Global News Podcast - Israel strikes Iran: World leaders urge restraint

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

Israel's military says Iran fired about 100 drones towards its territory, many of which were intercepted, in retaliation to Israeli air strikes overnight. Also: an update from the scene of crashed Air India flight AI17.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and at 13Hours GMT on Friday the 13th of June, these are our main stories. Israel has continued its attacks on Iran, striking its main uranium enrichment site at a tense. There have been worldwide calls for calm and restraint. And a day after the Air India plane crash, Indian media say investigators have recovered the digital video recorder from the aircraft, our correspondent reports from the scene. Also in this podcast, an unprecedented construction boom in the Somali capital.

I became an engineer because I wanted to rebuild my country beautifully after the war since it needs it. And I also love studying and learning engineering. We begin with the situation in Iran after Israel launched waves of airstrikes. The military operation, which Israel has dubbed Operation Rising Lion, began overnight. It involved some 200 Israeli fighter jets and targeted nuclear and military sites. Several nuclear scientists and senior military figures have been killed. As we record this podcast, Israel has been continuing its attacks, striking the main uranium enrichment site at Natanz. World leaders have urged restraint.

In a recorded video message, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was at a decisive moment in its history. Air traffic has been suspended throughout the region and Israel has declared a state of emergency. Our Middle East regional editor, Sebastian Asher, is following events from Jerusalem. One of the things that the IDF spokesperson was showing was an aerial view of an Natanz nuclear facility, which has, I think, been an absolutely key target in showing the damage that has been done there. But I mean, from an aerial perspective, you can't really tell how much. And as far as the Iranian concern, what we've heard, I think, from Iranian officials is that it's surface level. I mean, this is a network which goes down very, very deep. So, I mean,

giving a sense of how extensive these attacks have been. So the nuclear facilities, the defense and offensive capabilities of Iran, particularly with ballistic missiles, and then the human targets, the military commanders and the nuclear scientists, the assassinations that have taken place. So, you know, we've had top military commanders killed in the opening hours. It seems very much a strategy to try to decapitate right at the start Iran's capability to come up with a concerted military response. I mean we saw last year in October when Israel launched its second attack on Iran but it went after the missiles that it has to try and weaken its ability to hit back. What

we've seen today so far, this may just be an opening salvo, but we maybe about four hours ago now, we're expecting the drones that had been launched over a hundred from Iran to begin arriving in Israeli airspace. And there was an alert for people to stay in their shelters. That was lifted at that moment as it became clear that they'd been intercepted. But I think the sense that we're getting from Israel is that this is an opening. This is not the end in itself. No idea how long it could go on.

It could be days. It could even be up to a couple of weeks. What sort of reaction is Israel expecting in other countries for its citizens? Because I've seen that several embassies and consulates have been closed today. Well, I think the concern will be that Iran in its response and through its proxies perhaps will try to launch attacks on Israeli targets outside Israel. But that may be part of a way that it feels that it can respond most effectively. I mean, as I was saying, Iran's ability to actually cause serious damage to Israel through firing missiles and drones, that I think is very much in question.

And we had before as well, last year, when Iran was mulling its response, there was a lot of speculation over its proxies in the region, Hezbollah in particular, the Houthis in Yemen, pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, etc. All of those, there's no doubt about this, have taken a relatively big hit since then, are certainly weaker, particularly Hezbollah are weaker and pose perhaps a much smaller threat compared to what had been expected in the past. That clearly is part of the calculation that the Israeli government, the Israeli military officials have taken in launching on what is definitely a gamble and a dangerous one. But they may feel that the dangers are much more limited than they might once have been. That was Sebastian Ascher.

Among the international reaction, China has called on the parties concerned to avoid further escalation of the tense situation and resume dialogue. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, expressed concern and condemned what he called a sharp escalation. The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer,

said the UK government was urging all parties to step back and reduce tensions and the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte called for calm. It is obviously a rapidly evolving situation and there is a unilateral action by Israel so I think it is crucial for many allies including the United States to work as we speak to de-escalate. I know they are doing that and I think that is now the first order of the day. The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has said it's closely monitoring the situation. The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, described

the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities as deeply concerning. I call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to avoid further escalation. I reiterate that any military action that jeopardises the safety and security of nuclear facilities risks grave consequences for the people of Iran, the region and beyond. Kazran Naji from BBC Persian is in Vienna where he's been following developments. We're getting more and more reports of continued attacks on some of these facilities, particularly in Natanz, which is in central Iran, and probably the biggest uranium enrichment facility in Iran. It's right in the middle of the desert,

south of Isfahan. The facilities, the enrichment plant is deep, not very deep, but it's about 10 meters probably underground. So it's not easy to hit. That's maybe, that's why there have been repeated attacks on that facility. Anyway, I'm here outside the conference hall where the IAEA Board of Governors are meeting. And we had the Director General of the IAEA speaking to the board a few hours ago giving details of what has happened there. He says we are closely monitoring the situation. We are in contact with our inspectors.

