Speaker 1: From the Skying Center. This is Paul Murray Live.
Speaker 2: Good Evening, Welcome to special edition of the program. We
Speaker 2: will be on for the full two hours tonight. We
Speaker 2: expect before we are off the air tonight we will
Speaker 2: be hearing from the United States Secretary of Defense. He
Speaker 2: will be giving a briefing in Washington from the Pentagon
Speaker 2: Pete Heggzeth about the success as the President has put it,
Speaker 2: the tremendous military success that has taken place. As we
Speaker 2: all were getting our thoughts together around brunch time today
Speaker 2: when Donald Trump made it formal what we all assume
Speaker 2: to be happening in the next few days, well, now
Speaker 2: it has happened. Now we are in a new place,
Speaker 2: which is of course that Donald Trump has bombed Iran,
Speaker 2: the three most significant of the military facilities, apparently with
Speaker 2: an obvious connection to their nuclear ambitions. We have got
Speaker 2: a lot of guests both in Australia and around the world,
Speaker 2: including Shari Markson. Chris Kenny joined me here in the
Speaker 2: man Cave in a moment or two's time. Normally, Sunday
Speaker 2: Nights is the Table of Knowledge, that's where we talk
Speaker 2: about all sorts of big issues. But obviously this is
Speaker 2: what is going to dominate tonight, Dave Sharma, former Ambassador
Speaker 2: to Israel and from the IPA, John Roscombe. But as
Speaker 2: I say, Sophie Ellsworth is in Israel as we speak,
Speaker 2: and we will get to a lot as it all happens, because,
Speaker 2: believe it or not, there is still plenty that is
Speaker 2: happening after the headline became clear. Now let's check the time.
Speaker 2: It is now just about half past eight on the
Speaker 2: East coast of Australia, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Well
Speaker 2: right now in Washington, DC, the sun is just coming up.
Speaker 2: It is seven am. They're live again. We will not
Speaker 2: hear from Donald Trump in the next couple of hours,
Speaker 2: but we will hear for the man who was in
Speaker 2: the situation room with him watching those B fifty two
Speaker 2: bombers drop that massive payload. So you will hear from
Speaker 2: Pete Hegseth very shortly. The retaliation from Iran is taking
Speaker 2: place right now where it is about one point thirty
Speaker 2: in the afternoon now in Israel, and in fact there
Speaker 2: is a very significant damage. The expectation is that there
Speaker 2: are going to be casualties here. But remember the network
Speaker 2: of bomb shelters that exist under virtually every major structure
Speaker 2: in Israel means that many people are safe. But of
Speaker 2: course you don't know that these things are coming. There
Speaker 2: is all sorts of warning systems in place. I'll talk
Speaker 2: to Shari specifically about that. Of course, she experienced that
Speaker 2: herself in the past few months, about how that system works.
Speaker 2: But there is a lot of devastation as Iran is
Speaker 2: uping its game in its response to Israel. In terms
Speaker 2: of Iran itself. Right now, I can tell you that
Speaker 2: it is two o'clock in the afternoon. They are thirty
Speaker 2: minutes further down the timeline from Israel. We are beginning
Speaker 2: beginning to see some pictures from Iran. But there is
Speaker 2: some satellite imagery which is now starting to make its
Speaker 2: way around Global News. I'll bring that to you tonight
Speaker 2: about exactly the main site. Now, remember the whole the
Speaker 2: Americans needed to do the bombing was because they were
Speaker 2: the only ones with the bomb and with the planes
Speaker 2: to carry the bomb to specifically blast away at one
Speaker 2: of three major nuclear sites in Iran. Those the one
Speaker 2: that of course was the main focus was the one
Speaker 2: that was underground. And again, some satellite photos starting to
Speaker 2: come through and Pete exit with much more information in
Speaker 2: a moment or two's time. Now, all of our guests,
Speaker 2: all of the expert all of the different opinion, including
Speaker 2: some of the talking points that are starting to come
Speaker 2: out of Iran. But first five things is always when
Speaker 2: there's major news to tell you about. And five things
Speaker 2: that I think you need to be across tonight after
Speaker 2: an extraordinary day both in the United States and in
Speaker 2: the Middle East and its effects when it comes to
Speaker 2: the safety of the rest of the world. Now Number one,
Speaker 2: Trump hit hard, he hit fast now because of the
Speaker 2: flying time and about exactly where these planes took off from,
Speaker 2: they were able, with some refueling, to be able to
Speaker 2: involve in potentially as long as a thirty hour flight.
Speaker 2: The expectation was that it may not have been that lot. Again, Pete,
Speaker 2: Hegxeth will give us the TikTok. And by that I
Speaker 2: don't mean the Chinese surveillance app I mean that what
Speaker 2: happened when the minute by minute of all of this
Speaker 2: again around brunch time today in Australia, we got Donald
Speaker 2: Trump confirming what he said was going to happen at
Speaker 2: some point in the next two weeks. Well, it, of course,
Speaker 2: happened within a couple of days. Specifically, it seems to
Speaker 2: have been aimed in and around the weekend, one because
Speaker 2: there wouldn't be as many people in those facilities, and
Speaker 2: two because there is going to be a potential response
Speaker 2: from Iran that may well affect the world oil price.
Speaker 2: I'll explain that in a moment, But first the President
Speaker 2: informing the world that he had taken the step to
Speaker 2: help Israel and kill off the Nikoo ambitions of Iran.
Speaker 3: Toned I can report to the world that the strikes
Speaker 3: were a spectacular military success. Around's key nuclear and Richmond
Speaker 3: facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Around the Bully
Speaker 3: of the metal least must now make peace. If they
Speaker 3: do not, future attacks would be far greater and a
Speaker 3: ludd easier.
Speaker 2: Now, remember, the balancing act for this president specifically, was
Speaker 2: that he was called on by the Israelis to use
Speaker 2: the technology that they did not have. Now, as you know,
Speaker 2: over the past two weeks or so, Israel had been
Speaker 2: pounding pretty heavily away at the Iranian regime, the Iranian
Speaker 2: regime firing back into Israel. But obviously, the only way
Speaker 2: to get inside that mountain to be able to break
Speaker 2: away where much of the work was being done to
Speaker 2: enrich uranium, to move it all the way up past
Speaker 2: anything to do with conventional nuclear power, but to move
Speaker 2: it all the way up to weapons grade. Well, depending
Speaker 2: on particular batches and depending on particular intelligence services, some
Speaker 2: of that was at twenty percent, some of us at
Speaker 2: fifty percent. Some of it was apparently on its way
Speaker 2: towards eighty percent of being able to get to the
Speaker 2: place where they'd be able to use it for a boy. So,
Speaker 2: of course, the men who campaigned against Forever Wars in
Speaker 2: many way putting together a coalition of people who say
Speaker 2: they had learnt the lessons out of long time interventions
Speaker 2: into the Middle East, like places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Well,
Speaker 2: the message that he puts out there today is that
Speaker 2: this is as far as he is willing to go now.
Speaker 2: But what around does next means America has every right
Speaker 2: to respond.
Speaker 3: There will be either peace or there will be tragedy
Speaker 3: for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the
Speaker 3: last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left to
Speaker 3: Night's was the most difficult of them all by far,
Speaker 3: and perhaps the most lethal but if peace does not
Speaker 3: come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision,
Speaker 3: speed and skill. Most of them can be taken out
Speaker 3: in a matter of minutes.
Speaker 2: Now, I know that there's a lot of AI generated
Speaker 2: images about exactly what to place, as if somebody was
Speaker 2: being able to film the incident. Obviously, no one's been
Speaker 2: able to do that, with the exception of the United
Speaker 2: States itself. And as I say, by the time we're
Speaker 2: done tonight a two hour version of pal Maria Live
Speaker 2: this Sunday night, we should have some of those pictures
Speaker 2: in and around some of the operation. Because remember, in
Speaker 2: and of itself, the United States has now shown that
Speaker 2: it is willing to use the technology, but for obvious reasons,
Speaker 2: also doesn't want to show too much of its hand
Speaker 2: about how this technology gets used, not just in terms
Speaker 2: of the bombs, but also in terms of those planes.
Speaker 2: And again, some of them were based in and around Guam,
Speaker 2: some suggestions they might be in lots of other places
Speaker 2: around the world. They apparently were in and around the
Speaker 2: Pacific according to some who have been monitoring those movements.
Speaker 2: But again they're stealth fighter For obvious reasons, we're not
Speaker 2: supposed to know as to where they have hit really
Speaker 2: important to see. Okay, now there are more than just
Speaker 2: three places inside Iran where there is some sort of
Speaker 2: nuclear industry. Now, this could be everything from the serious
Speaker 2: bunker that needed to be blown up that's in and
Speaker 2: around that fourdoh base. That's why they had to remember
Speaker 2: bash in. It goes about twenty stories down, multiple explosions
Speaker 2: as it goes, and then like any other sort of
Speaker 2: provision precision ordinance, you've got to drop another one after
Speaker 2: that and try to go down a hole, but expand
Speaker 2: it as well. There's obviously those two other locations, but
Speaker 2: that's not the only nuclear facilities. The assumption from the
Speaker 2: Americans apparently is that the Israelis will be able to
Speaker 2: handle those, but all of those seemingly above ground. But again,
Speaker 2: Donald Trump keen for the world to know that in
Speaker 2: just a few hours they can change the world, change
Speaker 2: the trajectory of history, and if pushed, they'll do it again.
Speaker 3: For forty years around has been saying death to America,
Speaker 3: death to Israel. They've been killing our people, blowing off
Speaker 3: their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs.
Speaker 1: That was their specialty.
Speaker 3: We'll loss over and people, and hundreds of thousands throughout
Speaker 3: the Middle East and around the world have died as
Speaker 3: a direct result of their hate. In particular, so many
Speaker 3: were killed by their general cassem solemony. I decided a
Speaker 3: long time ago that I would not let this happen.
Speaker 3: It will not continue.
Speaker 2: So again, you know that Trump hit hard and fast.
Speaker 2: Number two of the five things that I want to
Speaker 2: mention before we get into these broader conversations again. Sherry
Speaker 2: Marks and Chris Kenny, they joined me in a moment
Speaker 2: or two time. But put simply, Iran will decide what
Speaker 2: happens next. Now, obviously Israel will continue its campaign to
Speaker 2: try to remove as much of the military capability of Iran.
Speaker 2: But in terms of whether the United States comes back
Speaker 2: into all of this again, well, we get to hear
Speaker 2: what the Iranians have to say. Now. They have given
Speaker 2: a press conference in the past ninety minutes or so.
Speaker 2: There's pretty strong messages that are coming across the propaganda vicev.
Speaker 2: But in terms of their foreign minister, he's been very
Speaker 2: clear to say or try to cast that he was
Speaker 2: involved in a campaign of diplomacy. It's the Israelis in
Speaker 2: the United States that have blown things up. But of course,
Speaker 2: as always with these stories, what about before, what about before?
Speaker 2: What about before? This is a story that is decades
Speaker 2: in the making, and obviously, as we said at this moment,
Speaker 2: it's a fork in the road about where it goes
Speaker 2: from here? Here in part was the Iranian officials speaking
Speaker 2: in Istanbul tonight.
Speaker 4: You say that you need to respond right now, but
Speaker 4: we know that Iranians are known for their talents and
Speaker 4: negotiations and diplomacy and trade. What would were the conditions
Speaker 4: after responding for Iran to come back to a negotiation table,
Speaker 4: maybe with the US as well. And Turkya has been
Speaker 4: offering that Ankara can mediate for its try later all
Speaker 4: between Turkey, US and Iran. What would be your response
Speaker 4: to that? Because right now the US is technically involved
Speaker 4: in this conflict, it is.
Speaker 5: Irre irrelevant to ask Iran to return to diplomacy because
Speaker 5: we were in the middle of diplomacy. We were in
Speaker 5: the middle of talks with the United States when Israelis
Speaker 5: blew it up. And again we were in the middle
Speaker 5: of talks and negotiations with Europeans. Happened only two days
Speaker 5: ago in Geneva, when this time Americans decided to blow
Speaker 5: it up. So we were in diplomacy, we were what
Speaker 5: we were attacked militarily. So it was not Iran but
Speaker 5: the US who betrayed the plomacy. They betrayed negotiations when
Speaker 5: at the middle of negotiations with US they gave green
Speaker 5: light to Israelis, if not instructed them to attack Row's
Speaker 5: nuclear facilities. I think they have proved that they are
Speaker 5: not men of diplomacy and they only understand the language
Speaker 5: of threat and force.
Speaker 2: Interesting word war not used. Does that suggest that there's
Speaker 2: going to be some limited response here, Well, at the
Speaker 2: very least there is a consideration from the Supreme Leader,
Speaker 2: the military officials, many of which of course had been killed.
Speaker 2: And metaphorically, once you cut the head off the snake
Speaker 2: and other will grow somewhere else. So the idea the
Speaker 2: entire military is disappearing around is obviously not true. But
Speaker 2: there'll be people stepping into those roles. And as I
Speaker 2: said to you, while the back and between Iran and Israel,
Speaker 2: Israel and Iran has been obvious, the damage that is happening,
Speaker 2: and these are the latest pictures that happened just around
Speaker 2: the start of the day in Tel Aviv. Remember, of course,
Speaker 2: it's full up and around lunchtime there. Now, that is
Speaker 2: an awful lot of damage right now. But because of
Speaker 2: those bombshellders I've spoke about before fingers crossed, we'll have
Speaker 2: the scenario of well fewer casualties, but there's going to
Speaker 2: be problems here Jerusalem. We've got some pictures from there
Speaker 2: as well. This is a live picture of what is
Speaker 2: happening there. Some stills photography which is starting to pop up.
Speaker 2: And remember during all of this breaking new stuff the
Speaker 2: homepage skynews dot com that I use, sky News dot
Speaker 2: Com that I use. The stills are particularly moving about
Speaker 2: people saving children in the streets of Israel. Now, the
Speaker 2: reason that I say that it's all up to Iran
Speaker 2: what happens next? Can I show you this next graphic.
Speaker 2: This is from the New York Times. Basically every red dot,
Speaker 2: depending on its shade, is where American troops are. Now
Speaker 2: obviously Kuwait, which is just to Iran. That would be
Speaker 2: a place obviously incredibly easy for Iran to be able
Speaker 2: to aim at. Now currently there's the situation involving Israel
Speaker 2: that in and of itself is dire. But obviously we've
Speaker 2: seen that the Israeli government has been able to handle that.
Speaker 2: The next stage the ratchet up here is if Iran
Speaker 2: starts to aim itself towards any of those red dots. Now, obviously,
Speaker 2: if it's able to make its way from Iran to Israel,
Speaker 2: they're able to shoot something from Iran to Kuwait. But
Speaker 2: have a look at this one again New York Times,
Speaker 2: where there's short range missiles at four hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: five miles will clearly cover off where the Americans are
Speaker 2: in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE or Qatar. Now, obviously there's
Speaker 2: all of the geopolitical reasons as to why Iran doesn't
Speaker 2: shoot at some of those countries, but the idea about
Speaker 2: American facilities being that close. This has been one of
Speaker 2: the concerns about the sowats neck about the day after, okay,
Speaker 2: the day after, the week after, the month after, the
Speaker 2: year after those red dots. As you can see as well,
Speaker 2: why they're able to get so many in towards Israel. Again,
Speaker 2: their medium ranges anywhere between that four thirty five and
Speaker 2: twelve hundred miles. All right, Third thing I want to
Speaker 2: mention tonight, obviously, Israel is safer because of the actions
Speaker 2: of the President of the United States. Now they have
Speaker 2: been asserting themselves to make sure that a country that
Speaker 2: does not just have an ambition of a nuclear bomb,
Speaker 2: but an absolute stated ambition to wipe it off the map.
Speaker 2: That this is pushing Iran right back. Now. As you know,
Speaker 2: the Israelis have for a long period of time, well
Speaker 2: the past couple of weeks, i should say, been hitting
Speaker 2: all around lots of military stuff. Here again is a
Speaker 2: map from the New York Times. Every little dot there
Speaker 2: is where some of those missile strikes have fallen. The
Speaker 2: reason the Americans get involved is because there's this one
Speaker 2: place it's really difficult. You've got the gear. You're on
Speaker 2: our side. Again. When you actually have a look at Tehran,
Speaker 2: their capital, you can see even further about just how
Speaker 2: many have not just been in and around the left
Speaker 2: hand side of the country, as you would say, having
Speaker 2: a look at the map here closer to Israel. But
Speaker 2: once you start to thump around you can start to
Speaker 2: see lots of different things, including things like their state broadcaster,
Speaker 2: fuel depots, communications, all of course necessary when you're trying
Speaker 2: to blind what Iran can do, because even in its
Speaker 2: weakened state, it's still able to cause a lot of
Speaker 2: damage right now in Israel. For his part, Benjamin Etnia,
Speaker 2: who made a statement pretty briefly today but powerfully in
Speaker 2: response to the actions of the President today, have a look.
