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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and this is an extra edition of the Global News Podcast to update you on the developments in the U.S.-Israel war with Iran on Saturday, the 7th of March. Today's main stories. The Iranian president, Massoud Peshashkian, says Iran will stop striking its Arab neighbors as long as no attacks originate from their territory.
President Trump has characterized the remark as a surrender in response to relentless U.S.
Chapter 2: What did the Iranian president say about striking its neighbors?
and Israeli bombardment. And we'll hear from northern Iraq, where Kurdish-Iranian opposition groups have been coming under attack.
And... I'm located in the very centre, close to the compound of the supreme leader that was actually attacking the first moment of the Israel and American attack. I feel like it was like two streets from my house.
One Tehran resident tells us about her experience of the war so far. As the US-Israel war with Iran enters its second week, the Iranian president has apologised to Iran's Arab neighbours for striking them with missiles and drones. Arab countries hosting US military bases are adamant they've not allowed them to be used to launch attacks against Iran.
Several Gulf countries also tried to dissuade Washington from starting its bombing campaign. In a televised speech, President Massoud Pesachkian said attacks would stop as long as no attacks come from those countries.
I should apologise to the neighbouring countries that were attacked by Iran on my own behalf.
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Chapter 3: How did President Trump respond to Iran's apology?
What happened was that our commanders and our leader lost their lives following the barbaric aggression and our armed forces, the champions that are sacrificing their lives to defend our territorial integrity, fired at will, because their commanders were absent and did whatever was necessary. They proudly and powerfully defended our homeland.
On Friday, President Trump said only Iran's unconditional surrender would end hostilities, but President Pesachkir Khan ruled that out.
that we surrender unconditionally, they should take that dream to their graves. What we are committed to are international law, human frameworks, and the principles they talk about. They should be committed to those principles.
Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, who was reporting from Iran not long ago, listened to the president's speech.
The president is known for trying to strike conciliatory tones. You may remember that during the major protests, which were put down with lethal force, he apologised for the government's shortcomings, at least in economic matters, not in political ones.
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Chapter 4: What is the situation in northern Iraq regarding Kurdish Iranian opposition groups?
And here he is again now today offering a conciliatory tone, apologising to neighbouring states, particularly in the Gulf, which have been coming under attack by Iranian forces. But he made it clear that this was not just his gesture. He said that a decision had been made by Iran's current leadership.
It's a three-man interim leadership council, and they had decided that they would make this clear to neighboring states. And he had this interesting explanation, and we heard of it earlier from the foreign minister, Abbas Sarakhi, when he was embarrassed that Oman, which is a key mediator for a long time, had also been hit by Iranian strikes. And he said that the command had been decentralized.
So again, Pashishyan said that army officers, he said, had been firing at will in the absence of a top command. So I want to suggest that they're going to try to make their decisions a bit more consolidated if they can. But there was still the caveat that if attacks by the US or Israel originate in countries with military bases, they would still be a target.
So it's not clear what impact it will have.
Chapter 5: What insights did a Tehran resident share about the war's impact?
And it's been brushed off by President Trump. Yes, and I should say that the decision of the leadership and his apology is in response to the fury among Arab leaders. I spoke to a senior official in the Gulf yesterday, and he said they were absolutely shocked by Iran's strikes and said it would take decades for this rupture to be healed, that there was no going back.
And he said, after this, he said, if we ever sit down for negotiations, ballistic missiles will have to be on them because they are clearly a threat. And yes, to President Trump, of course, how swiftly he responded in the middle of the night in the United States. And he says, I'll read a little bit of it.
Iran, which is beat to hell, hell in capital letters, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. And then he goes on to say, he says, Iran is no longer the bully of the Middle East.
Chapter 6: What led to Iran's recent attacks on its neighbors?
And then in capital letters, they are the loser of the Middle East. It's such a harsh tone. And he said that they will... They're going to be hit very hard. And sadly, it has an echo of some of those petulant messages he has sent before. And it's hard to remember that about a year ago, he said he wanted to be remembered as the president of peace and a unifier in the world.
Now there is talk of regime alteration in the wake of what's happened in Venezuela, of course.
And I guess Donald Trump has been talking about, you know, he personally being involved in who will be the next leader in Iran and finding another Delcy Rodriguez, the equivalent of the Venezuelan deputy who has sort of stepped up now to become an American ally in the wake of Maduro being taken into prison.
I think President Trump is realizing that his second job as commander-in-chief gives him this extraordinary sway. And he has such powerful military weapons, the strongest in the world, and therefore he can lose them at will.
Chapter 7: How are Arab leaders reacting to Iran's military actions?
He calls Venezuela the perfect scenario, but it simply wouldn't work in Iran to take the leader off and then work with the administration that's left.
That was Lise Doucette. Our correspondent, Barbara Platt-Usher, has also been listening to the Iranian president's statement from the Qatari capital, Doha.
As Mr. Pozeshki and the president was issuing his recording, there was a missile attack here, which the Qataris intercepted. There have also been missile and drone strikes this morning. So I think it will be greeted with a fair bit of skepticism.
Now, what the president said was that the Iranian military units had acted on their own authority and did what they deemed necessary after their commanders were killed. It suggests that he's speaking about the decentralized defense strategy that the Iranians organized in the anticipation that Israel and the U.S. would go after their top leadership.
So in effect saying that local commanders could continue to carry on without centralized orders. So
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the conflict for Iraq?
It sounds like the leadership, at least the diplomatic and political leadership, is trying to control a situation that has very much angered their Arab neighbors. And perhaps they are seeing that it is not helping their case, the Iranian case, because it seems more and more that the Gulf leadership has been joining ranks with the United States rather than arguing Iran's case.
And is there a sense of shock in Qatar that they've been drawn into this conflict?
Yes and no. Before the war started, Qatar and the other Arab countries in this region warned the US that there could be dire consequences. They all host US military bases and the Iranians had said quite clearly that they would target the US military bases. They also warned the U.S.
that if the leadership felt there was an existential threat, that it was being targeted directly, then it could get much worse than that, and it might even involve the Iranians targeting their oil and gas industry. And that is what has happened, so it is their worst-case scenario. But I think the week of quite relentless... or at least regular, I would say, missile and drone fire from Iran.
And the fact that it has hit residential areas and civilian infrastructure as well is something that has really... I'm not sure if they were quite expecting that. I don't know if the civilians were expecting that. It has been something that has really hit the region hard. And you've had some very sharp statements from some of the officials, especially in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
That was Barbara Platt-Usher reporting from Doha. As we record this podcast, Iranian media reports say two influential clerics have called for a quick selection of the new supreme leader to help steer the nation amid the ongoing US and Israeli strikes. President Trump has argued the US should have a role in choosing the new leader, a demand rejected by Tehran.
Israel is continuing to pound Lebanon, saying it's targeting strongholds of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. Two Ghanaian UN peacekeepers have been critically wounded in a missile attack. The Lebanese health ministry says more than 200 people have been killed since airstrikes began.
The Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, has warned a humanitarian disaster is looming as hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to leave their homes ahead of an anticipated ground incursion by the Israeli military. Tanya Babin from the humanitarian group MedGlobal is based in Beirut.
What we're witnessing right now in Lebanon is an extremely rapid humanitarian escalation. So in the last almost 72 hours now, since the massive evacuation orders in the south, in Dahyeh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and in the Bekaa region, which is northeast, the scale and the speed of this displacement is pushing humanitarian resources to the absolute brink.
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