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00:00:00A live look at the most important with me, Dariush Rajabian, live from London. news and events in Iran and
00:00:04the world.
00:00:11Stay with us for the latest developments
00:00:14of the World Cup.
00:00:18We are with you from
00:00:21London.
00:00:25It's 8 PM Tehran time. Here are the
00:00:29headlines. The world economy is concerned about the increasing crisis in
00:00:32the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab. Saudi Arabia
00:00:35has promised a decisive response to Houthi attacks. Iran says
00:00:39the equations related to oil and straits
00:00:43have changed. The shortage of
00:00:45strategic weapons due to the war with Iran was confirmed
00:00:48in a report published by the US Department of Defense
00:00:52Inspector General. Trump had repeatedly denied concerns
00:00:55about dwindling weapons stockpiles. And a day after
00:00:58Fars News Agency announced the launch of a system for
00:01:02identifying and punishing,
00:01:05according to this media, "traitors abroad",
00:01:09now the US, UK and Netherlands are talking about the details
00:01:13of a spyware that, according to them, is linked to the Iranian
00:01:17government. All in today's World
00:01:19News.
00:01:24You are listening to BBC Radio. Good evening, wherever you are in the world. I am Naser Madani,
00:01:27with the program on Tuesday,
00:01:30September 4th. World News from BBC
00:01:34Radio from London, we are with you with the latest
00:01:37news. Saudi Arabia says it will respond decisively
00:01:41to the attacks of the Yemeni Houthis. According to Riyadh, in the latest attacks by this
00:01:45Iran-backed group, 13 people were injured in Saudi
00:01:48Arabia. Recently, the Houthis, in addition to intensifying attacks on Saudi Arabia,
00:01:52also captured strategic points on the western
00:01:55coast of Yemen and solidified their control over the Strait
00:01:58of Bab el-Mandeb. The possibility of more
00:02:01disruption to shipping in these waters, along with
00:02:05the Strait of Hormuz, has increased concerns about the escalation
00:02:09of the energy crisis in the world. In addition to the fact that
00:02:12Brent crude oil prices rose 2% today,
00:02:16reaching over $108, security
00:02:19concerns are also serious. Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince
00:02:22of Saudi Arabia, met yesterday with the commander
00:02:25of the US Army Central Command regarding this crisis.
00:02:29Today, Mohammed bin Salman has also gone to Cairo, Egypt,
00:02:33and met with the Egyptian president. We want to discuss the latest developments
00:02:36here with my colleague Omid Parsanejad. Omid, good
00:02:39evening. What's the latest news today? As you
00:02:43said, the tension between
00:02:46the Houthis and Saudi Arabia has caused
00:02:50the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman,
00:02:53to go to Cairo and meet with the Egyptian president
00:02:56and ask for more support for Saudi Arabia
00:03:00in the war against the Houthis. They discussed the issue of
00:03:03shipping security in the Red Sea and
00:03:07Bab el-Mandeb, which is of great economic importance
00:03:11for both countries, Saudi Arabia and
00:03:13Egypt.
00:03:15This dominance that the Houthis have gained over the western
00:03:19coasts of Yemen and apparently over one of the islands in recent
00:03:23days has caused the Bab
00:03:26el-Mandeb strait to be for ships that
00:04:00can no longer buy the amount they need. The price has gone
00:04:04up. Tomorrow, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's
00:04:07foreign minister, is scheduled to travel to China and meet
00:04:11with the Chinese foreign minister. It is predicted that one of the topics that will be
00:04:14raised there is the issue of the Strait of Hormuz,
00:04:17and that Bab el-Mandeb is also part of
00:04:21this regional crisis in which Iran
00:04:25and the US are the main parties. But, of course, each of
00:04:28these two main parties,
00:04:33Iran and Saudi Arabia, are allies of the Americans.
