US and Iran launch strikes for second day | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00The United States says it's hit 90
2. 0:02military targets in Iran in the latest
3. 0:05round of strikes putting the fragile
4. 0:07ceasefire between the two nations under
5. 0:09renewed pressure.
6. 0:11Iran reported explosions in several
7. 0:13coastal areas while there have been
8. 0:16power cuts in the north where a rail
9. 0:18bridge was also damaged. Tehran has
10. 0:21retaliated targeting American assets in
11. 0:24neighboring Gulf countries. Explosions
12. 0:26were reported in the Bahraini capital
13. 0:28while in Kuwait military said its air
14. 0:31defenses had intercepted missiles and
15. 0:34drones. President Trump has warned
16. 0:37attacks on Iran could get much worse
17. 0:40after declaring the ceasefire with
18. 0:42Tehran to be over because of the Iranian
19. 0:44attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.
20. 0:47>> They just we just hit them very hard.
21. 0:50And I say we hit them 20 to 1. Every
22. 0:52time they hit us, we're going to hit
23. 0:53them 20.
24. 0:54And uh we did it last night.
25. 0:57They did a little something today, but
26. 0:59it was really
27. 1:00retribution for last night. They hit
28. 1:02actually three boats, not two.
29. 1:05And when they hit, we hit back much
30. 1:07harder.
31. 1:08>> Well, let's now join our North America
32. 1:11correspondent Peter Bowes for the latest
33. 1:13on what's going on. Uh Peter, the
34. 1:15president at the NATO summit, President
35. 1:17Trump did promise another night of
36. 1:20military action, and that's what we've
37. 1:22seen.
38. 1:24>> It's been quite a a wild 48 hours of
39. 1:27attacks and also words from the
40. 1:30president. I think what we've seen in in
41. 1:33the last few hours has been more serious
42. 1:35than on Tuesday night hitting nine 90
43. 1:38Iranian military targets. That's about
44. 1:4010 more than on Tuesday, but a very
45. 1:43similar sequence of events hitting
46. 1:46uh air defense systems and uh missile
47. 1:48and and drone storage sites along the
48. 1:51southern coast of Iran very close to the
49. 1:54Strait of Hormuz. And as we've just
50. 1:56heard the president say, this was again
51. 1:59in retaliation for Iran's attacks on
52. 2:02those vessels much earlier in the week.
53. 2:05The question now is, does this end here,
54. 2:08Sally, or is the president planning to
55. 2:11continue with these attacks throughout
56. 2:14the week? And I think a lot of people,
57. 2:15especially looking at how the markets
58. 2:17have responded to this, a lot of people
59. 2:19hoping that this will be it, that these
60. 2:21tit-for-tat skirmishes, as they're often
61. 2:23described, although very serious, uh
62. 2:25much more than skirmishes, really. Uh
63. 2:27these uh have become fairly typical over
64. 2:30the last few weeks while a ceasefire is
65. 2:33supposed to be in force.
66. 2:35>> Yeah, and in terms of reaction, we have
67. 2:36seen the oil price spike, uh sort of the
68. 2:39the highest level seen for sort of 2 to
69. 2:413 weeks, which I would imagine in the
70. 2:43United States is a real concern when
71. 2:46people fill up their vehicles. This is
72. 2:48what is on their minds, and that's
73. 2:49certainly on the mind of President
74. 2:51Trump, isn't it?
75. 2:52>> Exactly. And people had been hoping over
76. 2:55the last couple of weeks, and they'd
77. 2:56seen gas prices come down a little bit,
78. 2:59and I think they had much further to
79. 3:00fall, but people had been hoping that
80. 3:02this perhaps was the beginning of the
81. 3:04end of those very high prices that have
82. 3:07proved quite crippling for many
83. 3:09Americans. And of course, we are inching
84. 3:11much closer to those midterm elections
85. 3:13in November, just 4 months away now, and
86. 3:17that will be the time that Americans
87. 3:19could inflict political damage on not
88. 3:21only the president, well, indirectly on
89. 3:23the president. He isn't going to be on
90. 3:24the ballot paper himself, but the
91. 3:25Republicans could suffer if people blame
92. 3:29the president for what is continuing to
93. 3:32happen in Iran and how it is affecting
94. 3:34people in terms of petrol prices.
95. 3:37And more generally, the cost of living
96. 3:39has risen for for many Americans because
97. 3:42of this war.
98. 3:43>> Okay, Peter Fenal, thank you very much
99. 3:45indeed with the latest there, Peter
100. 3:46Bowes. Let's now bring in Jessica Jaloa,
101. 3:49who's an associate professor in
102. 3:51international relations at the
103. 3:52University of New South Wales. Welcome
104. 3:54to BBC News. Um we are seeing of course
105. 3:58Iran retaliate as well to the second
106. 4:01night of strikes from the US. Um
107. 4:04what is your take on these latest
108. 4:05developments?