Speaker 6: Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear
Speaker 6: facilities with the awesome and righteous mind of the United
Speaker 6: States will change history. In Operation Rising Line, Israel has
Speaker 6: done truly amazing things. But in tonight's action against the
Speaker 6: On's nuclear facilities, America has been truly unsurpassed. It is
Speaker 6: done what no other country on Earth could do. History
Speaker 6: will record that President Trump acted to deny the world's
Speaker 6: most dangerous regime the world's most dangerous weapons. His leadership
Speaker 6: today has created a pivot of history that can help
Speaker 6: lead the Middle East and beyond to a future of
Speaker 6: prosperity and peace. President Trump and I often say peace
Speaker 6: through strength. First comes strength, then comes peace. And tonight
Speaker 6: President Trump and the United States acted with a lot
Speaker 6: of strength. President Trump, I thank you the people of Israel,
Speaker 6: thank you the forces of civilization. Thank you. God bless America,
Speaker 6: God bless Israel. And may God bless our unshakable alliance,
Speaker 6: our unbreakable fears.
Speaker 2: Right the next time, I'm not going to spend a
Speaker 2: lot of time on because they are, yes, part of
Speaker 2: the discussion, but they're not the main game. I want
Speaker 2: to focus on the main game because we are still
Speaker 2: in breaking news coverage because of the first military response
Speaker 2: from Iran, the political response as well, and then the
Speaker 2: latest news we're about to get out of Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: But the fourth one I want to tell you about is, yes,
Speaker 2: MAGA is strained over this issue. Okay, however, it's not
Speaker 2: going to break. Firstly, apart from anything else, we are
Speaker 2: barely and I think what in the next couple of days,
Speaker 2: six months into a presidency which is going to go
Speaker 2: for four years. Okay, many of the people who have
Speaker 2: bashed the tables with whatever intent, they all know that
Speaker 2: their proximity to Trump in many ways is their power.
Speaker 2: Their access to Trump is their power. I'm not imagining
Speaker 2: that any of them are going to want to burn
Speaker 2: that bridge with so much of a presidency still to go.
Speaker 2: So that's the first thing to note. But Steve Bannon,
Speaker 2: who of course at one point worked with the President,
Speaker 2: went to jail for not giving evidence upon subpoena in
Speaker 2: and around January sixth, as Maga's MAGA gets his program.
Speaker 2: The war Room is basically the id of the Mega movement.
Speaker 2: He actually had lunch with Donald Trump the day that
Speaker 2: he came out and said the two week thing. This
Speaker 2: was read by a whole bunch of people as I
Speaker 2: he's listening to Magaworld, he's holding back, but obviously Steve
Speaker 2: Bannon after saying, don't go there. It's a quagmire. All
Speaker 2: the rest of it. Well, he had rolling coverage himself
Speaker 2: in the United States today and it's pretty fair to
Speaker 2: say on early counts he falls in line.
Speaker 7: President of the United States. Nate made probably the biggest
Speaker 7: and boldest move of his first or second term.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 7: What he doesn't want to do is get dragged in
Speaker 7: this thing, as we talked about earlier, so that it
Speaker 7: overwhelms his presidency.
Speaker 2: And while he didn't want to go all the way
Speaker 2: to the full bended knee, et cetera, etc. A MAGA loyalist,
Speaker 2: former Congressman in Matt Gates was brought on by bad
Speaker 2: And as a guest to say this. So the smoke
Speaker 2: signals coming out of the War Room, it's going to
Speaker 2: be okay in terms of magaland there.
Speaker 8: Is no greater force for peace in this world today
Speaker 8: than Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: That man deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace
Speaker 2: Prize discussion happening right now, by the way, Pakistan is
Speaker 2: actually nominated or Pakistani official has nominated Trump in relation
Speaker 2: to the Pakistan and India situation. Fifth one, Albo and
Speaker 2: wog out in the cold. I will not waste a
Speaker 2: further second, but basically, de escalate, de escalate, de escalate
Speaker 2: is where they sit. Let's get into the conversation right
Speaker 2: now with my colleagues who have been very patiently watching
Speaker 2: me surmise the five things that I think people need
Speaker 2: to know, and we go from there. Sharry Markson. Of course,
Speaker 2: you can see at the eight o'clock hour astral in
Speaker 2: Eastern time each and every weeknight here and at five
Speaker 2: o'clock you can see when Primetime kicks in and common
Speaker 2: sense begins and the great Chris Kenny at five pm.
Speaker 2: All right, Sharry, when you heard it, we know in
Speaker 2: your editorials in the lead up to it, there was
Speaker 2: a clear choice. It was obvious choice you wanted to
Speaker 2: be made. The choice has now been made. So what
Speaker 2: do you think.
Speaker 9: Look, I think there's a lot of analysis at the
Speaker 9: moment about what next regime change. Can we just sit
Speaker 9: for a moment and say thank you, thank you to
Speaker 9: the President of the United States, because this move today
Speaker 9: makes Israel, makes the Jewish people, and makes the entire world,
Speaker 9: the whole of Western civilization, a safer place. This was
Speaker 9: a bold move. I had confidence he was going to
Speaker 9: make the right call until yesterday, and I even expected
Speaker 9: it would be this weekend. But then yesterday, when he
Speaker 9: put that two week time frame on it, I thought
Speaker 9: the maga isolationists have got to him. I was starting
Speaker 9: to lose confidence. And then to wake up this morning
Speaker 9: and I heard about a couple of hours before the
Speaker 9: strike happened that it was going to happen. You know,
Speaker 9: we can't overstate how significant this is. For me to
Speaker 9: sit here and say Iran no longer poses a nuclear
Speaker 9: existential threat to Israel, to the Jewish state in the world,
Speaker 9: is unbelievable. Yes, I am happy, haven't I haven't felt
Speaker 9: so happy for a long time. This has been Israel's
Speaker 9: greatest enemy for the for you know, decades, well since
Speaker 9: post nineteen seventy nine, and Iran's financing was partly behind
Speaker 9: the massacre on October seven. That's no secret that part
Speaker 9: of the reason October seven even happened is because Israel
Speaker 9: was becoming close to a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 9: which Iran needed to stop happening. But as a result
Speaker 9: of those attacks, Israel is now in the most secure
Speaker 9: position it's been in a very long time. And I
Speaker 9: really hope that this is now the start of a
Speaker 9: pathway to peace, that after removing the nuclear threat of
Speaker 9: Iran and perhaps more, we'll see how far they go.
Speaker 9: That now Nada Yahu and Trump can continue to work together,
Speaker 9: get the normalization deals on the table, expand that Abraham
Speaker 9: accords from Trump's first term, and we could be looking
Speaker 9: at an entirely new Middle East. There's everything to celebrate
Speaker 9: about this, right, Chris, your.
Speaker 2: First take, and then we'll get into the mini sides
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I look it similar to Shari, but I think
Speaker 10: you've got to broaden this out. The world is a
Speaker 10: safer place today it has been for a year or
Speaker 10: so thanks to Israel. What Israel has been able to
Speaker 10: do to Iran and as proxies, and now with Trump
Speaker 10: coming in, and I believe it was always inevitable that
Speaker 10: the US military action would occur in this way. I
Speaker 10: think Benjamin nettinaw who made it inevitable by Israel taking
Speaker 10: the first action here against those nuclear facilities. America had
Speaker 10: to finish it. And if you want to play politics,
Speaker 10: I believe any American president would have done this, whether
Speaker 10: it was a Barba or Joe Biden or Bill Clinton.
Speaker 10: It was always going to happen. But I think people
Speaker 10: at home need to understand what's happened here.
Speaker 1: If you go back two years.
Speaker 10: Ago, Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons. All of the Western
Speaker 10: world was worried about that, especially Israel of course, but America,
Speaker 10: all the European nations, Australia, We're all imposing sanctions to
Speaker 10: try and stop this happening. The whole of the Middle
Speaker 10: East was worried about it. Iran was funding and organizing
Speaker 10: Humas in the south of Israel. They were funding and
Speaker 10: organizing Hezballah in Lebanon and Syria. They were funding and
Speaker 10: organizing the uties in Yemen.
Speaker 1: And what happened after.
Speaker 10: October the seventh, the atrocity that was which has been
Speaker 10: so terrible for Israel, and the trauma goes on. Three
Speaker 10: more hostages returned dead today, but what people don't understand
Speaker 10: is in the war since then, thanks to Israel's military action,
Speaker 10: Iran has been smashed. Hummas has been almost wiped out,
Speaker 10: Hesballa has been almost wiped out, the Hooties cut off,
Speaker 10: and also Iranian missile capacity and air defense is knocked out.
Speaker 1: So the job was nine tenths done.
Speaker 10: And now America's come in and finished off with these
Speaker 10: nuclear nuclear strikes. The most malevolent force in the Middle
Speaker 10: East has now been put back in its box. Now
Speaker 10: that's not just good for Israel, that's good for Lebanon,
Speaker 10: for Syria, for Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, for Europe,
Speaker 10: for the whole world. And I think that, yeah, there
Speaker 10: are uncertain times in the days ahead, but most certainly
Speaker 10: Iran will not be the malevolent threat it's been for
Speaker 10: the last forty five years.
Speaker 2: Now, again we're going to bounce in and out of
Speaker 2: our view on this about just how granular or the
Speaker 2: thirty thousand foot version. Again, as we're starting to see
Speaker 2: some pictures that are now coming out of Israel about
Speaker 2: what the Iranian military response has been. This stuff looks
Speaker 2: a lot more physically devastating than what we've seen over
Speaker 2: the past few days. But again, as both of you
Speaker 2: know about the bomb shelter, when Australians read about this
Speaker 2: is basically they're one at the end of each street.
Speaker 2: Is there a basement underneath most buildings. So when we
Speaker 2: see something that looks like it's turned to matchticks fingers crossed,
Speaker 2: most people got downstairs. What's it like there?
Speaker 9: Yeah, and you adjust there, Chris, Well.
Speaker 10: That's why that's why the casualties casually counts are so low.
Speaker 10: Say building like this, we're in an office building here
Speaker 10: with an underground car park. What's happening in Israel now
Speaker 10: is you get at least ten minutes warning with these
Speaker 10: missiles coming in from Iran? Said, because so they've got
Speaker 10: great interception and surveillance mechanisms. So people have ten minutes
Speaker 10: and they'll come down from the offices or flats above
Speaker 10: and they'll go down into.
Speaker 1: The car park.
Speaker 10: The car park is effectively becomes the bomb shoulder, and
Speaker 10: everyone will hang in there as long as they need to.
Speaker 10: And then sure, and when you see these devastating hits
Speaker 10: where buildings have been almost completely obliterated, very few casualties
Speaker 10: because everybody's in the basements underneath. Now you know there
Speaker 10: have been deaths, there have been injuries, and we don't
Speaker 10: want any but that's why they've been able to keep
Speaker 10: them so low.
Speaker 9: And again it just proves the point about why this
Speaker 9: action had to take place. Iran doesn't hesitate to hit
Speaker 9: civilian site, so that's what they're taught. I mean, Israel
Speaker 9: has been targeting the military and nuclear facilities in Tehran
Speaker 9: and right around Iran, whereas Iran hit the Soroco hospital
Speaker 9: in Bearsheva on Thursday, it's hitting residential buildings. It's only
Speaker 9: targeting residential areas. So if they had a nuclear weapon,
Speaker 9: can you imagine the damage they do. That's why it
Speaker 9: was an existential threat. And I think eighty six people
Speaker 9: have been wounded according to the Times of Israel and
Speaker 9: the latest hits today. I think something went wrong. There
Speaker 9: was a failed interception, but I expect that the retaliation
Speaker 9: will hopefully get less and less now though there are
Speaker 9: concerns about sleeper cells in the West and potential terror
Speaker 9: attacks as well.
Speaker 2: I was going to say, so this brings us to again,
Speaker 2: it's up to Iran what happens next. All right, Again,
Speaker 2: if we want to bring back those maps team, that'd
Speaker 2: be great. To see those little red dots about where
Speaker 2: all of the US military is. Again, the capacity, the
Speaker 2: ability for somebody get from Iran to Kuwait not exactly impossible,
Speaker 2: clearly closer than Israel and State TV, which I know
Speaker 2: they can distance themselves to somehow pretend is different than
Speaker 2: the regime. Of course, it's pr for the regime, just
Speaker 2: like the CCP in China. They're openly now saying that
Speaker 2: all military, any civilian, is all now fair game. You
Speaker 2: can see they're the differences about what types of missile.
Speaker 2: So even if they're starting to run out of the
Speaker 2: stuff that's going to make it to Israel, clearly the
Speaker 2: stuff that wouldn't make it to Israel, they may well
Speaker 2: have plenty of goes to Kuwait. If a hair on
Speaker 2: the head of a single further American is in any
Speaker 2: way attacked by Iran, then we are off to something
Speaker 2: very different from here. So again no one knows, but
Speaker 2: you're reading of things, guys about how Iran responds.
Speaker 9: Well, we saw just a couple of days ago the
Speaker 9: Ayotola Ali Kamani said he does not intend to negotiate.
Speaker 9: There's going to be no surrender. He doesn't intend to negotiate.
Speaker 9: So I can't imagine why his position would change drastically
Speaker 9: from that. You know that they've been utterly humiliated, their
Speaker 9: nuclear sites destroyed. He's gripping onto power. I think that
Speaker 9: what happens now is most likely there might be an
Speaker 9: internal power struggle. There could be someone else within the
Speaker 9: IIGC who challenges him for power. The concern is, you know,
Speaker 9: we all want to be rid of this radical Islamist
Speaker 9: extremist regime that's been terrorizing the world, committing terror tacks
Speaker 9: on Israel. But the concern is, well, what would come next?
Speaker 9: Would that variation be worse, would it be more repressive
Speaker 9: for the Iranian people, would it be more dangerous?
Speaker 11: We don't know.
Speaker 9: I mean, you know, to completely have an Iranian uprising
Speaker 9: and become a democracy, that's the ideal dream scenario. But
Speaker 9: how you get that seems unlikely Immediately.
Speaker 10: When you look at that map, Paul, and you see
Speaker 10: what Iran has been able to do in Israel with
Speaker 10: its missiles, you know it could still do damage to
Speaker 10: American or other interests in the region. Now points on
Speaker 10: that though, one that's comforting, and that is it would
Speaker 10: be madness, right, It would be literally madness for them
Speaker 10: to broaden the war out, especially to bring in an
Speaker 10: American retaliation like that, because they would be obliterate.
Speaker 1: They have no hope.
Speaker 10: They're seriously depleted now thanks to weeks of attacks from Israel.
Speaker 10: It would be madness on their parts. So that's the
Speaker 10: comforting thought. But the second point is it's the worrying
Speaker 10: thing that is, they are not rational actors.
Speaker 1: The Iranian government is.
Speaker 10: A theocratic regime, a theocratic dictatorship. It is sure, there
Speaker 10: are many, many educated and sophisticated operatives in Iran.
Speaker 1: It's a very sophisticated country.
Speaker 10: But the people who call the shots, the Tyler and
Speaker 10: the other mullas, these are religious fanatics who believe that
Speaker 10: they have a god given mission to destroy Israel and
Speaker 10: death to America and everyone else as well. I've been
Speaker 10: to TEHRANO, I've met with these people. It's frightening to
Speaker 10: see their take on the world. So that is the trouble.
Speaker 10: You can't think this through rationally because you're not dealing
Speaker 10: with rational actors.
Speaker 9: It's also interesting how increasingly isolated Iran is. I mean,
Speaker 9: we barely heard a word of objection. I mean, the
Speaker 9: most basic word of objection really from China and Russia
Speaker 9: that they didn't step in in any serious way. So
Speaker 9: Iran is completely isolated here. It has no friends, it
Speaker 9: has no power based, no one else arguing its case.
Speaker 9: In fact, he's.
Speaker 10: Turning up in Moscow tomorrow, the Foreign Minister. He's going
Speaker 10: to meet Putin and he's going to ask Putin for help.
Speaker 10: But I think Putin says, hey, mate, I've got plenty
Speaker 10: on my plate. I can't do much for it. We
Speaker 10: will see that will be critical, right well.
Speaker 2: Interestingly, interestingly, remember, of course, before all of this, in
Speaker 2: the back and forth of a couple of days, that
Speaker 2: Donald Trump was saying that at some point Fladmir Putin
Speaker 2: in a phone call with them, We're saying, look, I'll
Speaker 2: help negotiate, of course, which the President's response was the OK, pal,
Speaker 2: you're involved with your stuff right now. That said, there
Speaker 2: are some nation states that have come out very strong
Speaker 2: against it, places like Saudi Arabia, but of course they
Speaker 2: are about to turn on the United States. Well, no,
Speaker 2: the President was just there.
Speaker 10: Let me jump in there, mate, let me jump in there.
Speaker 10: Let me tell you something close. Saudi Arabia will be
Speaker 10: absolutely grateful to America and Israel for doing this Saudi Arabia,
Speaker 10: I was worried about Iran, as Israel has been almost
Speaker 10: over the last couple of decades. So they have to
Speaker 10: say that as a Muslim nation, they have to condemn
Speaker 10: this action. But I'm telling you, behind the scenes, the
Speaker 10: Saudis are applauding America and Israel and saying go for it.
Speaker 2: So again, right, so sorry, you're going to get their glasses.
