Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 4th March 2026

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UK Column News - 4th March 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's Wednesday, the fourth of March twenty twenty sixth, just
0:11
Speaker 2: after one o'clock. Welcome to UK column News. I'm your
0:14
Speaker 2: host Mike Robinson. Joining me in the studio today is
0:16
Speaker 2: Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program, Charles, and by video
0:20
Speaker 2: link from Lebanon is Vanessa billy No. Later in the program,
0:23
Speaker 2: I'm going to be reporting on the economic effect for
0:25
Speaker 2: us all of the ongoing war in Iran, and also
0:28
Speaker 2: the Clinton's giving evidence the House Oversight Committee on their
0:31
Speaker 2: alleged links.
0:32
Speaker 1: To Jeffrey Epstein.
0:33
Speaker 2: Charles is going to be reporting on the ongoing plight
0:35
Speaker 2: of Imran Khan and Pakistan, and also taking a look
0:38
Speaker 2: at Ritual Rhe's plan.
0:40
Speaker 1: For the spring.
0:41
Speaker 2: Well we might call it a budget, but I'm not
0:43
Speaker 2: sure what they call it these days, But anyway, we'll begin.
0:46
Speaker 2: We're going to begin today, of course with Iran, the
0:48
Speaker 2: Iran war itself, So let me welcome Vanessa to the program.
0:52
Speaker 2: Bring us up to date with what the latest is.
0:57
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, good afternoon everyone. It's a bit difficult to
1:00
Speaker 3: cover absolutely everything, but hopefully we can continue the discussion
1:05
Speaker 3: in extra. So first of all, basically I'm just going
1:09
Speaker 3: to do an overview on a very limited overview of
1:13
Speaker 3: what has actually happened in the last four days. I
1:16
Speaker 3: would direct everybody to an interview on neutrality studies. The
1:21
Speaker 3: link is going to be in the show notes and
1:23
Speaker 3: interview with Steven Starr, who's a nuclear weapons specialist, if
1:27
Speaker 3: we can just have that up on screen. So basically
1:31
Speaker 3: what he's saying is and this is also being reiterated
1:35
Speaker 3: even in American media. The US has fired twelve hundred
1:41
Speaker 3: to eighteen hundred interceptor missiles in the last two days,
1:44
Speaker 3: so that was the first two days of the conflict.
1:47
Speaker 3: The US cannot make enough missiles. They manufacture only four
1:52
Speaker 3: hundred third missiles per year and seven hundred and fifty
1:57
Speaker 3: pack three Patriot air defense missiles. In twenty twenty five,
2:02
Speaker 3: the US five twenty five percent of all of its
2:04
Speaker 3: third missiles in a few days the twelve days fighting Iran. This,
2:10
Speaker 3: as I said, is also been picked up by American media.
2:13
Speaker 3: This is the Wall Street Journal. US races to accomplish
2:17
Speaker 3: Iran mission before munitions run out. And of course, remembering
2:21
Speaker 3: back to the Twelve Day War, it is believed that
2:24
Speaker 3: America pressured or literally requested that Iran accept a cease
2:31
Speaker 3: for her because Israel was running out of interceptor missiles
2:37
Speaker 3: and then I basically this is the main and in
2:41
Speaker 3: my view, the most important strategy of Iran Operation grape blinding.
2:46
Speaker 3: This is in fact a tactic taken from hes Bola,
2:49
Speaker 3: which is effectively you can freeze frame after and read
2:53
Speaker 3: what is actually written on the infograph. But this was
2:57
Speaker 3: a tactic actually originating with Hezblar of taking out all
3:02
Speaker 3: of the radar and early warning structures, and for Iran,
3:06
Speaker 3: of course, that's why they've been heavily targeting the Gulf
3:10
Speaker 3: States in particular. And this was released this morning, official
3:15
Speaker 3: figures from the IRGC accompanied by satellite images basically proving
3:23
Speaker 3: the damage to these radar and early warning systems. So
3:27
Speaker 3: I'm not going to read out the names of the systems,
3:30
Speaker 3: but basically two in Bahrain, three in q eight, one
3:33
Speaker 3: in the UAE, one in Jordan, and most importantly the
3:38
Speaker 3: ANFBS one three two in Qatar, which is known as
3:42
Speaker 3: the All Seeing I. It has a five thousand kilometer
3:46
Speaker 3: range and it can detect ballistic missile launch in Iran,
3:50
Speaker 3: China and Russia. So effectively, the US has lost its
3:54
Speaker 3: early warning sister system, and this morning Senator Murphy, who'd
3:59
Speaker 3: attended a close session at the White House, reiterated the
4:03
Speaker 3: fact that the US now has an inability to intercept
4:07
Speaker 3: Iranian drones and missiles, and it also appears from the
4:10
Speaker 3: hes Bala launch of missiles and drones in the last
4:14
Speaker 3: few days that Israel is also unable right now to
4:18
Speaker 3: intercept those drones and missiles, and that of course is
4:22
Speaker 3: deliberate that HESBLA is coordinating where they are to flood
4:27
Speaker 3: the air defense missile systems. There are even reports that
4:31
Speaker 3: the US is going to relocate air defense systems from
4:35
Speaker 3: South Korea to the Middle East to try and make
4:38
Speaker 3: up for the deficit. And then, of course part of
4:43
Speaker 3: what has been ongoing is that Iran has shut down
4:47
Speaker 3: the hallmost straight if we can have the next slide up,
4:51
Speaker 3: which of course incorporates twenty percent of the world's oil
4:55
Speaker 3: and LNG. And if you look at any of the
4:57
Speaker 3: satellite images or maps on social media, you'll see the
5:02
Speaker 3: backlog of ships.
5:03
Speaker 1: But there are also multiple ships.
5:05
Speaker 3: I think we're up to six ships now that have
5:08
Speaker 3: been targeted by Iran for trying to break the blockade
5:12
Speaker 3: and have either been severely damaged. I think one this morning,
5:16
Speaker 3: the crew has actually abandoned ship. Then if we come
5:19
Speaker 3: back to Stephen Starr in this interview on neutrality Studies,
5:25
Speaker 3: he's talking then about the possible outcomes of the US
5:30
Speaker 3: Israeli attack on Iran. First of all, he's saying, obviously
5:33
Speaker 3: their objective is regime change, the fragmentation of Iran, the
5:39
Speaker 3: end of Iranian power, and containment, which of course also
5:42
Speaker 3: relates to the Brookings Institute document Path to Persia, where
5:47
Speaker 3: the final strategy is to in the end prevent Iran
5:52
Speaker 3: from expanding, although I would argue that they haven't expanded
5:55
Speaker 3: a tool into the region, and to contain Iran at
6:03
Speaker 3: the same time to present US losses as a victory.
6:06
Speaker 3: Of course, this is very important for Trump, Mike, you
6:09
Speaker 3: and I were discussing this yesterday. And then of course
6:12
Speaker 3: the second option, of course, is that US and Israel
6:15
Speaker 3: can't defend itself or destroy the missile cities. Now, it's
6:19
Speaker 3: interesting when he talks about the Iranian missile cities being
6:23
Speaker 3: deeply underground, the fact, sorry, can I just have the
6:26
Speaker 3: slide back on the screen for a second, and that
6:30
Speaker 3: effectively they're built out of granite, and the only thing,
6:33
Speaker 3: according to Stephen Starr, that will effectively destroy these missile
6:37
Speaker 3: cities that are dispersed across all of Iranian territory, and
6:41
Speaker 3: of course that's pretty vast, are nuclear weapons. And he
6:46
Speaker 3: argues that in order to destroy those missile cities, they're
6:50
Speaker 3: not going to need one nuclear bomb, They're going to
6:53
Speaker 3: need a series of nuclear bombs to destroy all of
6:55
Speaker 3: the missile cities across Iran. And so the answers are
7:01
Speaker 3: extremely high as the US does suffer major losses both
7:06
Speaker 3: ships aircraft. I think another aircraft was shot down today
7:10
Speaker 3: over to Iranian airspace, but we know that three have
7:14
Speaker 3: been lost. The US is trying to claim its friendly fire.
