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From Our Own Correspondent
Iran War: The Regional Fallout
00:28:44
After US-Israel attacks on Iran surrounding countries have quickly been drawn into the war
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BBC Presenter
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BBC Correspondent
Hello? Today the US Israeli attacks on Iran and killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has thrust the country into chaos and triggered violence across the surrounding region. Our correspondence in Lebanon, Turkey, Israel and Cyprus speak to people directly affected by this latest war and examine the political ramifications for Iran, its direct neighbors and countries further afield now caught up in the conflict. Last week's attacks on Iran hit major cities across the country, destroying civilian buildings in Tehran as well as military and nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan. The conflict is estimated to have so far killed more than a thousand people in Iran, according to Iranian media and human rights groups. Many Iranians are now trying to flee the ongoing attacks by crossing into neighbouring countries. James Waterhouse has been on the Turkey Iran border.
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James Waterhouse
Despite the very real reporting challenges of covering the U S Israeli aerial assault on Iran, our task in eastern Turkey was to find Iranian voices. The political rhetoric from Washington surrounding this ever widening war has been constant. The stated goals of these airstrikes have oscillated between regime change and wiping out Iran's nuclear program and missile capabilities. But what about those on the receiving end of such military might? President Trump urged Iranians to revolt against their government, saying it was their best chance in generations for change. But at the mountainous border crossing which separates eastern Turkey and northern Iran, it seems falling bombs are spreading fear rather than emboldening the Iranian people. A black flag replaced the Iranian one at the border post after the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in one of the airstrikes at 10,500ft altitude up in these mountains, the weather here feels far colder than the -7 degrees Celsius, I read on my phone. The border outpost buildings are tucked in a jagged valley under a blanket of snow, as spotlights scour the mountainsides for people. The sound of wheeling suitcases heralds the steady trickle of Iranians arriving through the double doors of passport control, leaving the conflict behind them. It is not an exodus. Numbers have been in the hundreds each day. Officials say the flow of people is normal still, but their reasons for leaving are not. I'm so upset. My city is under pressure. There are a lot of bombs, a woman in her 20s told us. She said it was embarrassing that the US and Iran couldn't even speak to each other and find agreement. She was roughly the 10th person we'd approached on that afternoon, such was the general reluctance among Iranians to speak. Minutes later, she returned, asking us not to use the interview we recorded. It wouldn't be the last time this happened. When you're gathering content for news, this happens occasionally, but at the Kapekoi crossing it occurred frequently. People were clearly afraid of being identified and of the threat that still looms over them, even over the border. For many who were more willing to talk, there was a defensiveness which was difficult to penetrate. Often, if you asked about the impact of bombings, whether the regime had been weakened, or their views on what the US and Israel are doing, there would be a polite refusal to answer. Occasionally, as with the young woman, there was an almost unintentional elaboration to their frustrations before they instinctively tried pulling the drawbridge back up. It's sometimes what people don't say, or how their expressions contradict their words, which is part of the story. The Kapekoi crossing has been one of those instances. So you start to wonder, what does it say about the strength of a regime if someone in a country of more than 90 million people is still fearful of personal reprisals over what they say, even once they cross the border into Turkey? The brutality of Iran's security apparatus was illustrated when I asked a woman what it was like in Tehran. Terrible, she said. A lot of people died. From airstrikes? I asked. No, from policing, she replied, referring to the recent violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year, where thousands of Iranians were killed. The sentiment was also nuanced. There are those who were anti regime, but also against the way Israel and the US are trying to topple it. Some saw the White House as being hypocritical for taking its criticism of Iran's leadership to this lethal extent. I must say we also saw an almost equal number of Iranians heading back into Iran, either out of concern for their families or just for work. And we encountered no shortage of supporters of the Iranian government. We've lost a great leader, one man remarked. He's wearing a red coat and a woolly hat. He added that the situation was still terrible. Things are bad, 33 year old Sami told me as he pulled his suitcase. There's no heating and inflation is bad. That's why people want change. Sami's from the holy city of Mashhad, where he claims many people loved their fallen leader. Iran won't be beaten. Shouts another man as he walks past me, visibly angry. The question seems to be whether America's decisive military strikes alongside Israel's will influence Iran's future political direction. Donald Trump says he must be involved in choosing Iran's next supreme leader, as he's done with Venezuela after his military intervention there. In the breathtaking mountainous vista that is Turkey's eastern Vaan region, all the Iranians we spoke to said they would return soon, as they were only leaving out of choice by entering Turkey legally. This is not yet a refugee influx as they board the patiently waiting buses and taxis. Their destinations ranged from Austria, the UK and Germany. No one seemed particularly receptive to America's current messaging, outwardly at least.