Speaker 2: It's breaking news. The Foreign Ministry condemned and denounced the
Speaker 2: violation of Iran's sovereignty and said it followed with deep
Speaker 2: concern and every effort should be made to de escalate.
Speaker 2: So they've taken the wrong position, and we'll get to
Speaker 2: that in a second. The Iranian foreign minister now again,
Speaker 2: so let's imagine good, normal Iranian people. They've got state
Speaker 2: TVs at them. From one thing, then there's of course
Speaker 2: the people that are outside that get to see the
Speaker 2: messages that are being said by that Iranian foreign minister
Speaker 2: who's currently not in the country. He's in Turkey where
Speaker 2: he's in Istanbul. He made some comments there this evening,
Speaker 2: and the talking point that seems to have moved from
Speaker 2: what he has said where he hasn't used the word war.
Speaker 2: He's talked about aggression and cruelty, but not the W word.
Speaker 2: In fact, this is him saying that, and then I'll
Speaker 2: add to it in the moment. What the talking point is.
Speaker 11: The war mongering.
Speaker 5: A lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible
Speaker 5: for the dangerous consequences and far rich and implement implications
Speaker 5: of its act of aggression.
Speaker 2: But the talking point that's starting to run through here
Speaker 2: is that people who are involved in the Iranian nuclear
Speaker 2: program are trying to through a whole bunch of friendly
Speaker 2: media and international met start to say things like, well,
Speaker 2: who cares that you hit? Who cares that you hit
Speaker 2: the mountain? We already moved a whole bunch of stuff out.
Speaker 2: Here's some satellite photos of twelve days ago, and a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of trucks. Even the International Atomic Energy Association
Speaker 2: that the main people who monitor will would inspect things
Speaker 2: like nuclear weapons. The response to them Iran has been, well,
Speaker 2: you know, you may know about that one, but there's
Speaker 2: a whole bunch you don't know about here. Now again,
Speaker 2: you could see that a crumbling regime trying to save
Speaker 2: face could be just smearing garbage everywhere. Why wouldn't it. However,
Speaker 2: the reality was that there were three places that were hit.
Speaker 2: And again all day we've heard so many different stats
Speaker 2: and numbers that are starting to sort of blend together,
Speaker 2: but these are not the only three places that has
Speaker 2: some relevance to the nuclear capacity of Iran. So what
Speaker 2: do you say about that talking point that they are
Speaker 2: trying to push out to the rest of the world.
Speaker 9: Israel had already done some seventy five percent of the
Speaker 9: job in terms of destroying Iran's nuclear sites and many
Speaker 9: military sites as well. I mean, they've destroyed about fifty
Speaker 9: percent of their ballistic missile launchers.
Speaker 12: Now the sites that.
Speaker 9: The US hit today four doh, of course Estefan and
Speaker 9: Atans now Estefan and a tons. They didn't even need
Speaker 9: the B two bombers, is my understanding. That was done
Speaker 9: with Tomahawks, and it was just finishing off the job.
Speaker 9: Israel had already done about seventy five percent of that.
Speaker 9: The US went in to finish off the job. Now
Speaker 9: Fourdah is obviously the nuclear the fuel enrichment facility that
Speaker 9: we've been talking about the whole world has been talking
Speaker 9: about for the past week. That's south of Tehran. Underneath
Speaker 9: Mount Alvint. Now that was the one that was eighty
Speaker 9: to ninety meters underground, and that was the one that
Speaker 9: required the specialist technology. The B two bombers carrying the
Speaker 9: bunker bunker busting bombs that the US did use sixteen
Speaker 9: thousand kilograms each for those bombs. Now you now, Israel
Speaker 9: has the best intelligence in the world. Mossad has shown
Speaker 9: that with the page Or operation, has shown that with
Speaker 9: the Tehran strike, has shown that time and time again
Speaker 9: over the past twenty months. If they come out, if
Speaker 9: we are told that those sites have been annihilated, I
Speaker 9: would trust Massad one hundred percent. And this is part
Speaker 9: of the game of deception we've been seeing. Do you
Speaker 9: remember the media reports two weeks ago that Trump had
Speaker 9: asked NED and Yahoo not to take any military action
Speaker 9: in Iran to avoid death and destruction.
Speaker 1: That was false.
Speaker 9: That was part of the deception, so that the nuclear
Speaker 9: scientists and the military chiefs didn't go into hiding in
Speaker 9: their bunkers. They were there sleeping happily in their beds
Speaker 9: when Israel came and took them out in the middle
Speaker 9: of the night. So deception has been a big part
Speaker 9: of this game. Israel knows where they are, they know
Speaker 9: where the sites are, and we have to trust the
Speaker 9: President of the United States and not some nutters on
Speaker 9: the internet when he says they've been obliterated.
Speaker 2: So again that talking point, because again that I've listened
Speaker 2: to some discussions in other places and they'll turn around
Speaker 2: and say, well, hang on, you know, because the Orange
Speaker 2: man bad Oh, maybe they haven't hit everything. Maybe this
Speaker 2: isn't half as successful as it seems. Maybe he's going
Speaker 2: to get dragged back in because literally towards the left
Speaker 2: and wait till I show some of the political reaction
Speaker 2: in the United States is they are casting this as
Speaker 2: a giant, giant mistake. So therefore they are echoing what
Speaker 2: they're hearing back from Tehran that despite the bluster, it
Speaker 2: didn't work.
Speaker 10: Well, That's why I was keen to say at the
Speaker 10: start of this discussion that the world is a safer
Speaker 10: place now and that all preceding presidents would have done
Speaker 10: taken the same action here. This is not something that's
Speaker 10: come up in the last six months or even in
Speaker 10: the last twenty months. Since October the seventh, it has
Speaker 10: been a threat that successive American presidents of both a
Speaker 10: Democrat and Republican have said we need to stop around
Speaker 10: getting a nuclear weapon. All of the leaders of European nations,
Speaker 10: the United Nations, thea Australia. It has been a global
Speaker 10: consensus about stopping this happening.
Speaker 1: It's just been the.
Speaker 10: Pathetic diplomacies failed to deliver on it, and now it's
Speaker 10: happened physically. And just on that point, I agree with
Speaker 10: everything Shari said about how detailed the Israeli action has
Speaker 10: been and they've taken out these other sites and the
Speaker 10: expertise they've taken out, the nuclear scientists that would do
Speaker 10: all this work.
Speaker 1: But you do have to worry.
Speaker 10: There's four hundred kilograms of sixty percent enriched uranium somewhere
Speaker 10: in Iran. Now it's either been blown up with these
Speaker 10: bombs or they would have could have shifted it in
Speaker 10: the last few weeks. I would have thought that Mossad
Speaker 10: and the CIA, American and you'd be looking to.
Speaker 1: Find out where is that enriched uranium.
Speaker 10: Now that can't be made into a nuclear weapon straight away.
Speaker 10: It would need more, more enrichment, They would need to
Speaker 10: get more centrifuges. But yeah, I think the are two points.
Speaker 10: So it's been very thorough this, but I think the
Speaker 10: reconnaissance and intelligence on the back of this to make
Speaker 10: sure it's done properly will be ongoing.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and again that idea that the idea that
Speaker 2: oh Trump was brought into this two minutes before the end,
Speaker 2: wasn't really aware of what was going on. But as
Speaker 2: you say, there's plenty back and forth here of the
Speaker 2: part of the wall. Now can I just turn too
Speaker 2: as somebody But just.
Speaker 9: On that point, by the way, President Trump said today,
Speaker 9: and I loved the line. He said that he'd been
Speaker 9: working with Bib Netanyahu as a team, perhaps the best
Speaker 9: team ever, so Trump, but everything's the best ever.
Speaker 13: This has been.
Speaker 9: You know that they might have the odd difference, but
Speaker 9: this has been a terrific partnership, unlike how difficult it
Speaker 9: was for Israel under Joe Biden. Well, and I don't
Speaker 9: have your confidence, by the way, Chris, that every president
Speaker 9: would have handled this, because we've seen other presidents choose
Speaker 9: to strike so called you know, trade deals where billions
Speaker 9: are given to a run which ends up sure finance.
Speaker 10: The difference here, though, it was that Israel had taken
Speaker 10: eighty percent of the action the job, and you're in
Speaker 10: a situation now where Iran's on the back foot, most
Speaker 10: of their nuclear activity taken out. The whole world knows
Speaker 10: it needs to be taken out.
Speaker 14: So it was.
Speaker 1: It was almost a gift given to the president.
Speaker 9: You've got I'm not Kamala har They would have been
Speaker 9: saying ceasefire, de escalate like Penny Wong does.
Speaker 1: Kamala would have been laughing five. Who would have been asleep?
Speaker 10: You know, I think think of a reasonable one Clinton,
Speaker 10: go back to Clinton or Obama.
Speaker 1: Maybe those Democrats would have done it all right.
Speaker 2: Now, now again some of the reaction inside the United
Speaker 2: States to the left of politics. Now again we spoke
Speaker 2: about the mega stuff. It is a sideshow to the
Speaker 2: reality of how the world has changed today. But of course,
Speaker 2: in the United States, the capacity of a president to
Speaker 2: be able to start something without having to go and
Speaker 2: get permission first from Congress is an area where that
Speaker 2: has often can be debated. Now, generally speaking, the theory
Speaker 2: of the executive power of the president, generally speaking, seems
Speaker 2: to win out, presumably if this was litigated all the
Speaker 2: way up to a Supreme Court that is dominated by
Speaker 2: its current justices that have previously said things like if
Speaker 2: it's an official act, it's not a you get that.
Speaker 2: Generally speaking, it would probably fall Trump's way. But if
Speaker 2: there's a question, we know there are people that want
Speaker 2: to go there, And he's part of the explanation about
Speaker 2: people who are suggesting that the action that the president
Speaker 2: took and not asking Congress first would be grands for
Speaker 2: a potential impeachment. This doesn't happen to morrow, doesn't happen
Speaker 2: next year. But remember, if the Democrats get control of
Speaker 2: the House in November of next year, they'd be in
Speaker 2: exactly the position they had been twice before to be
Speaker 2: able to impeach, not removed, but impeach the president for
Speaker 2: the third time.
Speaker 8: Look, I think the most striking things that we've heard
Speaker 8: from Capitol Hill is that in the past couple of moments,
Speaker 8: so Seawan Caston, who is a Democrat from northern Illinois,
Speaker 8: he has said that this is an unambiguous impeachable offense.
Speaker 8: He's saying, I don't think we have the votes to impeach,
Speaker 8: he said, but you don't do this with our congressional approval.
Speaker 2: So let's get to all of that. The idea that
Speaker 2: again the orange Man, bad crowd, and again, but if
Speaker 2: you've been watching, and you wouldn't have been un less
Speaker 2: a push on the flash app fairly available flash news
Speaker 2: dot com dot au to sign up to is you'd
Speaker 2: be watching MSNBC. That's the sort of left wing cable
Speaker 2: news station.
Speaker 8: Right.
Speaker 2: They are basically saying Trump started World War three, it's
Speaker 2: all his fault. Dumbest thing ever. So that's what all
Speaker 2: this garbage is playing to. But Chris again, knowing how
Speaker 2: much the Australian media loves first of the Orange Man bad,
Speaker 2: secondly loves the process story all the rest of it
Speaker 2: here and despite the fact they've said logically you got
Speaker 2: to wait a long time and a lot's going to
Speaker 2: go your way, and it probably doesn't. But this question
Speaker 2: of basically, is he involved in a war by dropping
Speaker 2: one series of ordinance on one night or you can
Speaker 2: get away with that one and done, meaning you don't
Speaker 2: have to go to Congress.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Look, he's the commander in chief and he obviously has
Speaker 10: the ability, the authority, and indeed the duty to act
Speaker 10: in this way. Look, having seen the way the left
Speaker 10: globally have effectively supported Hummas over the past twenty months,
Speaker 10: nothing surprises me. But they're now talking about this is
Speaker 10: some sort of unilateral active aggression by the United States.
Speaker 10: Even American Congress people are saying that that is absolutely outrageous,
Speaker 10: And He's going to think about what people are saying
Speaker 10: here if they're trying to say that America and Israeli
Speaker 10: the aggresses here. They are giving a leave pass to
Speaker 10: the Islamic Republic of Iran for supporting and facilitating the
Speaker 10: slaughter and atrocities of October the seventh. They're giving them
Speaker 10: a leave pass for having Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon
Speaker 10: raining down rockets on civilian areas of Israel for month
Speaker 10: after month after month.
Speaker 1: They're giving a leave.
Speaker 10: Pass to the Hooties for attacking ships in the Gulf
Speaker 10: and also sending missiles into Israel, hitting airports and civilian areas.
Speaker 10: They're giving a leaf pass to Iran for directly targeting
Speaker 10: its missiles at Israeli cities, at suburban areas. This is
Speaker 10: a war crime, but the UN doesn't say, Didley squat
Speaker 10: about it? They're too focused on humanizing Israel and the US.
Speaker 10: Now people have to think logically about the appalling regime
Speaker 10: that Iran is, the horrible atrocities they've either committed themselves
Speaker 10: or facility facilitated others to deliver and talk.
Speaker 1: That they would. They have been trying to get a
Speaker 1: nuclear weapon.
Speaker 10: That's not in question that the International Atomic Energy Agency
Speaker 10: has been trying to check this and they've been hiding
Speaker 10: stuff from them. The whole of the world, the EU
Speaker 10: and all the European nations, all those lefty nations you
Speaker 10: all like, and Democrat presidents and the like, they've all
Speaker 10: been onto this trying to stop this happening. So if
Speaker 10: you want to stand back and say it was okay
Speaker 10: to let this happen and let them get a weapon
Speaker 10: to fire at Jerusalem, I mean, give me a break.
Speaker 10: People have to actually use some logic and some morality
Speaker 10: in these debates.
Speaker 9: And it's not like Trump rushed into this. I mean
Speaker 9: he spent five months negotiating, five or six rounds of negotiations.
Speaker 9: Even last week he was urging Iran to come to
Speaker 9: the table, and on Thursday that Ayatolda said there will
Speaker 9: be We're not coming back to the negotiating table. We're
Speaker 9: not going to surrender. He couldn't have done more. And
Speaker 9: just to add to your list, Chris as well, that's
Speaker 9: not to mention all of the countless terror attacks on Americans,
Speaker 9: on American that Iran has committed over decades, and there's
Speaker 9: you know, this weak need response constantly from the international
Speaker 9: community where they don't want to take any military action.
Speaker 9: And what we saw today and I don't know was
Speaker 9: it was explicitly mentioned by Ned and YEAHO it was
Speaker 9: he said peace through strength, that Reagan face, peace through strength.
Speaker 9: You need America to show deterrence that was lost when
Speaker 9: Biden withdrew from Afghanistan in the appalling way he did.
Speaker 9: There has been no American deterrence. America has not been
Speaker 9: the leader of the free world really since then. That
Speaker 9: wars have started up that returns now China and Russia.
Speaker 9: This sends a strong message to them as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Well, and remember Obama with the red lines
Speaker 2: and all of that stuff. This is a moment where
Speaker 2: Hey told you sixty days, you got sixty days to
Speaker 2: come up with something, sixty days to start to show
Speaker 2: me you're pulling this thing apart. Welcome to sixty one,
Speaker 2: sixty two. Once we're going past the sixty this is
Speaker 2: what's happening. By the way, Bernie Sanders doing his bit
Speaker 2: to try to talk again about how unconstitutional of this is.
Speaker 2: And then let's turn our attention to our leadership here,
Speaker 2: and then Sophie Ellsworth will join us in moment or
Speaker 2: two from Israel. You're watching a two hour edition of
Speaker 2: Paul Murray Live, where we will also be hearing from
Speaker 2: the US Defense Secretary Pete Exeth in a moment or
Speaker 2: two's time.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you something.
Speaker 15: Not only is this news that I've just heard the
Speaker 15: second alarming that.
Speaker 16: All of you have just heard, but it is so
Speaker 16: grossly unconstitutional.
Speaker 17: All of you know.
Speaker 5: That the only entity that can take this country to
Speaker 5: war is the US Congress.
Speaker 1: The president does not have the right Paul, the left
Speaker 1: have just lost it.
Speaker 10: One thing I just wanted to mention to you the
Speaker 10: complicating factor here when you go outside this particular issue.
Speaker 1: Of course, we talked.
Speaker 10: About how Putin is going to be critical or the
Speaker 10: Iranian foreign minister going there.
Speaker 1: They're asking him for help.
Speaker 10: Of course, Trump and the rest of the Western world
Speaker 10: needs Putin's help to end the war in Ukraine. Putin
Speaker 10: is a savvy operator to stay out of Iran, to
Speaker 10: make sure he doesn't give support to Iran. He might
Speaker 10: try and strengthen his hand in Ukraine watch out for
Speaker 10: that in coming days.