7:18
Speaker 3: It's also trying to claim that the targeting of Aramco
7:21
Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia was a false flag by Israel to
7:26
Speaker 3: bring Saudi Arabia into the war. I think you'd have
7:30
Speaker 3: to drag Saudi Arabia into the war in the current
7:32
Speaker 3: state of affairs, because of course, the Gulf States now
7:35
Speaker 3: perceived that the US does not have their back and
7:38
Speaker 3: they're defending only Israel. But coming back to the idea
7:43
Speaker 3: of the use of nuclear weapons, I just want to
7:47
Speaker 3: have a quick look at the map and Trina, Russia,
7:50
Speaker 3: and Iran are marked in red on this map. So
7:54
Speaker 3: if nuclear weapons are used in Iran, you can see
7:57
Speaker 3: that not only this entire region, but one would assume
8:02
Speaker 3: that definitely Russia, which is on the northern border of
8:06
Speaker 3: Iran and divided by the South Caucasus, but even China
8:11
Speaker 3: is going to be affected by whatever fallout there is
8:16
Speaker 3: from mass use of nuclear weapons, because, as we've said,
8:20
Speaker 3: one weapon is not going to achieve the presumed objectives
8:25
Speaker 3: of Israel and the United States. And then basically last
8:29
Speaker 3: week on UK column, we talked about the potential of
8:32
Speaker 3: a ground invasion or attempted ground invasion. We talked about
8:36
Speaker 3: the various proxies that might be used by the US
8:40
Speaker 3: and Israel, including the Kurdish separatist groups. Well, today apparently
8:45
Speaker 3: Trump is open to arming the Kurdish separatist groups to
8:50
Speaker 3: serve as boots on the ground in Iran. So, surprise, surprise,
8:54
Speaker 3: that appears to be going ahead. And if we look
8:57
Speaker 3: at the map of the attacks on the border of Iran,
9:02
Speaker 3: you can see that the Kurdish separatists have attacked at
9:06
Speaker 3: the various stages that are shown on that map. So
9:09
Speaker 3: on the western border of Iran. The IRGC has been responding,
9:16
Speaker 3: if we can just have the next slide up, because
9:19
Speaker 3: I want to demonstrate here that Israel is effectively bombing
9:24
Speaker 3: all of that western border area, and that is clearly
9:27
Speaker 3: to weaken the defenses in order to allow for a
9:31
Speaker 3: ground invasion by the Kurdish separatists that Israel has effectively
9:36
Speaker 3: been training and arming, and now Trump is saying that
9:39
Speaker 3: he's going to support them, and that, of course is
9:41
Speaker 3: despite the alleged betrayal of the Kurdish factions in Syria.
9:47
Speaker 3: The IRGC has put out a number of statements, but
9:50
Speaker 3: I'm just going to pull this one up. They say
9:54
Speaker 3: that they've struck the mossed back Kurdish opposition bases in
9:57
Speaker 3: Iraqi Kurdistan. And an interesting point here, at one point
10:01
Speaker 3: they were using war jets, the mid twenty nine that
10:03
Speaker 3: was delivered from Russia and a couple of their older
10:08
Speaker 3: aircraft to actually bomb inside the Iraqi Kurdistan area. Now
10:13
Speaker 3: this is interesting because this proves the point that they
10:16
Speaker 3: have blinded the US. The US is unable to take
10:20
Speaker 3: the Iranian aircraft out of the sky, and the fact
10:23
Speaker 3: that those aircraft are still flying right now over Tehran
10:27
Speaker 3: and able to take down other jets. Sorry, could I
10:30
Speaker 3: just go back to the IOGC very quickly to finish
10:32
Speaker 3: that off so effectively, they've reportedly launched drone and missile
10:38
Speaker 3: attacks on multiple headquarters and camps of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties,
10:43
Speaker 3: including the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Freedom
10:47
Speaker 3: Party and Komala in the Kurdistan region of Iraq's Abel
10:52
Speaker 3: and Koya districts. And of course, at the same time,
10:54
Speaker 3: the Iraqi resistance factions have been heavily hitting the US
11:00
Speaker 3: space in a bill and actually today we understand that
11:04
Speaker 3: much of it has been destroyed. And then coming back
11:07
Speaker 3: to the idea of a ground invasion, I just want
11:09
Speaker 3: to show people to get an idea of the terrain
11:14
Speaker 3: that a ground invasion is going to face. So that's
11:17
Speaker 3: the western border, where effectively you can see how mountain
11:24
Speaker 3: well how mountainous much of Iran is. It's going to
11:27
Speaker 3: be a very difficult country to wage a ground war on.
11:31
Speaker 3: So in my opinion, they might sacrifice proxies, but Americans
11:35
Speaker 3: themselves are not going to put boots on the ground,
11:37
Speaker 3: which of course is a very familiar aspect to US strategy,
11:43
Speaker 3: and then finally for people to get an understanding of
11:47
Speaker 3: the factions in the region, even within the Gulf States,
11:51
Speaker 3: who are now rising up against the regimes in those states.
11:55
Speaker 3: Iran and its Ring of fire. I go into a
11:58
Speaker 3: lot of detail about the potential resistance and alliances in
12:03
Speaker 3: the region that will come to Iran's defense in the
12:06
Speaker 3: case of the war that we're now witnessing. So if
12:09
Speaker 3: people want a bit more information on that and a
12:12
Speaker 3: bit more understanding, then please go to UK colum and
12:16
Speaker 3: read that article.
12:18
Speaker 2: Good for that, Vanessa. We will undoubtedly be talking more
12:21
Speaker 2: on this in extra but I just wanted to very
12:24
Speaker 2: briefly get a comment from you on the comments by
12:28
Speaker 2: Marco Rubio. So let's just bring Marco Rubio on screen
12:31
Speaker 2: here for a second, if we can, please Chris, and
12:34
Speaker 2: let's just bring him on. We knew that there was
12:37
Speaker 2: going to be and it's really action. We knew that
12:40
Speaker 2: that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we
12:44
Speaker 2: knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before
12:47
Speaker 2: they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. I
12:51
Speaker 2: just have to admit I nearly fell over when I
12:54
Speaker 2: heard him say these words because Vanessa, the hypocrisy is
12:59
Speaker 2: off the charts. But really they just did it because
13:02
Speaker 2: they had to do.
13:03
Speaker 3: It, Yes, basically, and again go to the Path to
13:08
Speaker 3: Pressure document and you'll see that this entire ploy. Let
13:12
Speaker 3: Israel go in first and then make the US look
13:15
Speaker 3: as if it has to go in to help its ally.
13:18
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. It's nonsense, Yes.
13:23
Speaker 4: It is.
13:24
Speaker 5: How many different ways can you say exactly the same thing? Well?
13:26
Speaker 2: Indeed, yeah, okay, well Charles. Then in the meantime, of course,
13:31
Speaker 2: the question is what's Britain's reaction to all this.
13:35
Speaker 5: Big yes, exactly are we or aren't we? And as
13:38
Speaker 5: we saw on Monday's news program, there was some excruciatingly
13:42
Speaker 5: awkward press interviews, particularly with John Healy over the weekend,
13:46
Speaker 5: where no answers really were found. After Monday's News, the
13:50
Speaker 5: Prime Minister made a statement to the House of Commons
13:53
Speaker 5: and took questions for a period of a couple of hours,
13:55
Speaker 5: which was largely repetitive. There are many questions about the
13:58
Speaker 5: echoes of Iraq two thousand and three and the lawfulness
14:02
Speaker 5: of any action. We will look now at how he
14:05
Speaker 5: began his statement.
14:09
Speaker 6: Mister Speaker of the United Kingdom was not involved in
14:12
Speaker 6: the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel.
14:17
Speaker 6: That decision was deliberate. We believe that the best way
14:22
Speaker 6: forward for the region and for the world is a
14:25
Speaker 6: negotiated settlement in which Iran agrees to give up any
14:30
Speaker 6: aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon and ceases its destabilizing
14:35
Speaker 6: activity across the region. President Trump has expressed his disagreement
14:40
Speaker 6: with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes,
14:44
Speaker 6: but it is my duty to judge what is in
14:47
Speaker 6: Britain's national interest. That is what I've done, and I
14:53
Speaker 6: stand by it. But mister Speaker, it is clear that
14:58
Speaker 6: Iran's outrageous response has become a threat to our people,
15:03
Speaker 6: our interests, and our allies, and it cannot be ignored.
15:09
Speaker 6: Iran has lashed out across the region. They've launched hundreds
15:14
Speaker 6: of missiles and thousands of drones at countries which did
15:18
Speaker 6: not attack them.
15:22
Speaker 5: At countries which did not attack them. Sort of relates
15:27
Speaker 5: back to Rubio's words and somehow the rules being somewhat
15:30
Speaker 5: different for Israel and the United States at least, so
15:34
Speaker 5: he is playing fairly fast and loose with his words
15:37
Speaker 5: and indicating that the United Kingdom was not involved might
15:40
Speaker 5: be said to be extremely misleading. And at exhibit A,
15:43
Speaker 5: we have Arif Lake and Heath, which we'll just put
15:45
Speaker 5: on screen.
15:46
Speaker 4: Now.
15:47
Speaker 5: This has been used by both F fifteen and F
15:49
Speaker 5: twenty two fighter aircraft. Of course, three F fifteens have
15:53
Speaker 5: now been shot down by the kuwaitis in what's being
15:55
Speaker 5: described as a friendly fire incident, but of course Sentcom
15:59
Speaker 5: confirmed that they were engaged in active combat. Now as
16:04
Speaker 5: to Starmer's love actually moment in appearing to stand up
16:08
Speaker 5: to a United States president, this is what was said
16:12
Speaker 5: of his stance.
