live from london, this is bbc news. israel attacks iran with waves of military strikes, saying it is targeting tehran's nuclear programme. just imagine. imagine 10,000 tonnes of tnt landing on a country the size of new jersey. this is an intolerable threat. it too must be stopped. iranian media say residential areas have been hit in the capital tehran. the us said it was not involved with the strikes. israel says iran launched about 100 drones, and the israeli army has been working to intercept them. this is the scene live from tel aviv.

hello, i'm a lewis vaughan jones, welcome to the programme. israel's military says iran has fired about 100 drones towards its territory, after israel launched a major attack on iran overnight. here are some of the pictures we have. here you can see the israel air force jets taking off before the attack. israel says it's targeting the country's nuclear programme. this is the moment a blast hit the capital tehran - iranian media say residential areas have been hit there and across other cities. iranian state media say the head of the armed forces,

mohammad bagheri, and the top commander of the islamic revolutionary guard, hossein salami, were killed in the israeli strikes. two senior nuclear scientists were also killed - fereydoon abbasi, the former head of iran's atomic energy organisation, and mohammad mehdi tehranchi, the president of the islamic azad university in tehran. it follows days of speculation that israel was planning to launch military action, despite us efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with tehran. israeli prime minister benyamin netanyahu says the operation could last several days. we targeted iran's main enrichment facility in natanz. we targeted iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the iranian bomb. we also struck at the heart of iran's ballistic missile programme. last year, iran fired 300 ballistic missiles at israel. each of these missiles carries a tonne of explosives and threatens the lives of hundreds of people. soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not

of hundreds, but of millions. iran is gearing up to produce 10,000 of those ballistic missiles within three years. now, just imagine. imagine 10,000 tonnes of tnt landing on a country the size of new jersey. this is an intolerable threat. it, too, must be stopped. let's get some sense of the geography of what's been happening. in the early hours of the morning israel announced it had launched a major military operation against iran's nuclear programme and senior military commanders. the israeli military targeted dozens of sites in the country. iranian state media says parts of tehran have been hit - and the un's nuclear watchdog, the iaea, confirmed iran's main nuclear enrichment site at natanz was also hit by israeli strikes. tehran now appears to have responded. israel says iran has launched around 100 drones at its territory. warning sirens have been

heard in major cities like tel aviv and jerusalem. let's speak to shashank joshi, who is defence editor at the economist. thanks for coming on the programme. we will get into some of the details very quickly, but firstly your headline thoughts about what has happened overnight? first of all, this is perhaps something of a surprise because it pre-empts us iran nuclear talks due for this weekend, so clearly israel preferring the element of surprise rather than waiting those talks to conclude. secondly, the americans very clearly stating they were not involved and trying to stay out of this, although they may well be dragged into the aerial defence of israel from any retaliation. and the third point, this is critical, this is very early days. we are probably only seeing the first waves of what will be a multi-day israeli campaign. i note with interest israel has not yet attacked iran's most deeply buried

nuclear site, but i would be surprised if that remains the case in the coming hours and days. you mentioned the timing took many by surprise. what about the reasoning behind striking like this now? the israeli public claim is that iran was accelerating work towards a nuclear bomb. in my opinion, whilst iran has conducted some weapons -related activity since 2003 when it shut down its former weapons programme, i don't believe that is the real trigger for this attack. i believe the real trigger is israel sees an historic opportunity to act politically in a period where us iran talks were looking relatively unsuccessful, in which iran was looking exceptionally weak, in which its principal ally in the region, hezbollah in lebanon, had been decimated by israel last year and in which iran's

nuclear programme, particularly its stockpile of enriched uranium, was expanding dramatically. all of those factors together i think made israel to cite this was the time to take the great risk of attacking those nuclear sites, but also clearly much more widely than just nuclear sites, iran's military leadership. just give us an assessment of the words overnight from benjamin netanyahu describing of course the repeated line we know about the country facing an existential threat from iran. what about your assessment of the state of the nuclear programme in iran right now? iran has had a nuclear weapons programme since the 1980s, and in the 1990s it authorised a decision to build another -- a number of nuclear bombs and to test them, but in 2003 american intelligence judges that they halted that

programme, possibly because america was of course at that time invading countries on both sides of iran, iraq and afghanistan. that programme was halted and as recently as march the director of national intelligence in america said american intelligence judged it was still halted, it had not made a decision to build a bomb. but that does not mean iran was not dabbling in elements needed for a nuclear bomb, if we can introduce that nuance. it was for example looking at things like computer modelling of how a nuclear implosion might work, it was looking at plastic explosives for use in a nuclear device. for the israelis, that was viewed to be an unacceptable progress towards a bomb. i think in general iran has not moved significantly closer to a bomb in the last few months, it has accumulated more uranium, but the key change took place in 2018 when donald trump pulled out of a nuclear deal,

