A weekly two hour dose of nature does wonders for our health and wellbeing. I am katty kay in washington, Christian Fraser is in london. The shipping lanes between the arabian peninsular and iran are some of the busiest in the world today they are also some of the most tense. Every day 180 vessels pass through the gulf of oman, most of them carrying oil. Two of those tankers are on fire today, seriously damaged in an attack. Us officials reportedly believe iran is behind the attack and say the crew abandoned one of the vessels after discovering a naval mine on the hull of their ship. These are the pictures from the aftermath of the explosions. The 23 sailors aboard the norwegian owned front altair were taken to iran 21 others on the japanese owned kokuka courageous were rescued by the us navy. A fifth of the worlds oil is transported through these straights and the price of brent crude jumped sharply today. Just a month ago iran was accused of using naval mines to blow holes in two oil tankers and two smaller ships moored off the uae port of fujairah. Were expecting the us secretary of state mike pompeo to speak shortly when he does well bring you his comments. For insight into this incident we are joined now by former us defense secretary ash carter author of the new book inside the five sided box. Thank you very much forjoining us. What do you make of what is happening at the moment . We do not know at this hour but it stands to reason that the iranians and the most likely culprits. It is our timing forthem most likely culprits. It is our timing for them because the United States president has expressed a disc inclination disinclination to start anything with a run and they are not any good position to be tangling with the United States. If there was a fight i know who would win, it would be the United States and iran presumably know that too. They are in a weak position economically and strategically. The Iranian Foreign minister has denied having anything to do with it which isa very having anything to do with it which is a very big cloud of smoke if it is a very big cloud of smoke if it is simply obscuration. We will have to see how it develops. If i were secretary now, and i presume our current secretary is doing this, i would be preparing our forces to respond to more, to learn more about what happened and to be ready to respond if we decide we need to respond. The white house seems to believe it has the upper hand in its stand off with iran because it has the economic sanctions. Is there a risk that an incident like this one, oi risk that an incident like this one, or even an accident, could lead to unintended conflict in the region . We have the upper hand in any major way. However, they have proximity to the gulf. That is the only card in their hand and if they are acting, they are trying to play that hand. In that sense, it wouldnt be surprising for them to do that but they ought to remember who has all they ought to remember who has all the cards. Secretary carty secretary ca rty the cards. Secretary carty secretary carty at say they have plenty of evidence they think will point to iran but i would have thought they supply a lot of proxies in the region for things that are manufactured in iran. Is it easy to pin it on the state or does it matter . It does not matter. I think whether it is iran or our igc or various proxies, one of the things the iranians need to be taught is that we will hold them responsible for the actions of proxies. We have had a lot of back and forth with them for a long time on that very matter, for example, in the manner of proxies planning attacks on us troops in syria. That was the case when i was in office. They need to realise they are going to be held responsible. That is not going to get them off the hook, if it was one of the proxies, we would still hold them responsible for it. Right now, we dont know for sure. It was mentioned before that the pentagon had said, we will be collecting more information. That is the big thing thatis information. That is the big thing that is going on right now. We are going through the centres, and the information we have and sensing the syste m information we have and sensing the system for everything we have collected. We will know a lot more ina few collected. We will know a lot more in a few hours. 0k, we will come back to you shortly. Three are gone, seven go through to the next round. But right now the conservative leadership contest is borisjohnsons to lose. In the first round of the voting the former foreign secretary swept up 114 votes. His nearest challenger, jeremy hunt, had a3. The three candidates bowing out today were andrea leadsom, mark harper, and esther mcvey they each failed to register the 16 votes that were needed. And that means there will be no women contesting the second round of the vote on tuesday. Breathing a sigh of relief, rory stewart who scraped home with 19 votes this morning he had just 8 supporters. Earlier, we spoke with anne mcelvoy, Senior Editor at the economist. The second round of voting is on tuesday. What bearing does todays result have on what happens next . Borisjohnson did very well indeed with mp5. You would have to add together the number two and three, the silver and bronze placed candidates and they would still be nowhere near him and thats very good for mrjohnson because a lot of people thought mps had doubts about him were more divided about him. He hasnt entirely cured that impression but he has done very well, hes become the man to beat. That can be a dangerous position to find yourself in. If you are the other candidates, you have to choose. Do you now set yourself up as the stop boris candidate which now looks quite hard, might not work and then you could come to a quick end or do you try to nuance what borisjohnson is saying, particularly that risk of no deal brexit, and say i would be on board, i hope we get the more liberal side of