This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is a special edition of... the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 14 hours GMT on Saturday 28th February, these are our main stories. The US and Israel have launched what Donald Trump calls major combat operations against Iran, bombing Tehran, and, Iran says, five other cities. We're going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world. The president urged Iranians to use the moment to overthrow the Ayatollah. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. Also in this podcast, the Israeli military says Iran is trying to retaliate. There have been explosions in Bahrain where the US has a navy base. We'll bring you international reaction to the strikes, plus reporting from our correspondents in the region and analysis from our team, including experts from BBC Persian. It was a little before 10 o'clock on a bright Tehran morning when the first missile struck, arriving out of a clear blue sky. Blasts were heard in cities across Iran as the United States and Israel carried out multiple strikes. In a video message on social media, President Trump accused the Iranian regime of waging an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States. The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy. we're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world. He had this warning for members of the Iranian security forces. To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or, in the alternative, face certain death. And he urged the people of Iran to use the opportunity to overthrow the Ayatollah and his regime. To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also had a message for the people of Iran. Together with the United States, we will strike the terror regime harshly. We will create the conditions that will allow the brave Iranian people to rid themselves of the burden of this murderous regime. This is your chance to establish a new and free Iran. Take your fate into your own hands. Raise your head. Lift your eyes to the sky. Our forces are there, pilots of the free world. Everyone is coming to your aid. Help has arrived. Reaction from inside Iran itself has been limited as there are restrictions on communications in place. But earlier, the BBC spoke to Fawood Izzadi, who's at Tehran's university. I'm in Tehran and we are hearing Israeli bombs falling in the city. Everybody is covering it, all news channels, all television stations. You don't have to watch television. You can just hear the bombs falling off the sky. And Hamid Reza Gholamzadeh, who works for a think tank on Iranian foreign policy in northern Tehran, told us what he has heard. I hear in the morning the sounds of the fighter jets and after a while we had reports of some explosions in the downtown. Right now I'm in my office in northern part of Tehran, in which about one hour ago, I heard two more explosions. When the news came out yesterday about President Trump saying that he wants a deal with Iran, many people were saying that it seems to be dangerous and it seems to be a cover for possible attacks against Iran. And we see that seems to be true about the distrust that they have in the United States. What is Iran's opposition saying? Reza Pahlavi is the son of Iran's last Shah and is a leading critic of the Iranian regime. He's currently in exile in the US and addressed the Iranian people directly. Now that the Islamic Republic is collapsing, my message to the country's military, police and security forces is clear. You've sworn an oath to protect Iran and the Iranian people, not the Islamic Republic and its leaders. Your duty is to defend the people, not a regime that's taken our homeland hostage through repression and crime. Join the people and help bring about a stable and secure transition. Otherwise, you will go down with Khamenei's sinking ship and his regime. To find out more about the reaction inside Iran, I spoke to G.R. Ghol from BBC Persian. Well, the footage we are receiving from inside the country and the voices we hear from the people in this street all indicates there has been a massive attack on many different locations in Tehran and several cities across the country. And in one video, a lady was shouting, the office of the Supreme Leader hit. Another woman joyfully said, finally, he was hit. and it all indicates the mood in Iran for so many people who just more than a month ago, thousands of people, thousands of protesters were killed and gunned down. And so many people are not happy with the situation in the country. But of course, there are also many people who are afraid of the war. They don't know what is the outcome. Just a few minutes ago, Iranian officials said 18 students have been killed in the city of Minab. And what we are seeing also, we see the anti-riot police and security forces also being deployed to different locations in the city in Tehran. But it is not just Tehran which witnessed so many explosions and airstrikes. Also in several cities, in the border city of Kermanshra, we know from last year there are numbers of missile launching sites there. There have been also attacked. It seems what we are hearing from them and what we are hearing from underground, also they are targeting revolutionary guards bases in different cities, in small towns, in hopes of some of those people come out to the street. So rise up against the government. This is a joint operation between the US and Israel. The US will have access, presumably, to the intelligence of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The US has indicated this is about regime change. What are the chances that the Ayatollah will have been hit by any of these strikes? I think we know they were expecting some sort of attack. And we know from the last year also when he was the target of Israeli airstrike, he was moved to the safe and underground bunker That was what we are hearing That what we expecting Yes his office may have been hit but most likely he has been moved to a safe place But what we are hearing from President Trump, if you