Iran threatens oil supplies and warns US bases “vulnerable” after strike on nuclear sites | BBC News

Iran threatens oil supplies and warns US bases “vulnerable” after strike on nuclear sites | BBC News

the Trump administration has bombed Iran with strikes President Trump claims have obliterated the country’s nuclear enrichment facilities 10 days after Israel launched its attacks on the country iran’s foreign minister denied that the US strikes had caused a major blow and accused the US of breaking international law thran is threatening retaliation including closing a strategically important sea passage the UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting now the secretary general said dialogue must prevail to stop the Middle East falling into a cycle of retaliation well the US struck three key uranium enrichment sites one of them for these are the latest satellite images of that area difficult to assess the extent of the damage because the site is built deep under mountains the US also bombed the nuclear sites of Natans and Isvahan this is Isvahan before the US strikes and afterwards you can see the damage inflicted by the bombing we’re dedicating most of our program to looking at how the US carried out the attack to global reaction chris Mason will be here to tell us about a phone call that’s just happened between Donald Trump and Kia Starmmer and crucially we look at what may happen next we also report from Israel after Iran launched another barrage of missiles today our BBC Persian colleagues have been hearing from people inside Iran and we report from Turkeykey’s border with Iran as people leave first tonight let’s go to Sarah Smith in Washington sarah Donald Trump has just posted on social media that the damage to Iran’s nuclear strikes is monumental but at the same time he is trying to stress that he doesn’t believe his country is now at war with Iran the vice president JD Vance has said they are at war with Iran’s nuclear program but not with the country and you’ve got officials emphasizing that they’re not trying to topple the ruling regime in Thran and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying it’s time to get back to direct negotiations between the US and Iran and that America would be ready to talk tomorrow all of this is very clearly aimed at trying to stop this spiraling out of control and becoming a full-scale war between America and Iran donald Trump who promised to end foreign wars went on live television to announce the attacks that may have just made him yet another wartime president tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated iran the bully of the Middle East must now make peace if they do not future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier in the White House situation with his top security officials President Trump making the final decision to attack had to calculate what the consequences might be will air strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites result in attacks on US forces that could start a fullscale war in these pictures from Istan you can see and hear the air strikes hitting one of the three nuclear sites attacked iran obviously knew this was a possibility but may not have been expecting it so soon president Trump had said he would take up to two weeks to decide whether to take military action at the Pentagon they want to say this operation is already over iran should not respond the operation President Trump planned was bold and it was brilliant showing the world that American deterrence is back when this president speaks the world should listen this Pentagon map shows war plananes taking off from Missouri in the American heartland and flying a 40-hour round trip to deliver their enormous munitions 14 bunker buster bombs what damage did they do these satellite photographs show the underground nuclear site at Fordo before and then after the air strikes the B2 bombers totally obliterated the site claimed Donald Trump the US military haven’t actually made a final assessment but say the facility has been severely damaged not destroyed iran has said it will respond in self-defense it hasn’t said how it is an outrageous grave and unprecedented violation of the fundamental principles of the charter of the United Nations and international law the wararmongering and lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and farreaching implement implications of its act of aggression world leaders have hastily convened crisis meetings in international capitals aware that a growing conflict would affect them all the UN Security Council is in emergency session deeply concerned about military escalation in the Middle East the people of the region cannot endure another cycle of destruction and yet we now risk descending into a hole of retaliation after retaliation the US Congress was not consulted before the strikes the president can take limited military actions without it only Congress can authorize going to war democrats claim Mr trump has acted unconstitutionally this is the US jumping into a war of choice at Donald Trump’s urging uh without any compelling national security interest for the United States to act in this way particularly without a debate and vote in Congress as these B2 bombers are seen returning to their American base their commanders don’t know if they have undertaken a specific limited mission or started a war how will Iran retaliate for these air strikes and what will the US do then this is a delicate and dangerous moment in the Middle East and around the world and let’s talk to Sarah in Washington what’s your sense Sarah of whether the Trump administration thinks this operation is over well as far as they’re concerned yes they want this to be an end to it but of course it’s not entirely up to them how Iran responds to this and that’s why there is such deep concern all the way around the world that this could easily get out of control with disastrous consequences that would actually go beyond the Middle East you’ve got the leaders for instance of Britain France and Germany coming together to urge Iran not to do anything that