00:04:36It seems that in the short term, the Chinese
00:04:40might be happy, for example, that America's power has been challenged
00:04:44and they are militarily involved
00:04:48in the Persian Gulf, but in the long term, it seems that everyone
00:04:51is concerned about the medium- and
00:04:54long-term impact that this crisis in the energy market may have on
00:04:58the global economy, and they believe a solution must be found
00:05:02for it as soon as possible. What does it mean exactly
00:05:06when Iran says that the equations related to oil and straits
00:05:09have changed? Look, Iran's main
00:05:13argument is that we are not willing
00:05:16to return the situation of the Strait of Hormuz to its pre-war
00:05:20state, because they have concluded in Iran that this
00:05:23is the only factor that can
00:05:26create deterrence for them in the long
00:05:29run, because the attacks that the US
00:05:33and Israel have launched twice against Iran in the past two years, both of these
00:05:37occurred amidst negotiations about the nuclear program
00:05:41between Iran. And in the second
00:05:43case, with the martyrdom of Oman's foreign minister and
00:05:47a British diplomat, Iran was willing in these
00:05:51negotiations to make some concessions that it had not been willing to make before,
00:05:54but in any case, they were
00:05:57attacked, and the perception of the Iranian government is
00:06:01that now only this one tool
00:06:04can prevent future attacks. They want to make
00:06:08this attack and this war so costly that it will
00:06:12affect the calculations of anyone who wants to fight Iran, the US,
00:06:15or Israel. If
00:06:18they can get out of this war very quickly and easily,
00:06:22the Iranian officials believe that they will attack again
00:06:26whenever they deem it necessary, and they want to do something to prevent
00:06:30that from happening. But will the Iranian economy be able
00:06:33to withstand such pressure
00:06:36with the naval blockade imposed by the Americans
00:06:40and the intensified sanctions? And can
00:06:43the Iranian government itself emerge from this current crisis or not? This is another question.
00:06:47Their own perception is that we must increase
00:06:51the pain for the other side so much that they no longer want to attack
00:06:54us. And on the other hand, the actions that Saudi Arabia
00:06:58is taking in response to the first question, you mentioned.
00:07:01We know that in the Mecca Pact
00:07:04with Pakistan and Turkey, they had signed an agreement
00:07:08to support each other, but that didn't happen there.
00:07:17Reports indicated that these calls were not rejected, but confirmed
00:07:21that he apparently made two calls requesting help for an attack on
00:07:24the Houthis. This did not happen, and now, as you said, he has gone to Egypt.
00:07:28How much can we expect Egypt to
00:07:31get involved in this game, which has Iran on
00:07:35one side? Egypt, which has tried for a long
00:07:38time to reach an agreement between Iran and the US. Look, Egypt has
00:07:43very serious interests in freedom of navigation,
00:07:47especially in the Red Sea, because a significant
00:07:49portion of its revenue comes from trade in that
00:07:53region, passing through the Suez Canal, which, in any
00:07:57case, brings income to Egypt
00:08:00and brings economic prosperity.
00:08:03But the experience of the years
00:08:06of war in Yemen has shown that the vulnerability
00:08:09of the Houthis to new, modern
00:08:12weapons, bombing, and other things is not so great that
00:08:16they can be brought to their knees only through
00:08:19bombing and military
00:08:23attacks from a distance. The same
00:08:25can be said more or less about Iran. That is,
00:08:29militarily, in any case, they have not been able
00:08:32to overthrow the Iranian government with military means.
00:08:36The same situation applies to the Houthis.