Speaker 2: The Australian government wants de escalation now. Of course, if
Speaker 2: we followed every single time the Australian Government says pull back, well,
Speaker 2: history would be very different after the period of time
Speaker 2: of October seventh. Certainly those very groups we've been talking
Speaker 2: about tonight that have been able to launch missiles, to
Speaker 2: interrupt trade, to keep things coming from the north, and
Speaker 2: even the situation now of remember, if the Iranians was
Speaker 2: let's say, sixty seventy eighty percent close enough to a bomb,
Speaker 2: you just keep gibbering until you get tow one hundred
Speaker 2: percent right, I'll push it off, push it or push
Speaker 2: it off. Well, that's basically what the Australian government's position
Speaker 2: has been through all of this. Andrew Hasty has spoken
Speaker 2: on the behalf of the opposition in the past couple
Speaker 2: of hours. His response a little more clear ride and
Speaker 2: I would suggest where the majority of Australians are when
Speaker 2: it comes to stopping a country having a nuclear bomb
Speaker 2: that has promised promised to wipe another one off the map.
Speaker 18: This is a regime committed to the destruction of Israel,
Speaker 18: and our allies like the United States it's also a
Speaker 18: highly repressive regime which has persecuted women, dissidents are religious minorities,
Speaker 18: and that is why we support the actions today.
Speaker 2: All right, of course, So Penny Wong Foreign Minister, de
Speaker 2: Escalation Prime Minister about a week ago said that it
Speaker 2: wasn't Australia's war. I won't lie as somebody who not
Speaker 2: quite Maga wing but has been part of that hayo.
Speaker 2: I I want to get into the third version of
Speaker 2: difficult things over the past twenty years. I didn't hate
Speaker 2: that statement then, but certainly after action has been taken
Speaker 2: for the Australian government to basically go back to the GS.
Speaker 2: We wish it didn't happen. Position pretty weird, showy.
Speaker 9: Look that the Australian government is so irrelevant now it
Speaker 9: has given up at seat at the table because of
Speaker 9: stupid statements like this. The night of October seven, when
Speaker 9: families were still searching for their loved ones, their bodies
Speaker 9: weren't even called yet, Penny one called for restraint. A
Speaker 9: week ago on Sunday, she went on Insiders after the
Speaker 9: Israeli strikes in Iran. She said she called for de
Speaker 9: escalation and dialogue. There was some equivalents between Iran and Israel,
Speaker 9: calling for both sides to show restraint. Richard Miles this morning,
Speaker 9: two hours before the strikes, he didn't know they were coming.
Speaker 9: I'd heard about it. Why hadn't he? Is Australia not
Speaker 9: being shared information in the five Ice intelligence circles. Now
Speaker 9: he again was calling for a return to dialogue. Israel
Speaker 9: and Iran haven't had dialogue since pre nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 9: What dialogue does he want them to return to? This
Speaker 9: is absurd, It is so the Australian government is useless.
Speaker 9: How can they not endorse America and Israel removing the
Speaker 9: nuclear threat of Iran, a threat that that.
Speaker 1: You know doesn't exclude Australia. It is utterly shocking.
Speaker 9: That Albanezi can't say we welcome this, thank you President
Speaker 9: for making our world safer today. None of them can
Speaker 9: say it, and you know why, because of their blind
Speaker 9: hatred towards Israel. They can't say anything that endorses the
Speaker 9: actions of Israel. That's what it comes down to.
Speaker 2: And we'll see whether we hide behind statements. We I
Speaker 2: hope things move on to another couple of days, or
Speaker 2: does he go to Nado where they'll be yet another
Speaker 2: and again the Australian media will get very excited about
Speaker 2: being able to do body language suggestions about potential meetings
Speaker 2: between the President and the Prime Minister. But again the
Speaker 2: Australian government response today just pathetic.
Speaker 1: Paul just now.
Speaker 10: I wrote in the Weekend Australian about this on the weekend,
Speaker 10: and then today with the military action happens, it's even
Speaker 10: more pathetic. They're still talking about de escalation and dialogue.
Speaker 1: It's now.
Speaker 10: The point here is for the reasons I've outlined earlier
Speaker 10: about how this action by Israel and America makes the
Speaker 10: world a safer place. Therefore, it's in Australia's strategic interests
Speaker 10: that we support this action. And we've been pathetic. We
Speaker 10: have not given Israel any support, or the US any support.
Speaker 10: For moral support, diplomatic support, none of our words have
Speaker 10: given them any support, and strategically it's in Australia's interest
Speaker 10: to do so. Secondly, in moral terms, of course, as
Speaker 10: a nation that stands up for freedom and democracy, we
Speaker 10: should be standing for nations who are free and democratic
Speaker 10: against theocratic dictatorships.
Speaker 1: That are trying to take them out. So on a
Speaker 1: moral level and on.
Speaker 10: A strategic level, Australia should have supported this action and hasn't.
Speaker 1: But the killer is the third point, and that.
Speaker 10: Is they've actually hurt Australia's alliance relationship with the US
Speaker 10: by being so pissed weak.
Speaker 1: All they had to do is do the right thing,
Speaker 1: and the bonus was guess.
Speaker 10: What, Anthony Albernezi was actually quite useful to America. Sure,
Speaker 10: we haven't got all the money and weapons they would love.
Speaker 10: They're much bigger and more powerful than us, we all
Speaker 10: know that, but our voice of support in diplomatic circles
Speaker 10: as a free and democratic nations would have helped them.
Speaker 10: It helps them diplomatically, they would have liked it. We
Speaker 10: haven't even taken that opportunity.
Speaker 9: And Penny One keeps claiming that she's taking this principled position.
Speaker 9: It's an unprincipled, unethical position in aligning herself with radical
Speaker 9: terrorist regimes instead of supporting those who try and take
Speaker 9: away that threat.
Speaker 2: And the think again that let's imagine from the position
Speaker 2: that I don't want to repeat a rack, I don't
Speaker 2: want to repeat Afghanistan, but stud you can have the
Speaker 2: clarity that today was a good day, that today something
Speaker 2: good had taken place. Right, So this idea that no
Speaker 2: matter the circumstances, the answer is always the same from
Speaker 2: the Australian government is so frustrating to watch here, right,
Speaker 2: and we know for all the obvious reasons, why with
Speaker 2: all the establishment media that will only view this in
Speaker 2: the way that it is, which is yet again, you
Speaker 2: know over each from Israel and Orange Man bad you
Speaker 2: know the narrative that will be there all day every day. Well,
Speaker 2: of course, not everyone's favorite former prime minister, but certainly
Speaker 2: someone with that moral clarity was Scott Morrison when he
Speaker 2: appeared here a bit earlier in the day.
Speaker 19: This was a necessary event. There were no other options
Speaker 19: available to the president. I think President Trump has been
Speaker 19: very clear about seeking to get.
Speaker 17: An agreement with Iran.
Speaker 19: This was completely rejected and made it very clear that
Speaker 19: there was no negotiation. Now there was the opportunity for
Speaker 19: complete capitulation.
Speaker 2: All right, Like everyone at home, I've enjoyed this conversation
Speaker 2: very much, but I've got a whole bunch of guests
Speaker 2: that are currently circling like planes waiting to land. But
Speaker 2: a final thought from both of you will start with you, Chris.
Speaker 10: Look, I think look in coming days for the countries
Speaker 10: that will welcome this, or when you look at somewhere
Speaker 10: like Saudi Arabia, they'll gently admonish it, but we know
Speaker 10: it makes life better. That one country to look out
Speaker 10: for here is Iraq, a very very strong SAR presence
Speaker 10: of the Shear in control in Iraq. They'll have a
Speaker 10: lot of sympathy for their enemies across in Iran, so
Speaker 10: they could be ones to watch. But generally speaking, the
Speaker 10: world is a safer place because of this action, and
Speaker 10: because of that, I think we'll see some pleasing developments
Speaker 10: in days and weeks to come.
Speaker 2: You good stuff sharing.
Speaker 9: I just want to end by recognizing the incredible leadership.
Speaker 9: You know, most people in the media like to put
Speaker 9: down Israeli Prime Minister Benjaminatijahu and Donald Trump, as you say,
Speaker 9: but what we have seen that this is historic levels
Speaker 9: of courage, bravery of taking a bold step to destroy
Speaker 9: a nuclear existential threat not just for Israel, but a
Speaker 9: threat for the world. Nadi Yahoo and Trump should be
Speaker 9: given that credit buying their controversial figures.
Speaker 1: They do that credit.
Speaker 9: And I heard a couple of commentators today and I
Speaker 9: think it's spot on. Comparing US commentators, I should say
Speaker 9: Australian ones would never make this comparison, but comparing that
Speaker 9: moment to Ronald Reagan standing by the Berlin Gate and
Speaker 9: saying to Gorbachev, tear down the wall. And that's what
Speaker 9: the significance of what we've seen from Bibi and from
Speaker 9: Trump and the way they've worked together, the way also
Speaker 9: nedn Yah, because Israel did most of the heavy lifting.
Speaker 9: The way he first dealt with her Mus, then he
Speaker 9: dealt with Hesbela, then when those threats were removed, because
Speaker 9: taking on a run when you've got it's proxy terrorist
Speaker 9: army Hesbela firing rockets over the boarder would have been
Speaker 9: extremely difficult. We've seen the Iron Dome already struggled in
Speaker 9: the weight of the incoming missiles from Tehran. So that
Speaker 9: you know, the strategy I think is just brilliant.
Speaker 2: I know that. Again, there's a lot on You're both
Speaker 2: planning big shows tomorrow. Thank you for coming in tonight,
Speaker 2: Schry before us at o'clock east and tomorrow night and
Speaker 2: remember common sense kicks in at five o'clock with christ Any.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys, Thank you all right. Sophie Ellsworth is
Speaker 2: our colleague and she's joining us right now. In Israel,
Speaker 2: where she has been for the past couple of days,
Speaker 2: and she has seen the reaction. Sophie, love you to
Speaker 2: see you mate, incredible stuff you saw a bit earlier. Today,
Speaker 2: we're literally billboards in the streets of Israel are thanking
Speaker 2: Donald Trump tonight.
Speaker 12: Well, it's really amazing to be here in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 20: And as you can see behind me, there are these
Speaker 20: electronic billboards that have just gone up in the last
Speaker 20: few hours saying thank you, mister President.
Speaker 12: There's a real sense here on the ground of relief.
Speaker 12: In Tel Aviv. People are quite happy.
Speaker 20: It's like a surreal moment, the devastation that they've been
Speaker 20: through in the tragedy that this country.
Speaker 12: Has been through for so long.
Speaker 20: That feels like there's a sense of just we can
Speaker 20: breathe now, we can smile, we can feel okay. I
Speaker 20: saw a man just in the street walking around in
Speaker 20: a President Donald Trump T shirt speaking to people in
Speaker 20: cafes because anything's here, Paula closed. They're relieved, they feel
Speaker 20: like they've got ahead of this, but it is not
Speaker 20: over yet. For we are just waiting here in Tel
Speaker 20: Aviv for that next siren to go off, for those
Speaker 20: next bone alerts to go off. It's very tense here
Speaker 20: and you're just constantly worried. Like I'm standing on this
Speaker 20: freeway now and running through my head is thinking where
Speaker 20: am I going to be able to stop and run
Speaker 20: to a bomb shelter. You're just constantly thinking anything can
Speaker 20: happen here at any moment.
Speaker 2: Interestingly, we're just getting some comments from merkias Starma which
Speaker 2: have happened in the past couple of minutes. I'll turn
Speaker 2: those around in a moment and show everyone. But I
Speaker 2: want to make the most of our little window with
Speaker 2: you here again. I spoke about it with Shari and
Speaker 2: Chris right, But for Australians to understand what happens in
Speaker 2: a daily sense that obviously, because of the physical distance
Speaker 2: between Iran and Israel, there's a little bit of time
Speaker 2: to know how something's coming in, go downstairs? Is it
Speaker 2: basically every building, as Chris said before, it's down to
Speaker 2: the car parks. Give me just a couple of examples
Speaker 2: of just you in the past couple of days. You'll
Speaker 2: be in a random location and it's all people welcome
Speaker 2: off the street. How does it work practically?
Speaker 20: So I was out on location the other day doing
Speaker 20: a story speaking to people who've just lost their homes.
Speaker 20: And the photographer and I were driving through the streets,
Speaker 20: you know, here in Israel, and we heard the sirens
Speaker 20: go off on our phones. It learns go off. We're
Speaker 20: in a moving car. You just see people, Paul.
Speaker 12: They start running.
Speaker 20: They're just running to the nearest house, the nearest location
Speaker 20: where there's a safe room or a bomb shelter. In
Speaker 20: our situation, there was a university that we were close to.
Speaker 20: We had to run into that university. It's very got
Speaker 20: heavy security. Forget all that doors open.
Speaker 12: Gates open. People are rushing you in. Come, come, come.
Speaker 12: You're in these safe rooms, Paul. And you can feel
Speaker 12: the vibration and you can feel it happening under.
Speaker 20: Your feet, and it's not great. You just think, when
Speaker 20: is this going to impact me or the next person.
Speaker 20: You just constantly worried. But today I was down on
Speaker 20: Tel Aviv Beach. I just walked out of my hotel.
Speaker 20: Sure enough, the emergency alert went on my phone. There
Speaker 20: were people out in the ocean swimming. Now they don't
Speaker 20: have their phones on them, but suddenly the loud speakers
Speaker 20: all along Tel Aviv are yelling to people come in
Speaker 20: come in, get out of the ocean quickly, almost like
Speaker 20: what happens in Australia when there's a shark.
Speaker 12: In the ocean. It's an emergency. Get out of there.
Speaker 20: People just running in their swimsuits to the nearest hotel.
Speaker 20: Doesn't matter where they were saying, doesn't matter who they are,
Speaker 20: doesn't matter where they're from.
Speaker 12: Get somewhere saved.
Speaker 2: While we're talking, I'm obviously just checking a bunch of
Speaker 2: other sources and I'm having a look at some of
Speaker 2: the reportage which is coming from our colleagues in the UK,
Speaker 2: and it is showing just basically again a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of one, two story, four story buildings that where all
Speaker 2: the windows have been blown out, essentially the tiles have
Speaker 2: come off roofs, and its matchsticks. You would literally obviously
Speaker 2: know that a bomb has gone off. But because of
Speaker 2: what you've just talked about, we're not talking about those
Speaker 2: casualty numbers. Again. As a visitor to a country like
Speaker 2: that at this extreme time, the emotional impact would be obvious.
Speaker 2: But if you get a chance to talk to a local,
Speaker 2: what do they talk about about this time and about
Speaker 2: the danger to property or they know the division between
Speaker 2: preserving life and danger to property that sometimes people in
Speaker 2: countries like ours don't always see.
Speaker 20: So Paul, this morning I was out in central Tel
Speaker 20: Aviv talking to people on the ground, local Israeli's, Australians,
Speaker 20: even coming up Sky News viewers. We've got in the
Speaker 20: paper tomorrow several people We've spoken to you on the ground,
Speaker 20: locals who.
Speaker 12: Say this is we're nervous.
Speaker 20: While we thank Donald Trump for what he has achieved overnight,
Speaker 20: we are nervous. We're happy, but we're nervous. This is
Speaker 20: not over yet. Cafe was just talking to this morning
Speaker 20: at Barista and he said they just ran into the
Speaker 20: safe room behind the cafe, everyone in there. But then, Paul,
Speaker 20: an hour later, he can walk down the street and
Speaker 20: it's a weird feeling. People are just walking around, kids
Speaker 20: are playing. It almost feels like what happened, nothing happened
Speaker 20: an hour ago. Things can change very quickly here. But
Speaker 20: as I have said on Sky the thing that shines
Speaker 20: through for me is the.
Speaker 12: Resilience of the Israelis.
Speaker 20: They band together, they stick together, and they are going
Speaker 20: to do everything they can to make sure they can
Speaker 20: come out of this as humanly possible unscathed.
Speaker 12: But many people. As we know.
Speaker 20: I've lost property, they've lost family members. The destruction is shocking,
Speaker 20: but there is a sense of hopeful and that's the
Speaker 20: message that I think Israelis really want to to stress
Speaker 20: to me.
Speaker 12: But one thing I will add. There was one man
Speaker 12: at the cafe.
Speaker 20: I said I was an Australian reporter and he was livid.
Speaker 20: He said, your government have done nothing for us and
Speaker 20: he told me to leave. It got very hostile. So
Speaker 20: things can turn here on the ground. As a reporter,
Speaker 20: people can welcome you in as a journalist, and others
Speaker 20: have reacted extremely badly once they know your form Australia.
Speaker 20: And that's just a sense of what is happening from
Speaker 20: my own experience.
Speaker 2: Thank you, mate, what an extraordinary thing. Where over your
Speaker 2: shoulder those signs And then again people should always be
Speaker 2: lovely to Sayphi, she's gorgeous, she's delightful, and she's in
Speaker 2: it for all the right reasons. Mate. Thank you for
Speaker 2: everything you're doing, both print, Internet and telling mate, we
Speaker 2: really really appreciate it all the best. Thanks mate, Thanks Paul,
Speaker 2: didn't you great? The euro of correspondent normally for the company,
Speaker 2: but she is currently in Tel Aviv. In Israel. Alex Rifkin,
Speaker 2: my apologies is from the Australian Council of Jury, and
Speaker 2: he joins us now, sorry Alex about getting titles and
Speaker 2: names wrong, but I'm trying to think about seventey things
Speaker 2: at once. So Alex, nice to see you. Obviously, we've
Speaker 2: seen you over many many months in Australia dealing with
Speaker 2: things like anti Semitism, but obviously as a person who's
Speaker 2: a great student of what's happening around the world. How
Speaker 2: do you feel about the blow that has been struck
Speaker 2: on Iran? How decisive do you feel that it is?
