Google Speech-to-Text API Automatic Transcription (Chirp). Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00on the airport terminal 4, this was intercepted,
00:00:04however it did cause fire, so we are
00:00:06of getting reports of injuries once again at the
00:00:10airport, and of course this comes after yesterday's
00:00:13strike on the airport inside of Riyad, which
00:00:17killed um 12 people, but also injured more than
00:00:21309 people, and we're
00:00:23a just getting reports out now, the Indian embassy has come
00:00:27forward
00:00:27of and said one of its citizens who was
00:00:31in
00:00:31a that deadly blast yesterday has now succumbed to injuries
00:00:35and lost his life, so that puts the death toll of
00:00:39yesterday's attack up to 13, and it's been a
00:00:43really tragic day in Saudi yesterday,
00:00:46of we lost
00:00:46of a four Saudi citizens were killed, a US
00:00:50citizen was killed along with many other
00:00:53of nationalalities in that blast that happened, but today as the
00:00:57aviation authority is saying, they... did
00:01:00of intercept the cruise missile right now at the moment
00:01:04damage is being assessed at the airport, operations at the
00:01:08airport are not um are are
00:01:11ceased right now, so as we know that if you want to take
00:01:15a flight out of riad, the best thing to do is contact your
00:01:19airline, also check in with the government and with your
00:01:22embassy and um of course see what's happening and on
00:01:26Thursday three people were also killed in a strike. on
00:01:30the airport, so right now we are also seeing
00:01:34that there's been a real
00:01:36of escalation and we have had our reporters and teams at the
00:01:40of hospital today inside of Riyad
00:01:42of along with the Saudi health minister visiting the
00:01:45victims from yesterday's airport
00:01:49of blast and um seeing the extent
00:01:51of the injuries. okay, so Lee, we do
00:01:54understand there is a statement on the part
00:01:57of the Saudi Lad coalition in response to this attack,
00:02:01especially on this airport, we we see pattern that has
00:02:05developed on the part
00:02:06of the huties when it comes to striking the critical
00:02:09infrastructure, whether it be
00:02:12the infrastructure related to oil, whether it comes
00:02:16to the
00:02:18of airports, clearly happen to be
00:02:22of of the civilian of interest, now given that fact the the saudi coalition has
00:02:26pleged decisive response and
00:02:30describe this action as a full fledged war
00:02:33crime, what could be the manifestation of that?
00:02:37of first of all, and secondly, when we talk about the security of such
00:02:41civilian infrastructure, including the airports
00:02:45infrastructure related to oil,
00:02:49of what, what are the preparation levels when it comes
00:02:53of to throuting such type of aggressive acts on the
00:02:57part of
00:02:58of woodies?
00:03:00of "just to reiterate, it's been a really sad moment
00:03:04in Riad over the last few days as the Houti's
00:03:08escalate attacks on civilian infrastructure, people are
00:03:11losing their lives,
00:03:13of Riad is continuing as normal to some extent, it's
00:03:18of conference and event season, so we do see those go ahead, but the
00:03:21Saudi Led coalition, as you said has condemned
00:03:25yesterday's attack,
00:03:26and they've called it a fully fledged war crime, and it's on so."