would have asked me before President Trump's speech today, what is the purpose of this attack? I might say, you know what, maybe this is a limited attack against Iran to get more concession on a negotiation table. But what he said to this, It was clearly a declaration of war. And for the first time, very clearly, President Trump said they want regime change in Iran. That's why he said after the bombing is finished, people should come out and finish the government. And so many people inside the country are not happy with the situation. The economy is crippling. Iran is isolated. And also the regime has lost legitimacy within even their own supporters because the killing of thousands of people just less than two months ago. And the Mossad, of course, do have extraordinarily good contacts inside Iran, don't they? If we judge based on last year, 12 days war with Israel and the assassination of Iranian officials, Iranian scientists, Iranian missile scientists, I think Israel has infiltrated Iranian security forces in the highest level. Even one of the former intelligence ministers, he has said to the Iranian official that Mossad is closer to our ears than anything else. G.R. Gol from BBC Persian. Our Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher gave us his assessment of the unfolding situation. We've just had the Israeli military saying that it launched hundreds of attacks on targets in Iran. What we don't know from Iran at the moment, there's lots of rumors obviously flying around, lots of videos of smoke rising from various areas, particularly in the capital, whether members of a leadership, the political, the military leadership have been targeted successfully. There does seem to be a sense that that was what the Israeli mission may have been to some extent. We know that the U.S. is also very much trying to target the offensive capability of Iran in terms of its ballistic missiles. But we're seeing in comparison to the 12-day war back last June between essentially Israel and Iran with U.S. involvement at the end, which is about its nuclear weapons, its nuclear program potentially leading to a nuclear weapon, that Iran has responded more quickly, more widely. I mean, it has fired several volleys towards Israel so far. A number of missiles have been intercepted, but Israel very much on alert across the whole of the country. We're waiting to see if any of Iran's proxies in the region take action. They've all been markedly weakened over the past year and a half. Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iranian-affiliated militias in Iraq. One of those groups in Iraq has said that it will target US military bases soon. They didn't do that in the 12-day war. Hezbollah, there is going to be a statement, a speech made by the leader of Hezbollah in a few hours. We'll see what he says, but I think it's pretty clear that the capabilities of Hezbollah, much less than they were two years or so ago. Also, again, Hezbollah didn't fire or carry out any military attack or intervention during that 12-day war last summer. So, you know, those are big questions. And then how these Gulf Arab countries, which have come under attack, I mean, it's almost certainly the U.S. military bases in the region that are the target, but how they will respond. respond. We've heard from Jordan, I think we've heard from a couple of other Gulf countries, that they are ready to take whatever military action they deem necessary. I mean, clearly, they do not want to get involved in any direct military confrontation with Iran if they can avoid it. Their voices were very strong in trying to dissuade the US from taking this action. And where we are as far as the US is concerned, I mean, you know, most people who've been following this will now have heard most of what President Trump had to say in his eight minute address. And that had several messages. Part of it very similar to what we heard last year about the nuclear program, about Iran's nuclear ambitions, obliterating that, but also talking about obliterating ballistic missiles in the Navy. But I think more so than anything else, calling on the Iranian people to rise up. Yes, I mean, Iran's response now, we have had reports of retaliatory strikes. Just take a listen to this, of course, multiple explosions in Bahrain, where the US Navy Fifth Fleet is based. We had this voice note from a mother sheltering with her children. Hi, I'm here in Bahrain in the Tsar area. It is a painfully beautiful day, but everybody, of course, is sheltering inside after several air raid sirens have gone off. Lately after, we had the reports of the bombings on the U.S. bases. About 30 minutes afterwards, we had another set of what sounded like bombs going off. We had a couple that were near enough to shake our house. Do keep in mind Barihan is a very small country, and so everyone is pretty packed together here, and so one area being targeted puts civilians at risk. There's a lot of fear. I've got my kids sitting under the dining room table watching cartoons, and that's what I'm hearing from most of the mums across the country, that they're just doing everything they can to keep everyone calm. And we'll wait. Sebastian, you can hear the terror in her voice, and what she's worried about is what many people are worried about, that this is going to turn into a much bigger regional conflict? I mean, that's what Iran had been threatening during the resumption of the talks as the military build-up, this massive military build-up by the US was taking place. I mean, its capability of setting off a regional conflagration which actually involved a direct military conflict with those Gulf countries, with other Arab countries in the region, I think is still relatively slim. I mean, it depends, obviously, to some extent, on where Iran chooses to attack next, if it has that capability, oil installations, of course, the economic lifeblood of those countries. That would then represent a major risk. Whether those countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, as you were hearing there, then feel that their