Latest / The Front / Inside Iran’s secret underground ‘military cities’

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Inside Iran’s secret underground ‘military cities’ · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, April seven, twenty twenty six. Negotiations for a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: forty five day ceasefire in Iran are reportedly underway after
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump issued an extraordinary foul mouthed social media rant
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: giving Iran just hours to allow the world access to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Middle East oil. Trump told Iran's quote crazy bastards to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: reopen the effing Straight of hor Moors, threatening to destroy bridges,
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  Speaker 1: power plants and send the whole country to hell. Right
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot U and always,
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  Speaker 1: we've got the analysis and reporting to help you get
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  Speaker 1: to grips with the latest in this remarkable moment in history.
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  Speaker 1: Vast underground tunnel systems, packed with fuel, drones and missiles.
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  Speaker 1: This is how Iran has managed to hold out against
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  Speaker 1: the combined might of the US and Israeli assault for
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  Speaker 1: well over a month. Today, our reporter shukof As are
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: on the photos that change how we understand around strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Shukafa is here in just a moment. Shukafa Azaria is
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: a journalist with The Australian. She's been covering the around
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  Speaker 1: war and Shuka. Fore, you've done some amazing reporting in
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  Speaker 1: recent days about a network of Iranian underground missile facilities.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen incredible pictures. What are we seeing in those images?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, last week one of the largest facilities on their ground,
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  Speaker 2: facilities in the city of yazz where hits boy bomb
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  Speaker 2: and it's made people aware of this kind of underground
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  Speaker 2: military cities. We knew about them. We knew that the
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  Speaker 2: Regym is building some of these underground facilities, but we
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  Speaker 2: didn't know about their scale and the expenses and the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: size of these facilities. So since last week many videos
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  Speaker 2: and photos and information were published and so far we
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  Speaker 2: know that these facilities are included of many tunnels and
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  Speaker 2: fueler storage, mizzele and drone storage and rail system. They
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  Speaker 2: have metro, they are multi level structures. We were not
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  Speaker 2: aware of these at all.
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  Speaker 1: They're amazingly sophisticated. There are lights, they're big enough for
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  Speaker 1: large vehicles, you know, goods vehicles to drive through. Where
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  Speaker 1: are these facilities and what do we think is actually
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  Speaker 1: going on on the ground.
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  Speaker 2: So our information are really limited because always all of
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  Speaker 2: these facilities were built in secrecy in lasts at least
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: twenty years. The governments revealed the first underground missile city
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  Speaker 2: in twenty fifteen, and after that they introduced four or
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  Speaker 2: five of them, and they didn't mention the details or
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: they didn't mention what city they are built. What now
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  Speaker 2: we know? Since last week many people have started publishing information,
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  Speaker 2: photos and images and videos also, so we now know
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  Speaker 2: that some of these cities are built in Cherman, buchher Terran,
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  Speaker 2: carriage Esfahan, Cistan and Balucheston, and especially in the Persian Gulf. Course,
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  Speaker 2: we know there are some in northern Iran, and we
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  Speaker 2: also know that there are many of them in Zoglos
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  Speaker 2: Mountains in the western of Iran. Before we told that
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  Speaker 2: there are only four or five of them. Now we
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  Speaker 2: are talking about sixty or seventies of advance underground military sites.
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  Speaker 1: What would ordinary Iranians have known about them? And is
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: it ordinary Iranians who are publishing those photographs that we're
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: now seeing all these facilities?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, since last week, actually it's brought lots of shocks
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  Speaker 2: when last week the years sites were hit by the bomb.
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  Speaker 2: So many information published and now people are more aware
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  Speaker 2: of what's going on on the ground eron actually and
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  Speaker 2: people saying in social media, people are saying the regime
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: pushed us to poverty on ground of the country, but
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  Speaker 2: on their ground they built, you know, super expensive military facilities.
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  Speaker 2: So now people know that there are many of them.
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  Speaker 2: But many informations that we have comes from you know, people,
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  Speaker 2: not from the resources or valid resources. We just know.
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  Speaker 2: People send us photos and they say in our areas,
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  Speaker 2: we see the size, we see this activity, but no
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  Speaker 2: one can prove.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think the fact that people are now talking
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: about these facilities tells us how they were built like
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  Speaker 1: that they weren't necessarily just built by the military, but
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  Speaker 1: they had to use civilian Iranian people to build these facilities,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: and that's how people know about them.
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  Speaker 2: You know, always around of these kind of activities are covered,
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  Speaker 2: so people know the army's facilities or cars and vehicles
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  Speaker 2: coming and going, but no one knows what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: That's the main point. And we know that our country
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  Speaker 2: is rich, we are one of the most important resources
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  Speaker 2: of gas and oil in the world, but the people
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  Speaker 2: and the country gets in puller and puller in lasts
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  Speaker 2: at least two decades, and that's made people so shocked
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  Speaker 2: and angry, and they sent any information that they have.
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  Speaker 2: We are talking about it, and we are talking about
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  Speaker 2: a systematic sense censorship. The system is built to censor information.