00:03:30infrastructure, right now there is going to be
00:03:33of decisive response, what that decisive response looks like
00:03:37is not clear at the moment, there are of course
00:03:41some options available to Saudi Arabia, they are
00:03:44backing Yemen's
00:03:46of international government at the moment in its fight against the Huthies inside of
00:03:50Yemen, back on Monday, we saw the
00:03:54in aliye um the three countries, Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi
00:03:57Arabia who are part
00:03:58of the Mecca. defense alliance, they all met each
00:04:02other, it was emergency meeting, they agreed to activate
00:04:06that pact, so right now we're just seeing wheels get into
00:04:09motion when it comes into that, but also if we have a look inside of
00:04:13Yemen, we have seen the Yeameny government
00:04:16of forces and the Saudi coalition retake some of that
00:04:20critical area that the Houties managed to
00:04:24a overcome last month, so we've seen them retake Babal
00:04:28Mendeb straight of course. mocka on the
00:04:31of red sea, which is really important because we must remember the
00:04:34baba mendeb straight is vital when it comes to
00:04:38oil transit, when it comes to shipping, it's one
00:04:41of the major choke points and as we know Iran is also trying
00:04:45to choke off the straight of homos at the moment, and what's
00:04:49interesting is if you have look at the geography
00:04:52of the Babandeb straight, it's very flat, so
00:04:55of um the Saudi Led coalition and the dawn of Yemen managed to make
00:05:00gains along that
00:05:03of right, right, Mark, coming back to you, Lee, please stay with us,
00:05:06Mark, when we talk about the civilian
00:05:09of infrastructure in particular, what could be the ideal of? options with the
00:05:13kingdom right now in order to defend those, in order to
00:05:17ensure the safety and security the critical civilian
00:05:20infrastructure such as the airports and the
00:05:24oil related
00:05:25infrastructure. let me
00:05:29echo my fellow guest panelist comments, it's a sad day when
00:05:33any civilians are harmed in armed conflict, and i would
00:05:36argue this isn't just armed conflict, it's a terrorist attack that has
00:05:40now caused 13 deaths. she's reporting uh in Saudi
00:05:44Arabia, including one US individual. Unfortunately, Saudi
00:05:48Arabia is facing what many countries are right now, not just in the Gulf, but
00:05:51obviously Ukraine for instance as well, where there simply are not enough
00:05:55air defense assets to protect everything. Uh, and from a
00:05:59military standpoint and from economic standpoint, Saudi
00:06:03Arabia is trying to protect its military assets as well as its uh oil
00:06:07pipeline, which is its revenue for survival of it's so critical, especially
00:06:11that east-west pipeline. uh because uh without it as well as
00:06:15without free shipping uh through the red sea via the babal men
00:06:18dead straight as well uh Saudi Arabia has been forced to be routing
00:06:22the tankers through the cape of good hope uh down around the Horn
00:06:26of Africa uh so you
00:06:28know that's not good i
00:06:29i don't know that there
00:06:30are any immediate uh answers to it because there's such a high
00:06:33demand uh for air defense assets at this point in time i know
00:06:37Pakistan itself is supplied in defense assets I know you've got
00:06:41800 troops. passed you military
00:06:44agreements on the ground inside of uh of uh
00:06:48Saudi Arabia to try to protect the kingdom
00:06:50uh but it's going to take more and there's just this shortage these type of interceptors because I
00:06:54don't think the Houties are going to stop um they have to fight an
00:06:58asommetrical war against Saudi Arabia and they can't likely
00:07:02make a big impact on military installations uh in the kingdom
00:07:06but they can
00:07:07you know do these heinous type attacks as your own Pakistani prime
00:07:10minister said they can't can commit these quote unquote heinous attacks
00:07:14against civilian sites and I think they'll continue to do that. I think the best
00:07:18defense sadly in this case is for Saudi Arab to go on the
00:07:21offense uh and to use his american partners as quickly as they can
00:07:25uh to take the fight to the hoothies and not wait um take the as
00:07:29we like to say in military analysis take the archer out the person
00:07:33firing these missiles uh don't try to intercept the missiles each time
00:07:37because that archer has many more missiles uh that you can deny
00:07:41him use of if you take him out.