direct military involvement would be necessitated or they would leave it to the US and essentially Israel to continue, I think is a question that at the moment I'd say that they would do the latter if they can rather than getting directly militarily involved, where they don't have the strength to be brutally honest as the US and Israel clearly have. So they might leave it to that. That actually was reflected in an interview we heard a little earlier. Lord Peter Ricketts, he's the former UK national security advisor. Just take a listen to this. He was quite sceptical that Iran was planning an imminent attack. My interpretation of this word preemptive is that the Israelis preempted any risk that the US-Iranian negotiations were going to reach some sort of deal on the nuclear programme. And it reminds me very much of June last year when the same again. The Americans were negotiating intensively with the Iranians. The Israelis interrupted that by striking and they drew the Americans into action. That has happened again. Trump, of course, has built up this enormous military presence. He'd created a momentum. Once Israel started attacking Iran, I think it was impossible for the Americans to stand aside. But there's absolutely no clarity what the real political objective here is. And it's very dangerous to launch military action because you've got the military forces. you don't really have the option of standing aside, but with objectives which can't be achieved by military strikes, obliterating the missiles, preventing Iran from using its regional proxies. These are not achievable objectives. We're in a dangerous phase where the Iranians are bound to retaliate and try and strike some quite hard blows, I think. Lord Ricketts and before him, our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher. Iran launched retaliatory strikes targeting both Israel and US military bases in the Middle East. Our correspondent Barbara Platt-Asher told us more from the Qatari capital, Doha. We just heard another round of explosions here echoing across Doha. The Qataris are saying that they have intercepted several waves of missiles now. Up until just a little while ago, they were saying there had been no damage so far. They have sent out push alerts to our phones, to the phones of everyone in Qatar, are telling them to lay low, to seek shelter, and to stay indoors. The traffic on the roads have not entirely stopped but it has reduced quite significantly We are hearing similar reports from around the region from the United Emirates Kuwait Bahrain saying that they are getting incoming Iranian missiles and that they are intercepting them, except in the case of Bahrain, there was an announcement that the missile had hit the U.S. Navy base there. That's the U.S. 5th Fleet base in Bahrain. Again, the extent of the damage there, not entirely clear. The United Arab Emirates, the government said that one civilian, one citizen had been killed, apparently from falling debris, although that is not entirely clear either. Some of the governments have said they reserve the right to respond. I think that they would calculate very carefully about what impact that might have and whether it would suit their interests to do so. This is exactly the outcome that they have been trying so very hard to prevent over the past weeks, trying to mediate between the Iranians and the United States, warning about the dangers of a conflict in Iran, warning that it could spread to the region and destabilize it. It's clear now that the Trump administration has not listened to its Arab allies' public efforts anyway on this issue, rather to, it seems, its Israeli allies. And so the Arabs are going to be watching very carefully and taking whatever measures they can to prevent the conflict from destabilizing the wider region. And it's interesting you say that, Barbara, because Oman's foreign minister has said that they are dismayed after the attacks between Israel and Iran. So as you mentioned there, a lot of effort has gone in, particularly by Oman, to try and mediate some sort of agreement between the two sides. And while that effort was taking place, clearly planning kept going for these attacks. Yes. And the Iranians had expressed scepticism all along. and even now when the attacks took place said, look, we expected there would be attacks. You've attacked us before during negotiations, but we went along with them anyway. And so they were making preparations as well, having very little faith in the whole negotiating process. But the Omanis who were mediating did pull out all the stops. The Omani foreign minister having gone to the United States on a sudden trip this week to try to urge the administration to continue with the negotiations and saying that they were making significant progress. He called it a breakthrough. He said that the Iranians had agreed that they would move all the stockpiles of enriched uranium out of the country, that this was a really important move and that it could be built on over a period of time to actually get an agreement. Again, that intervention failed. The planning for this military operation has clearly been in place for some time. and now President Trump has decided to go ahead with the aim of regime change, which is, frankly, the most drastic outcome that could have been the case. There was questions about what an Israeli-U.S. military operation might involve. Would it be limited strikes to kind of force the Iranians further along in the negotiations? Would it be strikes on just military targets like the ballistic missiles sites, the nuclear sites? But no, Mr. Trump has made it clear that they're going further than that. And again, that is a source of concern for the Arab neighbours and the Arabs in the Gulf, because who knows what will come afterwards and whether they will be subject to flows of refugees and weapons coming across the borders if the worst case scenario comes true. Barbara Platt-Usher, she was talking to Mariam Meshiri. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday. Still to come in this podcast, the view from Israel and the internet blackout that's also hitting the people of Iran. ...and more time to have for a client. Find our smart technology on kpn.com slash slimmerwerken. KPN, for a better working Netherlands. Scientists are desperately searching for penguin feathers on their satellite screens. They're worried it's a sign that thousands could have died because of melting ice. I'm Ikra, and on What's in the World, we're finding out how the emperor penguins molting, that crucial shedding of feathers, has become riskier because of climate change. What's in the World is a daily podcast from the BBC World Service. We go in-depth on a different topic every weekday in under 15 minutes. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London. And this is The Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is The Global News Podcast. The US government went ahead with its military action without seeking approval from Congress. Here's Helena Humphrey in Washington. Let me just run you through what some of the lawmakers have had to say, starting off with Lindsey Graham. He is a Republican senator. He is an ally of Donald Trump. And essentially his message, which he's posted on X, is that he believes that this is an opportunity to reshape the Middle East. He says that he expects this campaign to be a violent one, but ultimately he expects it to be successful. You can compare and contrast that with what we've heard from another Republican, a congressman, Thomas Massey, who is a critic of Donald Trump. And he has called this an act of war unauthorized by Congress. Certainly there had not been a congressional vote on any of these strikes. Just some other reaction to bring you now. Ro Khanna, he is a Democratic lawmaker and he has called for a vote on Monday. He said that lawmakers must come to Washington. They must vote on this. They must put their names on the records with regards to where they stand on these strikes. And then we've also heard from the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that is Mark Warner. And essentially what his message has been in a statement is he says that we have heard claims of urgency of American intelligence before, clearly referencing previous wars, Iraq, for example, being one of them, and saying that the president must answer questions with regards to the objective here. Basically saying if President Trump can come out and put a video on his social media platform, an eight minute video in which he has warned that there could be American casualties, that justification needs to be there. Now, certainly we know that Donald Trump has spoken not just about a failure of a nuclear deal, But he has also spoken about ending what he calls a campaign of bloodshed against Americans. But in terms of that objective, he also spoke to the Iranian people, didn't he? He said, you know, stay inside for the time being. But when it is safe to do so, come out, rise up, topple the Iranian regime. And I think, you know, the greater backdrop to all of this is what we had seen in recent weeks when we had seen that brutal crackdown on protesters in Iran. and Donald Trump had said to them, help is on the way, prompting many people to ask in recent weeks, well, where is that help? Donald Trump clearly there speaking to the Iranians as well, saying this will be your opportunity. Helena Humphrey. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation would remove what he called the existential threat posed by Iran. Our correspondent John Donison is in Jerusalem. He clearly thinks that Iran is a problem for Israel that needs to be got rid of. And today it does seem like America and Israel are taking steps to do that. When you listen to that message from President Trump a little earlier, what he was talking about there is when this military operation is finished, he wants the Iranian people to rise up and take over the government. They want regime change in Iran, saying that this was a sort of once in a generation opportunity. Here in Jerusalem we had the sound of sirens going off loud explosions directly overhead at our hotel in Jerusalem I looked up to see what appeared to be a missile or projectile being shot down by Israel missile defence shield a couple of hours ago And further to the west, in the big cities of Tel Aviv and high from the coast, also explosions there. So Iran's retaliation has very much begun. How extensive and how long it will go on for, well, we're just going to have to wait and see. And we've heard from an Israeli official that the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei and the President Pezashkian were both targeted by Israel. What more do we know about that? Well, we don't know much. The Iranians are saying that neither of them were hurt. We understand that the Supreme Leader has been taken to a safe place away from the capital. That's what's coming out of Iran. Certainly, that is a pretty big step. You know, if Israel and America are trying to decapitate the Iranian regime and remove the supreme leader, that is a huge move, really, which is going to bring an enormous response from the Iranians, one would imagine. We had that war last year, lasted about 12 days between Israel and Iran. And then we had a strong response from the Iranians. We had casualties here in Israel. and, you know, depending on how long this operation by the Americans, by Israel and Iran goes on, we're going to have to wait and see what the extent of the Iranian response is going to be this time. Their military capabilities have been hugely diminished in recent years because of those various conflicts, but they still have the capacity to hit all parts of Israel pretty hard. John Donaldson speaking to the BBC's Marian Meshiri. Iran is now under an internet blackout, according to Netblox, an internet monitoring agency. My colleague Merlin Thomas from BBC Verify told me more. There is a near total internet blackout with national connectivity at about 4%. And Netblox, this international watchdog of internet connectivity, has basically published this graph showing a steep fall in