the jcpoa, and at that point onwards around's enrichment capacity and stockpile of uranium has grown, and that was the real shift after 2018, i would say. shashank joshi, thank you very much for your analysis. shashank joshi, defence editor at the economist. let's speak to our middle east correspondent hugo bachega who's in jerusalem. just talk us through what we know and do not know right now about what happened overnight? we know that the israelis carried out a large-scale attack on a number of facilities in iran related to the country's nuclear programme. we are talking about military facilities, nuclear sites, air defence systems and crucially also a senior military leaders and scientists. the strategy here is very similar to the israeli strategy in lebanon against hezbollah last year, not only

to attack and destroy infrastructure but also to attack the leadership, to destroy the chain of command. we are still getting reports about the identity of those who have been killed, state media in iran has confirmed at least two senior military officers have been killed, have been assassinated as a result of these attacks. the israeli military said more than 200 planes were used in this operation, more than 300 bombs were dropped at 100 sites. we have seen a number of locations across iran at least, six cities, were hit as a result of those attacks which happened in several waves during the morning, including the capital, tehran. we are still trying to understand the scale of the damage, the destruction on the ground in iran. state media is also saying that a residential area of tehran was hit, it is reported that civilians were

killed as well but i think the details and the statements coming from the israeli authorities suggest that in their view, this has been a very successful operation to really damage and destroy the capabilities, the ability of iran... of these facilities being used by iran in its nuclear programme. i think we are also getting indications from the israeli authorities that this could be just the beginning of a prolonged offensive, so these attacks are likely to continue in the next few days and even weeks. and what about people die? you mentioned the timescale, expected to continue. -- and what about people there? what does that mean about people living in israel? at galfi state of emergency has been declared in israel and the authorities have been warning the population that they are expecting a large response from iran in terms of drones and missiles being fired. earlier

this morning the military said more than 100 drones had been fired by the iranian military, reports now in the last few minutes suggest all drones had been intercepted by the israeli army. i think the concern is this could be just the beginning of this iranian response that could involve not only drones but also missiles in an attempt to try to overwhelm the country's air defence systems. remember, this country has a very sophisticated system of protection that what the authorities are telling the population as they should expect a large response from iran following these attacks. gatherings have been banned in israel, schools are closed, the main airport has also cancelled all flights as the authorities are making preparations for this possible iranian response. hugo bachega in jerusalem, thank you very much. let's look at some live images, we just

want to talk you through the air space, effectively. this is the flightradar website yesterday, it attracts life planes in the air and this is a still image from yesterday showing you the normal flight path in the region. now let's look at today. you can see planes diverted and that big empty space effectively after israel launched those strikes overnight and the expected retaliation from iran and potentially continuing in the hours and days ahead. that gives you an idea of the air space between the two countries. let's get the reaction from the united states and speak to cbs correspondent jarred hill. the us and the donald trump administration saying they were not involved in this operation?

that's right, the trump administration overnight put out a statement saying they were not involved in this operation, saying they were not made necessarily aware of the operation, although over the past couple of days, really, especially the past day or so, we have seen president trump make a number of statements that seem to allude to some sort of inkling that this type of operation would happen pretty quickly. we know just yesterday in fact the united states told any nonessential, non-emergency personnel as well as any family members of any people who might be essential that they should maybe think about leaving spaces in iraq because there was the possibility that israel would launch some type of attack in iran pretty soon and that iran had been promising to retaliate on the united states, potentially in us bases, potentially, if that were to happen, so it seems as if there was at least some sort of inkling that this might happen.

meanwhile we have seen in statements this morning, i guess you could say overnight, that the iranians are pointing some blame at the united states for this. we will have to wait and see what type of reaction comes from the white house as more information comes out around all of this. thank you very much for that, jarrod bowen. i want to bring you a statement from the head of the iaea, the atomic energy agency. they were confirming that earlier this morning they were informed by israel of the plans. it is an organisation has been in contact with iranian nuclear safety authorities. it is saying there are no elevated radiation levels at present, according to those iranian officials. the position of the iaea is that nuclear facilities must never be attacked, they are calling for that to stand, and also saying they stand ready to provide technical assistance as

things move forward. so that statement from the iaea. here in the uk, prime minister keir starmer said... let's speak to our political correspondent, jack fenwick. he is in westminster for us. we heard the words of the prime minister, what will be happening in westminster? those words echoed very similar words from the foreign secretary, david lammy, a few moments before that. he said stability in the middle east is vital for global security, he said he is concerned to see reports that