00:07:44Right, now president Donald Trump was asked
00:07:48whether there could be a possibility the US involvement militarily,
00:07:52he responded by saying, we may, now this
00:07:55response, how is being, it has been received in
00:07:59Saudi Arabia and what are the expectations the Saudis when it comes to the
00:08:03US in this regard? I just want
00:08:07to reflect something the panelist said just before me when it
00:08:11comes to protecting. civilian infrastructure, just from what I'm
00:08:15hearing from the ground and what I'm aware of is
00:08:18yesterday there were several missiles fired towards the
00:08:22airport a rapid rate and um it's very
00:08:26difficult I think you know as you did say
00:08:29redeploying um these patriot missile systems to
00:08:33certain areas - because um Saudi Arabia is absolutely
00:08:37vast um as your panelist did say and also
00:08:40just the volume of attack. tax has um been something which
00:08:44has surprised many, especially someone who lives here
00:08:48like um myself, but yes we did hear from President Donald Trump
00:08:52of course, no definitive answer from President Donald
00:08:56Trump, he said he might, he might not, so we haven't
00:08:59actually got a decision yet from the US, so we're
00:09:03still waiting on that decision, of course Marco Rubio
00:09:06to also condemned what had happened at the
00:09:10international airport here. came out and said that we stand with
00:09:14Saudi, Saudi are allies and we do know that, but it's going
00:09:18to be really interesting to see what the US does at the moment, and the reason for that
00:09:22is of course they currently in negotiations with Iran. I know Iran
00:09:26has responded to the US response on the seven-day straight of
00:09:29Hamos proposal, and they said that the US response is
00:09:33insufficient, so we know right now the US is waiting for
00:09:37response um from Iran, they've got
00:09:40that, it's probably not looking. like that is going to lead to an
00:09:44agreement, and we must remember President Donald Trump right now is facing those
00:09:48mid-term elections in November, he's got a choice to
00:09:51make domestically, it's highly unpopular in the US,
00:09:55his war with Iran, and I think the coming days
00:09:59and weeks will tell us on what's going to happen, because the mecha defense
00:10:03alliance, the plan is obviously to mobilize equipment
00:10:07as quickly as possible and to get that into position and the dawn of
00:10:11Yemen attacks and the door of yemen operation apologies which
00:10:14has been led by the yemeny government and the saudi led coalition from
00:10:18the air could make major games so it's a weight and see
00:10:22holding pattern here every time i speak to. as they say that's a
00:10:26situation we're in right, one quick
00:10:30last question from you, Mark, does diplomacy stand any chance when
00:10:34it comes to deescalating the situation between the hoothies and the
00:10:38kingdom?
00:10:42i think your guest panelist is saying it exactly
00:10:46right, this is a stalemate at this point in time is also
00:10:50kind of a quagmar in part because the us elections
00:10:53irant is. uh that they can win this war uh by
00:10:57uh weakening president Trump at the polls and while he may be weaken that's
00:11:01not going to stop him as commander and cheap from being able to order or having the
00:11:05capacity to order uh you know future strikes. i would say
00:11:09just quickly independence the
00:11:10and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia I would hope that the US would do
00:11:14more uh this kind of attack is unacceptable and I would also quickly
00:11:18point out one their aspect to all of this uh it is creating an interesting
00:11:22dynamic because Pakistan up to now has acted is mediator
00:11:25between the US and Iran, and for mediator you need to be objective, but
00:11:29at Pakistan is now taking the fight to the hooties uh directly or
00:11:33indirectly in Yemen, suddenly you're a participant,
00:11:36especially if uh,
00:11:38as I, argue that it is, Iran that's behind the authoty attacks, so
00:11:42everything is kind of spinning out of control, even though for now up until the
00:11:46midterms, I suspect for the most part it to be a
00:12:11we are going to understand as to what is
00:12:15exactly the Indian authority, the led by
00:12:18Bharatiyather party government of course led by its prime
00:12:21minister Narendra Modi is doing with me. massive
00:12:25demonstrations and the protests which have erupted in
00:12:29number of cities, most primarily when we talk about New Delhi
00:12:33and Mumbai, especially when we talk about the government
00:12:37crackdown against the protest testers in
00:12:40Delhi, Delhi has been put under the
00:12:43extreme security restrictions, now
00:12:47what does that actually signif when the people are protesting
00:12:51against an exercise by the election commission of
00:12:55India in connivance with the federal authorities, which is of course,
00:12:59as I already mentioned Bhartatiya Janata party led by its prime minister Narendra
00:13:03Modi when it comes to revising
00:13:06intensively the electoral
00:13:09roles, as per number of reports,
00:13:12130 million people's names have
00:13:16been put off the electoral roles, what
00:13:20does that mean, what does that signif and it is
00:13:23happening ' under the garb the special
00:13:27intensive revision, and the election commission, the
00:13:31opposition party say, especially when we talk about Indian National Congress,
00:13:34it's leader Rahul Gandhi, he has been put under brief
00:13:38detention, likewise when we talk about this
00:13:41crackdown, there are reports that more than 10,00
00:13:45people have been put under detention, there are barricades
00:13:48and even journalists have been
00:13:51arrested and their mobile phones and their
00:13:55devices have been confiscated by the police and law
00:13:59enforcement agencies over there, the opposition blames
00:14:02bharti general party and the election commission of India
00:14:06going for this exercise in order to
00:14:10eliminate the names the eligible voters most particularly
00:14:14when we talk about the Muslim voters in order to give
00:14:17a disproportionate advantage to Bharatiya Janata Party
00:14:21and there is pattern in that particular regard in certain
00:14:25constituencies where there was no government of Bharatiya Janata Party
00:14:29before such revision of electoral roles Bharatiya
00:14:32party came into power after such
00:14:36revision, there are international concerns also being raised
00:14:39regarding this particular exercise on the part the election commission of
00:14:42India and the Bharatiya Janata Party led
00:14:45government to understand what exactly is happening
00:14:49when we talk about that claim of being the largest democracy in the world
00:14:53what does show about the true nature of
00:14:57this so-called largest democracy in the world of
00:15:00india. for that we are honored to been joined by Mr.
00:15:04Khuram Dastagir Khan, he is a former defense and foreign
00:15:08minister of Pakistan. Mr. Khan, thank you very much for being with
00:15:12us on unfold tonight, really appreciate that.
00:15:15130 million voters
00:15:18names have been struck the electoral
00:15:21roles in India under the
00:15:25so-called special intensive revision the
00:15:28electoral roles, how do you look at
00:15:32this particular act on the part the election commission of
00:15:35India, firstly, and also when we talk
00:15:39about its
00:15:42connivance with the Bharat party let government over
00:15:45there. Thank you for inviting
00:15:49me. India's democracy is
00:15:52dying, it's been dying for the last 12 years ever
00:15:56since BJP under Narendra Modi took
00:15:59office, but 12 years of dying has
00:16:03brought India's democracy to near
00:16:06fatal. near death state in
00:16:10which, as you just told your viewers,
00:16:13130 million voters are being
00:16:16disenfranchised, for your Pakistani
00:16:20viewers, I'll put it into perspective, that the total number of
00:16:24Pakistani voters in 2024 was 136
00:16:27million, so essentially number of
00:16:31voters, nearly equal to all of Pakistan's
00:16:35voters is being, struck the roles
00:16:39and this is very
00:16:42determined and deliberate exercise to
00:16:46rig the vote, to finally
00:16:49disenfranchise minorities, particularly muslims
00:16:52and also to use
00:16:56this very selective engineering tool to
00:16:59disenfranchise the new cockroach janta
00:17:03party which is now protesting and its leaders have been
00:17:06arrested. but I think
00:17:08this 130 million
00:17:12Indians being struck the roles is essentially the
00:17:15culmination of a 12 year
00:17:18exercise in which
00:17:21the abolishing the special state of Kashmir,
00:17:25article 370 the Indian constitution back in
00:17:282019 and then afterwards the citizenship act
00:17:32in which again the same exercise was tried in
00:17:35which the citizenship. itself the government of India try
00:17:39to take away again the principal victims of Muslims
00:17:43and there is a systematic repression of minorities
00:17:46across India. What has changed, I think this is what
00:17:50in my view has brought India's democracy to near
00:17:54fatal level, that the
00:17:58animous the government, the repression the government has
00:18:02now spread from minorities and
00:18:05Muslims to all those to oppose it, so
00:18:09even Hindus or lower cast Hindus or educated
00:18:13students who are now opposing it, are facing the same kind of
00:18:16retribution that Muslims and monoters have faced
00:18:20in the last 12 years, in fact Muslims in Gujarat
00:18:24faced it a genocidal level at the hands of Narendra
00:18:27Modi back in 2002, but essentially this
00:18:31widening of repression from Muslims to all those
00:18:35who oppose the regime is has about India's
00:18:38democracy,
00:18:39and I think it's very difficult to now call it democracy in which
00:18:43this such widespread repression can take place.
00:18:46Exactly, we we see that widespread resentment
00:18:50among various strat the society, from Muslims,
00:18:53it is expanding towards the other
00:18:56communities as well, when we specifically try to
00:18:59understand as to the international concern
00:19:03and India which claims to be the largest democracy in the world
00:19:07that...
