Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Dan Sabbagh: The Guardian's defence and security editor on Trump warning 'a whole civilisation will die tonight' if Iran doesn't make a deal
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: So seven hours on the clock till Trump's peace deadline
- 0:02Speaker 1: runs out. He has handed to run a ten point
- 0:05Speaker 1: plan for a ceasefire, but the regime doesn't seem to
- 0:09Speaker 1: be a fan of this. So basically, it's midday to
- 0:11Speaker 1: day New Zealand time, and if this doesn't happen, quote,
- 0:14Speaker 1: a whole civilization will die tonight. Dan Saba is a
- 0:18Speaker 1: defense and security editor at The Guardian. Joins us this morning.
- 0:21Speaker 1: Hi Dan, Hi, Hi, So well, let's start with what
- 0:25Speaker 1: Israel's doing overnight. I've been striking some bridges and transport
- 0:29Speaker 1: areas in Iran.
- 0:32Speaker 2: Yes, that's right, one of the things that's happened obviously
- 0:36Speaker 2: during I'm in Jerusalem, so is during the day, during
- 0:38Speaker 2: the day here. But yeah, we're all been looking ahead
- 0:41Speaker 2: to this Trump deadline tonight. But and Trump has been
- 0:45Speaker 2: threatening to bomb bridges and power plants, and we were
- 0:47Speaker 2: sort of expecting that could potentially be happening tomorrow. But
- 0:50Speaker 2: here we are, Here we are. The Israelis began the
- 0:54Speaker 2: day and said we're going to bomb, you know, telling
- 0:55Speaker 2: Irenians to keep away from the railway networks because they
- 0:58Speaker 2: might be bombed anytime during the day. That's how the
- 1:01Speaker 2: day started, and it looks like the idea of the
- 1:03Speaker 2: Israeli Air Force. So it bombed eight different bridges or
- 1:08Speaker 2: eight different parts of the railway network in and around Tehran.
- 1:12Speaker 2: So they're already, you know, never mind the deadline that
- 1:16Speaker 2: John Trump's talking about. Well it's crazy, extraordinary talk about
- 1:21Speaker 2: civilization Erasia, but you know, already we're seeing civil infrastructure
- 1:26Speaker 2: being heavily bombed in Iran.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Yeah. What do you think that is about the Israelis
- 1:31Speaker 1: going ahead and doing that ahead of time? Is that
- 1:33Speaker 1: a warning like this is what you know, we're serious,
- 1:36Speaker 1: we will go ahead and do this.
- 1:39Speaker 2: I think it's a mixture. Yes, I think it's partly that.
- 1:41Speaker 2: I think it's partly it's designed to kind of up
- 1:43Speaker 2: the pressure on Iran as this negotiating deadline come, you know,
- 1:47Speaker 2: comes close. The reality is thus far throughout you know,
- 1:50Speaker 2: throughout the day, it doesn't it like Iran is really
- 1:54Speaker 2: that interested in talking. It doesn't like the terms that
- 1:57Speaker 2: have been put in front the fit Ran once An
- 2:00Speaker 2: into the war. It doesn't want a ceasefire, which is
- 2:03Speaker 2: what's been on put you know, on offer from mediators
- 2:06Speaker 2: like the Egyptians and the Turks and the pakistanis it
- 2:11Speaker 2: doesn't want this kind of idea that they could be
- 2:13Speaker 2: a ceasefire and then the Americans could just bomb anyway
- 2:15Speaker 2: for a couple of days and then kind of say, oh,
- 2:17Speaker 2: it's still a ceasefire. They think that's kind of unfair.
- 2:21Speaker 2: They want a full deal. But the kind of things
- 2:24Speaker 2: that they want, or seem to want, is they still
- 2:26Speaker 2: want someone to degree of control over the strains of
- 2:28Speaker 2: hor moves, and that's a non starter for Trump, who
- 2:30Speaker 2: memorably said open the bleep straight on social media earlier
- 2:36Speaker 2: this week. So we're two sides are a long way up,
- 2:39Speaker 2: two sides seem a long way apart. So I think
- 2:42Speaker 2: that's partly why we're seeing this increased bombing.
- 2:44Speaker 1: And then you've got the Gold States who want Trump
- 2:46Speaker 1: basically to keep going, don't they.
- 2:50Speaker 2: Well, well, the girlf States are being hit very hard.
- 2:54Speaker 2: I think we've seen another facility in Saudi Arabia was
- 2:57Speaker 2: bombed to bomb today and and they clearly would like
- 3:01Speaker 2: the US to somehow finish the job, although it's not
- 3:05Speaker 2: exactly obvious how the Americans can do that, given they
- 3:08Speaker 2: won't commit ground forces, and if Iran is willing, if
- 3:12Speaker 2: Iran's leadership or new leadership is willing to take an
- 3:16Speaker 2: awful lot of pain, and it seems to be so
- 3:19Speaker 2: far done so then this could go on for some time.
- 3:23Speaker 2: It's not a very attractive scenario for ninety million ordinary
- 3:26Speaker 2: Iranians that were caught up in this.
- 3:27Speaker 1: Though certainly not Dan appreciate your analysis. Thank you, Dan Saber,
- 3:31Speaker 1: Defense and Security editor at the Guardian.
- 3:34Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
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