Speaker 21: Well, Paul, I feel like we're living through one of
Speaker 21: the most faithful moments in Jewish history and perhaps in
Speaker 21: world history. And what occurred today was a resounding blow
Speaker 21: by the United States, a spectacular demonstration of US power
Speaker 21: and also the strength of the relationship between Israel and
Speaker 21: the US. It hasn't always appeared that way to go
Speaker 21: to the previous administration, and when Donald Trump returned to
Speaker 21: power and was filling his administration, some were worried about
Speaker 21: some of his choices. But I think it's abundantly clear
Speaker 21: where President Trump stands and whether it's in the course
Speaker 21: of the negotiations of Iran through the into midiary oman
Speaker 21: whether he realized at that point that there that they
Speaker 21: weren't serious, that they were simply using the negotiations to
Speaker 21: creep close and closer to a bomb, or whether he
Speaker 21: knew it all along, but whatever it was as a
Speaker 21: master's stroke, and partly through Israeli daring and power over
Speaker 21: the past twenty months, but particularly last week or so
Speaker 21: in its preliminary strikes against the IRGC, the military and
Speaker 21: nuclear sides and scientists, and now this devastating blow by
Speaker 21: the US. I think they're well on their way to
Speaker 21: redrawing the Middle East and actually ushering in an era
Speaker 21: of peace for the long term.
Speaker 2: We know that part of the rhetorical response from Iran
Speaker 2: is in part to suggest, look, you might have thought
Speaker 2: that this is where everything is, but we've moved it
Speaker 2: all around and there may well be other sites. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't want to ruin that feeling that has been
Speaker 2: building throughout the day of this being a seismic recorrection
Speaker 2: of what's taking place. But how should people take either
Speaker 2: with a grain of salt or as an insight into
Speaker 2: what the other hand may be planning what runs rhetorical response.
Speaker 21: Is here, Well, I think there can be multiple truths
Speaker 21: at once. And on the one hand, I think very
Speaker 21: clearly Iran has been dealt a very devastating blow, and
Speaker 21: not merely in the last twenty four hours, in the
Speaker 21: last few weeks. But you look at what's happened in
Speaker 21: the past twenty months with their proxy armies in Gaza,
Speaker 21: in Lebanon, the SAD regime, this was really the vanguard
Speaker 21: of Iranian power projected abroad and they are now shattered,
Speaker 21: largely through Israeli power. The pager attack against Hasberlava full
Speaker 21: of the SAD regime. What Israel's manat to accomplishing Gaza?
Speaker 21: All of this, But we can't underestimate the regime. This
Speaker 21: is not a proxy force. This is a country of
Speaker 21: ninety million people with a revolutionary regime that's embedded itself
Speaker 21: into every aspect of society. It has a very powerful
Speaker 21: internal militia, the Basiege, which maintains domestic power. It has
Speaker 21: the IRGC which projects to run in power abroad. It
Speaker 21: has a strong military. So this is not the last
Speaker 21: whimp of the Ranian regime. And I think given what
Speaker 21: this regime has done in the past, in terms of
Speaker 21: international terrorism, I think we need to brace ourselves. We
Speaker 21: haven't seen the end of them, but certainly they've been
Speaker 21: dealt a very powerful blow. And looking at Donald Trump's statements,
Speaker 21: the intention is to now compel them, coerce them to negotiate,
Speaker 21: whereas previously they were just playing the world for fools
Speaker 21: and playing them like fiddles. And now they won't be
Speaker 21: allowed to do that any longer.
Speaker 2: See. I'm so glad to hear you talk about that
Speaker 2: and that concept about those multiple truths, because it is
Speaker 2: something that has been dawning on me, something that I've
Speaker 2: been trying to read into, trying to help understand, to
Speaker 2: explain to everyone watching us this evening, that reality of yes,
Speaker 2: has a giant step been taken today? Absolutely? Is it
Speaker 2: the end, of course not. We know that literally runs
Speaker 2: ability to respond and cause damage, as we saw with
Speaker 2: Sophie in Israel is still in existence. The ability potentially
Speaker 2: for other sites to be where other things have been
Speaker 2: taken when it comes to the nuclear program. Absolutely the case.
Speaker 2: But give me an idea about what you're hearing from
Speaker 2: friends and family in Israel about their sense of the
Speaker 2: past twenty four hours in what has been many many
Speaker 2: months and obviously many years of tension.
Speaker 21: Well look, I think Sophie captured it very beautifully in
Speaker 21: her reporting just a few minutes ago. Certainly there's a
Speaker 21: sense of fear and anxiety and terror.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 21: I'm speaking to my best mate who formerly of Bondi,
Speaker 21: Sydney and has lived in israelis at north of Tel
Speaker 21: Aviv for about ten years now. He's got three young
Speaker 21: kids and the attacks happened predominant nights, so they're being
Speaker 21: deprived of sleep night after night. The country's exhausted. They're
Speaker 21: running to bombshelters all the time. You know, my friends
Speaker 21: describing hearing the world of the rockets flying past, and
Speaker 21: then occasionally it doesn't fly past and you hear and
Speaker 21: you feel the impact someone in your media vicinity.
Speaker 17: It's terrifying.
Speaker 21: I've got elderly relatives in high for the north of
Speaker 21: the country who for years lived through hes blah at Tax,
Speaker 21: but this is on a whole different scale in terms
Speaker 21: of the ferocity and sophistication of the weapons. It's terrifying,
Speaker 21: But at the same time, there's a sense in this
Speaker 21: role that they're living through something deeply faithful and significant.
Speaker 21: I can only liken it to London is living through
Speaker 21: the Blitz. They're all rallying together, and I feel like
Speaker 21: what they're enduring, terrible as it is, it is a
Speaker 21: sacrifice in pursuit of a greater good, the defeat of
Speaker 21: a great evil. And they also feel this great kinship
Speaker 21: towards the Iranian people. They have no ill will towards
Speaker 21: them at all. They know that they're the first victims
Speaker 21: of the Iranian regime, and they yearn for a time
Speaker 21: again as a curred pre seventy nine, where the two
Speaker 21: peoples can live in fraternity and they can be pieced
Speaker 21: between them.
Speaker 2: Alex, thank you so much. Again. I'm not wasting time
Speaker 2: tonight by talking too much about the Australian government, its response.
Speaker 2: It's lack of response, it's it's itself out and they've
Speaker 2: removed themselves essentially from the discussion in the issue. But Alex,
Speaker 2: I was pleased to get you on and get your
Speaker 2: perspective as somebody who's been very much available to us,
Speaker 2: very much open and honest about what's been happening in
Speaker 2: that part of the world. Thank you, Alex, I appreciate
Speaker 2: thank you. J all right, all right, let me just
Speaker 2: reset some things here because we're in the middle of
Speaker 2: a two hour edition of Paul Murray Live. Normally, we're
Speaker 2: in the nine o'clock hour in the Eastern States. That
Speaker 2: started a little bit earlier, and we'll be going a
Speaker 2: little bit later, so essentially we'll be moving all the
Speaker 2: way through for about another hour. Why because let me
Speaker 2: set the scene for you about what is happening as
Speaker 2: we speak. Yes, Donald Trump has decided to take out
Speaker 2: those military facilities and go after the nuclear program of Iran,
Speaker 2: where Iran, in the past couple of hours has decided
Speaker 2: to respond by firing even deadly and missiles back towards Israel.
Speaker 2: Right now, it is nine minutes past three in the
Speaker 2: afternoon on a Sunday afternoon in Iran. It is just
Speaker 2: gone twenty minutes to three o'clock in the afternoon in Israel,
Speaker 2: and in the morning in Washington, d C. The reason
Speaker 2: I give you this time at twenty minutes to eight
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning is that at eight o'clock in
Speaker 2: the morning local time, twenty minutes from now in Canberra, Melbourne,
Speaker 2: Sydney and Brisbane that will be the top of the
Speaker 2: next hour. At ten pm, we are due to hear
Speaker 2: from Pete Heigzeth. Pete Heggsseeth is, of course the Defense
Speaker 2: Secretary of the United States. We are due to hear
Speaker 2: from him, and the expectations of what I've been able
Speaker 2: to glean while on the air here is that he
Speaker 2: will be giving a detailed briefing. Now in military terms,
Speaker 2: in news terms, you may well have heard of a
Speaker 2: term called the TikTok That is not the Chinese surveillance app.
Speaker 2: This means what happened at what time and when. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we won't know everything of every base, of every moment,
Speaker 2: because there's a whole bunch of secrecy that both the
Speaker 2: Americans and Israelis would like to keep upon things. But
Speaker 2: we will probably hear about when flights were, maybe some
Speaker 2: refueling potentially, and most likely we may well get some footage.
Speaker 2: There is some satellite images that we're trying to verify,
Speaker 2: which is why I haven't put them up on the
Speaker 2: air for you yet that had been taken over Tehran.
Speaker 2: Just because things turn up on social media does not
Speaker 2: mean they are automatically going to turn up on television.
Speaker 2: We want to make sure that we know what is
Speaker 2: true and is true to show you but that live
Speaker 2: picture right now is of a white house that have
Speaker 2: had a very big few hours. Kiyostama is the United
Speaker 2: Kingdom's Prime Minister and he is one of many world
Speaker 2: leaders to respond. But before I get to him, the
Speaker 2: breaking news is that China has had a reaction to
Speaker 2: all of this put simply Iran much closer to Russia.
Speaker 2: Their foreign minister is actually on his way to Russia
Speaker 2: to meet with the Russian President, as Chris Kenny and
Speaker 2: Sherry Markham were referring to before. Apart from all of
Speaker 2: the obvious difficulties and complications there, the issue is that
Speaker 2: if Vladimir Putin is some sort of a go between
Speaker 2: between Israel, the United States and Iran, that's one thing,
Speaker 2: but of course there is a want from the United
Speaker 2: States to get Russia and Ukraine to a position of peace,
Speaker 2: so multiple issues there. On top of all of that
Speaker 2: is again the situation playing out when it comes to China,
Speaker 2: who have previously said that they have a loyalty to
Speaker 2: helping Russia and of course an affinity to what is
Speaker 2: happening in Iran and Iran. So the Chinese Foreign Ministry
Speaker 2: has just released a statement forgive me the glasses come
Speaker 2: on and off during breaking news, but it is said
Speaker 2: here that it strongly condemns what's taken place. China calls
Speaker 2: on all parties in the conflict, especially Israel, to cease
Speaker 2: fire as soon as possible. That is the statement from China.
Speaker 1: Russia.
Speaker 2: We hear from them in the next little while, as
Speaker 2: the Iranian Foreign minister. While missiles are being lobbed from
Speaker 2: Iran into Israel, which is why you can see the
Speaker 2: pictures that you currently do there. The reason you don't
Speaker 2: hear about death and destruction is because people go straight
Speaker 2: into the basement, and because of the proximity of quite
Speaker 2: a period of time that it were taken missile to
Speaker 2: go from Oran to Israel, they get enough warning to
Speaker 2: be able to go downstairs. But as I said, Keirstarmer
Speaker 2: is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, his defense
Speaker 2: officials were confirming in the past year hour or so
Speaker 2: that they were informed that the bombs were on their
Speaker 2: way before they landed. Now, whether that was before the
Speaker 2: order was given, but that of course was many hours
Speaker 2: before the bombs hit, or between when the order was
Speaker 2: given and the bombs landed, we'll all find out together
Speaker 2: in the next couple of days, but normally the special
Speaker 2: relationship would mean the United States and the United Kingdom
Speaker 2: in lockstep. Let's see what happens in relation to this
Speaker 2: moment in history.
Speaker 22: We've long had concerns about the Ordian nuclear program and
Speaker 22: been very clear that Dran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 22: The US has now taken action to alleviate the threat.
Speaker 22: It is important that we now de escalate the situation,
Speaker 22: stabilize the region, and get the parties back around the
Speaker 22: table to negotiate. And I've been speaking with international leaders
Speaker 22: this morning to that end. So I want to reassure
Speaker 22: the British public that we're doing everything we can to
Speaker 22: stabilize the situation, to de escalate the situation and to
Speaker 22: get to a negotiated outcome. But I'm very clear in
Speaker 22: my own mind that around cannot be allowed to have
Speaker 22: a nuclear weapon. That is the greatest threat to stability
Speaker 22: in the region.
Speaker 2: All right, let's just be joined by two new guests
Speaker 2: who've got plenty to say about what has happened in
Speaker 2: the part of the while former Ambassador of Australia to Israel,
Speaker 2: Dave Sharma, of course, a Senator for New South Wales
Speaker 2: in the Federal Parliament and John Roscombe has been very patient,
Speaker 2: not just waiting to work out what he's going to
Speaker 2: be doing for the IPA or riding in the financial Review,
Speaker 2: but listening along with everyone at home, but one of
Speaker 2: the big brains of our country. Normally we'd be talking
Speaker 2: about all sorts of issues, but there's only one we'll
Speaker 2: focus on tonight. Dave, your response to the government's response
Speaker 2: which seems to be very close to countries like Saudi
Speaker 2: Arabia and China, which is the conversation about de escalation
Speaker 2: rather than recognizing the enormity of the United States action
Speaker 2: in the past twenty four hours.
Speaker 23: Look, I've been a little confused by the government response
Speaker 23: and generally speaking by the absence of the government on
Speaker 23: there's something. People in Australia want to know what their
Speaker 23: government thinks and do they support the action the United
Speaker 23: States has taken or not. Now, you know, no one
Speaker 23: ever wants to seek conflict to all war, but I
Speaker 23: think we've reached the point where the ran nuclear ambitions,
Speaker 23: the failure of nuclear talks, that other steps had to
Speaker 23: be taken to preventer around from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 23: The United States has taken those. Israel has taken those
Speaker 23: as well, and that's not something that we should be
Speaker 23: shoying away from what hazardant about here in Australia.
Speaker 2: John, your thoughts on what's happened in the past twenty
Speaker 2: four hours and again, now Australia thankfully is not in
Speaker 2: the middle of these things, which means we've all had
Speaker 2: a very peaceful weekend. But we have an opportunity to
Speaker 2: be part of the national conversation, part of the decision
Speaker 2: making process. We know that our Prime Minister couldn't get
Speaker 2: FaceTime with the President. Instead, he went back to deal
Speaker 2: with this situation. While doing it, of course, he whacked
Speaker 2: up two flagpoles either side of the White House, so
Speaker 2: his time wasn't completely busy. We also expect in the
Speaker 2: next fifteen minutes to hear from the US Defense Secretary,
Speaker 2: but again the Australian impact into all of this. While
Speaker 2: we have a look at some of the pictures of
Speaker 2: the announcement which is due to come in from the Pentagon.
Speaker 2: That's the picture we're working like clockwork. Obviously very interesting
Speaker 2: to note that to the right of your TV screen
Speaker 2: or mobile wherever you're watching us right now, you will
Speaker 2: be able to see that plasma screen. That means they're
Speaker 2: going to be showing some not just maps, maybe photos,
Speaker 2: maybe video, and not one but two podiums. All of
Speaker 2: that fascinating deceit all right, John, enough intro your response.
Speaker 24: Well, Paul, as you've been talking about tonight, the consequences
Speaker 24: of what's happened.
Speaker 11: We will know in months and years. The President has
Speaker 11: said the operation was successful. We hope it was.
Speaker 24: And as the Senator just pointed out, we've been shown
Speaker 24: up by the rest.
Speaker 11: Of the world. When Kiir Starmer can be more.
Speaker 24: Supportive of US operations than the Australian government, we have
Speaker 24: a very big challenge. It wasn't necessary, perhaps for the
Speaker 24: Prime Minister to explicitly endorse the US actions, but at
Speaker 24: least implicitly acknowledging that Iran can't have nuclear weapons, and
Speaker 24: it's not a position that the Prime Minister or Pennywong
Speaker 24: can take, and they are out of step with democratic
Speaker 24: opinion around the world.
Speaker 2: But obviously, Senator, the theory would be here that any
Speaker 2: and anything to do with Donald Trump is going to
Speaker 2: be politically toxic. So therefore, if your default position is
Speaker 2: to somehow be at the very least skeptical or very
Speaker 2: very late to the party that only works for their
Speaker 2: standing in Australia.
Speaker 23: Look, I think that's possibly Rdaman. I think that's struggled
Speaker 23: to mature beyond the student union mindset in approaching international
Speaker 23: issues like this. I mean, throughout their calls to action,
Speaker 23: if you like, have been completely at odds with the
Speaker 23: reality on the ground, whether it was the call for
Speaker 23: Israel and Iran to have direct dialogue when the two
Speaker 23: countries have not spoken for forty five years, Iran does
Speaker 23: not recognize Israel, the calls for de escalation, even this
Speaker 23: morning from Richard Marles. I mean, I think that's so
Speaker 23: focused on process that they've lost sort of outcome here
Speaker 23: and what is it that's in Australia's national interest And
Speaker 23: it's clearly in Australia's national interests in Iran that it
Speaker 23: is no longer able to terrorize, harm and destabilize its neighbors.