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BBC Correspondent
James Waterhouse Next to Lebanon, where Hezbollah launched missiles and drones into Israel early on Monday to avenge the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei, Israel replied with attacks on the south and east of Lebanon, the Shia heartland of Hezbollah, the Iranian backed militia and political party which is prescribed as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and UK. It was reported around 100 were killed following the Israeli strikes and displaced civilians have been sleeping in shelters in the capital, on roadsides, in parks and in their cars. For many, this is deja vu. Where Odavis has been in Beirut, Pity
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Wira Davis
the nation or, to give the acclaimed book by Robert Fisk its full title, Pity the Lebanon at War. Regarded by many as a classic of war reporting, it has been described as a visceral eyewitness account of the civil war that ravaged Lebanon, the 1982 Israeli invasion and a country splintered by factions. Fisk had his critics and was accused by some of being too critical of Israel. But more than 35 years after it was first published, with Lebanon again on the brink of a damaging, divisive conflict, it's tempting to reread his work and ask why the country has failed to learn from the lessons of the past. The bitter divisions remain. Hezbollah's decision to retaliate for the assassination of Iran's supreme leader by launching a relatively low level but highly symbolic rocket attack against Israel has proved deeply unpopular among Lebanon's other political and religious factions. The subsequent and overwhelming Israeli response to bomb southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut regarded as Hezbollah strongholds has further reinforced the view that the Shia militia has set the country on a course over which it has no control. As Israel declared an unprecedented evacuation order for the whole of southern Beirut and large swathes of the south of the country, an outside observer could watch the fragile ties that hold Lebanon together slowly unraveling. Thousands fled to other parts of the capital or the relative safety of the north. The less well heeled stayed put and took their chances at the aftermath of one missile strike, which badly damaged a hotel in the eastern suburbs. Not a place at all loyal to Hezbollah. I found the owner almost incandescent with rage. Do I know who the target may have been? Maybe my children. What do you want me to say? Shouted Maggie Chebley as I asked her questions outside the ruined business. A receptionist living in the hotel was badly injured, but miraculously there were no reported fatalities. Who can I trust? Israel? Hezbollah? I don't trust anyone, said Maggie. This is my house. This is where my kids were born. It is us Lebanese who were the targets. Mrs. Chebly, a Lebanese Maronite Christian, and her husband had taken in several Shia families who'd been displaced from other areas by Israeli bombing, an act of apparent kindness that angered some of her neighbors. They'd heard rumors that perhaps among those staying at the hotel were persons of interest to the Israelis. It was impossible to know, but some displaced people here have reportedly been finding it hard to be accepted, even temporarily, in other parts of the city over fears they may be bringing trouble along with them. On the same day, another Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the eastern Bekar Valley killed nine people, reinforcing the view that few places in Lebanon can be regarded as genuinely safe. That is certainly the case the further south you travel, towards the volatile de facto border with Israel. Israeli troops reinvaded the south this week, vowing to neutralize those Hezbollah positions from where rockets have been fired towards Israel. In many southern towns and villages. There is still considerable support for Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982 in response to the then Israeli invasion of Lebanon, supported financially and militarily by Iran. And it grew into a formidable resistance movement regarded as a terror group by Israel, the US and the uk, but which also became a considerable political force in Lebanon. At the town of Saida, I spoke to Ahmed as he swept away rubble and glass from the ruins of a four story building which had been completely levelled by an Israeli airstrike. Israel said it was being used by Hezbollah and on this occasion the they issued a specific warning to evacuate. That isn't always the case. The occupants, including several families, said they had half an hour to leave. I don't know why they hit here, Ahmed told me. There are only civilians, women and kids here, no one with weapons. That argument isn't bought by Israel, which is known to have sophisticated intelligence assets throughout Lebanon. It senses a chance to defeat Hezbollah as a fighting force once and for all. Hezbollah's domestic opponents also think that with the demise of its once powerful backers in Iran and Syria, and the huge losses suffered by Hezbollah in the last recent conflict with Israel, now may be the moment to permanently weaken what many regard as the group's destabilizing influence and control in Lebanon. But it's a risky strategy. Plans announced by the government to forcibly disarm Hezbollah are are fraught with danger. It will not surrender its weapons or influence without a struggle. And if Israeli troops remain on Lebanese soil for long, it could give rise to the very resentment and anger that led to Hezbollah's creation more than 40 years ago.