16:16
Speaker 7: And I'm not by the way, I'm not happy with
16:18
Speaker 7: the UK either. That island that you read about the lease, Okay,
16:24
Speaker 7: he made it for whatever reason, he made a lease
16:27
Speaker 7: of the island. Somebody came and took it away from him,
16:30
Speaker 7: and it's taken three or four days for us to.
16:34
Speaker 1: Work out where we can land there.
16:35
Speaker 7: Would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed
16:38
Speaker 7: to flying many extra hours. So we are very surprised.
16:41
Speaker 7: This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with.
16:48
Speaker 5: Well, there we are now, just for that particular part
16:51
Speaker 5: of his rant, Trump had said that he was cussing
16:53
Speaker 5: all ties with Spain for approximately the same reason. And
16:57
Speaker 5: it's at this point reasonable to wonder how much longer
16:59
Speaker 5: nations will put up with this sort of unpredictability and volatility.
17:03
Speaker 5: And since the balloon went up effectively over the weekend,
17:07
Speaker 5: this has been pointed out by Douglas McGregor and others.
17:10
Speaker 5: But this sort of behavior makes the Americans look increasingly
17:13
Speaker 5: vulnerable and isolated. Now, as to kirst Armer, he went
17:17
Speaker 5: on to lay the ground for a so called defensive
17:20
Speaker 5: posture which looks very much like it's going to morph
17:22
Speaker 5: into an offensive one. So we'll look at the next
17:25
Speaker 5: installment from his statement.
17:29
Speaker 6: And mister speaker, our armed forces are also being put
17:33
Speaker 6: at risk by Iran's actions. On Saturday, Iran hit a
17:38
Speaker 6: military base in Bahrain with missiles and drones. There were
17:44
Speaker 6: three hundred British personnel on the base, some within a
17:48
Speaker 6: few hundred yards of the stripe. Last night a drone
17:54
Speaker 6: hit rif Akritiri in Cyprus. There were no casualties in
17:59
Speaker 6: this stripe. Mister speaker, it is important for me to
18:03
Speaker 6: say that our basis in Cyprus are not being used
18:09
Speaker 6: by US bombers. I want to be clear the strike
18:13
Speaker 6: on Arif, Acriteri and Cyprus was not in response to
18:18
Speaker 6: any decision that we have taken in our assessment. In
18:23
Speaker 6: our assessment, the drone was launched prior to our announcement.
18:29
Speaker 6: Iran's aggression towards Britain and our interests is longstanding and
18:34
Speaker 6: that's why we've always ensured that protections for British basis
18:38
Speaker 6: and personnel are at their highest level.
18:45
Speaker 5: Word's chosen very cautiously there and again by saying that
18:49
Speaker 5: Cypress has not been used by bombers is of course
18:52
Speaker 5: to obfuscate to quite some extent, and this has been
18:56
Speaker 5: pointed out by the Middle East I, which will just
18:58
Speaker 5: stick on screen. Now it's exposed that the Cypriot point
19:03
Speaker 5: of view on the wider issue is one of unhappiness.
19:05
Speaker 5: And there's a quote in this piece entitled Cypress condemns
19:09
Speaker 5: the UK after Arif Beth base that launched Gaza spy
19:12
Speaker 5: flights is hit by drone and they quote a Cypriot
19:16
Speaker 5: minister saying despite the assurances given in yesterday's addressed by
19:19
Speaker 5: the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, there was no
19:22
Speaker 5: clear clarification that the British bases in Cyprus would not
19:26
Speaker 5: under any circumstances be used for any reason other than
19:30
Speaker 5: humanitarian And of course this then links back to an
19:34
Speaker 5: article written by Ian Overton for his organization Action on
19:38
Speaker 5: Armed Violence entitled did Britain fly at least six hundred
19:42
Speaker 5: and twenty three spy flights over Gaza? And that the
19:45
Speaker 5: data he has suggested so and I quote The Ministry
19:48
Speaker 5: of Defense maintains that these flights were so lyad to
19:51
Speaker 5: locate hostages. Yet the scale, timing and persistence of the
19:54
Speaker 5: sorties raises questions as to how much they aided Israel's
19:58
Speaker 5: military operations despite being conducted under the banner of humanitarian intent.
20:04
Speaker 5: Of course, the other big issue is indeed the intelligence
20:08
Speaker 5: sharing between the United Kingdom and Israel and the United States,
20:12
Speaker 5: making it extremely implausible that the United Kingdom has not
20:15
Speaker 5: played a far bigger part in all of this than
20:18
Speaker 5: is being described. Also, we have a map drawn up
20:21
Speaker 5: by Declassified UK with data that is admittedly now a
20:24
Speaker 5: few years old, but this shows all the locations of
20:27
Speaker 5: the United States Armed Forces personnel in the United Kingdom
20:30
Speaker 5: at the moment, with Lakenheath shown in boxed text about
20:33
Speaker 5: halfway down on the right hand side. Now, the other
20:36
Speaker 5: thing I want to make mention of is that given
20:38
Speaker 5: all the saber rattling from within NATO for the last
20:41
Speaker 5: four years and the action that's sort of unrolling right
20:44
Speaker 5: now up in the High North, it's got to be
20:46
Speaker 5: noted that Article six has been completely ignored. Now I've
20:49
Speaker 5: mentioned this before and the Cyprus attack. Really with regard
20:56
Speaker 5: to Article six, it pertains very much to Article five,
21:01
Speaker 5: of course, because it Arscal six states that for the
21:03
Speaker 5: purpose of Article five, an armed attack on one or
21:05
Speaker 5: more of the parties is deemed to include an armed
21:07
Speaker 5: attack on the forces, vessels or aircraft of any of
21:11
Speaker 5: the parties when in or over these territories, rif Acretary
21:15
Speaker 5: being one such territory, of course staffed by those personnel.
21:22
Speaker 5: But on the subject of an Article five response, absolutely nothing,
21:27
Speaker 5: which I think is a very interesting outcome, particularly given
21:32
Speaker 5: the rhetoric in as I say, inside and outside NATO
21:35
Speaker 5: over the last four years. Now, Sarma went on to
21:38
Speaker 5: talk about how he must protect British lives and he
21:44
Speaker 5: describing what defensive operations must look like. So we will
21:49
Speaker 5: just look at the next video of him speaking about
21:53
Speaker 5: this issue.
21:56
Speaker 6: Moreover, it is my duty, the highest of my office,
22:01
Speaker 6: to protect British lives. That is why we put British
22:07
Speaker 6: jets in the air, typhoons and F thirty fives as
22:11
Speaker 6: part of coordinated defensive operations which have already successfully intercepted
22:17
Speaker 6: Iranian strikes, including mister Speaker taking out Bondrone that was
22:22
Speaker 6: heading towards a coalition base in Iraq housing UK service personnel.
22:30
Speaker 6: I want to pay tribute to our brilliant servicemen and
22:32
Speaker 6: women putting themselves in harm's way to keep others safe,
22:37
Speaker 6: and I know the whole house will join me in
22:39
Speaker 6: expressing our gratitude and our respect. But mister Speaker, it
22:44
Speaker 6: is simply not possible to shoot down every Iranian missile
22:48
Speaker 6: and every drone after they've been launched. The only way
22:52
Speaker 6: to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source,
22:57
Speaker 6: in their storage depots, or at the launch. The US
23:02
Speaker 6: requested permission to use British basis for that specific and
23:08
Speaker 6: limited defensive purpose because they had the capabilities to do so.
23:15
Speaker 6: Yesterday evening we took the decision to accept that new
23:19
Speaker 6: request in order to prevent around firing missiles across the region,
23:24
Speaker 6: killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk and hitting
23:29
Speaker 6: countries that have not been involved. To be clear, the
23:34
Speaker 6: use of British bases is limited to the agreed defensive purposes.
23:40
Speaker 6: We are not joining the US and Israeli offensive strikes.
23:48
Speaker 6: The basis for our decision is the collective self defense
23:53
Speaker 6: of long standing friends and allies and protecting British lives.
23:58
Speaker 6: It is in accordance with international law and we produced
24:02
Speaker 6: a summary of our legal advice which clearly sets this out.
24:06
Speaker 6: We will keep the decision under review.
24:12
Speaker 5: And that last but seems to be the key for
24:14
Speaker 5: it does and we'll just come to that in a second.
24:17
Speaker 5: But so they're boasting obviously about what defensive operations look like,
24:20
Speaker 5: with the Minister of Defense putting out an intelligence brief
24:22
Speaker 5: and update about munissions being shot down with some footage
24:27
Speaker 5: to accompany it, and of course then the other thing
24:29
Speaker 5: again defensive for defensive purposes only. But the type forty
24:33
Speaker 5: five destroyer HMS Dragon has now been deployed up to
24:35
Speaker 5: the eastern Mediterranean and this course is at the same
24:38
Speaker 5: time the aircraft carrier has gone up to the High North.
24:41
Speaker 5: This has also got a couple of wild helicopters on
24:44
Speaker 5: board to or hope that they don't tip over the side.