the internet connectivity in Iran. And this isn't the first time we've seen this. It was just in January, just a few weeks ago, that we saw a near total internet blackout during the nationwide protests. And that remained in place for weeks. And it meant that it made it really difficult to get any information out of Iran. So it meant that any videos, information, messages that were being sent were being sent through other methods, such as SpaceX's Starlink, that's a satellite internet method that people are using, or VPN. So those are virtual private networks. And it's likely that those who have access to those methods will try to use them again this time round. But it does make it very difficult to find out exactly what's happening inside the country. And as we're continuing to verify video, we're just seeing, you know, when when these videos first emerged. And Merlin, what is the purpose of the blackout? It's not clear yet. You know, obviously, in the first time this happened earlier on this year, It seemed to be a government-imposed internet blackout. It's still unclear whether the same thing has been done in this case. We've had no reports as of yet that their connectivity issues are due to strikes, but that could very well be the case, but it also could be government-imposed. So we're still waiting to see. And as I said, it still makes it very difficult to actually find out the causes of that. BBC Persians' GR Goal shared his own perspective on the shutdown. Last year when they shut down the internet, One of the main reasons the Iranian regime did that was because Israeli trucking some of the officials, whether there was bodyguard, their family members, and they located them and trucked them down and they hit their location. That was one of the main reasons. But I think this time around, most likely, the Iranian regime also worried about its own people. They might rise up. We know less than two months ago when there was a mass protest in Iran, the regime completely reduced its speed of internet totally or shut it down in order for people not to be able to organise and call on each other to come to the street. But one thing for fact I know is in the last month, scores of Starlink satellite dishes and router has been smuggled into Iran. G.R. Gould from BBC Persian. Let's end this special edition of the Global News Podcast with the thoughts of our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, who's recently returned from Iran. This is a confrontation which is very different from what happened last year, where, at least when it came to the region, Iran carefully telegraphed its attacks, took care to minimise the risk of causing American casualties. Iran had warned that this time it would not hold back and that all of U.S. military bases across the region, including U.S. military personnel, there's more than 40,000 across the region, would be at risk. And President Trump himself acknowledged in his eight minute video that there would possibly be the loss of American lives. But he made it clear that America, as he saw it, was under threat and he was ordering this war to commence. A war, a military operation that the Pentagon has codenamed Epic Fury. Lee, in his long announcement, President Trump said that regime change was very much on the table. What does that look like in your view? You were just in Iran in the past few weeks. Is your sense that this is going to target the Ayatollah, the supreme leader, the IRGC? How far do you think this could go? Yes, President Trump and U.S. Commander-in-Chief, we've often reported on BBC that he has sent conflicting messages about whether this was about Iran's nuclear program, that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, or that it was about broader regime change. He named all of these reasons this morning in that first post. History tells us that there has been, there's been no example of an order, a government, an order being brought down by airstrikes alone. But President Trump has repeatedly said that he wants to keep his troops out of forever wars. He doesn't want to put boots on the ground. He made it clear that it would be up to the Iranian people to do that. Remember, during the protests of last month, he called on them to take control of your institutions. Well, the Iranians saw that when they take to the streets that the security forces have lethal force, that they're able and willing to use. The death toll is in the many thousands. It's still being counted. There are still people, there are still families who don't know the fate of their loved ones. So it is a very unpredictable and a very perilous time. And this time, President Trump, unlike the lead up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, he didn't go to the U.N. Security Council. He didn't try to build a coalition in the region. He is doing this just with Israel. He seems to believe that right and history is on his side. But we have seen no evidence that this preemptive attack described by Israel, that there was an imminent Iranian threat on Israel or on the United States. So a new war has been unleashed. And this morning, in these early hours, no one can say with certainty when and how it will end. Lise Doucette talking to Samantha Simmons. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod. And don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in-depth and behind the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Philip Bull, and the producers were Pete Ross and Peter Hyatt. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye. Scientists are desperately searching for penguin feathers on their satellite screens. They're worried it's a sign that thousands could have died because of melting ice. I'm Ikra and on What's in the World we're finding out how the emperor penguin's molting, that crucial shedding of feathers has become riskier because of climate change What's in the World is a daily podcast from the BBC World Service We go in depth on a different topic every weekday in under 15 minutes Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts
