the american say the attack happened at abase known as tower 22, right on the syrian jordanian border. it is one of many american bases across the region. there have been dozens of drone and missile attacks in recent months, but no american personnel had been killed until now. joe biden, seen here attending church this afternoon, was quick to point the finger. we know it was carried out by radical iran backed militant groups operating in syria and iraq, he said. it s not necessarily a tipping point into uncontrolled competition between the united states and iran, but is a dangerous step because, as i say, the us will have to respond more strongly than it has done to previous attacks. carefully cultivated over years, iran has a wide network of allies and proxies operating in countries across the middle east. they are all opposed to israel and the united states it s sometimes called the axis of resistance. there are pro iranian militias in lebanon, the palestinian territor
alicia kearns, welcome to hardtalk. now, you are chair of the uk parliament s foreign affairs select committee. you have to take an overview of what is happening across foreign policy. would you agree that right now the bandwidth of foreign policy thinking is very much taken up by israel, by the war in gaza? absolutely. and this is one of the challenges that democracies have. we need to make sure that we can t say, well, we only have bandwidth to focus on one conflict, because unfortunately we don t have the liberty to say we have only one to focus on. but secondly, we re not doing enough to stop conflict popping up in other places. so until we are doing that, we don t get to say, well, we can only focus on israel and gaza for the next month, or, we can only focus on ukraine. we have to find a way to do both, and that means more multilateral working, more leaning on one another, more dividing and conquering in terms of our assets and what we re focusing on. and yet such
alicia kearns, welcome to hardtalk. now, you are chair of the uk parliament s foreign affairs select committee. you have to take an overview of what is happening across foreign policy. would you agree that right now the bandwidth of foreign policy thinking is very much taken up by israel, by the war in gaza? absolutely. and this is one of the challenges that democracies have. we need to make sure that we can t say, well, we only have bandwidth to focus on one conflict, because unfortunately we don t have the liberty to say we have only one to focus on. but secondly, we re not doing enough to stop conflict popping up in other places. so until we are doing that, we don t get to say, well, we can only focus on israel and gaza for the next month, or, we can only focus on ukraine. we have to find a way to do both, and that means more multilateral working, more leaning on one another, more dividing and conquering in terms of our assets and what we re focusing on. and yet such
Could save some sort of real catastrophe here. Could save some sort of real catastrophe here. Thats what i ho ed catastrophe here. Thats what i heped for catastrophe here. Thats what i hoped for. Definitely catastrophe here. Thats what i hoped for. Definitely the catastrophe here. Thats what i hoped for. Definitely the sensej hoped for. Definitely the sense that this is a huge moment. I want to ask, with all of this in mind, you and i have spoken in mind, you and i have spoken in the past about the prospects for a longer ceasefire for a hostage deal, you are mentioning qatar. What do you think that all of this means for any prospects of either of those two options . I for any prospects of either of those two options . For any prospects of either of those two options . I think you have to compartmentalise those two options . I think you have to compartmentalise this which is what the saudis and qatari is angela aliens are doing now, lets compartmentalise this. You have this thing with h
The bab el mandab strait. grant shapps, the defence secretary, has said, the houthis, who have been firing missiles at shipping and they claim they re aiming at israeli shipping targets in the strait. the houthis should be under no misunderstanding. we in britain are committed to holding malign actors accountable for these unlawful attacks. how concerned are you about the very real risk of an escalation that takes us into a much wider mideast war? so from my perspective we are already in a regional conflict. i really struggle to see how this isn t, whether you ve got lebanon or whether you ve got what s happening in syria, what s happening on thejordanian border, let alone what s happening with the houthis in the red sea. but what we don t want is for it to get hotter, for it to escalate even more. the houthis. we need to look at iran. we need to look at iranian influence. but we also have to stop talking about certain groups like the houthis as if they are controlled completely