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- [00:04]
Arthur Scott Geddes
The telegraph.
- [00:10]
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- [01:11]
Arthur Scott Geddes
I'm Arthur Scott Geddes, and this is Iran. The Latest It's Tuesday, 28th July 2026. It's the 17th day of this latest round of fighting between the US and Iran. On today's episode, Iran has been counting the cost of two weeks of US Strikes, with dozens of deaths, hundreds wounded and extensive damage to infrastructure. Memphis Barker, one of our senior foreign correspondents joins me to talk about how the Red Sea is really emerging as a new flashpoint in the war, one that threatens to create further havoc in the energy markets. Later on, we'll hear from Ben Farmer, our Africa correspondent, to discuss how the conflict has led to a resurgence of Somalian piracy.
- [01:47]
Donald Trump
A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
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Arthur Scott Geddes
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the attacks. For the first time ever, the US Navy used a surface sea drone in combat to strike Iranian targets.
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Donald Trump
The Strait of almost completely closed again. Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?
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Interjector / Commentator
Come on.
- [02:21]
Arthur Scott Geddes
But first, let's run through the latest updates, beginning with Iran. Iranian officials have been giving updates on the impact of 13 days of consecutive US strikes on the country's infrastructure. The country's health minister has reported this morning that 670 people were injured and 60 were killed in the strikes. And then we had Fatima Mohenjari, the government spokesperson, revealing that 12 bridges and two tunnels were damaged in the strikes. He also highlighted the extensive damage to fishing boats and other private property. He also said that Bashehr Airport in southwestern Iran has been rendered inoperable following the recent strikes. But perhaps most significantly, he said Iran had suffered a massive loss of its gas production capacity because of the war. He said Iran has now lost about 230 million cubic meters of its gas production capacity because of the US and Israeli strikes. To put that into perspective, that's more than Canada produces in a year, the
- [03:10]
Memphis Barker
kind of thing as well. But they'll probably be asking for Trump to repair with reconstruction funds. One of the long standing sore points in the negotiations that were obviously ground to a halt last month.
- [03:21]
Arthur Scott Geddes
Exactly so. Also inside Iran, the government's continued its crackdown on people who took part in the anti government process in January that really sparked the war. Two men who were convicted of killing four police officers in January were hanged from a crane in a public square in central Isfahan. The two were found guilty of attacking police officers with machetes and knives, tying them to road signs, pulling them on the ground, dousing them with gasoline, and then setting them on fire on January 8th. That was all from Iran's judiciary. It added that they had faced charges of waging war against God and corruption on earth. And these are vague charges that the Islamic Republic uses, often with various interpretations, to execute dissenters. These executions sparked rare clashes with police last night, according to independent Iranian media. Witnesses said that a significant number of people took to the streets in Isfahan after images of the makeshift gallows were being being erected were published by the authorities. There is apparently a heavy security presence still in central Isfahan this morning. Two other men convicted in the same case were also executed there earlier this month. We've also seen reports of drone attacks in several countries in an apparent test of the truce between Iran and the US that has held since the weekend. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq have all reported drone attacks since yesterday's episode. Saudi Arabia said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, including in Riyadh. It said they had been launched from Iraq by Iran backed armed groups and said it reserved the right to respond. While we're talking about drones, I also want to just flag a superb story from Our correspondent Akhtar McCoy, who's uncovered new details about an upgraded Iranian drone. He reports that Iran has upgraded its HadID110 drone to make it even faster and harder for air defenses to intercept. That drone is basically similar to a shahed drone, but uses a jet engine, allowing it to hit speeds in excess of 300 miles an hour. And the IRGC said it had been deployed for the first time in the last two weeks and was fired towards US Bases and warships in the region. So despite these attacks, Donald Trump has been optimistic about the talks that are ongoing with Iran. Yesterday night, he told reporters that Washington was having good talks and right now
- [05:18]
Donald Trump
they're talking to us about making a deal. But if we didn't do it tough, there would be no talk. And all they do is tap everyone along. They were the bully of the Middle east and they were the bully of us. Now, you can't bribe them. You got to beat them. And, and we're beating the hell out of them, but we'll see how it turns out. Right now they have very friendly negotiations going on.
- [05:42]
Arthur Scott Geddes
He also made some quite baffling comments when he was asked about the suggestion that Russia has been aiding Iran with targeting data, helping it to carry out these pinpoint strikes that we've seen on US Troops in the Middle east, such as in Jordan recently.
- [05:53]
Donald Trump
But we'll find out if that's true. I'll ask Putin about it. We'll find out. Hasn't had much impact because we've knocked the hell out of it, wouldn't you think? They have no navy, they have no nothing. So it hasn't worked out well. I don't think they've been doing it, certainly not at a high level. And if they have, it has been very unimpactful.
- [06:15]
Arthur Scott Geddes
On the Iranian side, the country's Foreign Ministry said messages were still being passed between the sides through mediators and that Iran had not forsaken diplomacy. Donald Trump is set to meet Benjamin Netanyahu in person today for the first time since the war broke out. Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu said he wanted to hear what Trump has in mind for Iran. So again, there's this idea that Netanyahu is used to being in the driving seat, but he's very much in the back seat at the moment with what's happening in Iran.
- [06:41]
Memphis Barker
Absolutely. I mean, I think you've got a very, you've got an interesting dual header event today with Zelenskyy meeting the president shortly before Netanyahu. Zelenskyy is going to be trying to tell him that Russia very much is involved helping the Iranians. And then Netanyahu's going to to be trying to pull him back towards getting involved against a fresh round of escalation against Iran. It's going to be a very interesting few hours inside the White House.
- [07:05]
Arthur Scott Geddes
I think it's going to be a fascinating watch and we'll have all the updates from that meeting tomorrow. On the diplomatic front, Oman has presented a proposal to Iran for a joint regional mechanism to manage the Strait of Hormuz that would involve voluntary fees. So under this Omani proposal, which apparently has the support of other countries in the Gulf, Iran would not have sole control over the waterway. And this proposal is apparently based on how the Strait of Malacca works. So that's the shipping lane that's between Indonesia and Malaysia, that links the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific. So people who use that strait voluntarily make contributions that go towards funding navigation, environmental protection, and search and rescue. So onto the situation with shipping in the Gulf. And the number of vessels passing through Bab El Mandeb rose to 28 on Monday, which is a four day high. But traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has remained low. That's all. According to the shipping data firm Kepler, traffic was still well below, however, the month's peak of 46 vessels, which came on July 14th. So we've also been looking at the ways that the war seems to be expanding and creating new flashpoints. We've talked a bit before about the Houthis in Saudi Arabia, but Memphis, it looks like this area is really becoming a new flashpoint in the conflict.
- [08:15]
Memphis Barker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in the last 24 hours, the Houthis have claimed new strikes on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure. You've obviously had several days since July 20th in which the Yemeni group have been effectively blockading Saudi Arabia's exports, which have to pass through Bab el Mandeb to get to foreign markets. Sort of try and replicate the same model that Iran is employing so effectively in the Strait of Hormuz. You don't need to attack every single tanker. You only need to attack one or two or even threaten to attack one or two. And you can grind shipping to a halt sort of at will. Obviously, at the moment they're saying they're restricting their attacks to Saudi vessels, haven't expanded it totally to all international traffic. But the threat again is there. And I expect we'll see reduced movement through that strait for some time to come. The Houthi attacks pose a real problem for Riyadh. They have been using this terminal that goes east to west across the country to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. So the Yambu terminal there on the Red Sea takes now around 4 million barrels per day. Before the war between the United States and Iran, that figure was around 930,000. So once Saudi Arabia's tankers pick up the oil at Yanbu, they need to then move through that Bab el Mandeb Strait, and now they can't. So the question, of course, is why are The Houthis doing this, I think they've got two incentives. One, of course, it suits the agenda of Iran. We don't know exactly what, how far they've been ordered to do this at this particular point in time. But I think most analysts believe that it is intimately linked, and they probably have received a directive from their chief sponsor to start to raise the pressure on the global oil markets. Obviously, Tehran's tactic against Donald Trump is to jam up supplies of oil worldwide and make continuing the war essentially too costly for the American president. But there is also kind of more local factors at play. The Houthis want Riyadh to allow them to reopen the airport at Sana to basically full traffic. There are a few other things they're looking for reconstruction funds and the reopening of some ports as well that are under Houthi control. And it's, you know, negotiations appear to have taken place. Late last week in Muscat. A Saudi delegation met with some with the Houthi counterparts. And I think that the question now, and what we'll see as a result of these negotiations is exactly how much latitude the Houthis have to end the blockade if they feel they get a good enough offer from the Saudi side, or will they be essentially now holding this line, enforcing this blockade as long as the Iranians want them to? In the larger context of the war with the United States, a kind of interesting side angle to this is that already Riyadh has started to reroute oil exports. Oil exports that were going through Bab El Mandeb, they're now moving them through via Egypt. Takes as about 25 days to the typical tanker journey. So it's a bypass to a bypass and a sign, I think, of how far this war is extending and how complicated it's making. You know, maritime traffic, which the world previously tiktokers are given and relied upon quite naturally.
