be the iranian response. those are two mistakes, no doubt about it with israel and he runs decades as long shadow war now playing out in the open. the rules of the game in the middle east are being rewritten. i spoke with britain s former top spy about the situation just before friday s strike. so john suarez, welcome back to our program. thank you very much, chris, here what do you think at the end of this very, very tense week, josep borrell, as all the leaders are meeting to try to figure out in europe and what s happening has said that we are on the edge of a cliff. do you agree? i think i d maybe slightly overstating it is a very tense time at the moment after the israeli strike in damascus and the very heavy iranian response, we need to bear in mind that iranian response was a failure there ll be disappointed in tehran that a tiny fraction only of their a barrage of missiles and drones
the revolutionary yards, i think israel made a strategic misjudgment. they thought they could live alongside a hamas-controlled gaza seven october demonstrated they could not, while they re living alongside a hizballah controlled lebanon they re living alongside popping iranian controlled syria, but a syria in which iran has a substantial foothold now, i don t think the israeli security chiefs, the people i used to work there mossad and shin bet and so on will be ready to tolerate this indefinitely and they ll say, if not, now, then when. but i think the politics point to a gradual step forward rather than a major escalation. and i just wonder your security interlocutors over the years, many of them have publicly said that actually israel s most existential threat is the continued lack of a political resolution that would bring security between israel and the palestinian. do you think now is you look at
palestinian leadership, which takes responsibility for those territories in the concept of a context of working towards a palestinian state, which lives alongside a secure and peaceful israel now, onto the other major or maybe unloved war, right now on ukraine. yeah, our ukrainian sky. and the sky of our neighbors deserve the same security. and i thank everyone who also perceives our need for security as a need for equal security for all, because all lives are equally valuable and he made the obvious point that of course they re not nature but noise, noise, israel, nato. so this stuff can be done. now, i don t know your view on that, but your view on the americans who, as we speak are getting ready to bring this aid bill finally to the floor of congress.
podcasts welcome back to the program. israel and iran are in a face off with no direct globally bag forums for discussion was the 20 iran cle classic arms control agreement reached under the obama administration that contained iran s nuclear program under intrusive international inspections in exchange for billions in functions relief. but since donald trump abandon the deal back in 2018, at israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu s urging iran has been enriching near weapons-grade uranium and surging ahead with its ballistic missile program from my archive this week, we revisit my conversations with all the key stakeholders at the center of what had been a landmark deal, a vital reminder of how negotiated agreements actually made that region more
not only a second in command, but also one of the founders of the hamas militant wing, died in israeli drone strike in beirut. the lebanese state media say it was a strike on a office where hamas was holding a meeting and that six people were killed in that strike. now the israeli military has been asked about this. they are not commenting one way or another. but there s only one country that is at war with hamas right now. hamas, israelis have threatened repeatedly to hunt down hamas leaders anywhere they are in the world and to kill them. saying they are living on borrowed time. but really the big question now is how big is the retaliation going to be and from what corners. is hezbollah which is a group from hamas but allied with hamas and based in lebanon where this assassination took place, are they going to retaliate? we ve seen protests in the west bank. hamas is calling for a day of rage tomorrow against israelis.