the strikes, it is a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and called on all parties to show restraint. i understand a planned meeting he had to go to the us to meet his us counterpart marco rubio today has been cancelled. instead the foreign secretary is in london chairing meetings in the foreign office about the situation in israel and iran. it has been the case in the past that when iran has launched drones towards israel, the uk has provided military assistance in the form of raf typhoon jets to shoot down those drones. i am told that as of right now there has not been a request from israel to the uk for that sort of military assistance today. i think it is worth pointing out that the uk government's language, particularly that of foreign secretary david lammy, has hardened quite a bit towards israel in recent weeks. a few weeks ago he described it as well because my actions in gaza is appalling and utterly counter-productive. we have also seen the uk sanction two

far right israeli ministers just this week. also worth noting the uk government has been quite careful in recent weeks that when it has made a statement on israel it has done so in conjunction with other allies, countries like australia and canada, so right now in westminster, as well as conversations happening with those in the us and israel, ministers and officials will be talking to other allies too. jack, thank you. it's really media are now reporting that all of those iranian drones that were fired towards israel in response to the israeli strikes have been intercepted successfully -- first macromedia is now reporting. it is said that people no longer need to stay close to a shelter that need to stay alert. israeli media reporting all the drones fired in response have

been successfully intercepted. we will work to clarify and confirm that. the un secretary-general has condemned the military escalation in the middle east, and called on iran and israel to show "maximum restraint." antonio guterres warned that the region could not afford more conflict. let's speak to our correspondent imogen foulkes. what more did we hear? i think antonio guterres is really appealing, like other leaders are this morning, for both israel and iran to dial down this conflict. unfortunately it does not really look as if either side is quite ready to do that at the moment. for the united nations, which has warned for a long time that this part of the world is very, very unstable, is very fragile, but it doesn't need a widening conflict, we have lebanon precarious, we had syria

emerging from more than a decade of conflict. we have jordan, all of these countries let alone gaza, palestine, all very, very fragile and stable and this kind of conflict just risks tipping the whole region into something very, very dangerous. who suffers then? ordinary people. not so much the military, the political leaders, but ordinary people across the region and that is what antonio guterres' fear is, it is his agencies, the big humanitarian agencies, already struggling in gaza, in other parts of the world, sudan, for example, another conflict that would cause unimaginable suffering to hundreds of thousands, millions of people. just talk us through the diplomatic levers and tools that could or could not be pulled in situations like this?

it is one that me and my colleagues in geneva have quite often with diplomats here, not just the un humanitarian chief spurt ambassadors who will say privately that they have pleaded with israel for months to show more restraint in gaza, for example, at the same as they have called repeatedly for release of the hostages. we heard that washington, the united states, had suggested to israel we are trying to get iran back on track about its nuclear programme, still holed off. that did not happen, did it? israel seems very determined to shape the map the way it sees the map should look for its own security, and unfortunately the end result of

that, many people would say, is not security at all but more conflict, and we see in new york at the un security council constant disagreement. look at the five permanent members who have a veto, we have russia, the united states, china, france and the uk and the only two who particularly agree quite well at the moment are france and the uk, the others disagree and use their veto so it makes it very hard for a traditional body which we have a look to for 80 years to try to resolve conflict, the united nations, it is not succeeding. in fact, it is failing. imaging folks, thank you very much. we have heard from the head of nato, let's take a listen. this is obviously a rapidly evolving situation. and this was a unilateral action by israel so i think it is now 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. let's speak to our security correspondent frank gardner. we have heard views from across the world, across the region, let's start with your headline impressions of events. this is a massive gamble by israel. their argument is they had no choice, that according to israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu and the idf, the israel defense forces, that iran was accelerating its work towards building a nuclear bomb and that this was their best and only chance to try and prevent that, and the region are spiralling into a nuclear arms race. the counterargument which has run for some time and i think it's still pertinent today is that enough of the iranian regime will survive this to now definitely accelerate towards getting a

nuclear weapon. we don't yet know how much has been destroyed, because iran's nuclear facilities are buried deep underground and very secretive, they have evaded some do the inspections, allegedly, and it would take enormous bunker busting bombs, deep penetration ordinance, to get right and the inspections, allegedly, and it would take enormous bunker busting bombs, deep penetration ordinance, to get right underground to destroy all of those, ordnance that is well frankly does not have. so though they had dealt a severe blow to around's regime and its nuclear military programme, which is militarised, there is no guarantee that this will be the silver bullet that israel is hoping for. there is now a fear that not only is iran going to continue its retaliation, and who knows where that will end, will it just be against israel or will they extend it to gulf arab countries, jordan, for example, which is not a gulf country but has been shooting down iranian drones coming

towards israel. most importantly, the hawks within iran's establishment will now be saying we told you so, we were right, they were going to attack, the best deterrent to stop future attacks like this from israel is to go for the bomb. if iran gets the bomb, saudi arabia will want one, then turkey, then egypt, then so on. what is the role of the us and the relationship between israel, the us and iran? donald trump sees himself as a friend in israel but he has so far been a relatively restraining hand on iran. he has not restrained them at all on gaza, he seems to have given netanyahu a free hand to do whatever he likes in that territory, but when it comes to iran he has been saying to israel, hold off, i had sent in steve witkoff and his negotiators to muscat and rome

to try to reach a deal. we all know trump loves a deal and he has been trying to reach a grand bargain with iran whereby iran will open up itself to more inspections and curb its nuclear programme, in exchange for sanctions being lifted. those negotiations seem to have gone absolutely nowhere. israel has clearly lost patience with it and told us president trump in advance, we are going to do this. they not exactly needed a green light but they needed to make sure they were not going to be prevented by the us. the us says they did not take part in it but they did not stop it. there is a slightly equivocal role here. the main priority to the us right now is trying to deter iran and one iran not to attack us bases in the region, they put out a warning seven days ago for nonessential staff to be evacuated from us

embassies in places like baghdad and kuwait. i am sorry to interrupt you but we will be back with you and just a moment. i am lewis vaughan-jones, this is bbc news. this is our continuous coverage of those strikes overnight. israel striking nuclear facilities in iran, a response from iran, drones being sent in their direction, the latest report from israeli media that those drones have been intercepted. with me as our security correspondent frank gardner. we were just talking about the relationship between the us, iran and israel. if i could just get you to throw forward a little, what are the various options facing israel, iran, in the hours and days ahead. first of all what everybody will be hoping for is that this calms down, that this

does not plasticiser into a far bigger conflict that drags in the us. donald trump does not like wars, he likes to say we enter them, he is a business guy at heart, that is why he was pushing for a deal. we have not heard yet whether the proposed sixth round of us iranian talks due to take place in muscat on saturday are cancelled, it seems hard to imagine they would go ahead, but watson will be hoping for in washington and possibly in israel is that this operation rising like a as israel calls it will have so weakened and chastised the iranian regime that's somehow it puts its hands up and says, ok, we will do a deal and curb our nuclear programme. i think the opposite is likely to happen. the hardliners, the hawks in around's security

establishment, and they run the country, the supreme leader is ayatollah khomeini but around him he has a securitate of people linked to the iranian revolutionary guards called the guardians of iran's islamic revolution. the hawks in that establishment would say this proves once and for all we need to go for a nuclear bomb. that is the risk. i think there will be some in the israeli establishment hoping that if they continue these strikes that somehow the iranian regime will implode. they would like nothing better than to see a change of regime, an end to what israel sees as the existential threat to its existence. because let's just imagine if iran gets the nuclear weapon and it is able... a nuclear device and it is able to weapon i and mount it a ballistic missile, imagine if that was aimed at tel aviv. israel is a tiny country with a

heavy concentration of population in urban cities like tel aviv and haifa, that poses an existential threat to israel which is why they had decided to do this. but others are saying this is exaggerated and israel has been banging this drum for a long time and the best way out of this is diplomacy. annoyingly, frustratingly for everybody in the region, we had a deal, we had the 2015 nuclear deal, that the vienna deal, the so-called joint comprehensive plan of action. this was the crowning glory of president obama's foreign policy, a deal whereby iran would submit to really quite intrusive inspections by the un nuclear watchdog, the international atomic energy agency, and in return sanctions would be lifted. and then went donald trump took office for the first time in 2018, he pulled the us out of that deal.

iran didn't react for a year, but after a year they said, you know what, if you are not going to play then we are not and they started to exceed the limits, in other words breaking the terms of that deal. they started heavily enriching uranium well beyond the level you need for civil nuclear power, which is 20%. they have been enriching it to 60% and they have a lot of highly enriched uranium which it would not take much to bring it up to the level at which you need to make a bomb. it is one thing to make fissile material, to weapon another eyes it and put it in a warhead and mounted on a ballistic missile, but iran has a lot of ballistic missiles, some of which have been hit in this attack, but it has plenty more and that is the fear, that this will push iran into accelerating its drive towards acquiring a nuclear bomb.