New explosions near Iranian port cities, says state media | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Iranian state media now reporting new
2. 0:02explosions around the straight of Hormuz
3. 0:05as the battle with the United States for
4. 0:07control of the area continues. The
5. 0:10latest strikes uh one of them come near
6. 0:12the port city of Banda Abbas. It follows
7. 0:14a night of reciprocal strikes with the
8. 0:16US saying it hit military sites across
9. 0:19Iran. Earlier, President Trump said his
10. 0:21forces were hitting Iran very hard. US
11. 0:24Central Command say they struck targets
12. 0:27across the country in a fivehour
13. 0:29mission. Iranian forces say they hit and
14. 0:32disabled two super tankers in the
15. 0:34straight of Hormuz. One crew member was
16. 0:36killed, eight others wounded. Iran also
17. 0:39said it attacked US sites in Bahrain
18. 0:42with reports of Gulf nations again
19. 0:44intercepting aerial attacks. Iran also
20. 0:47targeted US air base in Jordan with
21. 0:49ballistic missiles which Jordan says it
22. 0:52shot down. Let's bring you the latest
23. 0:54from the Gulf. We can speak to Middle
24. 0:56East analyst Luciano Zakaro who joins us
25. 0:58now from Dohab. Good to have you with
26. 1:00us. So, uh, reports on Iranian state
27. 1:03media of strikes near Band Abbas, also
28. 1:06near Bashia Luciano. How significant is
29. 1:09it that we're now seeing daytime
30. 1:11strikes?
31. 1:13Well, it is very significant because it
32. 1:15looks like what we were expecting to be
33. 1:17just limited and temporary attacks are
34. 1:20becoming more permanent and they're
35. 1:22becoming much bigger than the attacks
36. 1:24that we were witnessing a few weeks ago.
37. 1:26So, uh we don't have a ceasefire
38. 1:30anymore. It looks like the announcement
39. 1:31of Trump was was true that according to
40. 1:34him there's no more ceasefire and
41. 1:36therefore we are again in a new phase of
42. 1:38this war that nobody expected to be
43. 1:41resumed after the signature of the
44. 1:43memorandum.
45. 1:44>> And Luciano, how has it been in Qatar?
46. 1:47>> Well, in Qatar is not I mean we are
47. 1:50worried because we had already uh two
48. 1:52big attacks. The last one was two days
49. 1:55ago. It was at 5:30 in the morning and
50. 1:586:45 and we were hurt very very heavily
51. 2:01because the the the explosions were
52. 2:03heard on top of the city. Even the media
53. 2:06reported three injuries for the debris
54. 2:08that they fell. So we didn't expect
55. 2:11after 3 months to uh to see again this
56. 2:14kind of attacks here in Qatar. But it
57. 2:17seems that since the the passing of She
58. 2:21Hammed
59. 2:22and Iran decided not to attack at least
60. 2:25today and yesterday, only the other
61. 2:28countries that were mentioned uh before.
62. 2:30We'll see how is this going to to
63. 2:32continue in the coming days.
64. 2:34>> And Luciano, what are you hearing from
65. 2:36inside Iran? What do the hardliners
66. 2:38believe the US is trying to do here?
67. 2:41because there are some thoughts that
68. 2:42maybe they are softening the ground in
69. 2:44preparation perhaps for ground forces.
70. 2:48>> Well, I don't think that the Iranians
71. 2:50are much worried about the ground
72. 2:52invasion. I think that this idea was
73. 2:54discarded long time ago that they don't
74. 2:56expect a kind of invasion but they do
75. 3:00expect different kind of attacks in Hark
76. 3:02Island and other places that they were
77. 3:04mentioned before more importantly Pusher
78. 3:06which is very dangerous considering that
79. 3:09the nuclear power plant is is there and
80. 3:12uh previous attacks already reach very
81. 3:14close to the nuclear plant which is also
82. 3:16something that is going to affect the
83. 3:18whole region not only uh Iranian uh
84. 3:20electrical infrastructure Uh but I I
85. 3:23think that the Iranians they what they
86. 3:25don't want is the United States to
87. 3:26impose their their force in the in the
88. 3:29state of Hormuz that they want to keep
89. 3:31this card and they want to keep the
90. 3:33control because this is the best card
91. 3:35they have in order to achieve some uh
92. 3:38benefits on the in negotiation that is
93. 3:40it was until a couple of days ago still
94. 3:42ongoing. So Luciano, with Iran attacking
95. 3:46ships and also some Gulf states as well,
96. 3:48is it possible to assess how degraded
97. 3:51Iranian forces are? How much damage has
98. 3:53been done?
99. 3:55>> Well, this has been the question since
100. 3:57the very beginning of the of the war. We
101. 3:59have been hearing that the Iranian
102. 4:01military capacity has been totally
103. 4:03obliterated, degraded, and now we cannot
104. 4:06understand what is going on. I mean
105. 4:08still Iran has ballistic missiles being
106. 4:11launched meaning that there are certain
107. 4:14capacity of um replenishment of their
108. 4:17their their stocks and they are being
109. 4:20able to still attack three four or five
110. 4:23countries simultaneously at different
111. 4:25times. Of course they are most of them
112. 4:27intercepted but this doesn't mean that
113. 4:29Iran does not have the capacity to do
114. 4:31so. And every time that Iran try to do
115. 4:33something like that again the traffic in
116. 4:36the street of form is paralyzed. So uh
117. 4:38whatever capacity they have is still
118. 4:40significant enough to put the whole
119. 4:44economy of the world at the stake. So
120. 4:46this is something that can give the idea
121. 4:48to the United States that the military
122. 4:50level this cannot be sought in in in any
123. 4:53in any way. So it should be a political
124. 4:56solution to stop uh this war at least in
125. 4:59a consistent way along the negotiations.
126. 5:02>> And what about these ongoing attacks
127. 5:04that we're now seeing on these port
128. 5:05cities in Iran? Luciano, what effect is
129. 5:07it having on civilians?
130. 5:10>> Well, so far they were reported uh a lot
131. 5:13of uh dead people the last uh I think
132. 5:15that there was three members of one
133. 5:17single family. Of course, this is having
134. 5:19a a major impact in the civilian
135. 5:21population, but not as big as it was
136. 5:23during the main campaigns in in in
137. 5:25March. Uh so it's possible to say that
138. 5:29they are focusing more on military uh
139. 5:31infrastructure right now, but it's
140. 5:33affecting different cities. So the
141. 5:35spectrum of the attacks of the United
142. 5:37States not only Bandaraas or Bush or or
143. 5:40Okesim Island they are reaching
144. 5:42different areas or different cities in
145. 5:45very inland uh Iran.