00:08:39Saudi Arabia is caught in the fact that its
00:08:43vulnerability to the Houthis is due to its oil facilities,
00:08:46and because they can attack Saudi oil facilities
00:08:50with their drones and cause damage that Saudi Arabia's
00:08:54retaliatory attacks on the Houthis cannot cause,
00:08:57because on the Houthis' side, there are not
00:09:01that many vulnerable facilities. This is the problem they have, and it seems
00:09:05that even the possible intervention of Egyptians and others
00:09:09might have more of a diplomatic aspect and mediation
00:09:12rather than military. That is, the Saudis' expectation
00:09:16from the Egyptians is that they will cooperate
00:09:19to get the entire region out of this
00:09:22situation or come up with an idea. Thank you, Omid,
00:09:25Omid Parsanejad, our correspondent and colleague at BBC Persian Television,
00:09:29who is here in the radio studio today,
00:09:32updated us on the latest news, and we also heard his analysis
00:09:36about what is happening in the region. Let's also hear
00:09:40the opinion of Ammar Gleiter, an expert on Middle East
00:09:43issues, about what Saudi Arabia is currently facing
00:09:47and what it can do in the short to medium
00:09:50term. Currently, neither the forces supported by
00:09:54the United Arab Emirates are willing to actively
00:09:57enter the conflict, nor is Egypt willing
00:10:01to deploy such a large ground force into this conflict.
00:10:04And on the other hand, the forces supported
00:10:07by Saudi Arabia, the Saleh forces, have not been
00:10:11able to hold their fronts
00:10:15despite the volume of weapons
00:10:18and support they received. Saudi Arabia has increased
00:10:22its air strikes as much as it could,
00:10:26and the naval blockade of the Houthis has
00:10:29continued, putting pressure on the Houthis
00:10:32both logistically and militarily. However,
00:10:36as I mentioned, this conflict,
00:10:40specifically in northern or northeastern
00:10:43or northwestern Yemen, is not an area
00:10:46where any army or military force can easily
00:10:50have a very strong ability to resist
00:10:54the forces present there, whether Houthis
00:10:58or their allies. Let's not forget that in the
00:11:011960s, Egyptian
00:11:04army forces sent about 70-80,000
00:11:08troops to support the Republicans and
00:11:12faced a very big defeat,
00:11:15which even Gamal Abdel Nasser had called those conflicts
00:11:19Egypt's Vietnam. Therefore, I don't
00:11:23think militarily Saudi Arabia has the ability
00:11:26to at least
00:11:30reverse the fronts and push the Houthi
00:11:33forces back, and I think it is possible
00:11:37that in the coming days and weeks, even the city of Taiz will be
00:11:40completely besieged, and its fall is likely.
00:11:44This was Ammar Golei, a Middle East
00:11:47affairs analyst. But here, there is another side to it,
00:11:50and a main side is the US. The Office of the Inspector General
00:11:54of the US Department of Defense, in a report, confirmed
00:11:57the shortage of strategic weapons as a result of the war with
00:12:01Iran, an issue that Donald Trump, the US president,
00:12:04had repeatedly denied. The report states that the consumption of ammunition
00:12:08in the war with Iran or the operation known as
00:12:11"Epic Fury" has led to strategic shortages in US
00:12:14arms stockpiles. It also revealed bottlenecks
00:12:18in the industrial base for ammunition supply. Bahman
00:12:21Kalbasi, our correspondent from New York, is with us.
00:12:26What details does this report have,
00:12:30especially since Mr. Trump had repeatedly denied everything that was said here?
00:12:34This Congress had ordered
00:12:38and approved that this Inspector
00:12:42General's office in the US Department of Defense
00:12:45must provide a report on the status of this
00:12:48war, the ammunition consumed, and any possible shortages.
00:12:52And in this report, these shortages were confirmed,
00:12:55stating that there has been widespread use of strategic
00:12:59weapons and anti-missile and anti-drone systems to shoot down
00:13:03the drones that Iran was using and the ballistic missiles that
00:13:06Iran used. It also
00:13:09questioned replacing these weapons at the speed
00:13:13that Mr. Trump and his Secretary of Defense
00:13:16wanted to create the image that it is happening quickly.
00:13:20It questioned that as well, and said
00:13:23there are many obstacles to replacing them,
00:13:27and it certainly will not be at the same speed
00:13:31as consumption. This states something that was
00:13:35evident, evident because in the past weeks,
00:13:38we repeatedly knew from leaks
00:13:42of information from within the Department of Defense and the army
00:13:45to American media that such shortages exist,
00:13:49and in Mr. Trump's rhetoric, despite his denials,
00:13:52it was clear that this is an undeniable fact. This is because
00:13:56at the same time he was saying we have no problems,
00:13:59he repeatedly said this, but he also emphasized
00:14:02that we are building quickly to replace
00:14:06them, which itself indicates the need
00:14:09for quick replacement. But, of course, this report says
00:14:13that the production of strategic weapons is happening at a much
00:14:16slower rate, and therefore, this confirms
00:14:20the reality and the image that American media
00:14:23have presented in recent months about the so-called
00:14:26cost of producing these strategic weapons
00:14:30and their use, and the shortage in arsenals. But apparently,
00:14:34there have been other costs,
00:14:37far beyond what is stated in this report. This
00:14:41war, of course, the discussion and analysis
00:14:45of how much this war has cost the Americans
00:14:48is extensive, but one of the main
00:14:51figures and numbers that can be cited
00:14:55is that the American consumer, compared to six months before the war,
00:14:59has paid how much more out of their pocket
00:15:01for gasoline and diesel
00:15:05in these six months after the war. And this figure
00:15:08is now something around $17 billion
00:15:11and is increasing every second.
00:15:15We should consider this in light of the fact that the calculation
00:15:19that the Ministry of Defense makes regarding the current costs of
00:15:22the war is also questioned by many experts. They say
00:15:26that when they, for example, say the war cost $37
00:15:30billion, it was based on the price
00:15:33of the ammunition that was used, while this purchase happened two
00:15:37or three years ago. If they want to buy the same weapon
00:15:40now, there has been a significant increase, and as a result,
00:15:43the final cost will be much higher. And also,
00:15:46experts say that the damage to the American economy,
00:15:50the reduction in GDP, the delay
00:15:54in reducing interest rates, all of these
00:15:57have damaged the American economy by nearly $200 billion,
00:16:01perhaps even more. If you add all of these up, we are looking
00:16:04at a bill of nearly $400 billion for this
00:16:08war for the American economy. Amazing. Thank you,
00:16:11Bahman. Bahman Kalbasi, our correspondent in New York,
00:16:14USA.
00:16:18Let's move on to the news that has been particularly on everyone's
00:16:21lips in the past two or three
00:16:25days, which is the issue of AI and
00:16:28the use of this relatively new
00:16:31phenomenon. China has criticized alarming
00:16:35narratives about controlling and monitoring artificial intelligence,
00:16:39and at the same time, warned against confrontational
00:16:42competition in this field. The spokesperson of the Chinese
00:16:45Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters yesterday that narratives
00:16:49of threat, confrontation, and hostile competition will only
00:16:52disrupt the process of global governance over artificial
00:16:56intelligence and benefit no one. I have found almost
00:17:00no one who can accurately understand
00:17:03the meaning of this sentence and tell us what is happening
00:17:07right now. But no one better than Hadi Nili, senior reporter
00:17:11and senior presenter of the "Click" program,
00:17:14who is with us today. Let's hear from Hadi
00:17:17why this issue of AI
00:17:20has become so prominent. The senior director
00:17:24and CEO of Antropy, who I believe
00:17:27has now warned about the development of artificial intelligence. China
00:17:31has opposed it. What's the story,
00:17:34Hadi? Look, Naser, in the last two years,
00:17:38especially, we have heard these warnings repeatedly
00:17:41that AI is getting out of control, that it might be dangerous
00:17:45for humanity. In the past few months, several real
00:17:48examples of this happened, such as the famous
00:17:52Hugging Face incident, where AI agents
00:17:56attacked Hugging Face servers, a place where there are
00:17:59software that these AI agents thought they could
00:18:03go there and find the tools
00:18:06they needed, tools that no one had told them they should go
00:18:09and find by any means necessary and bring them for themselves,
00:18:13even from places they were not allowed to, to get the points
00:18:16for that stage of the game. That is, they had given
00:18:20these AI agents an unsolvable problem, and they thought,
00:18:24"Well, where can we find it?" From Hugging Face, which is a source of
00:18:27these software and solutions, and that's how they attacked Hugging Face
00:18:31servers on a large scale, and Hugging Face had to bring in
00:18:35AI to kick them out of its
00:19:00servers. So this is very striking that it would wipe out humanity
00:19:04in a decade. That's a heavy statement for everyone.
