Israel and Iran: what happened, and what’s next?ーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
tensions are escalating in the Middle East israel says it struck over 100 Iranian military targets early Friday iran appears to have retaliated with drones but the Israeli military reportedly intercepted all of them reuters news agency says this black smoke is rising from the direction of Iran’s uranium enrichment facility in Natans israel said it’s taking aim at Iran’s nuclear agenda we struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program we struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program we targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Atans we targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb israel’s defense minister called it a preemptive strike he says there’s a state of emergency in effect and he expects expects counterattacks iran’s Revolutionary Guard says the strikes killed the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Hussein Salami and the state-run television says the country’s top military official armed forces chief of staff Muhammad Bugari was also killed the Iranian foreign ministry also condemned the US it said Israel’s action actions could not have been carried out without the coordination and permission of Washington the US Secretary of State says Israel took unilateral action and the US is not involved in the strikes marco Rubio says his country’s top priority is protecting American forces in the region for local perspectives we are going to talk now with our correspondents in Tehran and Jerusalem first NHK’s Tehran bureau chief Juji yugji what can you tell us about the situation there i’m in the NHK bureau in the north of the capital Tan the internet here has been very slow since the attacks so we are having to rely on voice calls iran’s nuclear agency has issued a statement saying Israel’s attack damaged multiple uranium enrichment facilities in Natans in central Iran and and that it’s investigating the extent of the damage the agency said it has to received any report of it has not received any report of casualties it also say there are no confirmed signs of nuclear contamination state television has been broadcasting special news programs continuously since the attack showing images of the damage in Thran the broadcast say many civilians including women and children were hit and they are showing residential areas such as apartment buildings with damaged walls looking ahead the focus will be on Iran’s response israeli forces say Iran has launched drones but Iran itself has not made any announcement about retaliatory attacks supreme Leader Ayatah Ham had issued a statement hinting at retaliation iranian leaders could be considering what form of retaliation to take nhk’s Tehan Bureau chief thank you we turn now to Ohash Takami at NHK’s Jerusalem Bureau so Takami what is Israel’s intention well it appears the Israeli government wanted to stop the Iranian nuclear program even if that meant acting in the face of the restraint shown by the United States the Israeli military chief of staff said there was no other option iran has responded by sending attack drones how is Israel likely to react to that well Israeli media say the military has intercepted the drones outside Israeli airspace a state of emergency has been declared all over the country there are fewer people around than usual isra is claim is close to producing nuclear weapons prime Minister Benjamin Netanya says he will launch attacks if necessary until the Ilanian threat is gone if I land retaliation continues it could trigger a tit for Tat exchange so the situation in the Middle East could deteriorate even further thank you that’s Ohashi Takomi at NHK’s Jerusalem Bureau for more insight we’re joined by Tanaka Kohichiro he’s a professor at KO University and an expert on the Middle East professor thank you very much for joining us thank you so first of all why did Israel decide to carry out the attack now well we all knew that Israel was ready to attack and they wanted to attack Iran uh anytime that they thought that it was suitable for them you know I think just the time was ripe for them to consider an attack and there are multiple reasons behind this but uh there may be one or two I can mention here is that uh when the indirect negotiations with the between the Americans and the Iranians started in April back then uh Mr trump also stated that he would give like two months of time to come to a deal mhm actual deal and the initial negotiations took place on April 12th and well yesterday was June 12th so I believe that uh the Israelis considered that okay we gave you two months time and now it’s over so it’s our time to act the other part of the problem I believe is that the IAEA the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors met this week in Vienna and the Board of Governors uh adopted a resolution against Iran which stated that their inaction or inability to comply with the safeguard agreements of under NPT was uh insufficient and that they uh constitute constitutes a sort of a condition of non-compliance and that the matters is should be in the realm of the United Nations Security Council but it fell short of stating or actually well uh moving the dossier nuclear dossier from the IAEA to New York meaning the security council chambers so again the Israelis could say that okay we gave diplomacy a chance the international disc international community discussed about it but they didn’t act so now it’s our turn to act so I believe all these I mean would would be used by Israel to say and also to that they have made this calculation uh quite precisely that this was the right time to act so by hearing that it sounds like Israel is looking for good reasons to to explain this is the the right timing to attack Iran sure sure um so now the question is what how would Iran react um would it um what kind of retaliation do you envisage from Iran uh initially I believe that in eventually they would attack uh using their UAVs drones uh cruise missiles capabilities and also the ballistic missile capabilities uh I heard that they already launched hundreds or so of those UAVs towards Israel but I think that’s sort of a decoy and that would only mean to say degrade the Israeli capability of air defense and eventually there will be a swarm of um uh ballistic missile attacks launched from Iran targeting the uh Daimona nuclear reactor and several other Israeli hidden secret uh nuclear facilities as well as the Nevatim air base and other air bases that was used to attack Iran and I believe also the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv is another target that is certainly come under attack nuclear talks between Iran and the United States are stalled so how might the US react to these attacks how the US react to this or uh if the US would interfere in the Iranian retaliatory attacks against Israel then I think it’s going to complicate the situation meaning that uh the Iranians would also consider the United States as a hostile entity and they will try to target the US bases on the Iraian uh countries some Arab countries in the Middle East especially those in the GCC countries alongside the Persian Gulf region mhm do you think US will react in more um how can I say would they react in a way that there will be like a huge um concern spreading over international community so uh the worst case scenario that I can imagine of is that eventually if this say exchange of fires would continue also not only that the American bases in the region will be targeted i think even the uh say firing of missiles against uh Israel uh against Israel by the Iranians and against the Iranians by the Israelis would eventually lead to a point that Israel may use a tactical nuclear weapon that they hold and that is going to be an enormous disastrous situation that we are now at the very verge of seeing that sort of a path open in front of our eyes mhm mhm and do you think there is any way to prevent those worst scenario well I mean if the Iranians are smart enough they would just try to avoid that by well laying down their arms at certain point but Israel is still adamant to destroy all the capabilities that Iran holds and if that continues there is no way that the Iranians are going to lay down their weapons and they will still certainly hold a legal basis for their retalitary attacks against Israel and the international community has just led that the led Israelis to allow that to happen and come to this situation even during the case of Gaza uh I mean everybody was I mean most of the western nations still considered that Israelis the Israel would hold the inherent right for self-defense but it would never mention that Palestinians equally will have the inherent right for self-defense and again in this case would they mention that Iran has an inherent right for self-defense i believe during the G7 summits uh to be held over this weekend in Canada I don’t think that the G7 could agree to that so I think it’s sort of a double standard uh that we’re going to see again and it’s likeliness that the global so-called global south would just uh consider that uh we are just I mean saying what we can but we are not actually acting on it thank you very much for your insights professor you’re welcome thank you
A Middle East conflict threatens to grow after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear sites. NHK WORLD correspondents and a Middle East expert analyze what could be next. #israel
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