Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, March to twenty twenty six, forty days of
Speaker 1: morning for Ayatollah Ali Kamene, the Muslim cleric who rose
Speaker 1: to become one of the most influential figures in the world,
Speaker 1: now assassinated in a joint American Israeli assault on Iram. Now,
Speaker 1: is Iran promises revenge and Donald Trump calls on Iranians
Speaker 1: to rise up. What do Iran's terror proxies, Hesbala the
Speaker 1: Hoofis and her mass do next. The Australian is covering
Speaker 1: this story in immense and gripping detail with our network
Speaker 1: of correspondence around the world and top analysts and newsbreakers
Speaker 1: here in Australia. Now's a great time to join us
Speaker 1: at the Australian dot Com to make sure you don't
Speaker 1: miss a thing. As missiles and drones rain on the
Speaker 1: Middle East, disrupting the entire globes trade and travel networks,
Speaker 1: O correspondent Joanni Bishan joins me from Israel to explore
Speaker 1: how the world has changed.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump says Iran supreme leader is dead, as fears
Speaker 2: grow for all out war in the Middle East.
Speaker 3: And Iran has responded with fire across the wider Middle East.
Speaker 1: Israel and the US will hope the regime will come unstuck. Yani,
Speaker 1: it's been a long day and night in Israel. You've
Speaker 1: been in and out of bomb shelters in the center
Speaker 1: of the country since the sirens started on Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: Tell me how are Israeli's dealing with their new reality.
Speaker 2: Well, I think there's a weary defiance to this conflict,
Speaker 2: as there has been with the previous conflicts. And to
Speaker 2: be quite honest, I think Israelis are losing count of
Speaker 2: how many times, first of all, they've had to run
Speaker 2: to the shelters, or how many times they've had to
Speaker 2: lace up and go into Gaza or the front, or
Speaker 2: take care of other matters like stocking up their shelters
Speaker 2: and taking their kids out of school or canceling their holidays.
Speaker 2: So there's a weary defiance. There's a weary sense of
Speaker 2: resignation to this. But as usual, there's that typical Israeli
Speaker 2: resilience that's to play. People are trying to edge life
Speaker 2: forward in any way they can, Like, for example, I
Speaker 2: was in Tel Aviva yesterday and I met a young
Speaker 2: woman who was telling me that between running from her
Speaker 2: apartment to the public shelter which's down the street, she
Speaker 2: was losing a lot of time, but she still found
Speaker 2: time to cook food for the rest of the week
Speaker 2: and do some laundry. And although they sound like kind
Speaker 2: of the unremarkable markers of everyday life, these are the
Speaker 2: kind of things that are keeping people here going. You
Speaker 2: just kind of have to edge forward and keep things moving.
Speaker 2: And I guess aside from that, Israeli is a match
Speaker 2: fit because of all that practice they've had dealing with
Speaker 2: wartime psychology and pulling themselves together and dealing with disruption
Speaker 2: and interruption to their lives. So pushing ahead, but certainly
Speaker 2: getting tired of it.
Speaker 1: You've been trying to drive around for some of that time.
Speaker 1: What happens if you're on the road when the sirens
Speaker 1: go off.
Speaker 2: It's terribly frustrating to try and drive around in Israel
Speaker 2: at the moment, because the moment you get inside your car,
Speaker 2: you're liable to hear a siren going off. And when
Speaker 2: a siren goes off and you're not near a safe room,
Speaker 2: the best advice is to ditch the car or the motorbicle,
Speaker 2: whatever vehicle you're using, and to run to the nearest
Speaker 2: form of shelter. And if there is no form of shelter,
Speaker 2: you should just get down on the ground and put
Speaker 2: your hands over your head and try and get away
Speaker 2: from any cars, because they, of course can become trapne
Speaker 2: if a missile lands nearby. But what it means in
Speaker 2: practice at the moment is incoming missiles every five to
Speaker 2: ten minutes. If you are trying to drive one hundred
Speaker 2: meters down the street, you are probably going to stop
Speaker 2: and have to run for shelter. Very often. It is
Speaker 2: very difficult to cover at any distances here in Israel
Speaker 2: in a car. And I think that's part of the
Speaker 2: terror psychology that the Iranian regime is deploying it moment.
Speaker 2: It's not to launch hundreds of missiles in a single
Speaker 2: bat it's to drip feed them over a very long
Speaker 2: period of time, to keep people awake at night, to
Speaker 2: disrupt the economy, to stop people from traveling and moving around,
Speaker 2: and to interrupt life in any way possible.
Speaker 1: On Sunday afternoon Australian time, Iran confirmed something it clearly
Speaker 1: didn't want to confirm, that Iola Kameni is dead. Haimone's daughter,
Speaker 1: grandchild and two other family members were also killed in
Speaker 1: the strikes. How significant is his removal as an individual
Speaker 1: Yowni in terms of Israel and the region's biggest story,
Speaker 1: bigger history.
