Trump would be fully entitled to say, well, listen, fellas, where were you when we knewed you?
Ye? And he might tear up He might tear up all.
Because the Prime Minister has done nothing today to allay those fears. He has done nothing. And I saw Scott Morrison, God bless him.
Wasn't he excellent?
Well for the first time. And I know when they leave politics, the last thing they want to do is bag the opposition, you know, a bit of respect for the position he'll as Prime minister. But he was strong and he said some very sensible things about the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister from day one has been weak as water in relation to the Jewish and the attack by Hamas.
And at the end of the end of any day, if you support Gaza, you support her mass a terrorist organization no better than the terrorist organization in Iran that we're confronting at the moment. So, I mean, I don't know what he gets, but as I said, maybe it's in his DNA and there's a little birdy in the back of his mind saying now be careful, because remember how you really think about this issue, from your university
days and all the rest of it. Maybe there's still a part of you that thinks that way.
I mean, I mean, if Scott Morrison was still the Prime Minister, or Kevin Rudd, or Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott, any of the others, they all would have held a press conference on the Sunday, no question backing in America.
Look, Julia Gillard would have been right on the front foot. I've got no doubt about it. And you know, God bless her getting the Royal Commissioner to the Child Abuse up and running with Tony Abbott's help, but she was a strong person. We've got a Prime minister who lapped the opposition back at lapped the opposition, and it looks like he's gone into his shell again. It's bizarre and it's scary that we're being led by someone who wouldn't know he's wa'sing my caller from his elbow.
I completely agree with you, utterly, but I'm comforted by the fact the whole world knows that it's not just us dealing with it on our own. The United States President knows what we're dealing with.
You, yeah, exactly, and I think even you know, the Labor Party in Great Britain realized what we're dealing with as well, exactly.
Ray Hadley, love having you here every Monday. I'll see you next Monday.
I'll look forward to it.
Thank you so much. All right. Still to come from a British Commander Richard Kemp joins US live from Israel, plus a report by Jonathan Lee with inside detail on the top secret strikes. Welcome back, and for more on the brilliant US mission. Let's bring in from British Commander Richard Camp, who led British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Colonel, thank you so much for your time once again as
a military commander. What impressed you most about this mission and do you think that the outcomes were achieve this nuclear threat has now been removed.
Well, I think the whole thing was extremely impressive, with the United States Air Force, Navy as well involved carrying out an operation in close coordination with the Israel Defense Force to smash up Iran's nuclear capabilities, and I think probably the details of the bombs, etc. Very very impressive,
unique in the world. But I think one of the most impressive things is a flight of thirty six hours round trip from Missouri to Iran, involving multiple refuelings, without what appears to be without a hit, and without even a single Iranian anti aircraft gun or aircraft getting to the sky to stop them.
They went in, they went.
Out, that no one knew anything about it apart from the explosions. That's extremely impressive. Nobody really knows what the actual damage that has been done on these sites. I think, you know, President Trump says that they've been obliterated.
I've no doubt that huge damage has.
Been done, but it does take time to do a proper assessment, so I think we'll have to wait and see what comes out of that assessment. They may well have been utterly destroyed, may be a need for a return trip.
Yeah, and it was interesting hearing from Jonathan Conricus earlier this hour about the fact that Israel has gone back over the four Doah site just in the past few hours and launched more hits on the site, so perhaps to further obliterate it. So I guess we'll hear in the coming days just the extent of the damage and whether it has been destroyed. Colonel I want to ask you as well. You just mentioned that the intricacies of a thirty six or thirty seven hour flight for those
B two stealth bombers. What are some of the coordination that needs to be involved for something like that, you know, the refueling during the flight. This is a complex operation.
Highly complex, and of course I think there was something like I may be wrong here, but around about one hundred United States aircraft involved overall, in terms of the actual bombers themselves, the refueling aircraft, the escort aircraft, aircraft involved in suppression of air defense systems, all of that coordinating that is enormous and not forgetting the coordination with Israelis, who pretty much control the airspace over around these days
and have their own combat planes in the air as well.
And I think actually.