Speaker 2: But also, John, let's let's be honest here, and for
Speaker 2: many Australians right, the sense of maybe twenty years ago,
Speaker 2: the sense of for one of a better term good
Speaker 2: and evil has been complicated by the experiences of what
Speaker 2: happened when it came to Iraq and Afghanistan. I know
Speaker 2: that plays out in the United States in terms of
Speaker 2: the Forever Wars, a lot of things to do with that.
Speaker 2: There's also a great deal of emotional complexity in and
Speaker 2: around Gaza about what's proportional, what's too much. And this
Speaker 2: falling on top of all of that is that, in
Speaker 2: part not necessarily what the government, but what many average
Speaker 2: Australians when trying to think about all of this, that
Speaker 2: it's all in one pot, when the reality is that, yeah, okay, maybe,
Speaker 2: but there are very individual things that you can have
Speaker 2: complex opinions about.
Speaker 24: Look, that's exactly right, Paul, and I think there's a
Speaker 24: few other things.
Speaker 11: We tend to personalize.
Speaker 24: The relationship with the United States our most important ally,
Speaker 24: So if there's someone like Obama, we like America.
Speaker 11: If it's someone like Trump, we don't. But you said
Speaker 11: something really important.
Speaker 24: I think we've tended to relativize good and evil. And
Speaker 24: for me as an Australian, my parents came to Australia
Speaker 24: after the Second World War, for me as an Australian
Speaker 24: to see the reaction of so many Australians to what
Speaker 24: happened on the seventh of October in Israel to see
Speaker 24: a reaction that didn't recognize evil, that didn't recognize Sometimes
Speaker 24: actions need to be taken that are not ideal, but
Speaker 24: necessary to defend people and countries. That to me showed
Speaker 24: an Australia that I don't recognize, and I think increasingly
Speaker 24: many Australians don't recognize. And this is another example of
Speaker 24: how we've tended to perhaps lose our moral compass.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again, Senator, the reality is that compared to
Speaker 2: where we were twenty years ago, thirty years ago, many
Speaker 2: Australians watching events like this may well not know a
Speaker 2: single person from any of the countries of which we
Speaker 2: are talking about, But twenty thirty years later they could
Speaker 2: be colleagues, friends, fellow Australians. That's really important too in
Speaker 2: all of this, right, because again, we don't want anyone,
Speaker 2: regardless of whatever side, all the rest of it ancient conflicts,
Speaker 2: to come here. We want people to have the experience
Speaker 2: that many people have had for many decades, which is,
Speaker 2: regardless of where you come from, you turn up here
Speaker 2: and you go, how good's this joint? Great? What can
Speaker 2: I do to help?
Speaker 8: All?
Speaker 2: Right? But this is part of again the emotional response
Speaker 2: the media response, the political response is that again, it's
Speaker 2: not the other side of the world. It is obviously physically,
Speaker 2: but it's not emotionally. For an awful lot of people,
Speaker 2: regardless of where in and around that map people have
Speaker 2: friends or family all were from.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 23: Look, that's very true, bull and it's an immensely complicated
Speaker 23: part of the world. And even just since the seventh
Speaker 23: of October. I mean, if you're in Australian and you've
Speaker 23: been following the news, you've had the hamas Terrists attacks, Israel's.
Speaker 2: War and Ghazi.
Speaker 23: You've had a war between Israel and Hezbela and Lebanon.
Speaker 23: You've had the booties blocking shipping in the Red Sea.
Speaker 23: You've had the regime of Bashar al Assadful. Now you've
Speaker 23: got this thing in Iran happening. It's pretty hard to
Speaker 23: stay in breast of what's going on. And I don't,
Speaker 23: you know, I don't I completely understand many Australians think
Speaker 23: this is just another chapter in what seems to be
Speaker 23: a region that's in that's in conflict. But I think
Speaker 23: that's why it's important to you know, it's why it
Speaker 23: would be good to hear from the government about this,
Speaker 23: about where do Australia's national interests slide. How do we
Speaker 23: see this conflict? And frankly, I mean, yes, we should
Speaker 23: be speaking about it, we should be analyzing this, but
Speaker 23: you know, we don't want to be importing this conflict either.
Speaker 23: We don't need people to be picking sides or joining
Speaker 23: a team or anything else like that. We all need
Speaker 23: to be on Australia side and saying, you know, this
Speaker 23: is where Australia's national interests slide. This is how Australia
Speaker 23: should be approaching and is seeing this issue.
Speaker 2: When we started this broadcast, the best part of it
Speaker 2: ninety minutes ago, I said that one of the things
Speaker 2: that mattered was how Iran responds. Now, Iran has lifted
Speaker 2: the amount and type of ordinance that they're throwing towards Israel.
Speaker 2: Two maps that are really worth talking about here. One
Speaker 2: is the United States and where it has much of
Speaker 2: its defenses, bases or ships, soldiers, all types of people
Speaker 2: in their defense force. Those are the red dots are
Speaker 2: about to show you. Those are the red dots in
Speaker 2: and around places like as you can see places like
Speaker 2: Kuwait very close to Iran. Now I want to show
Speaker 2: you the second one, which is there's a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of military ordinance that don't make it all the way
Speaker 2: to Israel. We know that they have been pummeling Israel
Speaker 2: and sending plenty of things their way, but the stuff
Speaker 2: that they haven't been using to go that far, they'd
Speaker 2: be able to hit a lot of those little red dots,
Speaker 2: which of course are wear the Americans currently are on
Speaker 2: top of that, they have the capacity, as you can
Speaker 2: see there in the bottom of the map, you can
Speaker 2: see how there's like a little sort of snaggle tooth. Well,
Speaker 2: that very small area is vital to the world shipping lanes,
Speaker 2: and if Iran wanted to do a thing to disrupt that,
Speaker 2: there would be major issues. Interestingly, because it is on
Speaker 2: the weekend, because we don't know what Iran's response has been.
Speaker 2: The price of oil has only increased by about fifty
Speaker 2: cents globally, But john of what Iran does now we
Speaker 2: know that sleeper cells are all the way around the world,
Speaker 2: or our kaider on their behalf may well decide to
Speaker 2: pick up arms. But what do you think about that
Speaker 2: very small patch of land, a very small bit of
Speaker 2: the sea that could cause havoc for the world, And
Speaker 2: it's not about necessarily firing shots, it's about slowing down ships.
Speaker 24: Well, it absolutely could, Paul, and this is why it's
Speaker 24: going to be weeks and months before we know all
Speaker 24: the consequences. So you've spoken about the potential impact on
Speaker 24: the price of oil, this speculation that this conflict could
Speaker 24: cause world stop markets to drop by some ten percent.
Speaker 11: So we'll see what happens tomorrow on the ASX.
Speaker 24: This has got many different dimensions to it, and we're
Speaker 24: going to have to understand and hope that Iran understands
Speaker 24: it can't win in this situation. As you've identified from
Speaker 24: that map, America can project.
Speaker 11: Overwhelming force into that region.
Speaker 24: The challenge for the Americans is it might potentially be
Speaker 24: committed to two other theaters as well well.
Speaker 2: And that's the issue too, very correct, right, which is
Speaker 2: that we are talking about all sorts of things from
Speaker 2: Taiwan all the way through to Ukraine and obviously these
Speaker 2: parts of the Middle East. But again, it's not about
Speaker 2: speculating for the sake of it, David, It's about trying
Speaker 2: to bring people into the conversation about not just why
Speaker 2: it matters, but what those potential consequences are. Again, we're
Speaker 2: waiting to hear from the US Defense Secretary as soon
Speaker 2: as he starts speaking, will interrupt whatever's taking place here.
Speaker 2: But how Iran responds vitally important, isn't it here, because
Speaker 2: that's the conversation about whether we go to the whole
Speaker 2: new level, and then how America responds to Iran's response,
Speaker 2: and then the story of the Middle East is response
Speaker 2: to response to response to response.
Speaker 23: Yeah, I think that's the big unknown at this point, Fallen. Look,
Speaker 23: I think Iran has a number of options here. Obviously,
Speaker 23: they're continuing to find missiles at Israel, but there are
Speaker 23: significant concentrations of US forces and personnel in the region,
Speaker 23: whether it's Bahrain, Qatar, in Kuwait, even in places like Iraq.
Speaker 23: But there's also commercial shipping, so there's the straighter for moves,
Speaker 23: which carries a lot of the world's oil traffic. But
Speaker 23: there's also the Babble Munda, which leads into the Red
Speaker 23: Sea and the Suez Canal. Now, if Iran chooses to
Speaker 23: seek to disrupt shipping or attack US forces, I think
Speaker 23: it will invite a response in turn, and that will
Speaker 23: probably pose a risk to the survival of the Iranian
Speaker 23: leadership and the regime. And I think that's what they'll
Speaker 23: be weighing up. They've got their nation's interest, but they
Speaker 23: also have regime survival interests if you like, and you
Speaker 23: can they keep the Islamic Republic of Iran going. And
Speaker 23: so I don't know if we'll ness necessarily see a response.
Speaker 23: Certainly we should be prepared for it. Certainly, I think
Speaker 23: the US has assets in place and has increased hardening
Speaker 23: measures to deal with that. And certainly our advice to
Speaker 23: travelers and Australians in the region is to be mindful
Speaker 23: of those risks. But I think we need to see
Speaker 23: what unfold, and I think Iran will need to be
Speaker 23: weighing this up very carefully.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just before I ask John and another question, can
Speaker 2: we go to the full shot of what's happening there
Speaker 2: with the Pentagon, because I just want to go through
Speaker 2: again some of the detail that we're starting to see here.
Speaker 2: You can see television screen potentially, that's where we're going
Speaker 2: to see maps and video. They love a prop in
Speaker 2: American politics and certainly the discussions in and around military operations.
Speaker 2: That's what you can see to the right of your
Speaker 2: screen right now. So we're going to see presumably some photos,
Speaker 2: some maps, potentially some video. John, again, the difficulty for
Speaker 2: the Trump administration in particular was the want to not
Speaker 2: be involved in an Iraq or in Afghanistan. The expectation
Speaker 2: and the statements from the president essentially are this was
Speaker 2: one and done. Do you expect that sort of a
Speaker 2: message to be heard from these podiums that look, we've
Speaker 2: done what we've done and we have no plans to
Speaker 2: do anything else or they always have to leave a
Speaker 2: door open somewhere.
Speaker 24: That's a key question, and the so called magabase, as
Speaker 24: you know Paul, has been split on this. The thing
Speaker 24: for Americans to understand and us in Australia to know
Speaker 24: is that the unbridled trust that we had in American
Speaker 24: decision making and their capacity to undertake regime change and
Speaker 24: build democracies, as you identified at the beginning of this discussion,
Speaker 24: has been challenged. The American ability to build nations hasn't
Speaker 24: been overwhelmingly successful. So that is something that I think
Speaker 24: Australians and Americans and people around the world understand. And
Speaker 24: as many people have said, the irony of Donald Trump
Speaker 24: being an America first president ending forever wars and he
Speaker 24: said he'd end the Ukraine War quickly he said he'd
Speaker 24: fix the Middle East.
Speaker 11: None of those two things have happened.
Speaker 24: And I think you're right that Donald Trump may well
Speaker 24: have to leave the door open to further action, which
Speaker 24: will then encourage further debate in the US and even
Speaker 24: debates on the floor of the Congress as to whether
Speaker 24: he needs to declare war or not. So this has
Speaker 24: been a purely defensive action, but that's a very live
Speaker 24: discussion in the US as well, which he has done
Speaker 24: this without congressional approval well, and to that question too,
Speaker 24: And I know that we're very close to this key
Speaker 24: news moment in understanding, so I won't.
Speaker 2: Overstep too far. But I've got to say, as somebody
Speaker 2: who's been Trump lived for pro Trump on the train,
Speaker 2: off the train, whatever, the Forever Wars part was actually
Speaker 2: quite significant to me. So I'm desperately concerned about Okay,
Speaker 2: will come in and help, but certainly not a boots
Speaker 2: on the ground scenario. But obviously, as Israel was able
Speaker 2: to show to the ability to knock out any air defense,
Speaker 2: essentially meant that they didn't need any of that, and
Speaker 2: it was obviously able to happen from the flyover. But
Speaker 2: interesting to note that somebody who was sort of chief
Speaker 2: amongst those discussing things like Forever Wars in Steve Bannon
Speaker 2: on his variety of broadcasts which nobody should convince themselves
Speaker 2: or anything other than pretty significant about an insight into
Speaker 2: the magaland he was starting to bend the knee. And
Speaker 2: why wouldn't he, Because of course there's what three and
Speaker 2: a half years left of a presidency, and certainly many
Speaker 2: of those people know proximity two power is what in
Speaker 2: part brings attention to them. Let me reset here again.
Speaker 2: We're at the top of the hour in the East
Speaker 2: coast of Australia, which is right now just ten pm.
Speaker 2: It has just gone eight am in Washington, DC. What
Speaker 2: you're about to see on your screen is the Defense
Speaker 2: Secretary of the United States, Pete Hegzeth, who will be
Speaker 2: joined by a general who was the person responsible for
Speaker 2: the nuts and bolts of the hitting of the Iranian
Speaker 2: nuclear assets. His name is General Dan Cain. He will
Speaker 2: be joining the Defense Secretary to explain for the detail
Speaker 2: of exactly what took place in and around I'm going
Speaker 2: to say brunch time Australian time, and then on its
Speaker 2: way in towards lunchtime, and this afternoon and this evening.
Speaker 2: In terms of reaction, as soon as they appear at
Speaker 2: the lecterns again, they will either be military precise, or
Speaker 2: like many things to do in breaking news environments, they
Speaker 2: could be many minutes late. Either way, we will make
Speaker 2: sure that we remain commercial free, to make sure that
Speaker 2: the second that they appear, we will be in that conversation.
Speaker 2: We're also going to be joined by former British Commander
Speaker 2: Richard Kemp. We're currently in conversation with John Roscombe from
Speaker 2: the IPA. You can also read his stuff in the
Speaker 2: Financial Review. One of the great free thinkers of our country.
Speaker 2: Speaking of Dave Sharman, former Ambassador of Australia to Israel
Speaker 2: and Liberal Senator for New South Wales. Now, in terms
Speaker 2: of Iran and its response, it already has, for want
Speaker 2: of a better term, taken up a certain type of
Speaker 2: arms towards Australia, Dave, and that is cyber attacks. Literally,
Speaker 2: there are thousands and thousands of them that happen each
Speaker 2: and every day. We know that state actors like Iran,
Speaker 2: North Korea and China are principally the ones that are
Speaker 2: often identified for everything from literally hacking into the maps
Speaker 2: of the AS headquarters from years ago, all the way
Speaker 2: through to the computer systems at Parliament House. So in
Speaker 2: many ways, if people are going to say again it's
Speaker 2: over there, who cares. That's no responsible person's position. But
Speaker 2: the reality is is that the Iranian cyber fingers stretch
Speaker 2: across the world.
Speaker 23: They do, Paul, I mean the extraterritorial activities, whether it's
Speaker 23: cyber attacks, but it's also sometimes fundraising recruitment, you know,
Speaker 23: indoctrination that Iran and the state arms have done is
Speaker 23: quart remarkable.
Speaker 2: I mean sorry, sorry, Sanada pet Haggsath is the Defense
Speaker 2: Secretary in the United States. He speaks now about the operation.
Speaker 2: We all live in Washington here on scot News, so thank.
Speaker 13: You for joining us this morning. Last night, on President
Speaker 13: Trump's orders, US Central Command conducted a precision strike in
Speaker 13: the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in
Speaker 13: Iran for doah Ntans and Esfahan in order to destroy
Speaker 13: or severely degrade Iran's nuclear program. And as the Chairman
Speaker 13: of the Joint Chiefs will demonstrate, it was an incredible
Speaker 13: and overwhelming success.
Speaker 2: The order we.
Speaker 13: Received from our Commander in chief was focused, it was powerful,
Speaker 13: and it was clear, we devastated the Iranian nuclear program,
Speaker 13: but it's worth noting the operation did not target Iranian
Speaker 13: troops of the Iranian people. For the entirety of his
Speaker 13: time in office, President Trump has consistently stated for over
Speaker 13: ten years that Iran must not get a nuclear weapon
Speaker 13: full stop. Thanks to President Trump's bold and visionary leadership
Speaker 13: and his commitment to peace through strength, Iran's nuclear ambitions
Speaker 13: have been obliterated. Many presidents have dreamed of delivering the
Speaker 13: final blow to Iran's nuclear program, and none could until
Speaker 13: President Trump. The operation President Trump planned was bold and
Speaker 13: it was brilliant, showing the world that American deterrence is back.
Speaker 13: When this president speaks, the world should listen, and the
Speaker 13: US military can back it up, the most powerful military
Speaker 13: the world has ever known. No other country on planet
Speaker 13: Earth could have conducted the operation that the Chairman is
Speaker 13: going to outline this morning. Not even close. Just like
Speaker 13: Solimani found out in the first term, Iran found out.