109. 4:07>> So this does seem like a more precarious
110. 4:09moment than we've seen certainly since
111. 4:12the 17th of June when that memorandum of
112. 4:14understanding was signed and it does
113. 4:16feel that this could be a bit of a
114. 4:19turning point in terms of both sides
115. 4:22realizing that we're probably not headed
116. 4:26towards a more substantive peace
117. 4:28agreement as was sort of Trump's best
118. 4:30case option but that we're actually
119. 4:33likely to see more of a precarious
120. 4:36ceasefire where we are going to see
121. 4:38these sort of tit-for-tats continue to
122. 4:41take place and that's partly because
123. 4:45this whole episode has really shown that
124. 4:49the Iranian regime is very happy to
125. 4:52double down on ensuring that they can
126. 4:55get control over the Strait of Hormuz.
127. 4:57So it wasn't enough for them as part of
128. 5:00the memorandum of understanding that
129. 5:02sanctions were lifted, that they could
130. 5:03get their own ships in and out of the
131. 5:06Strait of Hormuz and that they would
132. 5:08supposedly be getting quite a
133. 5:10substantial reconstruction fund but in
134. 5:12addition they are really determined to
135. 5:15ensure that they get full control of the
136. 5:17Strait of Hormuz and they're willing to
137. 5:19shoot at those commercial vessels in
138. 5:23order to show that resolve and I think
139. 5:25that puts us really in a very precarious
140. 5:27situation because it's very likely as
141. 5:29we've seen that the US will respond
142. 5:31militarily to any strikes from Iran in
143. 5:34the Strait of Hormuz and also will not
144. 5:36be willing to leave the region whilst
145. 5:39Iran is so directly and so obviously
146. 5:42stating that they're really going to
147. 5:44maintain this control
148. 5:45>> I mean they will argue
149. 5:47I guess they would argue, and and and I
150. 5:49have seen this this argument coming
151. 5:51through from from commentators looking
152. 5:53at Iran that it's it's all about
153. 5:54interpretation of of that MOU and and
154. 5:57what it meant in terms of the opening up
155. 6:00of the straight for the 60 days and how
156. 6:02that works how it operates. I understood
157. 6:05that Iran thought that they were given
158. 6:07control of it during the 60 days even
159. 6:10though they would allow vessels to move
160. 6:12freely.
161. 6:13>> So, that's of course a key key point.
162. 6:15And what we're actually seeing now is a
163. 6:17direct result of the fact that that MOU
164. 6:19was quite vague. So, what the MOU said
165. 6:22was that Iran would put in its best
166. 6:25efforts to try to ensure security for
167. 6:28commercial vessels going in and out of
168. 6:29the Strait of Hormuz without payment for
169. 6:32at least 60 days. So, that's already a
170. 6:34bit vague. What does best efforts mean?
171. 6:36How is Iran going to do that? And then
172. 6:38in terms of the shipping in and out of
173. 6:39the Strait of Hormuz, the MOU stated
174. 6:41that Iran the Iranian regime and the and
175. 6:44Oman, possibly also in consultation with
176. 6:47other Gulf countries, would kind of work
177. 6:49out how shipping would go in and out of
178. 6:52the Strait of Hormuz. So, again, pretty
179. 6:53vague. It didn't clearly say that this
180. 6:55would all be under Iran's purview and
181. 6:58remit, but at the same time it didn't
182. 7:00say that Iran would have to guarantee
183. 7:02that ships could actually go through
184. 7:04what's called a sort of Omani shipping
185. 7:06route that hugs the Gulf of Oman and
186. 7:09that's where Iran kind of objects
187. 7:11>> But wait, it
188. 7:12it feels so
189. 7:13>> Sorry, Jessica. Sorry to interrupt cuz
190. 7:15we're we're really tight for time. So, a
191. 7:16brief answer if you will. It does feel
192. 7:18though like we are very much in a
193. 7:20stalemate. We are stuck in this
194. 7:22situation. It's a bit like Groundhog Day
195. 7:24where Iran attacks vessels, the US
196. 7:27attacks Iran, Iran retaliates, and we
197. 7:30can't seem to get beyond this point.
198. 7:32>> That's absolutely right, and that is
199. 7:34unfortunately what I expect going
200. 7:36forward. I don't think we'll go back to
201. 7:38full-scale escalation and all-out war
202. 7:41because the US really does not want
203. 7:43that. Wouldn't be good for Iran either.
204. 7:45I don't think we'll see a full ceasefire
205. 7:48holding. We certainly won't see any kind
206. 7:50of substantial peace agreement coming
207. 7:51out of this. I think unfortunately we're
208. 7:53stuck in this sort of limbo zone for at
209. 7:56least another few months if not longer,
210. 7:59which actually means the US maintaining
211. 8:01some kind of engagement with Iran. It
212. 8:04means for us all around the world that
213. 8:05there's still uncertainty over the
214. 8:07Strait of Hormuz and what happens with
215. 8:09goods getting
216. 8:10>> Okay.
217. 8:11>> into the global market. So,
218. 8:12unfortunately yes, I think that's the
219. 8:14situation we're probably going to be
220. 8:15facing with a lot of uncertainty for
221. 8:17quite a few months to come.
222. 8:18>> Jessica Genauer, thank you so much for
223. 8:20your time and analysis. And I'm just
224. 8:23keeping a very close eye on financial
225. 8:25markets. Share markets are not perturbed
226. 8:27at all. We've got uh share markets in
227. 8:29Asia rising today mostly, but the oil
228. 8:31price is also spiking. We're nearly at
229. 8:33$79 for a barrel of Brent. We'll have a
230. 8:36lot more on that in business today.