Speaker 2: I don't think it gets much bigger than the assassination
Speaker 2: of the Iptola, and it provides certainly a level of
Speaker 2: symmetry to the war that started on October seven by
Speaker 2: Iraq's proxy Kamas. I mean, we have to remember that
Speaker 2: it was Kamas that launched the war on October seven,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and two and a half years later,
Speaker 2: it's the Ayatola and the entire Iranian military leadership and
Speaker 2: political leadership that is paying the price for it. And
Speaker 2: the story, of course, is that Israel kills him. He
Speaker 2: didn't die of all day, She didn't gracefully step down
Speaker 2: and fade into retirement. He was eliminated, just as terrorist
Speaker 2: leaders everywhere have been for orchestrating attacks on the Jewish
Speaker 2: State and America. And that's the story that Israelians are
Speaker 2: going to be telling themselves out of this, as they
Speaker 2: do with the story of the demise of Yehia Sinoa
Speaker 2: and Ismailhania and Hassan Masrala of Heswellah. This was an
Speaker 2: account in the case of the Iontola that very much
Speaker 2: needed to be settled, the ultimate account, you might say,
Speaker 2: and it's arrived. It's a remarkable situation. And the fact
Speaker 2: that the Iranians wouldn't admit that he was dead for
Speaker 2: many hours after the strikes occurred tells you that they
Speaker 2: were in all likely could bind time to put in
Speaker 2: place contingencies against a popular uprising the kind of President
Speaker 2: Don Trump has been calling for.
Speaker 3: Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say
Speaker 3: tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
Speaker 3: When we are finished take over your government, it will
Speaker 3: be yours to take.
Speaker 2: And we'll see now if that transpires. If it doesn't
Speaker 2: happen now, who knows when it will happen.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Hesbela. Israelis have been bracing for renewed assaults
Speaker 1: by Hesbella, and Iran's are the terror proxies, of course,
Speaker 1: the Hoofis and Hamas. But as Tehran scrambles to regroup
Speaker 1: and we work out what's happening there, how dangerous are
Speaker 1: those proxy forces on their own?
Speaker 2: Of the three you would have to say Hesbela and
Speaker 2: the Houthis are the greater concern. Hesbella very much because
Speaker 2: it's in such close proximity to israelitive just north of
Speaker 2: the border, and it really has the capacity to aim
Speaker 2: precision missiles ballistic missiles at Israel, and they have them.
Speaker 2: They don't have them in the numbers that the Iranians
Speaker 2: have them, but they do have them. It hasn't happened
Speaker 2: yet because Israel has been conducting twice daily operations in
Speaker 2: sudden Lebanon to neutralized key positions that Hesba fighters have
Speaker 2: been trying to take. But the truth is Hesbelar is
Speaker 2: not the fighting force that it was on October six,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and if it does join this conflict,
Speaker 2: it will contribute to havoc in the region. We are
Speaker 2: already seeing assemblance of havoc playing out in places like
Speaker 2: Bahra in the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, and elsewhere. Hesbela
Speaker 2: has abstained from the fighting so far, but we have
Speaker 2: to remember we're not forty eight hours into this extremely
Speaker 2: consequential war, which really does have quite a way to run.
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of Israeli troops and reservists have now
Speaker 1: been called up, So almost everyone in Israel has a
Speaker 1: personal interest in this conflict. Apart from feeling themselves in peril,
Speaker 1: They've got a loved one who might be going into
Speaker 1: a conflict zone at any moment. Donald Trump's calling on
Speaker 1: Iranians to rise up and seize their own government with
Speaker 1: American permission and assistance, but he let them down last time.
Speaker 1: So what is that prospect like for the rest of
Speaker 1: the region, including Israel? If Iranians do rise up and
Speaker 1: create some sort of new government, is there a possibility
Speaker 1: that it could be as bad as or worse for
Speaker 1: Israel than it was before.
Speaker 2: I think this would seem to be a very pivotal moment,
Speaker 2: to state the obvious for the Iranian people and obviously
Speaker 2: the Iranian regime. If there is a popular uprising in
Speaker 2: the country and they're able to take back power and
Speaker 2: topple the regime, there is every likelihood that some form
Speaker 2: of secular government will be reinstated and there will be
Speaker 2: a parliamentary election of some kind or a democratic election
Speaker 2: of some kind to see a new leader elected. But
Speaker 2: if that doesn't happen, then there is just as much
Speaker 2: of a likelihood that an even harderlign military or religious
Speaker 2: figure will take control of the country and we will
Speaker 2: have the Iotola plus plus insert himself into the fray.
Speaker 2: That is not going to be a good thing for
Speaker 2: Israel and the region. It's not going to be a
Speaker 2: good thing for America, and it will not have achieved
Speaker 2: the ultimate objectives that either side were hoping to reach
Speaker 2: by launching this conflict, which even though they're not saying
Speaker 2: it out loud, was to affect Regian change. That's the
Speaker 2: ultimate goal here. And I suppose for the Iranian people themselves,
Speaker 2: this is their moment. We know what happens when they
Speaker 2: try to voice their concerns about this regime. We saw
Speaker 2: large numbers of people killed on the streets of Tehran
Speaker 2: and other major cities in the country. On the other hand,
Speaker 2: has there been a moment of such a magnitude since
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine, I arguably not. So it's really a
Speaker 2: matter for the Uranian people, as the Israelis and the
Speaker 2: Americans keep saying, If not now, then.
Speaker 1: When Junny, I'm really glad we managed to find a
Speaker 1: little gap between air raid soriens to speak to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Jen, stay safe, Thank you Joanni
Speaker 1: Bishani is in the Middle East for The Australian. You
Speaker 1: can read Yonnie's coverage, plus all our expert analysis and
Speaker 1: reporting right now at the Australian dot com dot au