Speaker 13: When Potus says sixty days that he seeks peace and negotiation,
Speaker 13: he means sixty days of peace and negotiation. Otherwise that
Speaker 13: nuclear program, that uclear capability will not exist. He meant it.
Speaker 13: This is not the previous administration. The President Trump said
Speaker 13: no nukes. He seeks peace, and Iran should take that path.
Speaker 13: He sent out a truth last night saying this, any
Speaker 13: retaliation by Iran against the United States of America will
Speaker 13: be met with force far greater than what was witnessed tonight,
Speaker 13: Signed the President of the United States, Donald J.
Speaker 2: Trump.
Speaker 13: Iran would be smart to heed those words. He said
Speaker 13: it before and he means it. I want to give
Speaker 13: recognition to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Staff, the
Speaker 13: Joint Staff, General Eric Carilla at CENTCOM, who did a
Speaker 13: phenomenal job. He and his staff, all of SENTCOM policy
Speaker 13: across the board. This was a joint effort and across
Speaker 13: the Pentagon effort. I want to recognize the pilots who
Speaker 13: flew those bombers, who flew those fighters, who flew those refuelers, Warriors.
Speaker 13: I want to recognize the sailors on those destroyers, in
Speaker 13: those subs, on those carriers, warriors, all of them. I
Speaker 13: want to recognize our soldiers doing Air Defense defense QRF warriors,
Speaker 13: all of them. Every American involved in this operation performed flawlessly.
Speaker 13: And I want to give recognition to our allies in
Speaker 13: Israel as well. This is a plan that took months
Speaker 13: and weeks of positioning and preparation so that we could
Speaker 13: be ready when the President of the United States called
Speaker 13: It took a great deal of precision. It involved misdirection
Speaker 13: and the highest of operational security. Our B twos went
Speaker 13: in and out of downtown Tehran, Tehran, excuse me of
Speaker 13: these nuclear sites, in and out and back without the
Speaker 13: world knowing at all. In that way, it was historic,
Speaker 13: a strike that included the longest B two spirit bomber
Speaker 13: mission since two thousand and one and the first operational
Speaker 13: employment of the mop A massive ordinance penetrator. The mission
Speaker 13: demonstrated to the world the level of joint and allied
Speaker 13: integration that speak to the strength of our alliance and
Speaker 13: our joint forces. As President Trump has stated, the United
Speaker 13: States does not war, but let me be clear, we
Speaker 13: will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners,
Speaker 13: or our interests are threatened. Iran should listen to the
Speaker 13: President the United States and know that he means it
Speaker 13: every word. I want to give congratulations to our commander
Speaker 13: in chief. It was an honor to watch him lead
Speaker 13: last night and throughout, and to our great American warriors
Speaker 13: on this successful operation. God bless our troops, God bless America,
Speaker 13: and we give glory to God for his providence and
Speaker 13: continue to ask for his protection. I turn it over
Speaker 13: now to the Chairman for specifics.
Speaker 25: Thank you, Miss strick Terry, thanks for recognizing all of
Speaker 25: our folks out there doing our nation's work, and nice
Speaker 25: to see everybody on this early Sunday morning. Last night,
Speaker 25: on the President's orders, US Central Command, under the command
Speaker 25: of General Eric Kirilla, executed Operation Midnight Hammer, a deliberate
Speaker 25: and precise strike against three Iranian nuclear facilities. This was
Speaker 25: a complex and high risk mission carried out with exceptional
Speaker 25: skill and disciplined by our joint force. I want to
Speaker 25: thank every service member, planner, operator that made this mission possible.
Speaker 25: Their actions reflect the highest standards of the United States
Speaker 25: Armed Forces. This operation was designed to severely degrade RAN's
Speaker 25: nuclear weapons infrastructure. It was planned and executed across multiple
Speaker 25: domains and theaters with coordination that reflects our ability to
Speaker 25: project power globally with speed and precision. At the time
Speaker 25: and place of our nation's choosing, this was a highly
Speaker 25: classified mission, with very few people in Washington knowing the
Speaker 25: timing or nature of this plan. I'll refer you to
Speaker 25: the graphic on the side as I walk you through
Speaker 25: some of the operational details. At midnight Friday into Saturday morning,
Speaker 25: a large B two strike package comprised of bombers launched
Speaker 25: from the continental United States as part of a plan
Speaker 25: to maintain tactical surprise. Part of the package proceeded to
Speaker 25: the west and into the Pacific as a decoy, a
Speaker 25: deception effort known only to an extremely small number of
Speaker 25: planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa.
Speaker 25: The main strike package, comprised of seven B two Spirit bombers,
Speaker 25: each with two crew members, proceeded quietly to the east
Speaker 25: with minimal communications. Throughout the eighteen hour flight into the
Speaker 25: target area, the aircraft completed multiple inflight refuelings. Once over land,
Speaker 25: the B twos linked up with escort and support aircraft
Speaker 25: in a complex, lightly timed maneuver requiring exact synchronization across
Speaker 25: multiple platforms in a narrow piece of airspace, all done
Speaker 25: with minimal communications. This type of integration is exactly what
Speaker 25: our Joint Force does better than anyone else in the world.
Speaker 25: At approximately five pm Eastern Standard time last night, and
Speaker 25: just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a US
Speaker 25: submarine in the Central Command Area of responsibility launched more
Speaker 25: than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key
Speaker 25: surface infrastructure targets at Esfahan. As the Operation Midnight Hammer
Speaker 25: strike package entered Iranian airspace, the US employed several deception tactics,
Speaker 25: including decoys as the fourth and fifth generation aircraft pushed
Speaker 25: out in front of the strike package at high altitude
Speaker 25: and high speed, keeping in front of the package for
Speaker 25: enemy fighters and surface to air missile threats. The strike
Speaker 25: package was supported by US Strategic Command, US Transportation Command,
Speaker 25: US Cyber Command, US Space Command, US Space Force, and
Speaker 25: US European Command. As the strike package approached for DOEU
Speaker 25: and NATANCE, the US protection package employed high speed suppression
Speaker 25: weapons to ensure safe passage of the strike package, with
Speaker 25: fighter assets employing preemptive suppressing fires against any potential Iranian
Speaker 25: surface to air threats. We are currently unaware of any
Speaker 25: shots fired at the US strike package on the way in.
Speaker 25: At approximately six forty pm Eastern Standard time two ten
Speaker 25: am a RAN time, the lead B two dropped two
Speaker 25: GBU fifty seven massive ordnance penetrator weapons on the first
Speaker 25: of several aim points at four doh. As the President
Speaker 25: stated last night, the remaining bombers then hit their targets
Speaker 25: as well, with a total of fourteen mops dropped against
Speaker 25: two nuclear target areas. All three Iranian nuclear infrastructure targets
Speaker 25: were struck between six forty pm and seven ZHO five
Speaker 25: pm Eastern Time. Again, that's about two ten in the
Speaker 25: morning local time in Iran, with the Tomahawk missiles being
Speaker 25: the last to strike at Esfahan. To ensure we retain
Speaker 25: the element of surprise throughout the operation. Following weapons release,
Speaker 25: the midnight hammer Strike package exited Iranian airspace and the
Speaker 25: package began its return home. We are unaware of any
Speaker 25: shots fired at the package on the way out. Iran's
Speaker 25: fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran's surface
Speaker 25: to air missile systems did not see us. Throughout the mission,
Speaker 25: we retained the element of surprise. In total, US forces
Speaker 25: employed approximately seventy five precision guide of weapons during this operation.
Speaker 25: This included, as the President stated last night, fourteen thirty
Speaker 25: thousand pounds GBU fifty seven massive ordnance penetrators, marking the
Speaker 25: first ever operational use of this weapon. I know that
Speaker 25: battle damage is of great interest. Final battle damage will
Speaker 25: take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that
Speaker 25: all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction. More
Speaker 25: than one hundred and twenty five US aircraft participated in
Speaker 25: this mission, including B two stealth bombers, multiple flights of
Speaker 25: fourth and fifth generation fighters, dozens and dozens of air
Speaker 25: refueling tankers, a guided missile submarine, and a full array
Speaker 25: of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as hundreds
Speaker 25: of maintenance and operational professionals. As this Secretary said, this
Speaker 25: was those largest B two operational strike in US history
Speaker 25: and the second longest B two mission ever flown, exceeded
Speaker 25: only by those in the days following nine to eleven.
Speaker 25: Well prior to the strike, General Carilla elevated force protection
Speaker 25: measures across the region, especially in Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf.
Speaker 25: Our forces remain on high alert and are fully postured
Speaker 25: to respond to any Iranian retaliation or proxy attacks, which
Speaker 25: would be an incredibly poor choice. We will defend ourselves.
Speaker 25: Safety of our service members and civilians remains our highest priority.
Speaker 25: This mission demonstrates the unmatched reach coordination and capability and
Speaker 25: capability of the United States Military. In just a matter
Speaker 25: of weeks, this went from strategic planning to global execution.
Speaker 25: This operation underscores the unmatched capabilities and global reach of
Speaker 25: the United States military. As the President clearly said last night,
Speaker 25: no other in the no other military in the world,
Speaker 25: could have done this. I joined the President and the
Speaker 25: Secretary and being incredibly proud of the air crews, naval forces,
Speaker 25: cyber operators, planners and support teams and commanders who made
Speaker 25: this mission possible. It is their skill, discipline, and teammate
Speaker 25: teamwork that makes this operation possible. I am particularly proud
Speaker 25: of our discipline related to operational security, something that was
Speaker 25: of great concern to the President, the Secretary, General, Carilla,
Speaker 25: and me, and we will continue to focus on this.
Speaker 25: As we stand here this morning, many assets are still
Speaker 25: airborne and we have hundreds deployed. I asked that we
Speaker 25: keep our war fighters on their way home and our
Speaker 25: deployed service member in our thoughts. Our joint Force remains
Speaker 25: ready to defend the United States, our troops, and our
Speaker 25: interests in the region. Thank you very much.
Speaker 13: We will take a few questions them.
Speaker 16: Yeah, so is regime change off the table, mister Secretary
Speaker 16: and to the chairman, you know you said the battle
Speaker 16: damage assessment is still ongoing, but do you believe that
Speaker 16: some nuclear capability in Iran remains?
Speaker 13: This mission was not and has not been, about regime change.
Speaker 13: The President authorized a precision operation to neutralize the threats
Speaker 13: to our national interests posed by the Iranian nuclear program
Speaker 13: and the collective self defense of our troops and our
Speaker 13: ally Israel.
Speaker 25: Thanks for your question. I think BDA is still pending
Speaker 25: and it would be way too early for me to
Speaker 25: comment on what may or may not still be there.
Speaker 2: But thanks for the question.
Speaker 13: Green Green, no behind you.
Speaker 15: Excuse them, the Secretary, Can you tell me it was
Speaker 15: there a particular moment when the President decided to pull
Speaker 15: the trigger on this operation where he said, now, rather
Speaker 15: than being you know, something in the holes are now,
Speaker 15: We're going to pull the trigger on.
Speaker 13: I would just say, having the opportunity to witness his leadership,
Speaker 13: he was fully committed to the peace process, wanted wanted
Speaker 13: a negotiated outcome, gave Iran every single opportunity and unfortunately
Speaker 13: was met by stonewalling, which is why he gave them
Speaker 13: plenty of time to continue to come to the table
Speaker 13: and give up enrichment, give up the nuclear program. But
Speaker 13: there was a I won't say the particular moment, there
Speaker 13: was certainly a moment in time where he realized, uh
Speaker 13: that it had to be a certain action taken in
Speaker 13: order to minimize the threat to US in our troops.
Speaker 17: Yeah, General, you say that General Carolla increased force protection
Speaker 17: in Iraqs area and go from those areas.
Speaker 3: We were they given any advance warning the attacks were coming,
Speaker 3: and also as a secretary when we're congressional leaders.
Speaker 17: Notified how long before the attacks?
Speaker 25: Your plays sure to you to your first question, you
Speaker 25: know the the risk has clearly been rising over the
Speaker 25: last few weeks in the region. Based on that and
Speaker 25: not a particular awareness of this operation, We've made smart
Speaker 25: decisions to minimize the risk to US forces in the region.
Speaker 17: No advance warning, No.
Speaker 25: Sure, Congress they were.
Speaker 13: They were notified after the planes were safely out, when
Speaker 13: we complied with the notification requirements War Powers Act. They
Speaker 13: were immediately thereafter.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you.
Speaker 17: Two questions.
Speaker 26: We believe you completely destroyed Iranian nuclear program and how
Speaker 26: about Iranian ballasted missiles as I always saying that his
Speaker 26: biggest threat.
Speaker 14: And second question is very important. What will be your
Speaker 14: next step if Iran or militias under Iranian influence from
Speaker 14: the region attack US interests or all eyes.
Speaker 13: In the region, and you can chime in on this too,
Speaker 13: mister Chairman. The battle damage assessment is ongoing, but our
Speaker 13: initial assessment, as the Chairman said, is that all of
Speaker 13: our precision munitions struck where we wanted them to strike
Speaker 13: and had the desired effect, which means, especially in four Doho,
Speaker 13: which was the primary target here, we believe we achieved
Speaker 13: destruction of capabilities there. Ultimately, wherever it may be, whether
Speaker 13: it's in Iraq or Syria or Basis in the Gulf,
Speaker 13: as the President said, it would be or excuse me,
Speaker 13: as the Chairman said, it would be a very bad
Speaker 13: idea for Iran or its proxies to attempt to attack
Speaker 13: American forces.
Speaker 27: Yes, thank you, miss the Secretarier. Regarding retaliations, Iran and
Speaker 27: North Korea are cooperating on your career and missile development.
Speaker 27: Do you think there is a possibility that Iran knows
Speaker 27: Korea and the other forces such as China will join
Speaker 27: forces to retaliate against the United States.
Speaker 13: Well, Unfortunately, because of the policies under the previous administration,
Speaker 13: we drove those countries together, and ultimately that creates a
Speaker 13: challenging environment for this particular operation. The focuses on Iran
Speaker 13: and Iranian nuclear capabilities. That's our focus here is to
Speaker 13: not just say that they can't have but President Trump
Speaker 13: has said from over twenty years, frankly, Iran cannot have
Speaker 13: a nuclear weapon, and ultimately he decided this is the moment,
Speaker 13: given their stonewalling, when direct military action had to be
Speaker 13: taken to prevent that from happening.
Speaker 26: Yes, thank you very much.
Speaker 28: General Kane, I understand obsek I respect on the Act.
Speaker 28: Can you say at all what security procedures are being
Speaker 28: taken to protect US troops in Iraq and elsewhere in
Speaker 28: the Middle East? And Secretary Hegseth as a global war
Speaker 28: on terrorism veteran, what do you say to veterans who
Speaker 28: may be concerned the US is getting into another open
Speaker 28: ended war in the Middle East over weapons.
Speaker 17: Of mass destruction?
Speaker 25: Thanks sir for the question. I won't comment on what
Speaker 25: force protection measures or are being taken in the region.
Speaker 25: What I will say is we're being proactive and not reactive,
Speaker 25: and being very thoughtful about ensuring that we do all
Speaker 25: that we can to protect our forces out there.
Speaker 13: And I would just say, as the President has directed
Speaker 13: and made clear, this is most certainly not open ended.
Speaker 13: It doesn't mean it limits our ability to respond. We
Speaker 13: will respond if necessary. The most powerful military in the
Speaker 13: world is postured and prepared to defend our people. But
Speaker 13: what the President gave us, as I said, was a focused,
Speaker 13: powerful and clear mission on the destruction of Iranian nuclear capabilities.
Speaker 13: Those were the targets. That's what was struck. That was overwhelming.
Speaker 13: That's what was overwhelming. That's what the Iranian regime needs
Speaker 13: to understand. As the President put out last night, he
Speaker 13: wants peace. There needs to be a negotiated settlement here.
Speaker 13: We ultimately demonstrated that Iran cannot have a nuclear capability.
Speaker 13: That is a very clear mission set on this operation. Yes,
Speaker 13: hold on, yes, right.
Speaker 29: There, Thank you, mister secretary. I'm question for the Secretary
Speaker 29: and the chairman. How was this strike coordinated with the
Speaker 29: Israelis on a strategic level, militarily and on a tactical level.
Speaker 29: Was there any direct Israeli military participation in this operation?
Speaker 13: Well, I would say certainly, Israel had an incredible military success,
Speaker 13: especially at the beginning and ongoing in degrading Iranian capabilities,
Speaker 13: degrading Iranian launchers MRBMs. It's been incredible to watch what
Speaker 13: our ally Israel has been able to do, and there
Speaker 13: certainly have been conversations. I mean, General Carilla at sent
Speaker 13: Kam has worked closely in the defense of Israel for
Speaker 13: many years, and part of this operation was the defense
Speaker 13: of visual and the ongoing defense of Israel. But as
Speaker 13: it pertains to this strike, this was US operated in
Speaker 13: US LED.