24:46
Speaker 5: Now on the on the legal front, I would just
24:49
Speaker 5: like to reinforce the words that Starmer has used, as
24:52
Speaker 5: I say, Iraq having been cited many times, and he
24:55
Speaker 5: says it is important that we all learn the lessons
24:57
Speaker 5: of Iraq and that and they are that there needs
25:00
Speaker 5: to be a lawful basis for action if it is taken,
25:03
Speaker 5: and that there needs to be a viable case. Now
25:06
Speaker 5: he seems very much to be inferring that Iraq in
25:10
Speaker 5: two thousand and three did not meet either of those criteria.
25:14
Speaker 5: And I think the important point now is to look
25:16
Speaker 5: at what next if there is indeed to be some
25:19
Speaker 5: sort of legal question and indeed request for legal advice,
25:24
Speaker 5: of course, because that falls to the Attorney General who's
25:27
Speaker 5: on screen now, Richard Hermer, who makes no secret of
25:29
Speaker 5: the fact that he is Jewish and has a close
25:32
Speaker 5: affinity to Israel. So he's made a recent speech in
25:35
Speaker 5: Australia ostensibly about the events in Bondi Beach. At the
25:39
Speaker 5: start of his speech he said, I spent my year
25:41
Speaker 5: off in Israel and on my very first night there,
25:43
Speaker 5: met up with a group of ossis from the same
25:45
Speaker 5: Jewish youth movement. Now, of course that doesn't tell the
25:48
Speaker 5: whole story, of course, but it is a significant detail,
25:51
Speaker 5: and I think one that can't be ignored if we
25:53
Speaker 5: are going to consider what happens next. We'll just look
25:56
Speaker 5: quickly at a last clip from Starmer in an attempt
25:59
Speaker 5: to clarify his overall position.
26:04
Speaker 6: Mister speaker, we all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and
26:09
Speaker 6: we have learned those lessons. Any UK actions must always
26:16
Speaker 6: have a lawful basis and a viable thought through plant.
26:25
Speaker 6: I say again, we were not involved in the initial
26:28
Speaker 6: strikes on Iran and we will not join offensive action now.
26:33
Speaker 6: But in the face of Iran's barrage of missiles and drones,
26:36
Speaker 6: we will protect our people in the region and support
26:40
Speaker 6: the collective self defense of our allies, because that is
26:44
Speaker 6: our duty to the British people. It is the best
26:47
Speaker 6: way to eliminate the urgent threat, to prevent the situation spiraling, third,
26:53
Speaker 6: and support a return to diplomacy. It is the best
26:57
Speaker 6: way to protect British interests and British.
27:00
Speaker 5: Line keyword they're being no, we will not join offensive
27:06
Speaker 5: action now. Very much suggestive that this will happen in future.
27:10
Speaker 5: He's very much taken from the Israel playbook now in
27:13
Speaker 5: terms of what Israel is up to. Just a tweet
27:16
Speaker 5: from the idf illustrative of the way the sort of
27:18
Speaker 5: attitude that they have towards the whole process. They've set
27:21
Speaker 5: this little video to music with sort of glorious images
27:25
Speaker 5: of Iranian hierarchy being eliminated in their words. And we
27:31
Speaker 5: go on the subject of British interests to another declassified
27:34
Speaker 5: report from two years ago in which they refer to
27:38
Speaker 5: GCHQ expanding their presence near Iran and rather presently referring
27:43
Speaker 5: to a potentially devastating new war with Iran over Israel.
27:47
Speaker 5: Excellent reporting back there, which has stood the test of time.
27:50
Speaker 5: Now to look into this further, I would recommend Vanessa
27:53
Speaker 5: did not mention this, but that she has just spoken
27:55
Speaker 5: to Germ about exactly this subject. So please do look
27:58
Speaker 5: at that and for other UK column content. The most
28:02
Speaker 5: recent published episode of Military Matters Brian and I talking
28:06
Speaker 5: about this subject, and in fact we've just recorded another
28:09
Speaker 5: discussion on this which will be out soon.
28:12
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's look at the economic implications of the
28:17
Speaker 2: Iran war, because those continue are continuing, and of course
28:20
Speaker 2: they're pretty stark. So first of all, here we have
28:24
Speaker 2: this article from g Captain Dailly. They are reporting of
28:28
Speaker 2: the headline here ship war risk insurance canceled after Iran
28:33
Speaker 2: strikes and so they're talking about Lloyd's and other insurance
28:35
Speaker 2: companies having canceled the war risk insurance for shipping in
28:40
Speaker 2: the region. And first question is how is that even possible,
28:44
Speaker 2: because of course, you know, you've taken out an insurance
28:47
Speaker 2: policy and suddenly the next thing you know, they've just
28:50
Speaker 2: decided that you're not insured. Well, you've paid for it.
28:53
Speaker 2: But anyway, look, this is what they went on to say,
28:57
Speaker 2: machine marine insurers are canceling risk coverage for vessels and
29:01
Speaker 2: oil shipping rates are set to search further after the
29:04
Speaker 2: widening Iran conflict left at least three tankers damage to seafire,
29:08
Speaker 2: killed and one hundred and fifty ships stranded around the
29:10
Speaker 2: Strait of Formos Homos. As Vaness has already mentioned. Now,
29:16
Speaker 2: the response from Trump was immediate. He posted on truth
29:19
Speaker 2: Social saying effective immediately, I've ordered the United States Development
29:23
Speaker 2: Finance Cooperation to provide at a very reasonable price, political
29:27
Speaker 2: risk assurance. Political risk assurance what does that mean and
29:32
Speaker 2: guarantees for the financial security of all maritime trade, especially
29:36
Speaker 2: energy traveling through the Gulf. Now, the response in the
29:39
Speaker 2: markets was pretty immediate as well, with the prices of
29:42
Speaker 2: crude oil and gas rising yesterday. Prices settled back a
29:46
Speaker 2: bit today, And if we look at what happened based
29:49
Speaker 2: on the graph for the past month, it looks pretty
29:53
Speaker 2: a significant rise over the last few days. But if
29:57
Speaker 2: we expand to the past ten years, what we find
30:01
Speaker 2: we're nowhere even close yet to historic highs. So the
30:04
Speaker 2: main reason is that there's a reserve of will I
30:08
Speaker 2: believe about three weeks or so, and prices will really
30:11
Speaker 2: only start to rise properly as that reserve is drawn down.
30:15
Speaker 2: And the implications for us all are huge because of
30:18
Speaker 2: course the price of energy feed into the price of everything,
30:21
Speaker 2: as we all discovered during COVID when we got a
30:25
Speaker 2: taster of that, and at that time the British government
30:28
Speaker 2: stepped in to put a cap on retail energy prices,
30:31
Speaker 2: which were still horrendously expensive for just about everybody. But
30:34
Speaker 2: this is going to affect everybody globally if this war continues.
30:38
Speaker 2: So and the other point there is, of course the
30:41
Speaker 2: British government is not going to be stepping in to
30:43
Speaker 2: put any cap on this, I would imagine this time round.
30:47
Speaker 2: But let's just have a look at John Conrad here,
30:49
Speaker 2: because he's one of the owners of G Captain Daily.
30:54
Speaker 2: He posted this on x quite an extensive article on
30:57
Speaker 2: x link will be in the show notes for you
30:59
Speaker 2: to read the whole thing, but I got some excerpts
31:00
Speaker 2: from this because he's saying, this is potentially the biggest
31:03
Speaker 2: grand story. Nobody is talking about the global insurance market
31:07
Speaker 2: maybe heading towards the systemic crisis. And here's why, not
31:11
Speaker 2: talking about the price rises of oil. Here he's saying
31:14
Speaker 2: that most people don't realize London is just isn't just
31:17
Speaker 2: the financial center, It's the global center, sorry, the center
31:22
Speaker 2: for Global insurance. Lloyd's under rights around forty percent of
31:25
Speaker 2: the world's maritime marine cargo ship sinks port gets bombed,
31:31
Speaker 2: canal gets blocked, and the bill lands in London. That's
31:34
Speaker 2: why the UK punches above its weight, not the Royal Navy,
31:38
Speaker 2: absolutely not diplomacy. Its insurance control, insurance control trade, and
31:43
Speaker 2: London doesn't just control the ninety percent of global trade
31:46
Speaker 2: that moves by sea. Lloyd's and the London market are
31:49
Speaker 2: major insurers of almost everything, skyscrappers, factories, ports, satellites, entire
31:54
Speaker 2: supply chains. You can't participate in public markets or raise
31:58
Speaker 2: large amounts of capital without insurance. And he says that
32:00
Speaker 2: London has maintained a stranglehold on global insurance while losing
32:04
Speaker 2: nearly every sub market related to ships. The answer better intelligence.