There are about 100, 130 inspectors. He says we are deeply concerned also for the lives of those inspectors. He says he can confirm that Natanz, this very site that I told you, had been hit, but there had been no contamination. Don't forget that he was speaking about two or three hours ago and since then we've had reports of more attacks on this facility. He says there has been no rise in the

radiation levels in that facility. That was three hours ago. But also interestingly he says that the Boucher power plant, which is the only nuclear power plant in Iran, has not been attacked, nor another uranium enrichment facility called Fordo, which is in south of Tehran, about 100 kilometers south of Tehran, deep underground, under a mountain. That hasn't been touched or attacked. And also a nuclear conversion facility in Isfahan, in central Iran, has not been attacked. He also told the board of governors repeatedly, has stated that there should not be any attack on nuclear facilities anywhere under any pretext, under any context. And he says this kind of attack will have serious consequences in terms of contamination

for people around the facilities in the country and in the region and also for peace and security. He said that he's prepared to travel to Iran. And we talked to his deputy here who said, we are checking that to see whether it's possible to go to Iran to assess the situation. But he said, we have to figure out whether it is safe to go and it is possible to go. Prime Minister Netanyahu, when he announced the attack, he also said that Israel had attacked Iran's nuclear weaponization site. I'm not sure what he meant. As far as the IAEA is concerned, there are no weaponization sites that the IAEA knows about, unless Israel knows something about some site

that we don't know and they don't know. But anyway, there is a mention of that. And Prime Minister Netanyahu also said that they have attacked a number of eliminated, a number of Iranian nuclear scientists, which Iranians, something that the Iranian side has confirmed, but we don't know the extent of that. That was Kazran Naji. Well the US is Israel's closest ally so how it responds will be key. The Trump administration said Washington was told about the plans for the attack in advance but that it wasn't

involved in the operation. President Trump has posted on his social media platform Truth Social saying he'd given Iran chance after chance to make a deal and warned that if they didn't do so it would result in the end of what was once known as the Iranian Empire. Our correspondent in Washington is Nourmia Iqbal. President Trump is I think trying to sort of show that the US didn't have anything to do with it in the sense green lighting it. I mean, it was interesting, Marco Rubio last night, the Secretary of State, undoubtedly distanced the US from Israel's actions. But Mr. Trump is more or less expressing

hopes to still negotiate a deal with Iran and is hoping that this attack by Israel might force them into that position. He's put up a few posts this morning. He said, now Iran, perhaps they have a second chance. I think one of the big questions today, of course, will be, what does this mean for US-Iran nuclear talks? We know the US doesn't want Iran to have a nuclear bomb. But Donald Trump did pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in his first term. We do know that his Middle East envoy, Steve Wittkopf, is still planning to do the six round of talks with Iran on Sunday. So there still seems to be hope in

the US that there will be some deal negotiated. Are we seeing some sort of shift in how supportive of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Washington is? I think so. And I think that's certainly true when it comes to Donald Trump's coalition, his supporters, make America great again, MAGA as they refer to them here. You know this is a president who was long campaigned on no wars, no intervention, don't want to get involved in other people's business. Yes Israel is the US's greatest ally but to what extent? Especially when you see the ongoing war in Gaza which has created huge divisions here in the US's greatest ally, but to what extent? Especially when you see the ongoing war in

Gaza, which has created huge divisions here in the US. And there seems to be no day after plan for that, let alone one now for Iran. And I think the question for the Trump administration will be, what is Israel's end game? I mean, they don't want Iran to develop nuclear, they've hit nuclear capabilities but they've also assassinated high-ranking Iranian military figures and so as I say there will be questions about what is exactly the day after plan by Israel and just how deeply involved will the US be in that. That was Nour Mia Iqbal in Washington. To some other stories now. Environment ministers and conservationists meeting in France have expressed confidence that a new treaty to protect the oceans could come into force by

the end of this year. Over the past week, the United Nations Oceans Conference has been discussing measures such as classifying 30% of international waters as protected areas. Our climate and science correspondent Esme Stallard reports from Nice. Ahead of this week there were questions about whether multilateralism was still the way to solve the world's biggest problems. After global talks last year on plastic and biodiversity collapsed. But people here from ministers to NGOs seem in good spirits. The number of countries ratifying the high seas treaty has risen from 27 to 50 and 10 more have promised to ratify by the end of the year, including the UK, enough to bring it into force.