Speaker 25: We took advantage of some of the preparatory work that's
Speaker 25: been done over the past week and a half in
Speaker 25: terms of access of approach. I won't get into the particulars,
Speaker 25: but as the Secretary said, it was a US strike,
Speaker 25: we made sure we were not in the same piece
Speaker 25: of airspace and sky. Aside from that, that was the
Speaker 25: extent of it.
Speaker 13: We'll take a couple more yeah, right there.
Speaker 30: Question of the Secretary, first, are you concerned whatsoever now
Speaker 30: about the reaction from US allies given the strike, particularly
Speaker 30: those in the Gulf, And to the Chairman, if I may,
Speaker 30: I understand you don't want to speak to specific assets
Speaker 30: force protection measures, but do you anticipate at least having
Speaker 30: to bring in any further assets from other theaters to
Speaker 30: aid and forced protection over the coming days.
Speaker 13: We certainly understand the challenges of allies in the region,
Speaker 13: and we have been respectful and in working in collaboration
Speaker 13: with them as it pertains to basing and sensitivities there. Ultimately,
Speaker 13: they've got a lot of assets and people in those locations,
Speaker 13: also where American troops are co located, So that's a
Speaker 13: consideration of ours. We've been in close consultation with them
Speaker 13: when we appreciate the support that we have got.
Speaker 25: Thanks for the question on sort of the global picture,
Speaker 25: And as you know, that's one of my jobs is
Speaker 25: to look globally at the entire range of challenges. We
Speaker 25: are always carefully considering our force posture around the world
Speaker 25: and then offering options to the Secretary and to the President.
Speaker 25: I won't comment on any future things, but the American
Speaker 25: people should know that we carefully consider those moves around
Speaker 25: the world and try to modulate as needed our force
Speaker 25: structure in the region.
Speaker 13: Yeah, right here, thank you.
Speaker 16: What communications are being sent to the Iranians right now?
Speaker 16: And is there any possibility of diplomacy now we're in
Speaker 16: the coming days.
Speaker 13: I can only confirm that There are both public and
Speaker 13: private messages being directly delivered to the Iranians in multiple channels,
Speaker 13: giving them every opportunity to come to the table. They
Speaker 13: understand precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps
Speaker 13: they can take to allow for peace, and we hope
Speaker 13: they do so. Yes, the President may not want an
Speaker 13: open ended conflict.
Speaker 19: The ira Audians may disagree. Are you prepared for protracting war?
Speaker 13: Well, anything can happen in conflict. We acknowledge that. But
Speaker 13: the scope of this was intentionally limited. That's the message
Speaker 13: that we're sending. With the capabilities of the American military
Speaker 13: nearly unlimited. So Iran in that sense has a choice.
Speaker 13: But we've made it very clear to them. This is
Speaker 13: nuclear sites, this is nuclear capabilities. This is the line
Speaker 13: that the presidents set and we set that back. Now
Speaker 13: is the time to come forward for peace.
Speaker 2: But we I think.
Speaker 13: But one of the takeaways from this as well is
Speaker 13: the unprecedented level of ongoing cooperation. I can't speak highly
Speaker 13: enough of the Chairman and his staff and General Carilla
Speaker 13: Incent what they've done to look around the corner to
Speaker 13: preposition to understand how an operation like this comes together.
Speaker 13: The scope and scale of what occurred last night would
Speaker 13: take the breath away of almost any American if you
Speaker 13: had an opportunity to watch it in real time. And
Speaker 13: I think Taran is certainly calculating the reality that planes
Speaker 13: flew from the middle of America and Missouri overnight completely
Speaker 13: undetected over three of their most highly sensitive sites, and
Speaker 13: we were able to destroy nuclear capabilities. And our boys
Speaker 13: in those bombers are on their way home right now.
Speaker 13: We believe that'll have a clear psychological impact on how
Speaker 13: they view the future, and we certainly hope they take
Speaker 13: the path of negotiate a peace. But I could not
Speaker 13: be more proud of how this building operated, of the precision,
Speaker 13: the sensitivity, and the professionalism of the troops involved in
Speaker 13: this effort. I will take one more, will take one
Speaker 13: more question, Yes right there.
Speaker 25: Thank you, mister Secretary.
Speaker 31: Concerning the justification for these strikes. In March, the Office
Speaker 31: of the Director of National Intelligence released their threat assessments concluding, quote,
Speaker 31: Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Kamani has
Speaker 31: not authorized the nuclear programs he suspended in two thousand
Speaker 31: and three unquote, So what new intelligence does the US
Speaker 31: have since then that the Rans have changed their position
Speaker 31: on nuclear weapons. And does this new intelligence come from
Speaker 31: US sources and methods or are we getting this information
Speaker 31: from other countries.
Speaker 13: Well, I would just simply say that the President's made
Speaker 13: it very clear He's looked at all of this, all
Speaker 13: of the intelligence, all of the information, and come to
Speaker 13: the conclusion that the Iranian nuclear program is a threat
Speaker 13: and was willing to take this precision operation to neutralize
Speaker 13: that threat in order to advance American national interests, reduced
Speaker 13: the Iranian nuclear program and obviously collective self defense of
Speaker 13: ourself and our So he looked at all of it,
Speaker 13: understood the nature of the threat, and took all the
Speaker 13: action I think the American people would expect in a
Speaker 13: commander in chief.
Speaker 2: That's all we've got.
Speaker 13: Thank you very much, appreciate it.
Speaker 8: Thanks.
Speaker 2: Chairman pet Hegserth is the Defense Secretary in the United States.
Speaker 2: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has also
Speaker 2: just briefed in extraordinary detail over the past thirty minutes,
Speaker 2: where it has just gone eight point thirty am in Washington, DC,
Speaker 2: ten thirty on the east coast of Australia right now,
Speaker 2: extraordinary detail about an operation of these bombers that made
Speaker 2: it from Missouri in the middle of the United States
Speaker 2: over to the targets in Iran within a day. The
Speaker 2: operation was called Midnight Hammer, and during the briefing, while
Speaker 2: you didn't see it on screen, it was shown publicly.
Speaker 2: This map. Now, this map is worth looking at here
Speaker 2: because it basically explains timeline. The timeline is that it
Speaker 2: took the best part of seventeen hours to fly from
Speaker 2: the United States to an area where the b two
Speaker 2: bombers were then surrounded by a bunch of other support aircraft.
Speaker 2: By about eighteen hours they entered Iranian airspace, and about
Speaker 2: eighteen hours forty minutes or for the next twenty minutes
Speaker 2: between eighteen forty and nineteen hours in is when you
Speaker 2: saw a scenario of the bombs being dropped, an extraordinary
Speaker 2: amount of them. By the way, there were seven different
Speaker 2: bombers that were flying. There was in terms of a payload,
Speaker 2: fourteen fourteen of those giant bombs that were dropped at
Speaker 2: three different sites. There was incredible detail about how the
Speaker 2: planes which left, as the secretary set at the end
Speaker 2: from Missouri, that some of them flew in the wrong
Speaker 2: direction to try to give people the idea that they
Speaker 2: were coming from the Pacific. Now, I had mentioned this
Speaker 2: a couple of hours ago, because the assumption was that
Speaker 2: they may well have been coming out of places like Guam,
Speaker 2: but also that they may well have been circling around
Speaker 2: in Asia. That's a message being sent to the Chinese.
Speaker 2: But an incredible nineteen hours when they take off in
Speaker 2: the United States to when they drop they leave Iran
Speaker 2: thirty minutes later, and they are on their way back
Speaker 2: into American airspace. Right now. Richard Kemps a former British commander,
Speaker 2: and he joins US now after listening to all of
Speaker 2: that detail, extraordinary detail in a major operation that was
Speaker 2: weeks in the planning and flawless in execution. Not only
Speaker 2: were they able to fly over Iranian airspace undetected, they
Speaker 2: also basically suggest there's no record of a shot being
Speaker 2: fired back at them.
Speaker 17: Yeah, I mean, it's quite an extraordinary operation.
Speaker 32: I think, as Secretary Exit says, no other armed forces
Speaker 32: in the world could even come close to something like this.
Speaker 17: It's phenomenal.
Speaker 32: We've seen some very impressive work from the Israelis, many
Speaker 32: many thousands of miles closer to Iran. Despite that they're
Speaker 32: distance from Iran, very very impressive stuff.
Speaker 17: But this is something you know Israel, the Israelis don't
Speaker 17: have the capability to do it.
Speaker 32: And I think it's you know, what's happened here as
Speaker 32: a testament to both the US and the Israeli armed
Speaker 32: forces and also to the leadership of the two countries,
Speaker 32: President Trump and Prime Internet and they are who and
Speaker 32: clearly there was very close coordination between those two countries
Speaker 32: and those two armed forces over a lengthy.
Speaker 17: Period of time.
Speaker 32: This kind of operation does not just get This has
Speaker 32: not happen overnight. It's planned. It has to be planned
Speaker 32: well well in advanced.
Speaker 2: Also, just the fascinating amount of detail. And again, if
Speaker 2: this is what they're willing to tell us, imagine that
Speaker 2: the rams and rams and realms of deeper detail. That's
Speaker 2: obviously we know that America was the only country that
Speaker 2: had the bomb that was able to penetrate the ground.
Speaker 2: The idea that they were able to drop fourteen of
Speaker 2: them would suggest that there's plenty more that are sitting
Speaker 2: in a shed somewhere. That in part is a message
Speaker 2: not just to Iran but to the countries that may
Speaker 2: well be trying to find some cracks in the army.
Speaker 2: Here we didn't just have one. This is you know,
Speaker 2: this is not the end of World War II. We've
Speaker 2: got plenty more, and if we need to, we'll do it,
Speaker 2: and we'll fly in and out of your country and
Speaker 2: you won't even know until it's hit you.
Speaker 12: Yeah.
Speaker 32: And of course they were somewhat reserved over their assessment
Speaker 32: of battle damage, because it's something you can't really assess immediately.
Speaker 32: You have to wait for the detail and the analysis
Speaker 32: to come through. But of course it may will be
Speaker 32: that there's a need to revisit these sites, or even
Speaker 32: one of the sites using more of these bunker buster bombs,
Speaker 32: So of course there'll be plenty in stock. And of
Speaker 32: course you're to point out that this message is not
Speaker 32: just to Iran. It's also a message that applies to
Speaker 32: America's other adversaries who have aggressive intent. And I think
Speaker 32: you know, the people at the Chinese and the Russians
Speaker 32: will be looking at this probably quite wide eyed, because
Speaker 32: although they have, particularly China has and Russia as well
Speaker 32: have some significant capabilities, they have nothing even remotely approaching
Speaker 32: this of.
Speaker 2: The dtail that we just heard. Was there any particular
Speaker 2: datail that stood out to you as a man who
Speaker 2: knows his stuff, that you were sitting back in some
Speaker 2: sort of well fascination about what they were able to do.
Speaker 32: Yeah, And I think that you know, hitting these bombs,
Speaker 32: these bunker buster bombs were designed specifically to deal with
Speaker 32: the nuclear Iranian nuclear program buried a great deal of
Speaker 32: distance underground. That's what they were first designed to do.
Speaker 32: So in some ways, the effect, whatever it actually was,
Speaker 32: is not a huge surprise. But I think one thing
Speaker 32: that is quite particularly impressive and somewhat surprising is the
Speaker 32: distance something like seven thousand miles from Missouri to fodoh, Okay,
Speaker 32: and you've got multiple air.
Speaker 17: To air refueling stations on the way.
Speaker 32: Again, that's something that you've got to have a lot
Speaker 32: of air to air refueling tankers available to do that,
Speaker 32: and few countries have that sort of anything like that capability.
Speaker 32: So I think the distance from the United States to
Speaker 32: Fodo and Aspahan were probably the most impressive. And then
Speaker 32: coordinating all that, I mean, coordinating air to air refueling,
Speaker 32: coordinating flight paths, coordinating with the IDF. And the General
Speaker 32: said that the coordination was limited pretty much to not
Speaker 32: flying in the same airspace, but of course in.
Speaker 17: Reality it was a great deal.
Speaker 32: More than that, I have no doubt the American and
Speaker 32: Israeli staffs have been working side by side for a
Speaker 32: long time coordinating all this action. I think that, you know,
Speaker 32: the actual dropping of the bombs or the firing of
Speaker 32: atom Tomahawk cruise missiles relatively straightforward, well planned, well rehearsed,
Speaker 32: but actually coordinating operation on the scale in a hostile
Speaker 32: area with another major armed force Israel fighting fighting at
Speaker 32: the same time is quite an impressive feat.
Speaker 2: The idea that apparently not a single shot fired or
Speaker 2: certainly any recognition of it. Obviously the they made the
Speaker 2: choice essentially to be known when it comes to radar
Speaker 2: after they were taking out some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: may well have been shot back at them. But let's
Speaker 2: talk about the potentials and obviously no one knows until
Speaker 2: we see, but about how Iran responds here. Basically, the
Speaker 2: concern of some of the President's supporters were that they
Speaker 2: don't want to Rack or Afghanistan. They don't want to
Speaker 2: be drawn into multiple years regime change, all the rest
Speaker 2: of it. We know Israel needed to essentially the call
Speaker 2: in from the United States to do what they have
Speaker 2: just done. All night, we've been looking at a map
Speaker 2: which is about where all of the well publicly known
Speaker 2: locations of American bases or their forces will happen to be.
Speaker 2: They are tantalizingly close to Iran in places like Kuwait.
Speaker 2: But the message clearly that's come out of that message
Speaker 2: out of that press conference is you touch one of them,
Speaker 2: you're going to be in a world of trouble. So
Speaker 2: what militarily are the options for a country like Iran
Speaker 2: that doesn't want what happened today to happen again.
Speaker 32: Well, I don't think Iran has any strategically significant options.
Speaker 32: I think it's been boxed in to a position where
Speaker 32: it can't do anything really change this game. Now, of
Speaker 32: course it can lash out, and probably will latch out.
Speaker 32: Immediately after these strikes took place here in Tel Aviv,
Speaker 32: there was a something thirty missiles launched, but not more
Speaker 32: a Tel Aviv's but of Israel and blued the thirty
Speaker 32: ballistic missiles launched. That wasn't any big deal. But it
Speaker 32: was a big deal, but it wasn't really anything new.
Speaker 32: It's been happening pretty much every night for the last week.
Speaker 32: But that's an initial reaction which may or may not
Speaker 32: have been triggered actually by this strike. It may have
Speaker 32: been planned anyway, but there's every reason to think that
Speaker 32: they will try and lash out at US spaces in
Speaker 32: the region, probably not directly from Iran, probably using their
Speaker 32: proxies in Iraq. They've got multiple proxies in Iraq which
Speaker 32: have got significant quantities of missiles themselves supplied by Iran.
Speaker 32: And of course the Huthi's in Yemen, which could also
Speaker 32: attack military bases, could attack shipping in the Red Sea
Speaker 32: as they've done before, and they could also either of
Speaker 32: the you know, either proxies in Iraq, proxies in Yemen,
Speaker 32: or indeed Iran itself could launch missiles at Gulf nations
Speaker 32: oil installations for example, as a form of retaliation. There's
Speaker 32: all of those options. But in addition to that, there
Speaker 32: is the possibility of terrorist attacks around the world. And
Speaker 32: Iran has sleeper cells in probably most countries in Europe
Speaker 32: certainly many of them, and in the United States, which
Speaker 32: exist and we're put in place years ago for exactly
Speaker 32: this situation, so to carry out retaliation against America's enemies
Speaker 32: and against America if there was a strike on Iran.
Speaker 17: So those sleeper cells could well be activated in any
Speaker 17: of those countries. Whether they would succeed, obviously is another question.
Speaker 17: Now all of our security services in these countries.
Speaker 32: Are well aware of them and hopefully able to prevent attacks,
Speaker 32: but that wouldn't be a surprise at all.
Speaker 17: The final thing, which may be a bit.
Speaker 32: Out of the box I'll mention it anyway place, is
Speaker 32: the possibility that Iran still does maybe have some uranium
Speaker 32: enriched uranium which has not been destroyed at foordoh or
Speaker 32: any of the other locations. Potentially they can manufacture a
Speaker 32: dirty bomb in other words, radiological dispersal device which is
Speaker 32: not as powerful as a nuclear bomb, but can cause
Speaker 32: severe damage if it's if it's definated, and somehow smuggle
Speaker 32: that into Israel, that would be or and D potentially
Speaker 32: another hour country if they couldn't get it into Israel.
Speaker 32: So I don't I'm not saying that's a highly likely option,
Speaker 32: but it remains one of the possibilities for Iranian retaliation.
Speaker 2: Well absolutely, And about the success of the operation again,
Speaker 2: multiple days to work it all out, and then the
Speaker 2: Iranians themselves are suggesting, well, no, you didn't get it
Speaker 2: all So that very much becomes an option to be
Speaker 2: feared Richard, thank you so much, which you kemps a
Speaker 2: former commander. We've Britain in Israel tonight. That's where I'll
Speaker 2: labor to make sure that you make your homepage tonight
Speaker 2: and tomorrow and every day to come for the latest
Speaker 2: on all of this. Skyies dot com do are you.
Speaker 2: Let's send over to our colleagues who are currently in
Speaker 2: the Middle East and across Europe from sky News UK