US military launches wave of attacks against Iran

**Oliver Conway** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 Hours GMT on Wednesday the 15th of July. The US says it's launched another wave of strikes against Iran as they battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz. Australia announces wide ranging plans to regulate AI, including restrictions on data centers. And Bolivia investigates the alleged recruitment of Bolivian men to fight for Russia.
Also in the podcast.

**Cassandra Hatton** (0:31)
By some kind of miracle, the diameter of that plastic tip fit perfectly in that hole and arm the engine and save their lives.

**Oliver Conway** (0:40)
The pen that helped rescue the Apollo moon mission.
Are the US and Iran getting closer to a resumption of all-out war in their battle for control of the Strait of Hormuz? The American military says it's launched another wave of daytime strikes today after a fourth night of attacks. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted American military sites in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. Media tallies suggest 35 people have been killed in Iran in the past week. The US says Iran has attacked seven ships, leaving nearly a dozen crew dead, injured or missing. At the same time, the two nations are stepping up their rhetoric. President Trump renewed his threats to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants, while Iran says it could cut off other transit routes beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
So what happens now? Hossam Zaki is a veteran Arab diplomat.

**Hossam Zaki** (1:36)
We often condemn the Iranians, rightly so, but we also need to understand where the US is going with all of this. It is understood that the US does not want to have the Iranians dictate any terms, not related to the Strait of Hormuz, but also not related to the region in general.

**Oliver Conway** (1:57)
But Kirsten Fontenrose, a Gulf expert in the first Trump administration, says the memorandum of understanding between the two countries is not yet dead.

**Kirsten Fontenrose** (2:07)
You've seen rhetoric about this is over, or the Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran said yesterday that we hold ourselves to no commitments on the MOU. But they have not formally exited and neither has the US. And you also see the mediating countries really active. They've been meeting in Mosquit, they've been talking to both sides, so the mediation is still alive.

**Oliver Conway** (2:27)
I spoke to our Chief International Correspondent, Lise Doucet, and asked her first what Iran is referring to when it says it could cut off other export corridors.

**Lise Doucet** (2:36)
It would mean the other choke point close by in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mendeb, and the world has seen that before when one of Iran's allies in the region, the Houthis of Yemen, also disrupted commercial traffic through that vital waterway that went on for many, many months. And that threat has been hanging over this war where the focus is the other choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, for many months. But the Houthis have been reluctant to get drawn into this war. They suffered significant military damage during the last one. And in some ways, Iran seemed to want to keep them for the moment when they would have to escalate. And I should emphasize that Iran's relationship with the Houthis is not the same as it is with with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the relationship between Iran, in particular, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Hezbollah goes right back to its creation in 1982 The ties between the Houthis and Iran are very close. Iran has provided them with absolutely critical training and equipment. But the Houthis also have their own agency.

**Oliver Conway** (3:50)
President Trump has also threatened to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants before, in comments that were widely condemned at the time. Might he do it this time?

**Lise Doucet** (4:00)
He has used this phrase many times to destroy every last bridge, every last power plant. This of course is a potential war crime. A similar kind of phrasing has been used by Israel before. Both of them have talked about bombing Iran back to the stone ages. Israel, particular Prime Minister Netanyahu, would like to have another military goal. And there is an argument in some circles that you have to go in and you have to really, really make Iran suffer.
But the question is whether even that would make Iran capitulate. And it's whether or not President Trump has the stomach to engage in that kind of a war. He is months away from the absolutely crucial November midterm elections. He knows the war is not popular even among his supporters. He knows that oil prices go up every time there is this kinetic activity in the Strait of Hormuz. It's just that he doesn't have any good options.