Two planning an operation like this, It's immensely detailed and mensely complex, and it will have taken weeks to do it. It's not something that President Drum suddenly woke up in the morning and said, let's attack. This will have been planned in coordinating with Israelis for probably for many many weeks, if not months.
And I think Israel began its campaign.
Potentially, yes, I think, and certainly this kind of planning would have taken place at least in outline. And it kind of belies the narrative that some people were trying to build up before the America suggesting it was division between Israel and the United States with Netaniohu and Trump, which very clearly was not true.
Yeah, it was rubbish. It's also interesting that the US chose to just hit those three nuclear sites. I mean, it could have gone after other missile launcher sites or other military sites, but it chose to not do that. Do you think that was the right call? Do you think their action should have been a bit more expansive.
What they did was what they should have done.
And you know, the IDF has been in the air perpetually for the last week over Iran, taking bits of the regime out, taking out their ballistic missile capabilities, their launchers, some of the as we know, some of the key regime infrastructure, targets, air defense systems, all of that.
I think the IDEF forgot that.
I don't think they need United States Air Force to help, but we shouldn't forget that the US Air Force has been and the US Navy of course has been in action for the whole of this campaign, helping to defend Israel from ballistic missile attacks, from aurum drone attacks, and not forgetting that the US anti air air defense launchers are based inside Israel, the third in particular, that are manned by American.
Soldiers protecting Israel.
So it's the US has been extensively involved since the stop intelligence as well, it's been involved the start. I think this was just one element of the campaign, and I don't think the Americans to do more than what they've done so far.
I so I want to ask you about the importance of deception. You know, very cleverly, there were b two bombers that were caught on flight trackers going in the other direction, catching everyone off guard. Nedinna who has also spoken about how crucial the element of surprise is. You know, as a commander yourself, this does give you the advantage having these roses this deception involved.
Yeah, I mean apart from the actual kinetic action itself from bombing something or hitting something with tanks or arteria or whatever. Apart from that, the two most important elements I think in warfare are first of all, intelligence, and you've got to have the most precise intelligence to carry out an operation like this, and secondly, a surprise. Surprise in many cases, in many battles, in many engagements in history, have turned around a situation that could have gone badly wrong,
but due to the surprise elements. And I think things like President Trump saying I think it was a day before this strike took place.
I'm going to give it.
On up to two weeks now, that would have probably led most people to believe he meant probably around about two weeks, not about two or three hours.
No.
Indeed, all right, Richard Kemp, Colonel, really appreciate your time. Once again, Thank you so much. Welcome after the break inside detail into this top secret mission. That's next. Well, let's have a look now at some more detail about the top secret mission to take out Iran's nuclear sites, requiring one hundred and twenty five aircraft.
Jonathan Lee reports America's bat winged B two bombers worth more than three billion Aussie dollars each return home to Missouri from Operation Midnight Hammer.
The Middle East slept as seven bombers with fighter escorts sliced through a ram's airspace As America for the first time dropped its combusting bombs fourteen in total designed.
For just this mission. At least six hit.
Uranium in Richmond sited Fado buried in the mountain side. Then they struck another at Nranz and Isfahan, a key research base, was struck by missiles fired from a submarine.
It was an incredible and overwhelming success.
In the classic decoy, the Pentagon had declared its strike weapons would be prepositioned to the Pacific of the ten plane cent seven broke east. These pitches captured the situation room during the thirty seven hour flight. Pilots in this separate video had access to a toilet, microwave and snack cooler, sleeping in rotations that met secret rendezvous points, upholding radio silence, repueling in the air time and again.
More than one hundred and twenty five US aircraft participated in this mission, multiple flights of fourth and fifth generation fighters, dozens and dozens of air refueling tanker.
There's no confirmation yet of Iran's claims they had removed in rich geranium before the strikes. Satellite images before and after, though, give it some indication of the damage, at least on the surface. Jonathan Lee Sky News, and.
Thanks to Jonathan Lee for that report. Now tune in tomorrow. It ate another massive show. And I've got that American professor on tomorrow night who I mentioned. But stay tuned now for Paul Murray.