- [11:52]
Arthur Scott Geddes
It's fascinating to see the relationship between Tehran and its proxies kind of playing out in the way that analysts had long predicted it might. How can a country like Saudi Arabia effectively tackle this threat? We've seen that the Houthis have proved very adept at disrupting shipping. And like you say, they're following this Iranian model where they only have to do very limited damage. But even the Americans couldn't really bomb the Houthis into submissal two years ago in the Red Sea crisis then.
- [12:21]
Memphis Barker
I think they're facing much the same problem that Donald Trump is facing. It's an asymmetrical war, and one in which the superior or an asymmetrical conflict, in this case, a superior nation in terms of weaponry, in terms of military might, in terms of its economy. It's very, very hard to knock out a group that only needs a few drones to close off a strait. And the escalation problems that Donald Trump is facing, you know, can I send troops in to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is the same problem that the Saudi Arab Kingdom is facing now. I mean, you know, there of course have been suggestions that you could see a return to all out war in Yemen. I think that Riyadh was pretty badly bruised by, as you said, by, well, the course of its long war there and quite unwilling to launch its own heavy bombardments again and get involved in a long and protracted conflict without a kind of clear end. Because you can do all that and you may not be able to force the Houthis to reopen the Strait. I think it's been a lesson that applies at both choke points at this point in time.
- [13:35]
Arthur Scott Geddes
Thank you, Memphis. So we'll no doubt have more stuff on what's happening in the Red Sea in future episodes. It'd be fascinating to see how it plays out. So in my normal job for Global Health Security, we've been looking a lot at how the conflict is being felt around the world. We've written about the impact of fertiliser and fuel shortages in the developing world, for example. But the latest sign of this actually comes from Australia, where the government's announced today that it will consider building its first new oil refinery in more than 60 years. Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, has said that the project will help to build up Australia's resilience and sovereign capability on fuel, potentially helping shield the country from future supply shocks. He told reporters in Western Australia this morning. The war in the Middle east is having an impact here, like it's having an impact right around the world. Australia relies on imports for about 80% of its fuel needs and has been racing to secure supplies amid the Iran war. Most of Australia's oil refineries were built in the 50s and 60s, but high operating costs and new refineries popping up across Asia mean that many have actually shut in the last three decades and it now only has two operational. Yeah. So, Memphis, what are your thoughts on Australia's move again?
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Memphis Barker
I think it's fascinating. I mean, obviously Donald Trump initially said something like the war would be over in a month. It's now six months in. But even if the war was to end in a year's, time. I think its effects could be extremely long lasting and far reaching. It takes a decade to build a refinery. But this has provided enough of a fright, I think, that people will be taking those long term projects in a variety of places, a variety of ways to try and lessen their reliance on what is now clearly a vulnerable source of fuel.
- [15:13]
Arthur Scott Geddes
Memphis, thank you for joining us. Closer to the region, we're seeing a more unexpected consequence of the war. Ben Farmer, our Africa correspondent, has been writing about the resurgence of Somalian piracy. Here's our conversation from earlier. Ben, welcome to Iran. The latest. So why are piracy levels rising again?
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Ben Farmer
Well, we've seen, as you recall, piracy was really bad about 10 or 15 years ago and then it sort of dropped off totally. And in the last few months it's started to pick up. And one of the reasons for that, I think, is people are saying that the patrols, the big naval patrols that used to keep those waters safe, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, have in the last year or two been diverted to patrol the Red Sea and make sure that Houthi attacks are not hitting shipping. And that has left a bit of a security void. People tell us the ships that used to keep the waters off Somalia safe are no longer there.