would further destabilize the region because just think about it Iran could in retaliation easily try to hit one of the many nearby US bases if any Americans were to be killed Donald Trump would feel compelled to respond to that and you can see easily how this could then begin to escalate it’s important also to watch what’s being said from Russia and from China because those are allies of Iran so far both countries have condemned the air strikes and said that they’ve breached international law but they also are urging a return to diplomacy not more fighting and neither of them have any given any indication so far that they would do anything to help Iran which is important when we look at the way that this could possibly escalate around the world sarah thank you for now sarah Smith well more than 100 US war plananes including stealth bombers were used to carry out the attacks cenamed Operation Midnight Hammer as we’ve heard President Trump said in his TV address that Iran’s nuclear facilities were obliterated our security analyst Gordon Carrera has been working with BBC Verify to assess whether that really is the case american B2 stealth bombers returning home today after a strike that took Iran and the world by surprise and having dropped weapons never used before in conflict one group of B2s had flown from their base in the US out west towards the Pacific they were a decoy seven more flew east for 18 hours refueling on the way minimizing their communications to stay silent just before they reached Iran a US submarine launched more than two dozen missiles towards a nuclear site at Isvahan then the B2s entered Iranian airspace apparently without being spotted before striking two more target areas that included dropping 14 so-called massive ordinance penetrators or bunker buster bombs final battle damage will take some time but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction so how successful were the US strikes the key target was a place called Fordo the B2 bombers flew a route that took them high above the site where Iran enriches uranium which could be used in nuclear bombs it’s buried in tunnels and deep under a mountain now this is what Fordo looked like before the attack and this image confirmed by BBC Verify is just hours after the strike and you can see over here these holes that looks like where the bombs impacted before burring down and then exploding and the white you can see around it is probably concrete dust thrown up by the resulting explosion now here is the Isvahan site before the bombing and this is what it looks like now so far the International Atomic Energy Agency says it’s seen no radiation leaking from the sites and one possibility is that that’s because the nuclear material might not have been there these images were taken just a couple of days before the attack at Fordo and they show a large number of trucks it’s possible they could have moved some of the uranium as Iran has claimed this was Natan’s nuclear facility before the attack and the question is whether after it Iran retains the nuclear material equipment and scientists some of whom have been killed to rebuild or even race for a nuclear bomb if so then we may see even more strikes there is no doubt this attack is a violation of United Nation charter and as well as uh one aggression arm aggression to the Iranian national sovereignty and Iranian territorial integrity but international law will not stop this conflict escalating iran could hit back by firing missiles at US bases in neighboring Iraq or in Bahrain or Kata it could even close the straight of Hormuz that’s an economically vital route through which shipping and especially oil flows as American B2s landed back at base in Missouri this mission may be over but the war they are now part of may only have just begun gordon Carrera BBC News well we can talk now to our economics editor Fisel Islam and our political editor Chris Mason and Fisel picking up on what Gordon was saying there i mean that threat to potentially close the straits of VMs I mean that would have a huge economic impact wouldn’t it absolutely we’re on the pathway to potential serious economic uh consequences uh the interesting thing is up until this point over the past couple of weeks since Israel and Iran started trading missiles we have had a pretty calm markets oil price up about 9% which would have had an impact on price but you know definitely not any sort of crisis the oil markets open in about an hour and all focus on some words coming out of Tehran from the parliament not from the government saying that they uh they will close the straits now what does that actually mean uh it depends there are some reasons why you might think Tan would have some restraint here uh they export their oil to China for example we’re already seeing the Americans saying to China you need to talk to the Iranians tell not to do this but you get 20% of the world’s oil 20% of the world’s gas coming from Qatar increasingly important for Europe since the Russia Ukraine war all of this obviously depends on the cycle of diplomatic and military escalation too but unlike Russia Ukraine in this case it wouldn’t be a side product of the conflict this would be a weapon in Iran’s armory to try and internationalize the crisis through the world economy all right Fisel and we’ll pick up Chris on on some of that in a moment before I talk to you though let’s just hear a little of uh Karma the prime minister uh with some of his responses just a little earlier today we’ve long had concerns about the Iranian nuclear program and um been very clear that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon the US has now taken action to alleviate that threat uh it is important uh that we now deescalate the situation um stabilize the region um and get the parties back around the table to negotiate that was part of what he said earlier and Chris I mean really treading quite a difficult line here yeah so the prime minister has spoken to President Trump tonight but crucially Jane there wasn’t that call beforehand which could have been demanding a yes or no answer from the prime minister in other words whether the UK was willing to get involved in any way so for instance granting permission uh to use the air base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and that would have been a real dilemma for the prime minister because on the one hand he’s been talking about deescalation there’s a suggestion that there were concerns raised privately about the legal basis for being involved so saying yes would have been difficult but then saying no would have been difficult when he’s been assiduously building a relationship with President Trump so how do we assess the UK’s position tonight it is willing the ends that America is pursuing which is removing Iran’s nuclear threat but it is conspicuously not explicitly endorsing the means in other words America’s attacks now the Conservatives say that this is equivocation that it is moral cowardice president Trump was openly dismissive earlier in the weekend on European efforts at diplomacy those efforts though continue as I say the prime minister talking to the president by phone uh tonight the foreign secretary has spoken to Marco Rubio the US Secretary of State during the attacks while they were taking place and again today as well as speaking to the Iranians the Israelis and others the UK position is one that diplomacy is the long-term path to a long-term solution that ensures that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons the thing is America wasn’t willing to listen to Europe beforehand the question now is whether it’ll be willing to listen in the future and in the next couple of days President Trump the prime minister and plenty of others getting together at the NATO summit in the Netherlands to work out what to do next amongst other things chris thanks very much chris Mason Fisel Islam thank you well Iran’s president has said that his country won’t be bullied and that the US must receive a response to its aggression so what are the options now for Iran’s leaders the BBC isn’t currently allowed to broadcast from inside the country but the BBC has a Persian service that reports on what’s happening there this report is from Shivas Adelan of the BBC Persian service here in London in the center of the crowd Iran’s president surrounded by hundreds of party faithful venting their fury at the United States what America did is truly unforgivable says this woman iran is stronger than they perceive [Applause] but after last night’s US attacks the regime here is seriously weakened so what comes next the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali K could swallow his pride and possibly save his regime and the country from further damage or he could fight on and risk everything domestic public opinion is now divided and confused the response must be firm and decisive what’s at stake here is the very identity of being Iranian in my opinion Iran needs to engage in some reflection and contemplation as for the country’s revolutionary guard it responded by saying US military bases in the region are vulnerable but they know retaliation would invite further US attacks this is a state TV reporter who went to fore i can’t see much damage he says for now it’s America’s word against Iran’s weakened and humiliated the Iranian regime will struggle to maintain its credibility and grip on power in the face of widespread discontent siobhard BBC News well some people in Iran have chosen to cross to bordering countries our correspondent Oligerian reports now from Turkeykey’s border with Iran at the Capakoy border crossing where she’s been speaking to people as they arrive turkeykey’s border with Iran flanked by mountains and now a gateway to and from a country under attack at the Capcoy crossing this morning we found movement in both directions some fleeing the bombing by Israel and America others rushing back home to be with loved ones amir a retired British Iranian had just fled Tehran and what was your feeling when you got across the border here feeling relieved really to be honest with you i feel relieved yes how dangerous was the situation in terms is bad the sky belongs to to to the Israelis so they can do what they like they’re just coming in they just bombing out and and nothing there to stop them because they’ve got this guy and that’s it very scary for you very very scary for everyone amir says he got out with no help from the British embassy but all of a sudden embassy’s closed staff are gone phones cut off and nobody answered so I had to get my way out of the country that’s the way I’m here now you had to come on your own i had to yes this is what he left behind a country under fire a regime that is holding on and a war that may now escalate but some like 13-year-old Darish are hoping that a new Iran may emerge from the ashes he crossed the border today with his younger brother and his mother he told me he’ll go home if change comes god willing Iran will be free soon all of us will live in freedom he says and the Islamic Republic will be gone but among those going back into Iran today there was more caution we found no one willing to speak on camera one man told us “We’re too afraid.” Well in the last half an hour or so we’ve seen a few more people coming out from Iran bringing their suitcases what we witnessed today was not a flood by and large it was people leaving who had the means to do so who had a place to go to one man told us he had friends and relatives who wanted to leave but didn’t have passports and couldn’t get out now on the critical question of what happens to the regime we heard very differing opinions one government employee who was going back in said he believed the regime would fall in the end not now but he feared that at that point there would be a takeover by the military a younger man said to us “Look the leadership has hung on for decades they can probably hang on now.” And even among those who were hoping for change wishing for change believing it would come there were also fears being expressed about how many people might be killed and tonight just across the border behind me inside Iran no one has any idea what is coming next and that holds true across the region ola thank you oligirin as we’ve heard Iran says it’s keeping all options open in terms of retaliation but its immediate response today was to launch more missile strikes on Israel which began direct hostilities when it attacked Iran 10 days ago iranian missiles struck Hifur and Tel Aviv injuring more than 80 people tonight President Netanyahu has said Israel will keep going until it achieves its goals lucy Williamson reports from Tel Aviv iran once saw its ballistic missiles as a deterrent against Israeli attacks but even the intense barrage that shook Israel this morning isn’t shaking Israeli support for the war a nearby care home slowly evacuated room by room 10 days into this war Israel’s prime minister is determined to continue buildings may be turned to rubble but there’s no crack in public support we got out of bed and we went to the safe room heard it tremendous boom when we came back we saw our apartment was not our apartment anymore we’re okay everybody’s okay they want us destroyed and we’re not going to let it happen this conflict has exposed Iran’s weaknesses and has become more dangerous with America’s intervention overnight for 10 days Iran has been bombarding Israeli cities israel hasn’t blinked thran has already lost the protection of its proxies in the region and its ballistic missiles are not the deterrent it had hoped it now faces the critical decision of whether negotiations offer a better chance of protection than a nuclear weapon israel’s prime minister said today that America’s intervention was a turning point in the war history will record that President Trump acted to deny the world’s most dangerous regime the world’s most dangerous weapons his leadership today has created a pivot of history that can help lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of prosperity and peace but not all American intelligence agencies shared Israel’s assessments that Iran had suddenly begun racing to build a nuclear weapon all I know is that from an Israeli perspective our margin of error on Iran and his nuclear program is exactly zero and all we have to do is make one mistake and we’re dead and if the Israeli government concluded that it was going to air on the side of survival it was going to air on the side of survival this is Benjamin Netanyahu’s war israel’s prime minister has wanted to strike Iran for decades and he’s already drawn in an American president who wanted to avoid it lucy Williamson BBC News Tel Aviv well we’ll get the thoughts of Lisa Set in just a moment our chief international correspondent but just to tell you what President Trump has been saying on Truth Social uh his social media platform just in the last few moments in relation to regime change and that’s why we’re bringing this to you uh it’s not politically correct to use the term regime change says the president but if the current Iranian regime is unable to make Iran great again why wouldn’t there be a regime change uh let’s uh talk to Lee uh lots to look ahead to in terms of what’s happening next week at least but I’m interested in your thoughts on that as well just in the last few moments yes in the midst of this escalating military pressure the Rword regime change keeps coming up at the briefing at the Pentagon early this morning it was the first question asked by journalists who said “Is this about regime change?” Like where is this going to go and Peter Heg said the defense secretary was adamant oneline answer this is not about regime change and never mind that Prime Minister Netanyahu the first day that he began Israel’s military operations 10 days ago he made it clear that he would like it to be about regime change but I think putting aside Truth Social the real question on everyone’s mind tonight Jane is what is Iran going to do next and it does seem clear that at some point in some way Iran will want to retaliate but can it do it without ratcheting up the pressure because there is this danger in these febral times of a dangerous miscalculation because the other thing that President Trump said today he seemed to suggest this these strikes were what we call them a oneandone in other words in his words we’ve obliterated Iran’s nuclear program so this is this is over but that’s not likely to be the reality and certainly not the view of Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel his new partner in these strikes who’s likely to want to draw the US in even more so that he can cement his success in having the United States play a key role but this week Jane finally is going to be a week where many are going to be at President Trump’s ear most of all at the NATO summit at the Hague as Chris Mason mentioned European leaders are going to say “You got to de deescalate take the path to diplomacy.” Arab and European allies are going to be also on the phone to Iran iran says it won’t talk while the bombs are falling while the bombs are falling tension will only keep rising lee thanks so much

Iran has warned Donald Trump that there will be a response to the US bombing of three key nuclear enrichment facilities.

Iran’s foreign minister warned of “everlasting consequences” to the “outrageous” strikes. Its elite military force, the Revolutionary Guard, warned that US bases and forces in the region were “vulnerable”. Iran’s Parliament backed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a key transit route for global oil supplies. S

Iran’s immediate response was to fire a new barrage of missiles at Israel, which began the war when it attacked Iran’s nuclear sites ten days ago. Iranian missiles hit residential buildings in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, injuring around 80 people.

President Donald Trump claimed the US strikes had “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, and told Tehran to “make peace” or face “far greater” attacks in future.

Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Sarah Smith, Gordon Corera, Faisal Islam, Chris Mason, Siavash Ardalan, Orla Guerin, Lucy Williamson and Lyse Doucet.

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