Boris Johnson, lets get that one back, i want to back this, but how far do you go and how much do you hold in reserve . If you go too far you could lose your vote entirely and then you have those candidates who are going much more, either on remain or very soft brexit, how do they stay in the game . It looks likely they will go out but can they get something in the next few days . Everyone is trading, really. Hes so far ahead, if he extends that lead in the second round, is there a point, given the fact we dont have many months until october, where the conservatives think we dont need to go to the country, he is the choice of the Parliamentary Party . I think if hes so far ahead after the next round, remember you only go on with rounds with mp5, its like an especially complicated 19th century parlour game, until it becomes clear this person has the right number of votes so that could be sooner rather than later but youre right, this question does arise, why are you going to the membership . We are assuming the membership would welcome Boris Johnson anyway. I think the difficulty is if you have said youre going to the grass roots, especially these days when weve seen the labour party do that with its campaign which overturned a lot of more conventional candidates, new recruits took the party to the left, you could say its odd for the conservatives to say you can have it, oops, no you cant, and because we dont have a primary system as widely as in the us it really cuts out people who have joined the party and feel they have a stake in it, so its a bit hard to avoid that one. So, anne, after this result, does it lead to the conclusion there isnt a middle left anymore in the conservative party . I dont think thats the case. I think one thing we are seeing is that this soggy centre, if you like, they have been trying to have both ways and it has very much hit candidates like jeremy hunt and sajid javid who wanted to say we will deliver brexit but we dont want no deal or it depends what day you talk to us, they have suffered and you can see theyre not where they would expect to be, they are not medalling as we used to say about the Olympic Games and those who were a bit clearer, admittedly borisjohnson has the big numbers but if you add together, rory stewart has fought a soft brexit campaign, he has been around the country, hes had the most energy, the most fun, most engagement around his campaign, his numbers are not big but hes definitely a force to be reckoned with. You add him with another young moderniser like matt hancock, the health secretary, and they are not going to sweep the board, this is not their election but they are still there and i think they are making the right noises and crucially, if borisjohnson wants to do what he says and unify the country, let alone his own vociferous party, he will have to treat with them and give them big roles and perhaps make a betterjob of this compromise position than theresa may was able to make from her position of weakness. I like that phrase soggy centre when it applies to politics in rainy britain. Three years ago, during the 2016 president ial election, donald trump issue a Public Appeal russia to release the files they had hacked from democratic computers. A lot has happened since then. But it doesnt appear the president is any less concerned about foreign inteference in us elections. He told abc news yesterday he would accept any information on opponents, if it helped him win a campaign and he wouldnt necessarily report that contact to the fbi. In this time we are out of foreigners. If russia, china, if someone else offers you information, should they accept it or should they call the fbi . I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. Theres nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, norway, we have information on your opponent. Oh, i think id want to hear it. You want that kind of interference in our elections . Its not an interference. They have information, i think id take it. In sworn testimony to congress the head of the fbi said all us political candidates should report any approach from foreign states or agents. Democrats were quick to condemn the president today saying he was inviting foreign interference in a us election. And this time there were some republicans weighing in too. Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted first, i believe that it should be practice for all Public Officials who are contacted by a Foreign Government with an offer of assistance to theircampaign either directly or indirectly to inform the fbi and reject the offer. Our north america editorjon sopel is here. There is so much concern in the United States and here in europe about misinformation and the involvement of foreign states in elections, and here you have the commander and chief singing in the oval office inviting any country to come to him with information. Yes, and this comes at a time when his presidency has been defined by, some would say, overwhelmed by the issue of interference in the 2016 election and seemingly, giving it an advertisement, saying if you are from a Foreign Intelligence Agency and want to dig up dirt on my colleagues, i would and want to dig up dirt on my colleagues, iwould be and want to dig up dirt on my colleagues, i would be glad to look at it and decide what i want to do with it afterwards. As to the question, you raised the issue of what the fbi director said, that the first thing to do is to report it and donald trump said he was wrong. Iimagine he and donald trump said he was wrong. I imagine he is feeling a little bit uncomfortable today. Once again, he was contradicted by the president. The president has tweeted about this saying he had spoken to Foreign Governments are the time and should he report that to the fbi too . He has talked about having spoken to the queen of england, i am sure she is from the United Kingdom and the prince of wales with an h. I dont know whether that was done on for voice porpoise or not. This was an issue that caused deep concern and you think the president would say the last thing i want, if there was any more questions on collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, donald trump got a clean bill of health, maybe not on the obstruction ofjustice but the report given the benefit of doubt. You think you would want to move on and yet once again he finds himself embroiled and assailed from people who are normally loyal. It is not just been democrats who are saying the president does not know right from wrong, there has been significant trump supporting republican voices who are saying the same. Thank you forjoining us. I am thinking the queen was not passing on Campaign Information to donald trump but anyway. And still with us is former us defense secretary ash carter. If you are still running the pentagon, would you advise the president to go to the fbi if a Foreign Agent from any sort from any country came to him . I absolutely would. You have a responsibility to report any contacts like that to the fbi and to tell a foreign party, i am not the appropriate repository for this kind of information, this is not the appropriate contact. That is not the appropriate contact. That is what i would have said but it is totally unlikely anyone would call a secretary of defence with political information because they know we are not in the political flow but i am with Lindsey Graham on this. Is this damaging to Us National Security in your opinion . Well, as your reporter said. Im just your opinion . Well, as your reporter said. Imjust going your opinion . Well, as your reporter said. Im just going to interrupt you as mike pompeo has just started speaking. Iran is responsible for the attacks on the gulf of oman today. This is based on intelligence, recent attacks on shipping and the fact that no proxy Group Operating in the area has the resources or efficiency to act with such a high degree. This is only the latest in a series of attacks instigated by the Islamic Republic of iran. Against the allied interests. On april22 of iran. Against the allied interests. On april 22 iran promise the world they would interrupt the flow of oil through the strait of hormuz. It is now working to execute on that promise. In early may the revolution eight guard corps attempted. On may 12 iran attacked ships strait of hormuz. To strategically Important Oil pipelines were attacked in saudi arabia. On the 19th a rocket landed near the us embassy in may 21 a car bomb killed civilians and wounded bystanders. Yesterday, iran insurgents fired a missile into saudi arabia, injuring 26 people. Taken asa saudi arabia, injuring 26 people. Taken as a whole, these unprovoked attacks present a clear threat to International Peace and security, a blind assault on the freedom of navigation and an unacceptable campaign of escalating tension by iran. The Prime Minister made a historic trip to iran to ask the regime to de escalate and enter into talks. They rejected his diplomacy by saying he has no response to President Trump and will not answer. The supreme leaders government then insulted japan by attacking a Japanese Oil Tanker outside iranian waters, threatening the lives of the entire crew and creating a maritime emergency. Irans foreign minister ritter responded to these attacks. He said sardonically, suspicious does not begin to describe what likely transpired this morning. He may think this is funny but no one else in the world does. Iran is lashing out because the regime wants out lashing out because the regime wants our successful maximum Pressure Campaign lifted. No economic sanctions, the Islamic Republic attacked innocent civilians and engaged in nuclear blackmail. The International Community condemns their assault on the freedom of navigation and the targeting of innocent civilians. Today i have instructed our un ambassador to raise the attacks at a security meeting this afternoon. Our policy remains an economic and diplomatic effort to bring them back to the negotiating table at the right time to address the threats. Threats today, part four of the world to see, for peace and security. Iran should meet diplomacy with diplomacy, not with terror, bloodshed and extortion. The United States will defend its forces, interests and stand with our partners and allies to safeguard global progress and regional stability. Thank you. Us secretary of state, mike pompeo not taking any questions but saying the us does believe that iran was behind these attacks and released a string of aggressive behaviour. He said the foreign minister had made a joke about this this morning saying it was suspicious but that no one else was suspicious but that no one else was taking this as a laughing matter and the americans have asked their un ambassadors to raise this at a meeting of the Security Council this afternoon. He went on to say iran should meet diplomacy with diplomacy and the us will defend its interests and the us will defend its interests and stand but its allies. We still have ash carter in the studio. What does the us do now, based on what mike hasjust does the us do now, based on what mike has just said . He said they have reached the conclusions and cited the sources that it was the iranians so let us assume that is done. He said as far assume that is done. He said as far as the us reaction was concerned that we would continue the political and economic, and interestingly left out military, i assume that was intentional, i, myself do not think it would be safe for the iranians to rule out military. If we were to ta ke rule out military. If we were to take one of the actions he mentioned, which was against a us vessel, im quite certain that would very quickly result in a us military response but he seemed to be keeping his counter dry response but he seemed to be keeping his counterdry in response but he seemed to be keepi