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Arthur Scott Geddes
And you write as well that they're sort of returning to some of the techniques that we saw in 2015 at the height of the piracy crisis. How are they operating now, the pirates?
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Ben Farmer
Viewers might recall the film Captain Phillips, which shows sort of how piracy used to work at the height of the problem, sort of 29, 10, 11. And Somali pirates used to use speedboats or skiffs and they used ladders and grappling hooks to scale the sides of these huge cargo ships. But these skiffs and speedboats couldn't really go for far out into the ocean. So what they used to do is they used to capture ships and use them as what were called mother ships. They'd use them as a launch pad where they could sail further out and they would have supplies and food and water and launch skiffs and speedboats from those, giving them a much wider range with which to make raids. And it looks like they've started to use that tiny tactic again. So we were told by security officials last week that Somali pirates used a hundred meter long cement carrier which they captured in April called the MV Sward. They used it to capture two Iranian vessels earlier this month. They used it as a launch pad, as a mothership, if you like, going back to those old tactics.
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Arthur Scott Geddes
And there are lots of Iranian vessels in Somalian waters. They've been accused of fishing there illegally.
- [17:47]
Ben Farmer
That's right. So when we mean Iranian vessels, we're not necessarily meaning naval vessels or large cargo ships. We're talking about often Iranian fishing vessels. And they have been accused amongst lots of other nations of unauthorized fishing in Somali water. And Somali fishermen, in turn, claim that their livelihoods are being destroyed by this overfishing. And they say that in turn, that is forcing them to adopt piracy as a livelihood.
- [18:22]
Arthur Scott Geddes
So how big a challenge does this kind of resurgence pose, I guess, to the security forces who have traditionally been kind of focused on controlling it, given that they now have to to manage the disruption that we see in the Straits of Hormuz and also Bab el Mandeb?
- [18:38]
Ben Farmer
Well, it is starting to pick up. And at one point last week, there were six vessels held hostage off the Somali coast. That was the two Iranian vessels I mentioned, also the MV Sward, which they're using as a mothership, and three others, the Honor 25, the Mt Eureka and the Mt Astana. Now, with that sort of increase in activity, I think there probably is there is concern among Marines and maritime security experts that we're not far from the chances of pirates attacking another big international vessel. And if that happens, then really we'll highlight this issue once again and so start all sorts of alarm bells ringing.
- [19:29]
Arthur Scott Geddes
So this is partly being driven by the kind of by changing security priorities, I suppose, in the region. But is there also an element of this that's being driven by the conditions in Somalia?
- [19:42]
Ben Farmer
Yes. So as I mentioned earlier, there is very much, when you talk to clans in the region and fishermen in the region, they blame overfishing for depleting their livelihoods. And they say that therefore, that is forcing them to go out on the sea and become pirates. And also inland, the situation is very bad at the moment. There is a very bad drought, which is verging on famine. So again, that is making livelihoods very tough. So all these things are adding up to a situation where Somalis are finding it difficult to make a living, and that's pushing them into desperate choices.
- [20:21]
Arthur Scott Geddes
Ben Farmer, thank you for joining us.
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Ben Farmer
Thank you.
- [20:23]
Arthur Scott Geddes
That's all we've got time for today, but we'll see you again tomorrow. Goodbye,
- [20:31]
Venetia Rainey
Iran. The latest is an original podcast from the Telegraph, created by David Nulls and hosted by me, Venetia Rainey and Roland Oliphant. If you appreciated this podcast, please consider following around the latest on your preferred podcast app. And if you have a moment, leave a review as it helps others find the show. For more from our foreign correspondents on the ground, sign up for our new daily newsletter Cables or listen to our sister podcast Ukraine the Latest. We're still on the same email address battleionselegraph.co.uk or you can contact us on X. You can find our handles in the show Notes the producer is Peter Shevlin. The executive producers are Venetia Rainey and Louisa Wells.
- [21:27]
Arthur Scott Geddes
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- [22:06]
Arthur Scott Geddes
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