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BBC Correspondent
Wira Davis Next to Israel, which was hit by retaliatory attacks by Iran in the aftermath of its joint bombardment with the us Details have now emerged of a sophisticated US Israeli intelligence operation which identified the movements of the Ayatollah leading to the strike which killed him. Many of the missiles fired at Israel in response failed to penetrate its Iron Dome defense system. But one destroyed a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, and penetrated a public bomb shelter beneath it, killing nine people. Hugo Bochega has been in Tel Aviv.
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BBC Presenter
One day this week, as I walked through the streets of Tel Aviv, the air raid sirens sounded, something that's become almost routine here during the war, with this city being one of the main targets of Iran's missiles. I ran to an underground shelter. About two dozen people were there. One of them was a woman called Chaya. She's in her 70s. She sat alongside her husband, who had some bruises in his head caused by glass from a window that shattered after a missile attack. Shaya told me she had lost count of how many wars she had seen in Israel. She was tired, she said, but defended the war as Iran didn't want peace. We're living here with hope that there will be an end, she went on wearily. Everybody in Israel hopes we'll live in peace with our people and our neighbors. Support for the war is strong in this country. A poll released this week by the Israel Democracy Institute suggested that more than 90% of the Jewish public were in favor of it, compared to just a quarter of Israeli Arabs. Professor Tamar Hammond, who helped carry out the survey, said these numbers suggested a consensus in Israel. The main reason for this, she told me, is that for decades Iran has been framed here as an existential threat, a view that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu helped shape. He spent years alerting Israelis of the dangers posed by Iran. He talks about it in his book fighting terrorism. In 2012, he famously gave a speech at the United nations where he displayed the illustration of a bomb to explain that, in his view, Iran was close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. It may sound a familiar argument because repeatedly Mr. Netanyahu has told the world that Iran must be stopped. This war for him is also personal. Last summer he ordered an attack that significantly damaged Iran's nuclear and military capabilities, now known as the 12 Day War. The campaign, which was eventually joined by the US was celebrated as a success in Israel, but Mr. Netanyahu continued to warn about the threat posed by Iran. Earlier this year, Iran's security forces brutally repressed anti government protests, killing thousands of people. The demonstrations exposed huge public discontent amid mounting questions about the legitimacy of the cleric regime. With the leadership under pressure, Iran's defenses downgraded and its proxies across the region weakened. Mr. Netanyahu saw an opportunity to attack Iran again. Alongside its closest ally, the United States, Israel went into another war. Neither country has clearly laid out the imminent threat Iran presented to require the use of military force now or even the objectives of the war, which Iran says is illegal and unjustified in Israel. There has been very little criticism of Mr. Netanyahu's decision, even from his opponents, or debate about what might come next. A 19 year old student called Root was helping clean up a site that was hit by an Iranian missile in Tel Aviv the morning after the attack. Almost every night the sky is lit up with the interceptions by the air defenses, but occasionally some missiles do get through the times. The Israeli people most came together were the wars with Iran because that's a goal that we believe in, she told me. Maybe this one will be the last war and will have some peace and quiet. There's a small minority, though, who question the reasons for starting a new war. I met Ron, who owns a coffee shop in central Tel Aviv. I feel sadness, fear and frustration and it's a bad time for Israel. Israel should not attack Iran. It is not the police of the world, he told me. In another shelter, I met a man called Tom, who is 39, in a pink rucksack. He was carrying his cat, Bagheera. It's been years of a state of constant crisis, he said. But he told me he felt Israel was fighting this war for a good to secure Israel and help Iranians be free. Mr. Netanyahu's promise is that the war will bring a new era that we haven't even dreamed of. This for now, is elusive as the conflict widens and its consequences are unpredictable. Instead of bees, it could end up bringing more war.