32:09
Speaker 2: It's no coincidence. He says that MI six headquarters sit
32:12
Speaker 2: directly across the Thames from the IMOHQ, the Marine, the
32:16
Speaker 2: World Marine, sorry, the world's maritime regulator, and a short
32:20
Speaker 2: distance from Lloyd's itself. And I said, I have no
32:23
Speaker 2: proof of direct pipeline, but it's long been speculated in
32:26
Speaker 2: the insurance that intelligence flows from MI six to Lloyd's.
32:30
Speaker 2: Most large insurers worldwide don't do independent intelligence work the
32:35
Speaker 2: index or if Floyd's rids other insurers see Lloyd's numbers
32:39
Speaker 2: and assume the diligence was done, they price accordingly. And
32:43
Speaker 2: he said that most large insurers worldwide don't do independent intelligence. Sorry,
32:47
Speaker 2: that's a duplication.
32:48
Speaker 1: Sorry.
32:48
Speaker 2: That means if London is suddenly flying blind, it's not
32:52
Speaker 2: just Lloyd's policy holders at risk, it's the entire reinsurance chain.
32:56
Speaker 2: The cancelation of war risk coverage on ships isn't the crisis,
33:00
Speaker 2: it's the canary, and that I think is a very
33:02
Speaker 2: astute statement and something that we should all be paying
33:06
Speaker 2: attention to. The implications for this are huge, and really
33:11
Speaker 2: I think most of us, if not all of us,
33:13
Speaker 2: should be pushing back hard against any further escalation of this.
33:18
Speaker 2: In fact, we should be making sure that politicians are
33:21
Speaker 2: de escalating this situation as quickly as we possibly can.
33:24
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely agree. Now, on a related note, Rachel Reeves
33:29
Speaker 5: was addressing the House Commons yesterday giving her spring forecast
33:33
Speaker 5: in collaboration, of course with the Office for Budget Responsibility,
33:36
Speaker 5: and as with all things governmental, they're putting a positive
33:40
Speaker 5: spin on the situation, and just one of the sort
33:43
Speaker 5: of claims to draw out. The abr's forecast shows GDP
33:47
Speaker 5: per person is now set to grow more than was
33:49
Speaker 5: expected in the budget, with the growth of five point
33:52
Speaker 5: six percent over the parliament. Now, of course that's a projection.
33:55
Speaker 5: We go to the ABR report Economic and Fiscal Outlook
33:59
Speaker 5: for March twenty twenty six, and I think what's worth
34:01
Speaker 5: pointing to is a couple of the graphs that they
34:04
Speaker 5: show now first is real GDP growth, which shows enormous
34:08
Speaker 5: to spikes and troughs, particularly two thousand and eight and
34:11
Speaker 5: twenty twenty twenty twenty one, but also at the right
34:14
Speaker 5: hand side of the graph. The shaded areas to the right,
34:18
Speaker 5: to the above and below the line show the degree
34:22
Speaker 5: to which they may or may not be right. So
34:25
Speaker 5: it's very much worth bearing in mind that these are
34:29
Speaker 5: estimated figures and effectively can be manipulated to give an
34:32
Speaker 5: idea that the government is doing good job or not.
34:36
Speaker 5: And of course the other thing to point out is
34:37
Speaker 5: that on the real GDP per person projection going back
34:42
Speaker 5: to two thousand and seven, the forecast the upward trajectory
34:46
Speaker 5: was completely knocked off course there by what was described
34:50
Speaker 5: as the financial crash of that particular period, and of
34:53
Speaker 5: course again the shutdown during the COVID period in twenty
34:58
Speaker 5: twenty similar deviation. That the point of this is to suggest,
35:04
Speaker 5: as they did in their opening statement, that we are
35:06
Speaker 5: of course subject to all kinds of shocks, and this
35:09
Speaker 5: is why we go back to documents like the just
35:12
Speaker 5: in Case report from the National Preparedness Commission, and in
35:15
Speaker 5: effect the teeing up of there being a massive economic downturn,
35:20
Speaker 5: as though the government has absolutely no control over this,
35:22
Speaker 5: but of course, exactly like Mike's just talking about that,
35:25
Speaker 5: we absolutely are in control because of what we do
35:28
Speaker 5: or do not do in relation to issues such as
35:32
Speaker 5: the conflict in Iran. And this relates directly back to
35:35
Speaker 5: the National Security Strategy twenty twenty five and indeed the
35:38
Speaker 5: Strategic Defense Review where there was the push for a
35:41
Speaker 5: whole of nation response to exactly these sorts of shocks
35:45
Speaker 5: to the supply chain, shocks to the economy. And guess
35:48
Speaker 5: what the idea is that the next step is to
35:51
Speaker 5: be conscription and national service as we meet these threats
35:55
Speaker 5: that are coming from all different directions whilst the government
35:58
Speaker 5: apparently has no control over them.
36:00
Speaker 2: Indeed, okay, let's move on and say, if you like
36:03
Speaker 2: what the UK column does, we do need your continuing support. Please,
36:07
Speaker 2: if you are not currently a member or not making
36:10
Speaker 2: any kind of financial contribution, we really would appreciate it
36:13
Speaker 2: if you could consider that. Thank you very much once
36:16
Speaker 2: again everybody that is doing that. But if you can't
36:19
Speaker 2: make a contribution financially, please do share this program and
36:24
Speaker 2: anything else that you see that you like, because that
36:26
Speaker 2: helps us get around the various limitations with respect to censorship.
36:31
Speaker 2: Now Jerrem tonight is speaking to Stera Sadeki on why
36:36
Speaker 2: America won't defeat Iran. That's at seven PM this evening. Tomorrow,
36:41
Speaker 2: at one pm, Mark Anderson is speaking to doctor Olian
36:45
Speaker 2: Cooler on the on weather events in the United States
36:48
Speaker 2: and elsewhere.
36:49
Speaker 1: So that.
36:51
Speaker 2: Is an absolute type on that graphics or do apologize
36:55
Speaker 2: about that. That's one pm tomorrow, So join us for that. Okay,
37:00
Speaker 2: Ni Iran Khan, Charles, this has had almost no coverage
37:06
Speaker 2: whatsoever in the mainstream press. But what has he been fiercing.
37:10
Speaker 5: Welled, very very little coverage, and we'll come on to
37:13
Speaker 5: possible reasons as to why. But recently the Supreme Court
37:17
Speaker 5: and fact going back to last year, the Supreme Court
37:19
Speaker 5: in Pakistan have published a report highlighting the conditions under
37:23
Speaker 5: which he's been imprisoned and making specific reference to his
37:27
Speaker 5: deteriorating health, in particular his eyesight, the fact that he's
37:30
Speaker 5: been deprived visits from either family or legal support. Now,
37:34
Speaker 5: going back, he was Prime minister in that country between
37:38
Speaker 5: twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two and arrested in twenty
37:42
Speaker 5: twenty three. Now again the Supreme Court at that time
37:44
Speaker 5: deemed that his original request was unlawful, and the situation
37:49
Speaker 5: has moved on very much since then. Obviously, the underlying
37:53
Speaker 5: suggestion more than is that this is all entirely a
37:57
Speaker 5: political charge, and the further imprisonment for seventeen years it
38:02
Speaker 5: relates to the allegation at least that he was buying
38:05
Speaker 5: and selling property that was gifted to him whilst he
38:08
Speaker 5: was in office as Prime Minister, and therefore seeking to
38:10
Speaker 5: make money out of it.
38:12
Speaker 1: Now.
38:13
Speaker 5: The situation was discussed or debated in the House of
38:16
Speaker 5: Lords last week, and this is what his former brother
38:20
Speaker 5: in law, Zach Lord Goldsmith had to say about it.
38:24
Speaker 8: We understand, I think anyone who's paying attention, we understand
38:28
Speaker 8: that in brand Khan has been denied access to laws,
38:32
Speaker 8: has been denied access to his family, including his two
38:35
Speaker 8: sons who my nephews. He's been a denied access even
38:38
Speaker 8: to doctors, and we understand that he's spent much of
38:40
Speaker 8: his time in prison in solitary confinement and his health
38:44
Speaker 8: is deteriorating rapidly. So I asked a noble lady whether
38:49
Speaker 8: or not she agrees that this is now the time
38:51
Speaker 8: for us to reconsider our aid contributions to Pakistan. Pakistan's
38:55
Speaker 8: often at the top of the list in terms of
38:56
Speaker 8: recipients of UKA until that country's gone, demonstrates a clear,
39:01
Speaker 8: unambiguous commitment to the Charter, the Commonwealth Charter that it's
39:05
Speaker 8: signed up to, which commits it to an independent judiciary
39:08
Speaker 8: and to the rule of law.