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  Speaker 2: And we have so many journalists in the prison, We
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  Speaker 2: have so many environmental activists in prison just because they
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  Speaker 2: reveal parts of these activities.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me about those environmental activists. How have their
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  Speaker 1: activities kind of been associated with these under ground facilities.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Now we understand, actually we understand why the regime
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  Speaker 2: arrest and torture and crack down the environmental activists. Since
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  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, the government released the information about the first
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  Speaker 2: underground facility in twenty fifteen and early twenty sixteen, we've
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  Speaker 2: been evidence of arresting and the torturing and imprisonment and
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  Speaker 2: also killing off many environmental activities. It was a huge
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  Speaker 2: question for all of us. For more than twenty years,
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  Speaker 2: we didn't know what's going on. But now we understand
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  Speaker 2: that many of them find information unwantedly, perhaps because all
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  Speaker 2: of these activities happen out of the cities in the desert,
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  Speaker 2: in the natural resources and sights, and they unwantedly record
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  Speaker 2: perhaps some of these activities, and that's why the regime
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  Speaker 2: immediately sage reaction we know that in twenty sixteen more
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  Speaker 2: than fifty environmentalvi's been prisoned and more than twenty of
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: them being chilled.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we already knew. I think that Iran's proxies in
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  Speaker 1: the region, like Hamas in Gaza and perhaps Hezbela and Lebanon,
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  Speaker 1: we're using underground facilities. That's certainly been one of Israel's
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  Speaker 1: war aims in Gaza was to get rid of Hamasa's
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  Speaker 1: network of tunnels. How did the revelations about Iran's tunnels
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  Speaker 1: in the Iranian mainland kind of match up with what
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  Speaker 1: we already knew about what those proxies were doing in
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  Speaker 1: other territories.
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  Speaker 2: Expert believes that many of these underground military sites in Lebanon,
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  Speaker 2: Syria and as there are built or were supported financially
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  Speaker 2: by regime, Islamic regime in Iran, and we don't know,
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  Speaker 2: maybe there are more in Yemen or Nigeria. In you know,
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  Speaker 2: they are also active in some parts of Africa. And
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  Speaker 2: what we know is that all of these military groups
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: middles and Africa were created or supported by this regime
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  Speaker 2: and with the costs of Iranian people, and we have
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: been pushed to poverty. So the regime can build this
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  Speaker 2: kind of huge underground military systems, and what we know
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  Speaker 2: is that perhaps there should be more of these facilities
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  Speaker 2: on the ground in you know, Lebanon, Cereal, and as
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned, maybe other countries like Yemen, and all of
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: these came with our price.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, Iran has developed a kind of warfare that involves
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: storing large amounts of stuff underground, using underground systems to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: communicate and so on. What does it tell us about
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  Speaker 1: Iran's kind of readiness for war, you know, over the
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  Speaker 1: past few years.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, actually, it obviously tell us that the regime was
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: getting ready for these activities for at least for twenty years.
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  Speaker 2: In nineteen seventeen nine, when the regime funded immediately they
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: involved with this eight years war with Iraq and absolutely
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  Speaker 2: unnecessary war. There was not any conflict between Iran and
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Iraq until they created that. So for almost ten years
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  Speaker 2: they were involved with the war. And after that, when
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: they saw that they are weak in many ways in
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: military facilities and systems, they start building this kind The
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: idea of building this on the ground cities came after
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  Speaker 2: Iran Iraq war, so it means they were getting ready
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  Speaker 2: for twenty thirty years and they spent all of the
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  Speaker 2: wilds of this country on these stupid military facilities.
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  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, after a long and old, duous journey from Australia,
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  Speaker 3: around women's football team is back home. The squad spouse
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: scene here passed through gob Lot Boarder crossing on Wednesday afternoon.
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  Speaker 3: With Iranian airs space closed. The delegation flew via Malaysia
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  Speaker 3: and Oman then London. In Istanbul Suokar for.
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  Speaker 1: The last time we had you on the front we
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: were talking about the Lionesses, the Iranian female soccer team,
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  Speaker 1: who have now largely returned to Iran. What is the latest?
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  Speaker 1: Is there still one Lioness here in Australia And do
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  Speaker 1: we know anything about what's happened to the women who
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  Speaker 1: went home?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know from Iranian news in Farsi that as
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  Speaker 2: soon as they went to Iran, they've been used as
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  Speaker 2: a part of regime propaganda as usual. So after a
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: lot of attention and noises that Australia created around these liyonesses,
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  Speaker 2: the regime claimed that the gears were held in Australia
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  Speaker 2: against their real that's very funny, and some of them
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  Speaker 2: became secre refrugie against their will. So we all know
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  Speaker 2: that it is a lie, and we know that it
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  Speaker 2: actually it's very funny to even claim that. And now
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  Speaker 2: what we hear is that a huge silence. And this
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  Speaker 2: silence always should be very deeply consented or consent, because
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  Speaker 2: when it's silence come, it means the regime arrested them
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  Speaker 2: and put them in pressures, question them and introgate them,
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  Speaker 2: even if they are not in prison officially. Two of
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  Speaker 2: them sayed in Australia and other two of them that
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  Speaker 2: they first said they want to say in Australia, they're
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  Speaker 2: back to it on because I believe and many believe
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  Speaker 2: because of the pressure of the regime on their family,
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  Speaker 2: so they made decisions to back to actually save their families.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us, no problem, Thank
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: you so much. Shukta Aza is a reporter with The Australian.
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  Speaker 1: You can read all the latest from the Middle East
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  Speaker 1: and around the world right now at the Australian dot com.
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  Speaker 3: Dou