00:19:07is "there exactly are international covenants when it comes to the universal
00:19:11declaration of human rights, the international covenant on civil and
00:19:14political rights, also the
00:19:18entire world happens to be very sensitive when it comes to the
00:19:22right to vote and such practices that ultimately lead to
00:19:26disinfranchisement of such huge chunk
00:19:29of population a certain
00:19:32country, isn't the world
00:19:34cognisant happening?"
00:19:36world right what now in India and what should it be ideally the world is
00:19:40sensitive to it, but because of India's size, particularly the
00:19:44size of its economy, and we should never forget
00:19:48the growth rate that it keeps deceiving the world with, in
00:19:52which now there is convincing evidence that India has been
00:19:56overestimating it growth numbers for again
00:20:00for decades now, but particularly under Bharatiya Janata Party
00:20:03rule, which I think now again to
00:20:07perfectly candid should be deemed a hinditwa government
00:20:11in which
00:20:13it is trying to make sure that through its
00:20:17engineering and repression that it remains in
00:20:20power and the world has taken notice of
00:20:24it but India's size and India's economic growth
00:20:27stats still force the world to do business
00:20:31but as we have seen that there is there is
00:20:35a method uh to this
00:20:38madness that Narendra Modi is pursuing, but this
00:20:41madness has brought India's slowly bringing
00:20:45India's growth miracle to an
00:20:48end, lord... of
00:20:51multinationals and other investments are leaving
00:20:54India and there is a flip side to this repression is that
00:20:58India's and this Hindutva government
00:21:02entrenched hatred of Pakistan and it's
00:21:06war bungering against Pakistan has also made the
00:21:10world realize that a
00:21:13region which India keeps threatening with war and
00:21:17particularly
00:21:17to nuclear arm neighbors exist side by side. is
00:21:21that region which Narendra Modi can plunge into
00:21:25what any time is not a good destination for investment so that is India is
00:21:29also suffering not only from the international
00:21:32sensitivity to repression and voter fraud it is
00:21:36also now being paying the price for this war mungering
00:21:40against Pakistan by you know by economically
00:21:43directly and also of course overall
00:21:47if you look at the larger picture uh India's
00:21:51alliance with the United States is also in
00:21:54trouble because India has not proven to be the kind of foot
00:21:58soldier that the United States wanted against China,
00:22:02so many kind of what you say
00:22:06vulnerabilities brought upon by the
00:22:09Hindutvas was
00:22:12you know systematic hatred and prejudice
00:22:15against minorities and those who oppose it has now brought in
00:22:20india to level in which the world is now, i think many the freedom
00:22:24house downgraded India's democratic credentials in this year's
00:22:27report, so India's democracy is dying, its international
00:22:31stature is is being shattered and now
00:22:35it's i think it's going to be difficult two years until the next election
00:22:39for modi right, mr khan, there is another very
00:22:43interesting dimension, you already referred to briefly upon that also the
00:22:47cockroach janada party, now there is a there is a
00:22:51pressure that is building upon the Bharatiya Janata party led
00:22:55government with these massive demonstrations in number of major
00:22:59cities including Mumbai, Delhi has been put under
00:23:02extreme security restriction also.
