In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched Uradia. If not stopped, Iuran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger. This will's Verius Vinment.
This is a forty seven Morning Update special edition with Ben Fergus.
Good Friday morning. It's so nice to have you with us on the forty seven Morning Update. And we have one big major story that we're covering and all aspects of it, and that is the strike on Iran from Israel. So who was hit, who was killed, what sites were hit, and what comes next. Will have all of that for you, Plus you're gonna hear from the Israeli Prime Minister net Yahoo. It's the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
Story number one.
We start with the big breaking news and that is coming out of Israel. Israel has struck Iran and Iran is now confirming that the IRGC terar chief Salami has
also been eliminated. Benjamin Nettnahu announcing the operation as well, talking about what this means and we also have found out that not only did Iran state run Islamic Republic News agency confirm in the early hours of Friday morning that the Israeli airstrike on targets in the country eliminated the Major General Slami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Other arms of Iran state news apparatus also confirmed this several high profile regime members, including not one, but two
of their top nuclear scientists. Now this is obviously massive because if you want to take out their nuclear program, taking out the scientists behind it is huge. It's very hard to get nuclear scientists to effect and come to Iran, so taking them out could put back their program literally years. They were killed in these strikes, and that is again massive. Now, Islami may be by far one of the highest ranking Iranian regime officials who have been targeted successfully in the operation.
He is one of those that was important to take out, and Israel had planned this for quite some time and they were able to do it. Salami had to stay in a place. As one of the most prominent and also belligerent senior leaders in the Iranian Islamic regime. He regularly threatened attacks on America and Israel, and what was perhaps his final public appearance on Thursday, Salami declared that his forces were quote war tested and experienced, prepared for
war against its enemies. Now that was just twenty four hours ago. He said that publicly now, the IRGC is both a US designated terrorist organization he was in charge of it, and a formal wing of the Iranian Armed Forces. Among its chief operations is to sustain relations between the Iranian terror state and its Jihadis proxies. Who does That include the Huthis and Yemen, the Lebanese Hezbolah, and with
fellow rogue states such as Venezuela and Cuba. The IRNA confirmed Solami's death and a brief message that offered no details on the occurrence. It just confirmed that Salami died in Tehran and claimed him a victim of assassination their words now. Also in a separate report, the state news outlet confirmed a barrage of air strikes over the capital city by the Israeli Air Force. Another Iranian state media outlet, press TV, reported early Friday that the strikes had martyred
several other senior IRGC commanders and new scientists. So we're getting lots of confirmation about how deadly and how surgical these strikes were on the top leadership in Iran veteran nuclear scientists, two of them, in fact, they, as they described it, were martyred in the attack. Press TV reported, adding confirmation from now that at least one Iranian military leader, the chief of the Iranian Armed Forces also a major general bag Herring, is still alive and in Iran's war
room quote plotting the nation's response. Now, The Times of Israel, citing Iranian state television, reported that Israel apparently also bombed one of the most prominent uranium enrichment facilities in the country, the facility known as the Natanz facility, and there was several hits apparently on that facility. It was scattered among anonymous reports as well on social media that this had also happened, and we also been told that there was
disruptions and I ran by undercover MASAD agents. Have also now surfaced that Israel has not confirmed that. I want to be clear now. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nettna, who also confirmed the airstrikes during a national address on Friday morning, identifying the strikes as Operation Rising Lion. I want you to hear what Netnya who had to say as he addressed not only the people of Israel, but also the people of the world.