00:19:30to achieve global governance for AI. The issue is that if all countries
00:19:34and all companies do not agree to regulate the speed together,
00:19:38if they do not decide together how much they want to step
00:19:41on the gas and proceed at maximum
00:19:44speed in the development of AI models,
00:19:48if everyone does not decide together, then this
00:19:51decision is not really a decision because, rightfully,
00:19:54an American company says, "You're stopping me, but a bigger company in the US
00:19:58is using an exemption and continues to develop." Even if we restrict
00:20:02all American companies, they say, "Well, Chinese companies are doing it." If you restrict
00:20:06Chinese companies, they say, "Americans are doing it."
00:20:23If everyone doesn't decide together, it's useless. What the Chinese
00:20:27Ministry of Foreign Affairs is saying is this, but in
00:20:31reality, one might say that the position of the US government
00:20:35and the Chinese government doesn't differ much in this one regard. Both of
00:20:37them are saying "Don't exaggerate,
00:20:41don't create a bogeyman out of AI. Everything is fine, don't blow it
00:20:45out of proportion, this isn't news." While, of course, researchers
00:20:48who are independent or even working in these AI companies are saying
00:20:52that due to the very low transparency, due to the fact that we don't know
00:20:55what is really happening, the danger is serious. Thank you,
00:20:59Hadi. Hadi Nili, our correspondent in the field of technology,
00:21:03as well as the senior presenter of the Click program, from
00:21:06whom we heard about the latest developments in this regard,
00:21:10artificial intelligence and its new challenges for the world today.
00:21:13But a day after Fars News Agency announced the launch
00:21:16of a system for identifying and punishing, according to this media,
00:21:21"traitors abroad," they released spyware that they say is linked
00:21:25to the Iranian government. But the first
00:21:30part of that, which is that the Iranian government recently
00:21:34launched a software, actually a system called
00:21:37"Elaj" to identify, monitor, and prosecute
00:21:40Iranians abroad who are opposed to the Islamic
00:21:43Republic, is the main topic of this part of the program,
00:21:47and we want to discuss it. This system that Iran has launched
00:21:51is supposed to publish the personal information
00:21:54and identity of Iranians abroad, and it has also threatened
00:21:57that anyone who opposes the government will have
00:22:00their civil rights revoked. We want to discuss this with
00:22:04my colleague Farzad Seyfikaran from the BBC Persian Fact
00:22:08Checking team. Farzad, what is the story of this
00:22:12project? What do we know about it? Well, Naser, let's start
00:22:15with its name. As its name suggests, "Elaj" is actually
00:22:19a completely threatening name. In fact,
00:22:23a website has been created. We still don't know exactly
00:22:26which institution it belongs to, and they have kept
00:22:29it very secret. But, of course, a lot of information
00:22:33related to the judiciary has been published in it. This system,
00:22:36in fact, aims to, as they say,
00:22:39identify and monitor Iranians abroad who are in
00:22:43some way opposed to the government, and to collect
00:22:47their personal information
00:22:50from various sources, both from individuals who report
00:22:54them and from the place where
00:22:58this Elaj system was launched. It then
00:23:01publicly publishes this information.
00:23:05They have created a website with a section called "Traitors
00:23:08to the Homeland." Unfortunately, I have to use this name to be able
00:23:12to explain it. And there, a complete profile
00:23:15has been created for each individual, from their photo
00:23:19to their very personal details,
00:23:23such as father's name,
00:23:26surname, national ID, place of
00:23:30residence, education, and anything else. And even screenshots
00:23:33of that person's activities on their social networks,
00:23:37even some accounts that I was reviewing, for example,
00:23:40are private, but it's clear that this information reached
00:23:44this system from somewhere, for example, photos were taken
00:23:48from their Instagram stories. And they publish the specifications
00:23:52of these individuals in this way, and this system says
00:23:56that we ask people to report these individuals who are
00:24:00against the Islamic Republic so that we can take
00:24:03legal action against them.
00:24:07The basis of this legal action is
00:24:10also the law on intensifying the punishment
00:24:13of spies, which was partially approved by
00:24:16the parliament in recent months. And well,
00:24:20they say that one of the actions is to ban them from transactions,
00:24:23confiscate their assets. When we looked at these
00:24:27individuals whose information was published there,
00:24:30most of them are close to monarchists
00:24:33and the People's Mujahedin Organization, and they have filed these
00:24:37individuals there and say that so far,
00:24:411,600 people have been identified, and
00:24:44600 of these 1,600 people were identified through
00:24:48public reports.
00:24:55people have been filed, and legal action has been taken against
00:24:5940 of them. For example, these legal actions can include
00:25:02all of the civil rights issues I mentioned, such as
00:25:06being banned from transactions, asset confiscation,
00:25:09which we also had in the news in recent weeks. But the most
00:25:13concerning part is that they use very personal
00:25:16and sensitive information of individuals and publish it. This has
00:25:20caused concern among many, what is the solution
00:25:23now? That is, when you think
00:25:27about it, you really get worried. No matter how you think
00:25:30about it, you get worried. We don't have much time, Farzad, if we can
00:25:34keep it short. Yes, imagine suddenly you find that your
00:25:38very, very private information, for example, in one case I saw
00:25:42that even a person's personal relationships with their parents
00:25:46were written there. And well, this shows that probably
00:25:50a close person informed them. And then they say that they
00:25:53will take legal action against them. Naturally, that person's
00:25:57privacy is violated simply because of
00:26:00their opposition to a government.
00:26:04There are also other concerns. For example, I have seen cases where even
00:26:08children's photos were published, which is very concerning.
00:26:11There have been similar projects before, in a minute,
00:26:14another project called Jasus-yab was launched by the IRGC Intelligence
00:26:18Organization. That was specifically for people inside the country
00:26:22and against citizen journalists, people who wanted to take
00:26:25pictures or videos of, for example, protests or places that were attacked
00:26:29during the war. They tried to identify and arrest them through this
00:26:45Tehran. I definitely invite you to watch this report.
00:26:49I think it will be on a video wall and all of this will be explained
00:26:53in detail. Thank you for staying with us until
00:26:57the end of this World News program. With Shadab Hatami,
00:27:00the producer of this program, Farzad.
00:27:52youth of the castle
00:27:56What burns the leaf
00:28:00Awake lips.
00:28:32I know you
00:28:35well
00:28:38I know you
00:28:41are kind
00:28:44We are red. October babies. We are light. Darkness
00:28:47is falling. Woman. Life. Freedom.
00:30:24The islands around the Strait of Bab al-Mandab are now
00:30:27under the control of the Iran-backed Houthis. The Islamic Republic
00:30:31is talking about changing the equations of the straits. What is
00:30:34the next step? The collateral damage of an Israeli documentary
00:30:38that received the longest applause at the Venice Film Festival
00:30:42and the most furious reaction from Israeli officials. We will also talk about the level of tolerance
00:30:45in Israeli society on BBC Page D