Nearly 100 countries also said they wanted to have a global target to cut plastic production, a material known to cause considerable damage to the marine environment. But the issue of deep sea mining has remained divisive. Some poorer nations want guarantees of financial support if they're to give it up. A final statement by the UN chief Guterres will be made this evening. The Somali capital Mogadishu, a city once synonymous with conflict and destruction, is now experiencing an unprecedented construction boom. From towering skyscrapers to modern office blocks, Mogadishu is rising

from the ashes. The Mayor's office says that in the last five years, over 6,000 buildings have been constructed in Mogadishu and hundreds more are expected. Our reporter Fadosa Hanshi has just returned from Somalia where she met two young engineers who've been at the heart of Mogadishu's reconstruction. Standing on top of one of Mogadishu's tallest buildings, the sheer number of cranes and construction sites is astounding. construction sites is astounding. And from the streets, the bustling sounds of workmen digging and excavators clearing land have become common in this city.

In Talaeh, Southern District of the capital, two young engineers, Fatih Mohammed and Sadia Ahmed, are overseeing the construction of a towering 10-floor apartment complex. This site, once home to an old, worn-out structure, is now a hive of activity. And 24-year-old Fatih and Sadiya are at the heart of it. When I was young, the city was not like it is today. There was war, fewer buildings and the city was not developing. I became an engineer because I wanted to rebuild my country beautifully after the war since it needs it.

And I also love studying and learning engineering. Fati and Saadia have been part of over 30 multimillion dollar projects in Mogadishu since they started working five years ago. But with women making up just 5% of the engineering workforce, breaking into the industry was no easy task for them. When you meet someone who wants to develop buildings, the first question they ask is how will you entrust your money and property to a young female engineer? How can we trust ourselves to live in a house built by a female engineer? How can we trust ourselves to live in a house built by a female engineer, while others are saying, how can we trust a girl to do work that it meant to be done by men?

I applied for internships at different companies. Most of them responded that we did not give internships to women. I looked for internships for almost three months, so it got down to having the courage to stand out from the crowd and persuading them that you can do the job. They both had to push some cultural boundaries to get where they are, but as the city's skyline is changing, so is the industry. Ibrahim Abdi Haile, chairman of the Somali Engineers Association, thinks there should be more effort to promote diversity in Somalia. We are taking a big role in empowering women to join the engineering profession.

We are launching special projects that support women and we will collaborate with international donors to empower women to enhance their engineering profession. While many Somalis chose to leave the country, the two young women who were born during the civil war decided to stay, driven by a passion to rebuild. Now, thanks to investment from Somalia's diaspora, the scars of decades of wars are slowly fading. And against all odds, Fatih and Sadia are proving that women can shape not just buildings

but the future of Somalia. Bado Sahanshi reporting on rebuilding Mogadishu. Still to come... I imagined this book in a time of my own great grief to make up for something that I had very little of, which was hope. The winner of this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. A day after the horrific Air India crash in Ahmedabad, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been to the scene and to a local hospital to meet some of those injured. All but one of the 242 people on board the flight died when the London bound plane crashed into a

doctor's hostel. It's not known how many people were killed in that building or on the ground. Families and friends are at the hospital desperate for news and waiting to claim the bodies of their relatives. Our correspondent Yogita Lamoye is there and sent this report. What strikes you as soon as you enter the area where the crash happened, in fact I smelt it pretty much after I got off my plane here is this kind of burning smell in the air which is grows stronger and stronger where we are still very acrid fumes and in front of me I can see the fire brigade which is pointing a giant hose towards one of the buildings to put out the fire that is still burning blazing inside that building. In fact, to the left of me

there's a char tree but I can see parts of it right on the top still smoking. I can see sparks from there and right next to me there's also a fallen tree which is also smoking. Ever since I've walked in I've just seen hundreds of rescue workers, scores and scores of policemen everywhere, ambulances, you can hear the whistling sound. those are whistles from policemen trying to clear people out of the area. This is a massive plane that crashed a Dreamliner aircraft but you've got to be on the ground to just see the scale of devastation. Where I'm standing right now, right in front of that is where I've been told the crash actually occurred but as I walked here

all the way I just saw rows and rows of buildings that had been Charred the scale of the tragedy just truly truly Much more massive than perhaps what I had imagined Ravi Vachita and eyewitness rushed in to help emergency response teams I heard a loud explosion. Then I went to the spot and saw smoke blowing out. We went in with the emergency response team and helped to pull bodies out.

Everything was charred. It was difficult and the heat coming from it was intense. At the hospital where the injured and the dead are being brought, they've just made an announcement for arrangements for the families of the victims, an accommodation for them. In front of me I can see hundreds of people who are here, ambulances. We know that earlier in the day, India's Home Affairs Minister visited this hospital and what he's announced is that there will be DNA tests on each and every one of the bodies

that they have managed to pull out of the crash site. Many of them are charged so they can't be identified and so they will only be able to be identified through DNA tests and so that's what's happening in the morgue right now and we know that some families have gone in and we're just seeing crowds and crowds of people here gathering outside the hospital. Most of them have come to help in any way possible. People are handing out bottles of water, bottles of sugary drinks and lots of policemen as well. I came here to request to the people and police.

At the hospital we met a man who didn't want to be named, whose aunt was on the flight. She checked in at 12 o'clock inside the airport. Till 12 o'clock we were together. We had lunch inside the airport together. Then she went and after the flying of five minutes, just I heard that it just happened. So I came. I don't know where to go, so I asked someone.

That guy helped me, and she dropped me at this civil hospital. Only three years ago, Air India became a private airline from being India's national carrier, bought by an Indian business giant the Tata Group. At a time when it was trying to revamp its image to that of a modern sleek airline it had changed its logo it had changed the outfit that its crew wears it had changed the interiors of the aircraft that it was flying. At a time when it was trying to do that, this is a crushing blow for the airline and its leadership.

This is a difficult day for all of us at Air India. We've heard from Air India's chief executive Campbell Wilson. We are actively working with the authorities on all emergency response efforts. Investigations will take time, but anything we can do now, we are doing. The last deadly incident of this scale in India was also of an Air India plane, which crashed in the southern city of Khorikode

five years ago, back when the airline was still the national carrier. There will be many difficult questions for it in the days to come. Yogita Lemurye in Ahmedabad. Human rights groups have said that the Nigerian president's decision to pardon nine Niger Delta activists who were executed for murder in the 1990s doesn't go far enough. The Ogoni Nine, led by the author Ken Sarawiwa, organised peaceful protests

to highlight pollution by Shell. The oil giant has always denied wrongdoing. Our Africa regional editor Will Ross reports. The widow of one of the hanged activists welcomed President Tinubu's decision to issue a pardon. But Esther Barinem-Kiobel says that still implies they were not innocent and so she wants the Agoni Nine exonerated. She says they were hanged in 1995 because of the greed of a select few. The activists campaigned to highlight oil pollution was viewed by the military government as a threat. Their trial for murder was internationally condemned as a sham and today rights groups including Amnesty International are still calling for oil companies to be held account for the environmental damage in the Niger Delta.

Will Ross North Korea claims to have successfully relaunched a warship less than a month after it capsized during its initial launch. Kim Jong-un reacted furiously to the failed launch last month and demanded it be quickly repaired. A report in North Korean state media says that the ship has now been fully restored. Our sole correspondent Jean McKenzie has the details. According to this morning's report Kim Jong-un and his daughter both attended the launch ceremony at the

shipyard where the boat had been taken for repairs just days earlier. But given how quickly the ship has been relaunched, experts are questioning whether the repairs are really complete. The warship is one of two brand new 5,000 ton naval destroyers North Korea has built over the past year and launched since April. They're now the biggest ships it has in its fleet and are capable, in theory, of launching nuclear weapons.

Kim Jong-un has made it a priority to develop a nuclear-armed navy and says he plans to build two more of these destroyers in the coming year. Jean Mackenzie, the debut novel of the Dutch author Jaël van der Waalden, The Safe Keep, has won the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction. The award honors outstanding, ambitious,

and original fiction written in English by women from anywhere in the world, is our culture reporter, Guy Lambert. Previous winners of the Women's Prize for Fiction include Maggie O'Farrell, Naomi Oldman and Barbara Kingselver. At this year's awards ceremony, that accolade went to Dutch author Yael van der Vouden for her debut novel The Safekeep, a gothic Netherlands-based drama set in the years following the Second World War. The first Dutch winner of the award, she described her book as part psychological thriller, part erotica. Back in 2021 when I wrote this book, I imagined this book in a time of my own great grief

to make up for something that I had very little of, which was hope. I wanted to write two hopeless characters and I wanted to give them what I hadn't been able to give myself, that hope. The novel has received critical acclaim since its publication in 2024, being shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and it's currently nominated for further prestigious literary accolades this year, including the Walter Scott Prize and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. The Chair of Judges, Kit Devaal, called the novel an astonishing debut that would undoubtedly stand the test of time. The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction was presented to Dr Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart, which tracks the process of a heart transplant through

two children's stories. Guy Lambert. And that's it from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this edition or the topics covered in it, do please send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service just use the hashtag global news pod. This edition was produced by Harry Bly and Stephen Jensen. It was mixed by Darcy O'Brie. Our editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye.