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Israel v Iran: The new Middle East war explained · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christianamie.
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  Speaker 1: It's Monday, June sixteenth, twenty twenty five. Senators want Amazon
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  Speaker 1: to be banned from winning lucrative contracts for government work.
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  Speaker 1: It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi toured Amazon's headquarters
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  Speaker 1: in Seattle, prompting criticism of his government's links to the
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  Speaker 1: tech giant. The PM is expected to meet with Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump on the sidelines of the G seven summit in
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  Speaker 1: Canada this week. On the agenda is the future of
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  Speaker 1: the orcust Military Pact as the Trump administration throws defense
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  Speaker 1: and trade ties inted doubt. Those stories alive right now
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au. Civilian casualties, crumbling
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  Speaker 1: buildings and rockets raining down on Israel and Iran today,
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  Speaker 1: the new Middle East war over a nuclear ambitions, Why
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  Speaker 1: Israel is striking now and what happens next.
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  Speaker 2: It was so surreal. You know, you can hear noises outside,
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  Speaker 2: You're not sure what they are. It was like nothing
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  Speaker 2: I've ever experienced, but it was something that people who
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  Speaker 2: live in Israel have experienced a lot.
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  Speaker 1: This is Page Taylor, the Australian's correspondent in Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 2: The bomb shelter I went to on Friday morning was
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  Speaker 2: on the same level of the hotel I'm staying at.
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  Speaker 2: What I hadn't realized at the time is that everywhere
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  Speaker 2: in Israel, building codes for more than thirty years have
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  Speaker 2: required a bomb shelter on every level, which says a
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  Speaker 2: lot about the conflicts that have been going on in
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  Speaker 2: Israel for a very long time. But I think some
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  Speaker 2: of the people who've been living in Israel for a
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  Speaker 2: long time are quite accustomed to what is a full
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  Speaker 2: scale alert and what is a standby alert. So it
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  Speaker 2: wasn't until the second alarm rang that Israelis and other
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  Speaker 2: people who live in the region came into that bomb
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  Speaker 2: shelter with me. I'd been in there for quite some time,
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  Speaker 2: wondering if I was in the right place.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, Paige isn't usually a war reporter. She's the Australian's
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  Speaker 1: Indigenous Affairs correspondent and was in Israel to report on
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  Speaker 1: a delegation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people led
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  Speaker 1: by former Olympian and former Labor Senator Novi Paris.
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  Speaker 2: She was showing the delegates the parts of Israel that
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  Speaker 2: she had visited last year, and she had been very
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  Speaker 2: moved by that trip and wanted others to see what
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  Speaker 2: she saw. The Jewish people have an unbroken history to
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  Speaker 2: this land. They call Israel the epitome of decolonization is
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  Speaker 2: the Jewish people.
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  Speaker 1: Is an extremely experienced reporter and she's not faced by much.
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  Speaker 1: So it's from this modest three x four meter space
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  Speaker 1: that she's pivoted to reporting on a major escalation in
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  Speaker 1: tensions between Israel and Iran. It began on Friday when
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  Speaker 1: Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a coordinated attack on more
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  Speaker 1: than one hundred Iranian military and nuclear sites. The Israeli
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  Speaker 1: Defense Force said in a statement that the air strikes
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  Speaker 1: on Iran's primary nuclear site, the Natan's facility on the
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  Speaker 1: Central Plateau, had been especially effective despite its protective underground construction.
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  Speaker 1: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin net Nyahu said the operation was
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  Speaker 1: designed to curtail Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
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  Speaker 3: For decades, the tyrants of Tehran have brazenly openly called
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  Speaker 3: for Israel's destruction. They've backed up their genocidal rhetoric with
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  Speaker 3: a program to develop nuclear weapons. This is a clear
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  Speaker 3: and present danger to Israel's very survival.
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  Speaker 1: Iran has always maintained its nuclear program has nothing to
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  Speaker 1: do with making atomic bombs. It says it's designed to
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  Speaker 1: provide energy to its ninety million citizens. But just a
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  Speaker 1: day earlier, on Thursday, the Board of the International Atomic
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  Speaker 1: Energy Agency censured Iran for stonewalling its inspectors and Benjamin Nettanya,
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  Speaker 1: who says Israeli intelligence suggests Iran has enriched enough uranium
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  Speaker 1: to produce nine atomic bombs.
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  Speaker 3: In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has
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  Speaker 3: never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium. If
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  Speaker 3: not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a
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  Speaker 3: very short time.
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  Speaker 1: Within the day, Iran retaliated, motivated state media said by
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  Speaker 1: the deaths of civilians in the strikes what.