39:14
Speaker 5: Now, as you might imagine, the government response was rather
39:17
Speaker 5: underwhelming and certainly not suggested that they were going to
39:20
Speaker 5: do anything about it. Now, there had been an earlier
39:22
Speaker 5: question asked about the comparability, if there was any, between
39:26
Speaker 5: the situation or at least the outcry concerning the trial
39:29
Speaker 5: and the sentencing of Jimmy Lae in Hong Kong, and
39:31
Speaker 5: of course the rather glib response was that Jimmy Lai
39:33
Speaker 5: is British, completely ignoring the fact that Immraan Khan was
39:37
Speaker 5: previously married to Jemima Goldsmith, who is British and indeed
39:40
Speaker 5: has two British sons who have been denied not just
39:43
Speaker 5: access to their father in Pakistan, but also by their report,
39:47
Speaker 5: they have also been prevented from visiting Pakistan itself. And
39:52
Speaker 5: the inaction of the British government and indeed the moral
39:59
Speaker 5: contradic in their approaches to human rights affairs were highlighted
40:04
Speaker 5: in a later question by Lord Sikha, who said this, my.
40:10
Speaker 9: Lord's successive governments shows selective outrage at repression by authoritarian
40:16
Speaker 9: states such as China, Iran, Russia and North Korea, but
40:21
Speaker 9: to very soft criticism when identical acts are committed by
40:26
Speaker 9: trade and defense partners. The government has the tools it
40:30
Speaker 9: can exert pressure on the army generals controlling Pakistan by
40:34
Speaker 9: ending aid and imposing trade sanctions, but it hasn't. So
40:38
Speaker 9: my question for the minister is can't you refer me
40:41
Speaker 9: to any moral principle which is guiding the government's foreign policy.
40:48
Speaker 10: I don't think it would be the right thing to
40:50
Speaker 10: do to end all aid to Pakistan the government. That
40:55
Speaker 10: is not the government's position, and that's my view. And
40:59
Speaker 10: I say that the need is there because the British
41:03
Speaker 10: interests are there, because the climate impact is there, because
41:07
Speaker 10: of counter terrorism issues that we work alongside the Pakistani
41:11
Speaker 10: government to tackle, which I would say is absolutely in
41:14
Speaker 10: the interests of this country.
41:15
Speaker 5: Athetic I talk about clashing extraws that that was an
41:21
Speaker 5: extremely unconvincing response by the minister there, who appeared not
41:25
Speaker 5: just very poorly brief but utterly prejudiced against the situation
41:28
Speaker 5: not just of Imran Khan, but the wider picture in Pakistan,
41:32
Speaker 5: and indeed the relationship between Pakistan and the United Kingdom,
41:36
Speaker 5: and plenty more besides. And now, whilst very little appears
41:38
Speaker 5: to have been done and very little interest taken in
41:41
Speaker 5: this country, it is therefore an embarrassment, effectively that in
41:45
Speaker 5: Congress a letter has been written by several congressmen and
41:49
Speaker 5: women highlighting this issue. This goes back to December of
41:52
Speaker 5: last year and I quote sent to Marco Rubio, Sectary
41:55
Speaker 5: of State. Such steps, alongside calls for the release of
41:58
Speaker 5: former Prime Minister Imran Khan and other political prisoners, would
42:01
Speaker 5: reinforce US commitment to human rights, protect American citizens from
42:04
Speaker 5: transnational repression, and promote regional stability. But of course no
42:10
Speaker 5: action on this score on this side of the Atlantic. Now,
42:14
Speaker 5: in questioning why that might be or might not be
42:17
Speaker 5: the case, I think it's pertinent to point back to
42:19
Speaker 5: February twenty fourth, twenty twenty two, which was of course
42:22
Speaker 5: the day that Russian incursion into Ukraine began, but it
42:26
Speaker 5: was also the day that Imran Khan met Putin in
42:30
Speaker 5: Moscow and the position he took as Prime Minister was
42:34
Speaker 5: one of support for strong economic ties to both Russia
42:40
Speaker 5: and China, and that does seem, given what's transpired since
42:45
Speaker 5: that does seem to be a relevant point concerning the
42:48
Speaker 5: attitude and the flippancy of the British establishment towards this
42:51
Speaker 5: particular situation. Also they should feel embarrassed because, of course
42:55
Speaker 5: it's taken a number of former Test cricket captains to
42:58
Speaker 5: call out the situation reported here by ESPN crick Info,
43:03
Speaker 5: amongst them Samuel Gabasca and Ian Chapel, both Chapel brothers,
43:08
Speaker 5: and several others getting into that, and of course his
43:12
Speaker 5: former wife Jemima Goldsmith, who realized that not just was
43:16
Speaker 5: the establishment shutting down this Debray debate and suppressing it,
43:20
Speaker 5: but also Twitter as well, which she perceived to be
43:24
Speaker 5: suppressing her tweets on this very issue, and not just hers,
43:27
Speaker 5: and I quote from her tweets sent to Elon Musk
43:30
Speaker 5: in December. Every time I post about him about Imran Khan,
43:34
Speaker 5: the reach inside Pakistan and often globally is throttled to
43:38
Speaker 5: almost zero. So that is how the situation seems to
43:43
Speaker 5: be unfolding. At the moment, very little hope offered, certainly
43:48
Speaker 5: in Pakistan, and as far as the British establishment's concerned,
43:52
Speaker 5: that doesn't seem to be much concern or suggestion that's
43:55
Speaker 5: going to be any action about that. I mean, that'd
43:57
Speaker 5: be something that perhaps we talk about more in extra
43:59
Speaker 5: and had anything to Vanessa.
44:03
Speaker 2: Let's welcome you back. And of course you're in Lebanon
44:06
Speaker 2: at the moment. What is the situation between Lebanon and Israel.
44:12
Speaker 3: Extremely tense of course, after the assassination of Imamali in
44:19
Speaker 3: Iran is considered the second most important spiritual leader to
44:24
Speaker 3: share Muslim communities across the world two hundred and sixty
44:28
Speaker 3: million worldwide, has bolar after fifteen months of putting up
44:34
Speaker 3: with Israeli violations of the ceasefire, which are daily murders
44:38
Speaker 3: of civilians both by drone and by bombing, incursions into
44:43
Speaker 3: Lebanese territory, the spraying of chemical glycassate on agricultural lands
44:49
Speaker 3: in the south, et cetera, et cetera. So now the
44:53
Speaker 3: government in Lebanon, which is very much or let's say,
44:56
Speaker 3: factions within the government because it's very much a coalition government.
45:00
Speaker 3: After the type agreement of nineteen eighty nine. Factions within
45:06
Speaker 3: the government that are aligned with Israel and Washington have
45:09
Speaker 3: basically said they will ban Hezbala's military activities. So, in
45:14
Speaker 3: other words, they're trying to throttle any response against Israeli
45:19
Speaker 3: violations by the resistance, whose people in the south are
45:23
Speaker 3: suffering the most from the Israeli violations bombings, drawing strikes,
45:28
Speaker 3: incursions with machine gun fire, et cetera, et cetera. And
45:33
Speaker 3: the president himself, President Joseph arm stresses that by Riach's
45:37
Speaker 3: decision to ban Hasbela's military activity is a sovereign and
45:41
Speaker 3: final decision. Of course it isn't. It's an Israelian Washington decision.
45:46
Speaker 3: And so basically, he says, the decision taken by the
45:49
Speaker 3: Council of Ministers yesterday preserving the Lebanese states sole right
45:53
Speaker 3: to control decisions of war and peace and banning military
45:56
Speaker 3: and security activities outside the law is a sovereign and
46:00
Speaker 3: decision from which there's no turning back. And of course
46:03
Speaker 3: that anger is rising in Lebanon because effectively, what the
46:06
Speaker 3: government is saying is that fifty percent of the population
46:09
Speaker 3: doesn't have the right to defend itself, and at the meantime,
46:12
Speaker 3: if we just move on to the next slide, On
46:16
Speaker 3: also sent a written command to the Lebanese forces, so
46:20
Speaker 3: the army on the border with Israel, to withdraw from
46:24
Speaker 3: their positions and actually enabled an Israeli ground invasion a couple.
46:30
Speaker 5: Of days ago.
46:31
Speaker 3: So effectively, the government is not a sovereign government. It's
46:35
Speaker 3: working to further the Israeli and Washington's agenda inside Lebanon.
46:41
Speaker 3: At the same time, has BLA has not backed down,
46:43
Speaker 3: and in fact, much of its missiles and drone activity
46:48
Speaker 3: is evading the interceptor missiles as we discussed into inside Israel.
46:54
Speaker 3: If we can just put this up on the screen.
46:57
Speaker 3: In the last two days, they've destroyed actually former Kava tanks,
47:02
Speaker 3: the Israeli tanks during the attempted ground in Crosion, and
47:06
Speaker 3: there have been multiple ambushes of ZIONUS forces in the south.
47:10
Speaker 3: And in fact, even the IDF is putting out statements
47:14
Speaker 3: saying we don't know what to do because has BLA
47:17
Speaker 3: just appears out of the ground. Of course they do.
47:19
Speaker 3: They have an entire tunnel system in the south and
47:23
Speaker 3: they're using it to their advantage against the ground deployment
47:26
Speaker 3: by the Israelis and At the same time, there are
47:31
Speaker 3: reports that Jolani is deploying thousands more troops because, of course,
47:36
Speaker 3: since December twenty twenty four, he's been building up military
47:41
Speaker 3: presence or terrorist presence on the eastern borders with Lubanon
47:47
Speaker 3: and the Red Stars there show, just as with Iran,
47:51
Speaker 3: that Israel in the last few days has been heavily
47:54
Speaker 3: bombing the border areas. One assumes to weaken any defense
47:58
Speaker 3: along that border line and potentially to allow an invasion
48:05
Speaker 3: by Jilani's ISIS and al Qaeda forces into Lebanon. We
48:09
Speaker 3: can talk about a bit more about that in extra
48:12
Speaker 3: At the same time, there are reports today just before
48:15
Speaker 3: I came on, that Israel has demanded the full evacuation
48:19
Speaker 3: of the southern territories of Lebanon, which is insane. Those
48:24
Speaker 3: people have nowhere to go. They're supposed to move from
48:27
Speaker 3: the south to north of the Latani River. The bombing
48:30
Speaker 3: hasn't started yet, but the roads are absolutely packed, and
48:33
Speaker 3: any of those people now stuck in jams on the
48:37
Speaker 3: one or two roads out of the south to the
48:40
Speaker 3: north are incredibly vulnerable for any mass bombing campaign that
48:44
Speaker 3: Israel is now going to launch.
48:47
Speaker 2: Okay, Vanessa well, you can keep us posted on this.
48:51
Speaker 2: We'll talk more about this an extra as well. I've
48:53
Speaker 2: got a couple of additional questions on it. But let's
48:56
Speaker 2: move on to the issue of nuclear proliferation. This is
49:00
Speaker 2: a tweet from Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Secretary
49:04
Speaker 2: and Security Policy at NATO, Boris Rujia who he's claiming
49:08
Speaker 2: that NATO is fully committed to the Non Proliferation Treaty,
49:11
Speaker 2: which remains the cornerstone, he says, of global non global
49:16
Speaker 2: non proliferation regime. Of course, that's a total misrepresentation, could
49:20
Speaker 2: even be described.
49:21
Speaker 1: As a lie.
49:22
Speaker 2: Now, the Starmer government announced on Friday last week that
49:26
Speaker 2: they had convened NATO's leading political and military officials quote
49:31
Speaker 2: to discuss the crucial role of nuclear deterrence in keeping
49:34
Speaker 2: the alliances one billion citizens safe. And he claimed that
49:38
Speaker 2: this was demonstrating the unity of the alliance, the UK's
49:41
Speaker 2: on wavering commitment to NATO trying not to laugh, and
49:44
Speaker 2: the credibility of its nuclear deterrance mission. Now, this brought
49:50
Speaker 2: together NATO Ambassador's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Supreme Allied Commander
49:55
Speaker 2: Transformation and the Deputy Chair of the Military Committee. But
49:59
Speaker 2: around the same time, or at least within a day
50:00
Speaker 2: or so of that, then Emmanual Macron announced that France
50:05
Speaker 2: is going to increase its nuclear arsenal and for the
50:08
Speaker 2: first time allowed temporary deployment of its nuclear armed aircraft
50:12
Speaker 2: to Allied countries. This is a new strategy, he said,
50:16
Speaker 2: aimed at strengthening Europe's independence. He said that France will
50:21
Speaker 2: expand its nuclear warhead stockpile beyond the current ceiling of
50:25
Speaker 2: around three hundred and this is the first increase since
50:29
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two. Media reports are saying that talks have
50:33
Speaker 2: already begun with Britain, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece,
50:36
Speaker 2: Sweden and Denmark to host these nuclear armed aircraft and
50:41
Speaker 2: Macron stressed that the sole authority over weapons would remain
50:44
Speaker 2: with the French president and he said to be free,
50:48
Speaker 2: one needs to be feared. So that was his statement.
50:51
Speaker 2: I know the image there he's looking a bit stressed
50:56
Speaker 2: when he seems to be saying this, But anyway, that's
51:00
Speaker 2: the situation that this of course has to be seen
51:03
Speaker 2: in the context of the end of the New Start Treaty,
51:07
Speaker 2: which is due to happen in the next couple of
51:11
Speaker 2: weeks or the next few weeks. And of course the
51:14
Speaker 2: upshot of all this is that Russia and China are
51:16
Speaker 2: also expanding their nuclear arsenals.
51:20
Speaker 1: Now the last.
51:23
Speaker 2: Sorry, there's no replacement insight for the New Start treaty
51:28
Speaker 2: and absolutely noises from the US saying that they have
51:31
Speaker 2: no intention of even considering any such replacement treaty. The
51:38
Speaker 2: Trumpet regime is absolutely encouraging the spread of uranium enrichment
51:45
Speaker 2: around the world, and both South Korea and Saudi Arabia
51:49
Speaker 2: are planning to move forward and acquiring facile material. This
51:54
Speaker 2: is at the same time that Iran of course is
51:56
Speaker 2: not allowed to acquire fissile material and so on. Now,
52:00
Speaker 2: against all this, and the eleventh Non Prolific Non Proliferation
52:04
Speaker 2: Treaty Review Conference is scheduled to take place in New
52:06
Speaker 2: York from the twenty seventh of April to the twenty
52:09
Speaker 2: second of May this year, and we will of course
52:12
Speaker 2: report on that at the time. In fact, back to
52:18
Speaker 2: Vanessa now, because Marco Rubio, sorry, it wasn't market Rubert
52:24
Speaker 2: was it was Hexath was making some pretty shall we say,
52:29
Speaker 2: inciting comments recently with respect to religion.
52:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean, first of all, he claimed that
52:40
Speaker 3: only four American soldiers had been killed in the last
52:44
Speaker 3: few days of conflict, which I think anybody with a
52:47
Speaker 3: brain will challenge vaciferously. But this I just wanted to
52:52
Speaker 3: cover very quickly, and we can talk about it more
52:54
Speaker 3: an extra because I do find that both terrifying and fascinating.
52:59
Speaker 3: So let's let just roll part of haig Seth's weird
53:04
Speaker 3: statement regarding the military situation against Iran.
53:10
Speaker 11: President Trump and I have your back always through fire,
53:16
Speaker 11: through criticism, through fake news, through everything we unleash you
53:22
Speaker 11: because you are the best, most powerful, most lethal fighting
53:26
Speaker 11: force the world has ever seen. May Almighty God watch
53:33
Speaker 11: over you, and his providential arms of protection extend over you.
53:40
Speaker 11: Godspeed warriors, and keep going.
53:47
Speaker 3: I mean, this entire speech was just quite extraordinary. A
53:50
Speaker 3: lot of people are actually saying that maybe hag Seth
53:53
Speaker 3: is the Antichrist rather than Trump. Very odd character, but
53:58
Speaker 3: this of information has been circulating all across social media,
54:04
Speaker 3: quite extraordinary. US troops were told Iran war is for
54:09
Speaker 3: armageddon and the return of Jesus. So let's actually say
54:13
Speaker 3: see what they say. A combat unit commander told non
54:17
Speaker 3: commissioned officers at a briefing on Monday that the Iran
54:20
Speaker 3: war is part of God's plan and that President Donald
54:24
Speaker 3: Trump was anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire
54:27
Speaker 3: in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,
54:32
Speaker 3: presuming they mean Jesus. According to a complaint by a
54:35
Speaker 3: non commissioned officer, from Saturday morning through Monday night, more
54:40
Speaker 3: than one hundred and don similar complaints about commanders and
54:43
Speaker 3: every branch of the military had been logged by the
54:45
Speaker 3: Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The complaints came from more than
54:50
Speaker 3: forty different units spread across at least thirty military installations.
54:54
Speaker 3: That MRFF told me Monday night, I mean this. You know,
55:00
Speaker 3: we all are fully aware of the fanatical Christian Zionist
55:05
Speaker 3: and Jewish Zionist vision of Armageddon bringing in the Second Coming.
55:11
Speaker 3: But you know, Hexas mentions the fact that he and
55:15
Speaker 3: Trump have the backs of their soldiers in this war
55:20
Speaker 3: against Iran to harold Armageddon and the Second Coming. But
55:25
Speaker 3: let's just have a listen to Trump and see how
55:28
Speaker 3: sincerely he has the backs of the young Americans that
55:33
Speaker 3: are going to be giving their lives in this conflict.
55:38
Speaker 4: We pray for the full recovery of the wounded, and
55:41
Speaker 4: send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families
55:45
Speaker 4: of the fallen, And sadly, there will likely be more
55:51
Speaker 4: before it ends. That's the way. It is likely be more,
55:55
Speaker 4: but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.
56:03
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any need to comment further on that.
56:07
Speaker 2: No, indeed, I mean it's very hard not just burst
56:12
Speaker 2: out laughing at that. But if it wasn't so serious,
56:15
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, this is the thing, no doubt
56:18
Speaker 2: we will speak more about that an extra as well. Now, look,
56:22
Speaker 2: let's move on to the Epstein situation. Because it's taken
56:26
Speaker 2: six months for the House Oversight Committee to get hold
56:29
Speaker 2: of depositions from Bill and Hillary Clinton over their alleged
56:33
Speaker 2: connections to Jeffrey Epstein. The committee released videos of the
56:38
Speaker 2: depositions on Monday this week. Now at the end, perhaps unsurprisingly,
56:44
Speaker 2: it turned out to be somewhat of a farce, as
56:46
Speaker 2: the questioning.
56:47
Speaker 1: Diverted into Pizzagate and UFOs.
56:50
Speaker 2: Now, the use of the term pizza in the Epstein
56:53
Speaker 2: files is undeniable, and it's clearly code for something, although
56:56
Speaker 2: what it is what that something is is not yet definite.
57:00
Speaker 2: Of However, all the evidence that I've seen strongly suggests
57:03
Speaker 2: that the Pizzagate story itself in and of itself was
57:07
Speaker 2: designed to be there to discredit and diverted attention away
57:12
Speaker 2: from any use of that term by those involved with Epstein.
57:16
Speaker 2: But anyway, Bill Clinton, for his part, said he first
57:20
Speaker 2: met Epstein in two thousand and two, when he flew
57:22
Speaker 2: on Epstein's private jet for humanitarian work. He described the
57:26
Speaker 2: relationship as cordial, but not a close friendship. He said
57:29
Speaker 2: that Epstein provided his jet in exchange for Clinton discussing
57:33
Speaker 2: politics and economics, and Clinton said that he had visited
57:38
Speaker 2: Epstein's New York time house, but denied ever visiting his
57:41
Speaker 2: private island, and denied that he and Epstein ever discussed
57:44
Speaker 2: young women or girls, which on the face of it,
57:47
Speaker 2: seems completely unlikely and ridiculous actually, bearing in mind the
57:51
Speaker 2: images Epstein chose to hang on the walls of his
57:54
Speaker 2: time house in New York, which Brian has already shown
57:56
Speaker 2: on previous UK column news program. Now, Bill Clinton had
58:00
Speaker 2: said that he and Trump had briefly discussed Epstein at
58:03
Speaker 2: a charity golf tournament over twenty years ago, and that
58:06
Speaker 2: Trump had never said anything to suggest he was involved
58:09
Speaker 2: in anything improper with Epstein. But the man take away
58:13
Speaker 2: from Bill's testimony was the need for him to be
58:16
Speaker 2: flanked by two lawyers. His job was clearly to divert
58:18
Speaker 2: the questioners and also to let Bill know which questions
58:23
Speaker 2: he should answer in which he shouldn't.
58:25
Speaker 1: Let's just have a brief look.
58:29
Speaker 12: How many dinners did you have with Glene Maxwell or
58:32
Speaker 12: Jeffrey Epstein in attendance.
58:34
Speaker 13: She's asking, to the best of your Recordllete, I have
58:36
Speaker 13: no idea.
58:37
Speaker 12: Okay, did you ever discuss sexual miss conduct allegations made
58:41
Speaker 12: against you with Epstein or Maxwell? Never did Epstein or
58:44
Speaker 12: Maxwell ever offer to help manager silence women who made
58:47
Speaker 12: sexual misconduct allegations against you. No, did Epstein or Maxwell
58:52
Speaker 12: ever offer financial support directly or indirectly to legal defense
58:55
Speaker 12: funds related to impeachment proceedings or civil actions against you.
58:58
Speaker 1: Not to my knowledge.
59:00
Speaker 12: Do you think a young girl massaging a president is unusual?
59:04
Speaker 13: So are you asking his opinion, Well, there's a.
59:06
Speaker 12: Massage by a young woman. I'm asking if he thinks
59:09
Speaker 12: it's unusual that a president, sitting president of the United States,
59:12
Speaker 12: leader of the free world that.
59:13
Speaker 13: I'm sorry, are you speaking to Are you talking to
59:16
Speaker 13: the instance of them usual that occurred while he was
59:21
Speaker 13: not president. I'm just trying to understand, you said a
59:23
Speaker 13: president of the United States President, thank you? Just trying
59:26
Speaker 13: to make sure he were correcting the time forakbustering. No,
59:29
Speaker 13: I don't need to. I'm actually trying to make sure
59:30
Speaker 13: that you're being clear.
59:31
Speaker 1: He said he was.
59:33
Speaker 13: A sitting president. You said, a sitting president. I want
59:38
Speaker 13: you to be clear so that when he answered clear
59:40
Speaker 13: to it?
59:41
Speaker 12: Is it unusual?
59:44
Speaker 7: No?
59:44
Speaker 1: I unubjection for speculation.
59:47
Speaker 12: I figured, do you ever did you ever think that
59:50
Speaker 12: all these women around Jeffrey Epstein or Dyllang Maxwell was odd, unusual,
59:54
Speaker 12: weird or creepy?
59:57
Speaker 9: There weren't all that many around when I was there.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: How many would you say?
1:00:01
Speaker 12: Is all not all that many?
1:00:03
Speaker 4: I think on this big plane that was working long hours,
1:00:08
Speaker 4: I think two to four people on there I thought
1:00:10
Speaker 4: was as far as I knew.
1:00:12
Speaker 1: They were all helping.
1:00:14
Speaker 12: Flight attendance and tank tops and jeans.
1:00:17
Speaker 7: Right.
1:00:18
Speaker 12: No, do you believe you were a victim of a
1:00:20
Speaker 12: Jeffrey Epstein intel operation? Do you think that you might
1:00:25
Speaker 12: have been caught up in some of what he was
1:00:27
Speaker 12: maybe potentially doing.
1:00:31
Speaker 1: So. That was Bill.
1:00:34
Speaker 2: If you watched the whole thing, and it will be
1:00:36
Speaker 2: linked in the show notes. He absolutely it came across
1:00:40
Speaker 2: that he was totally out of his depth and he
1:00:42
Speaker 2: needed the people either side of him to keep him
1:00:45
Speaker 2: on the street and narrow. Hillary, for her part, repeatedly
1:00:49
Speaker 2: told the committee she never even recalled meeting Epstein.
1:00:53
Speaker 1: She flew into an absolute ridge.
1:00:55
Speaker 2: As the questioning went on, particularly following questions about her
1:00:57
Speaker 2: connections to Commerce Secretary hard Lutnik. So let's just have
1:01:02
Speaker 2: a brief look at her behavior.
1:01:07
Speaker 12: You asked the question.
1:01:08
Speaker 13: I'm going to answer your question.
1:01:10
Speaker 12: That's was what I spent my time doing. I'm trying
1:01:14
Speaker 12: to look out for others, and I was taking care
1:01:17
Speaker 12: of it people who are hearing a thousand lives.
1:01:22
Speaker 2: So her definite strategy was attack as the best form
1:01:28
Speaker 2: of defense. Now, Hard Lutnik, by the way, has now
1:01:31
Speaker 2: decided to testify before the committee, now that it's become
1:01:34
Speaker 2: clear that there's zero risk in doing so, since no
1:01:37
Speaker 2: one appearing is being seriously challenged on any of the
1:01:41
Speaker 2: potential lives that have been told. It does come across
1:01:44
Speaker 2: as an absolute cover up.
1:01:45
Speaker 5: It really does.
1:01:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, well, look let's end Charles with an ant finally, yeah.
1:01:51
Speaker 5: We will. We take it off where we can. And
1:01:54
Speaker 5: I was absolutely delighted therefore on a recent trip to
1:01:57
Speaker 5: encounter this sign in Aberdeen, which if you can't see
1:02:01
Speaker 5: it was positioned directly above a radiator and it reads attention.
1:02:06
Speaker 5: These radiators can become very hot.
1:02:09
Speaker 1: Now.
1:02:10
Speaker 5: I wasn't sure whether this was a reflection on the
1:02:12
Speaker 5: intelligence of airport staff or indeed the expected intelligence of passengers,
1:02:16
Speaker 5: or just to compliment to the heating engineer, but either
1:02:18
Speaker 5: way it made me laugh huge Matt, and I hope
1:02:20
Speaker 5: it's done the same for you.
1:02:22
Speaker 2: And on that note, we have to leave it for today,
1:02:24
Speaker 2: So thank you Vanessa and Charles and for everybody that's
1:02:27
Speaker 2: been watching. For UK colun members, stick around on the
1:02:29
Speaker 2: live stream and we'll have some more in UK column
1:02:33
Speaker 2: News Extra. If you're not a member, maybe you'd like
1:02:34
Speaker 2: to join us and join us for extra each time
1:02:37
Speaker 2: we do a news program. But nonetheless jerm tonight seven pm,
1:02:41
Speaker 2: Mark Anderson tomorrow one pm. We'll be back for the
1:02:44
Speaker 2: news on Friday at one pm as usual. You see
1:02:46
Speaker 2: it then bye bye bye, right