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BBC Correspondent
Hugo Bochega
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BBC Correspondent
the strikes on Iran have had significant repercussions across the region. Several Gulf states home to U.S. military bases, oil tankers in the vice shipping lanes of the Straits of Hormuz have also come under attack. And in Cyprus, a drone hit a British RAF base, causing damage but no casualties. Cyprus criticised the UK government's response, saying they expected more by way of protection. The UK has since announced that two navy helicopters and a British warship, HMS Dragon, will be deployed in the coming weeks.
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Jessica Parker
Jessica Parker A grainy photograph was published this week by the sun newspaper. It showed a jagged hole in the side of a grey military aircraft hangar. This single hole has thrown Cyprus into the spotlight in a way it never wanted to be. It all started last Sunday on the island's southern tip. In the middle of the night, a drone punched through the hangar that's located inside RAF Akrotiri. UK military officials best assessment is that it was launched by the Iranian backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon. Cyprus may be a member of the European Union, but it's the bloc's easternmost state. And the new war in the Middle east that has been spiralling this week has washed up on these shores, a place better known to many as a holiday hotspot. There's a lot of people who are really worried, says Costas, aged 64. He was born and bred in the village of Akrotiri, with a population of around 1,000 people. The village is just down the road from the RAF base, but Costas lived in London for 15 years. He ran a lighting shop in Shepherd's Bush Market. Many people of Cypriot origin live in the uk, while plenty of Brits live in Cyprus. The two countries have a long, close, but sometimes complicated post colonial relationship. After the island gained its independence in 1960. As part of that independence agreement, the UK retained what are known as sovereign base areas, or SBAs. Altogether they cover about 98 square miles. That equates to just under 3% of the whole island, including when you take into account the Turkish controlled north. And these SBAs don't just contain military bases like RAF Akrotiri, but also villages and farmland lived in and worked on by Cypriots. You can see a mix of towering military antennas and lush orange groves. A Mediterranean landscape hosting British forces hardware. At the local cafe. Costas tells me he heard it all unfold on Sunday night. First, he recalls, the airbase's sirens went off. Then came the explosion. There was an instruction to evacuate. But villagers in Akrotiri, he says, were left feeling confused and exposed. There were no shelters built here for such an event, he tells me, and the nerves have spread. Some taxi drivers refused to drive to the area in the aftermath of the attack. Outside the base itself, a big stone plaque carries its name and the RAF emblem, an eagle with wings outstretched. Much of what we saw we couldn't film, and our escorts were careful not to show us the punctured hangar. RAF Akrotiri, or Acke as it's sometimes referred to, is a key, sprawling base used for operations in the Middle East. And this week, a jet that flew from here made history. A Stealth fighter shot down drones in the skies over Jordan, the first time a British F35 has struck a target on operations. We met the Navy pilot himself, a tall young blond man wearing sunglasses and a light Brown jumpsuit. We can't name him, so I suggested a nickname.
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BBC Correspondent
Top Gun.
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Jessica Parker
That, I was quickly informed, is just about the last thing a real pilot wants to be called. The UK has not joined the US Israeli strikes on Iran, but it is carrying out what it calls defensive actions to protect allies, service personnel and British citizens in the region. As Iran retaliates, the US has now been given permission to use two British airbases to hit Iranian missiles at source. Something again say British ministers, that's defensive. Akrotiri is not one of those bases, but it's busy and on alert. You can regularly hear the roar of jets as they race overhead and out to sea. As we were being driven through the facility, suddenly a siren sounded. Get inside. Off you go. Came the command. I could see servicemen quickly drop to the ground as we rushed into a building and a small office room. It wasn't long before the all clear Cane. Air raid alerts aren't uncommon on the base right now. There are, we're told, a lot of false positives. Objects detected far away that could be heading in this direction, but in the end are not. Meanwhile, a European flotilla is gathering in the waters around Cyprus. We saw a Greek frigate sailing on sun sparkled waters just outside the harbour of the city of Limassol. French, Spanish and Italian assets are also being deployed to the region to defend Cyprus and the British territory that became a target. A UK destroyer is expected to arrive within two weeks. For now, the hope in Cyprus is that last Sunday's events and that hole in the hangar is the first and only time this island will really feel the ripples of the neighbouring war.
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BBC Correspondent
Jessica Parker. And finally, a renowned restaurant in Berlin, which cast itself as a symbol of breaking bread across religious and political divides, has just gone out of business. Is it just another victim of rising rents and economic instability? Or is it a reflection of the growing polarization of German society? Lucy Asch was one of the last customers to dine at the eatery just as news of another conflict broke.
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Jenny Kleeman
I'd just polished off my cauliflower tahini soup along with some hummus, creamy labneh cheese with beetroot and far too much bread when our waitress appeared. She was tottering beneath the weight of a tray stacked with more appetizers. Please help yourselves, she pleaded. We've tons of extra food and nowhere to put it. Hit by rising expenses and falling customer numbers, one of Berlin's most talked about restaurants has just closed down. I was there for its last supper. For the past decade, Canaan has been a cornerstone of Berlin's fashionable Prenslauberg district, named after the Old Testament's Promised Land, a region spanning parts of modern day Israel through to western Jordan. It was never just somewhere to eat. Its founders, Osben David, an Israeli, and Jalil Dabit, a Palestinian, insisted their 120 seat dining room was a place to promote coexistence and break down barriers. Kanam was so highly regarded that Germany's president, Frank Walter Steinmeier, invited the owners to advise him on easing tensions over the war in Gaza. Given Germany's past, politicians here are hypersensitive about the Israeli Palestinian conflict and very keen on idealist reconciliation projects. Posters on the restaurant walls feature the Israeli and Palestinian flags joined to form a heart and urge customers to make hummus, not war. T shirts with the slogan Ich bin Homosexual in bold rainbow letters are also on sale. Kanaan's website boasts about employing people from different backgrounds and says Islamophobes, anti Semites, homophobes or transphobes will not be tolerated. Both Israeli citizens, the owners could not be more different. Oz is the grandson of Holocaust survivors raised among right wing Jewish settlers, while Jalil is a Palestinian from Ramla, near Tel Aviv, a Muslim and the son of a communist they met trying to import tahini into German supermarkets. We managed not just to build a business together, which is amazing and crazy, we also created a vision for the future, says Oz. As the main course arrived, my phone flashed. Iran's supreme leader confirmed dead. After US and Israeli airstrikes, it said the real world outside had intervened. Most diners seemed oblivious. Yet Jalil, I later learned, was caught up in the very crisis unfolding beyond the restaurant walls. He'd gone back to visit family in Israel when air raid sirens pierced the air, urging residents to take cover from Iranian missiles launched in retaliation for the strikes that killed the ayatollah. Despite its reputation as an island of peace, Canaan has weathered many storms. It's received regular anonymous threats and two summers ago, unknown assailants and vandalized the restaurant after it hosted a queer Jewish Muslim brunch. The biggest crisis came after the attacks of October 7th. The restaurant closed for a while and Oz didn't want to reopen. Our messages of peace seem stupidly naive, he said. Jaleel kept calling me asking if I was okay, and I just swore at him, saying terrible things, which I now regret. Somehow, Jalil kept his cool and waited for the rage to pass. He was superhuman, oz told me. Shaking his head. Oz confessed that he once burned Palestinian olive trees to clear land in his illegal west bank settlement. Working at the restaurant in Berlin, of all places, forced him to confront his ignorance about the lives of people on the other side of Israel's security walls. When one Palestinian cook at Canaan said his father was dying in a West bank village, Oz breezily offered to buy him a plane ticket home. I said flights to Tel Aviv are only €200 right now. Why don't you take two days off and go and visit him? He recalled, and the guy looked at me as if I was mad. Up to that point, Oz had no idea about the travel restrictions, security checks and detours facing most Palestinians. Oz and Jalil's next plan is a series of pop up restaurants across Germany involving people on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Members of the AfD, Germany's extreme right party, will cook with leftists from die Linke. I must have looked sceptical, but this ex PR man seemed indefatigable. He and Jalil have already published two books, and a TV miniseries based on their restaurant will air in April. The more the Middle east descends into violence, the more Germany seeks comfort in partnerships such as this.
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BBC Correspondent
Lucy Ashe and that's all for today. We'll be back again next Saturday morning. Do join us.
- [30:12]
Jenny Kleeman
What would you do if your deepest secrets were held to ransom? In 2020, every patient who had used a Finnish psychotherapy service called Vastamo had their therapy notes stolen and held to ransom by a faceless remorse remorseless hacker.
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BBC Presenter
It could be some extortionist gang from Eastern Europe or it could be somebody living next door to me.
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Jenny Kleeman
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- [30:59]
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