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  Speaker 4: Iran Supreme leader Iatola Ali Hamane vowed a harsh punishment
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  Speaker 4: in retaliation for the at, saying Israel has brought a
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  Speaker 4: bitter and painful feat upon itself and it will certainly
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  Speaker 4: face it.
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  Speaker 1: Explosions were reported over Israel's capital, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 1: When I spoke to Page on Sunday afternoon Sydney time,
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  Speaker 1: the impact was already being felt.
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  Speaker 2: People in Israel were woken up at three am Friday
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  Speaker 2: local time to alert from the Israeli government that they
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  Speaker 2: had attacked Iran's nuclear facilities and that people should be
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  Speaker 2: on high alert. And so that was the beginning. The
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  Speaker 2: number of mythols fired back has been somewhere around two hundred,
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  Speaker 2: and Israel has let some of those hit the ground
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  Speaker 2: because they were going to unpopulated areas. Three people are
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  Speaker 2: dead that we know of, it's dozens injured, and there's
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  Speaker 2: quite a few people unaccounted for that. I think the
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  Speaker 2: death toll is going to rise.
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  Speaker 1: Iran's leadership also issued a warning to the United States,
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  Speaker 1: Kingdom and France not to help Israel in its assault,
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  Speaker 1: or else it would target their military bases in the region.
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  Speaker 1: But with Israel's infamous Iron Dome defense system under pressure,
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  Speaker 1: the US has stepped in to shoot down the missiles
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  Speaker 1: raining down from the east. Caught in the middle, Iraq
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  Speaker 1: has asked its ally Iran not to target its strategic partner,
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  Speaker 1: the US. The reprisal hasn't deterred Israel.
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  Speaker 3: This operation will continue for as many days as it
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  Speaker 3: takes to remove the threat.
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  Speaker 2: We're not hearing any backdown in the rhetoric from the IDF.
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  Speaker 2: We're also not entirely sure whether their job is complete
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  Speaker 2: in Iran. In fact, they're talking about hitting more targets
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  Speaker 2: in Tehran. Their focus is to completely disable Iran's nuclear capabilities.
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  Speaker 1: The Australians Foreign editor Greg Sheridan says this is a
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  Speaker 1: pivotal moment in the Middle East conflict.
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  Speaker 5: I think it's very uncertain exactly how it's going to go.
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  Speaker 5: But Israel has widened its targets now to include Iran's
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  Speaker 5: energy infrastructure, and it says its political leadership could be
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  Speaker 5: targeted as well. So Iran will strike back in every
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  Speaker 5: way that it can. So Israel's taking more hits on
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  Speaker 5: its homeland than it's taken since the October seven terror atrocities.
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  Speaker 5: I don't know whether Iran will attack Americans in the
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  Speaker 5: Middle East. If they strike Americans in the Middle East,
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  Speaker 5: they are likely to get a very very tough response
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  Speaker 5: from the Americans. So far, the Iranian proxies have been
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  Speaker 5: pretty quiet, as Ballah hasn't had much to say. There's
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  Speaker 5: not much sign of activity from the militias in Syria
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  Speaker 5: or Iraq. Israel has been striking the Hoodies again in
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  Speaker 5: Yemen as well. But it's just impossib well to know
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  Speaker 5: how long Israel's target list is and whether Iran has
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  Speaker 5: any other options for retaliation that we don't know about,
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  Speaker 5: and whether other countries will get involved. I mean, one
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  Speaker 5: thing is that Iran is strongly supported by China, Russia
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  Speaker 5: and North Korea, and they all have nuclear weapons, so
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  Speaker 5: it may well be that they help Iran reconstitute its
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  Speaker 5: nuclear weapons program reasonably quickly, even if the Israelis do
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  Speaker 5: more or less destroy most of the Iranian capability. But
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  Speaker 5: we are drenched in uncertainty and danger at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up is a bigger ambition driving Israel's fight against Iran.
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  Speaker 1: While I've got you, I wanted to let you know
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  Speaker 1: the monumental challenges facing Australia's defense force will be examined
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  Speaker 1: at the Defending Australia Summit in Canberra today. You can
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  Speaker 1: tune into a live stream at the Australian dot Com
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  Speaker 1: dot au from midday to hear our experts and key
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  Speaker 1: defense figures speak on everything from Orcus to the future
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  Speaker 1: of the Indo Pacific. And that's more of today's episode.
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  Speaker 1: After this, in the aftermath of Israel's Operation Rising Lion,
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  Speaker 1: Iranian state media reported the head of its Revolutionary Guards,
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  Speaker 1: Major General Hussain Salami, had been killed in a strike
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  Speaker 1: on the capital Tehran. It points to a greater Israeli
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  Speaker 1: ambition toppling the brutal regime that seeks its destruction. Iran
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  Speaker 1: is a backer of the militant groups Hesblah, who operate
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  Speaker 1: largely in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthi rebels
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  Speaker 1: in Yemen. All have attacked Israel since October seven, twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, when Hamas militants massacred men, women and children
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  Speaker 1: live in southern Israel and took two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: more people hostage. Israeli PM Benjamin Nettana, who said it
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  Speaker 1: was Israel's actions against Hesbela that brought about the end
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  Speaker 1: of the Assad regime in Syria and a new government
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  Speaker 1: was installed in Lebanon, and on Friday, he appealed directly
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  Speaker 1: to the Iranian people.
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  Speaker 3: I believe that the day of your liberation is near.
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  Speaker 3: When that happens, the great friendship between our two ancient
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  Speaker 3: peoples will flourish once again.
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  Speaker 1: Here's Greg Sheridan.
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  Speaker 5: I think israel Is in favor of regime change, right,
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  Speaker 5: there's no doubt about that. But this is not a
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  Speaker 5: military attack designed through military means to affect regime change.
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  Speaker 5: The Israelis don't have a proxy force which they're backing
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  Speaker 5: within Iran. But the Israelis four years and the Americans too,
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  Speaker 5: have been appealing to the Iranian people to try to
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  Speaker 5: get rid of their despotic regime. Now, as far as
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  Speaker 5: we can tell, the Iranian people hate their despotic regime.
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  Speaker 5: Every year or two there is a wave of mass
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  Speaker 5: protests in Iran. Protesters are routinely arrested and killed by
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  Speaker 5: the Iranian authorities, in some cases for something as trivial
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  Speaker 5: as not wearing the scarf with sufficient modesty. It's been
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  Speaker 5: remarkably easy for Israeli intelligence to penetrate Iran, both Iranian society,
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  Speaker 5: Iranian government, Iranian military, and even perhaps the Iranian intelligence services.
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  Speaker 5: Now a lot of analysts think that itself is a
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  Speaker 5: sign that there are a lot of people inside Iran
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  Speaker 5: who don't believe in the regime, who are very unhappy
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  Speaker 5: with the economic misery and the repression and the human
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  Speaker 5: rights abuses and everything else that the Iranian regime has
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  Speaker 5: foisted on the Iranian people. However, dictatorships can last a
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  Speaker 5: long time. They're very strong until they're not. On the
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  Speaker 5: other hand, some of them go on and on. I've
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  Speaker 5: been reporting on North Korea one way or another for
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  Speaker 5: more than forty years, and at every moment of that
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  Speaker 5: forty years, there's been an analyst somewhere saying the North
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  Speaker 5: Koreans are about to collapse, but here they still are.
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  Speaker 5: On the other hand, then you have something like the
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  Speaker 5: giant edifice of the Soviet Union. In the nineteen eighties,
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  Speaker 5: Australian intelligence was saying it's going to be a superpower
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  Speaker 5: forevermore and a minute later the fall of the Berlin
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  Speaker 5: Waller collapse of Soviet Communism. So I think change in
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  Speaker 5: Iran is possible, but it's very hard to predict whether
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  Speaker 5: it will happen. But just at the technical level, this
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  Speaker 5: performance in Iran is quite remarkable, and it would look
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  Speaker 5: as though there are a lot of people in Iran
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  Speaker 5: who are willing to work against the regime, maybe for money,
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  Speaker 5: maybe for promise of escape, or maybe from a desire
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  Speaker 5: to get rid of the Iranian regime which oppresses all Iranians.
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  Speaker 2: This is a story that has been building since nineteen
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  Speaker 2: seventy nine, when Iran made it quite clear that their
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  Speaker 2: focus was to destroy Israel and that was not ever
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  Speaker 2: going to be something that Israel could tolerate. So while
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  Speaker 2: I've been here, I've been listening to people who talk
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  Speaker 2: about the fact that this is a country that wants
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  Speaker 2: peace but is surrounded by terrorist organizations that wish it
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  Speaker 2: to be destroyed.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor, and Page Taylor
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  Speaker 1: is our Indigenous affairs correspondent. For all the latest from
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  Speaker 1: our reporters on the ground in Israel, and to view
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the Defending Australia Summit live stream, visit the Australian dot
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  Speaker 1: Com dot au