00:23:05now there is a brief history, the the cockroach the party
00:23:08was successfully able to get its
00:23:11demand met from the Bharti Janata party when the
00:23:15education minister had to design. now
00:23:19we for fact, there is
00:23:22backing from the opposition, Indian National Congress party
00:23:26as well, their leader was briefly detained though as
00:23:29well, with the cockroat janada party, other leading
00:23:32opposition parties and also there is also a hint on the part
00:23:36of Sonam Vongchok also who played a pivotal role in the
00:23:40last movement when it came to the resignation the education
00:23:44minister, this time around their demand is
00:23:47the resignation the chief election. commissioner, given that
00:23:51precedence, do you think there would be pressure amply
00:23:55mounted on Bharatiya Janata Party that they they once again
00:23:59would given or conceed to this new demand of this massive protest
00:24:03movement? I like to point out
00:24:07that the one the symptoms of a
00:24:10prejudice based government is that it
00:24:13cannot bear independent institutions, so for
00:24:17many decades now, more
00:24:19than two decades... India's election commission
00:24:23was sort the poster child of India's democracy in which it was seen as
00:24:27a credible institution that despite all the
00:24:30corruption and mismanagement and
00:24:33embazzlement that happened in India that at least the Indian election
00:24:37commission was a credible institution that ran relatively fair elections
00:24:41and now that is no longer true so
00:24:44similarly the another institution
00:24:48which became the cause of the cockroach janta party to come into
00:24:52being was the college entral system in which the
00:24:55examination system was exposed as
00:24:58rigged and so so many hundred thousand young
00:25:02people who wanted to go into the Indian civil
00:25:06service realized that this again another
00:25:09institution that they believed in was rigged and
00:25:13corrupt and therefore they protested against it, it's very interesting that the
00:25:17handful of young people who have had no political experience. "most
00:25:21them are under the age of 32, have have organized
00:25:24themselves into this this protest, but
00:25:28again this protest which is first was
00:25:32against the education minister, now they are protesting against the election
00:25:35commission, i it's too early to say whether the
00:25:39election commissioner would resign, but it's very clear that
00:25:42one major aspect of this hindutva regime for the last 12
00:25:46years has been the slow decay.
00:25:50of Indian institutions which is now exposed for all the world
00:25:54to
00:26:35Afghanistan remains a central hub in the global truck
00:26:39trade. According to the UNODC 2025 report,
00:26:43it produced 433 tons of opium in
00:26:462024, nearly 20% the global
00:26:49supply. Despite a temporary drop after the
00:26:532022 ban, cultivation rose again by
00:26:5619% in 2024. Trafficking networks
00:27:00stayed active, average opiium. prices of
00:27:03$750 per kilogram reflect the continued
00:27:07demand and functioning smuggling routes. According to the world
00:27:11drug report 2025, total global opium
00:27:14production in 2024 reached
00:27:172,140 tons. Myanmar led with
00:27:21995 tons, which is 46%, followed by
00:27:25Afghanistan at 433 tons, which is
00:27:2820%, while Mexico and Colombia produce smaller
00:27:32shares. These figures highlight that despite bads
00:27:35and crackdowns, the global opium trade remains deeply
00:27:39entrenched with regional networks adapting and
00:27:43expanding. Moreover, aan cartels are shifting from
00:27:47plant-based at drugs to synthetics like crystal meth, which
00:27:51are cheaper to produce and easier to hide and harder to
00:27:54detect, showing that the threat is moving from fields to
00:27:58laboratories spreading globally, but Pakistan is...
00:28:02actively countering this threat under the national
00:28:05anti-narcotics policy 2019 and backed by the laws like
00:28:09the control of narcotics substances at
00:28:121997, pakistan's anti-narcotics force
00:28:16(Anf) conducts extensive operations in
00:28:19Balochistan, kp and sin. using drones,
00:28:22satellite imagery and modern agricultural methods,
00:28:26pakistan eradicates poppy crops even in remote
00:28:29areas. in 2024, 2025 alone, Pakistan cleared
00:28:33hundreds of hectares of puppy fields, dismantled
00:28:36419 illegal waterboards, destroyed
00:28:4064 solar systems and repatriated
00:28:43110 foreign traffickers. National seizures
00:28:47exceeded 361 metric tons of narcotics
00:28:50worth billions, cutting off major supply lines with
00:28:54technology driven surveillance, corridor intelligence
00:28:58and the interagency coordination, pakistan maintain
00:29:02its puppy free status since 2001. The
00:29:06country is not just protecting its borders, it's safeguarding the
00:29:10region and the world. Afghanistan may be the source, but
00:29:13Pakistan is the shield, leading the fight against narcotics
00:29:17and ensuring safer, drug free
00:29:20future.
00:30:37a Pakistani resident has been killed and 11 others wounded in a fresh
00:30:40hoothi strike on Riyadh's international
00:30:42airport.
00:30:50The Saudi Lead Coalition says it has intercepted houti launched ballistic
00:30:54missile targeting khames musheid while Saudi civil defense has
00:30:58declared the threat for.