Moments ago, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival. This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat. For decades, the tyrants of Tehran have brazenly openly called for Israel's destruction. They've backed up their genocidal rhetoric with a program to develop nuclear weapons. In recent years, Iran is produced enough highly enriched uranium
for nine atom bombs. Nine In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium, and if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival. Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were the victims of a holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Today, the Jewish state refuses to be a
victim of a nuclear holocaust perpetrated by the Uranian regime. Now, as Prime Minister, I've made it clear time it again. Israel will never allow those who call for our annihilation to develop the means to achieve that goal. Tonight, Israel backs those words with action. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment program. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear weaponization program. We targeted Iran's main enrichment
facility in Atans. We targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb. We also struck at the heart of Iran's ballistic missile program. Last year, Iran fired three hundred ballistic missiles at Israel. Each of these missiles carries a ton of explosives and threatens the lives of hundreds of people. Soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not of hundreds, but of millions. Iran is gearing up to produce ten thousands of those ballistic
missiles within three years. Now, just imagine imagine ten thousand tons of T and T landing on a country the size of New Jersey. This is an intolerable threat. It too must be stopped Iran is now working on what it calls the new plan to destroy Israel. You see, the old plan failed. Iran and its proxies try to encircle Israel with a ring of fire and to attack us with the horrible attack of October seventh. But the people of Israel, the soldiers of Israel, rose like lions
to defend our country. We crushed fromas we devastated Rizbalah, We hid Iranian proxies in Syria and Yemen, and when Iran directly attacked us twice last year, we struck back inside Iran itself. Yet in defending ourselves, we also defend others. We defend our Arab neighbors. They too have suffered from Iran's campaign of chaos and carnage. Our actions against Iran's proxy Hizballah led to the establishment of a new government in Lebanon and the collapse of Asad's murderous regime in Syria.
The peoples of those two countries now have a chance for different future, a better future. So too, to the brave people of Iran, and I have a message for them. Our fight is not with you. Our fight is with the brutal dictatorship that has oppressed you for forty six years. I believe that the day of your liberation is near, and when that happens, the great friendship between our two ancient peoples will flourish once again. I want to assure the civilized world we will not let the world's most
dangerous regime get the world's most dangerous weapons. And Iran plans to give those weapons nuclear weapons to its terrorist proxies. That would make the nightmare of nuclear terrorism all too real. The increasing range of Iran's ballistic missiles would bring that nuclear nightmare to the cities of Europe and eventually to America.
Now, as you heard the Israeli Prime Minister say, this strike was a part of quote Operation Rising Lion. Why do I say it's part of an operation, because it's very clear that this was not a one and done
hit on Iran. Quote from the Israeli Prime Minister, this operation will continue for as many days as it takes, stating that Iranian officials were actively taking steps to weaponize it's enriched uranium stockpile, calling Tehran a clear and present danger to Israel's survival, saying quote, we are defending the free world from the terrorism and barbarism that Iran fosters
and exports across the globe. Many around the world, even if they won't say so openly, know in their hearts thanks to our determination and courage the citizens of Israel, and thanks to the bravias of Israel's fighters, the world will be safer place because of these actions. Now, Islami was one of the most powerful people in Iran and a top military leader. His loss will have significant damage
to Iran's military operations now. The general regularly threatened to attack neighboring Israel and celebrated the deadly activities of Iranian proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, whose brutal terrorist free against Israel in October the seventh prompted Israel to cleare war against Amas in its enclave in Gaza. The enemy sometimes threatens us with military action. We have always said and we say today that we stand fully ready to
any scenarios, situations and circumstances. So Lemani that is his exact words in a speech on Thursday, saying quote, we are war tested and experience. We have built strength and developed a strategy. In our plans, we monitor the death of the enemy's army and have practiced our plans. That was just twenty four hours ago from a man who's
now dead because Israel acted now. The general was responding, by the way, when he said this to widespread reports that is Tzel was in fact preparing an attack over
the Iranian territory. In response to alarming reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency this week indicating that Iran was rapidly nearing possession of enough materials to build a nuclear weapon, now, the IAEA, a UN agency, declared Iran in violation of several non proliferation commitments in a resolution that was passed on Thursday, and again this is coming from a UN agency. They expressed particular concern regarding evidence of rapidly accelerating uranium
enrichment activities. The resolution also followed a report by the head of the agency on Monday that warned Iran was maintaining illicit enrichment sites an attempted to sanitize them when caught, meaning the IAEA could not credibly verify whether the activity occurring there was consistent with the nation's nuclear commitments or not.
Now Finally, the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran responded to the iia's condemnation on Thursday by announcing the debut of yet another uranium enrichment facility to be built in the near future. And that is exactly why Israel was forced to act now, so make no mistake about it. This was because of Iran's actions and Israel had no other option but to respond. And let's be honest, the world owes a debt of gratitude to Israel for standing up to this terish regime.
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now and for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow