Ambassador says Iran unbowed by Israeli and American attacks

Hello and welcome to news outlets coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios

in central London, I'm Tim Franks.

We're beginning with a war in Iran, a conflict which continues to extend well beyond Iran

and whereas so often with wars, it's a question of trying to work out whether we can trust

what we're being told and a question of trying to know where to look.

There are so many places, so many aspects to this war.

In about 10 minutes we'll hear from our correspondent in Lebanon about the widening and intensification

of Israeli strikes in its effort to smash once and for all the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.

We'll be trying to work out whether it's even possible to ensure ships that want to dare

to traverse the vital strait of Hormuz, and we'll be trying to gauge public opinion

in the United States.

First though, we're going to bring you the latest from inside Iran and from the very apex

of power there, because the new supreme leader, Moshe de Bahamenei, who's been imposed

for four days after an airstrike killed his father, has had a statement issued in his name.

He wasn't seen, he wasn't heard, and that's germane because of all the reports that

he was injured right at the start of the war, so no visuals or audio, but rather his

statement was read out on Iranian State TV by a female presenter.

Dear brothers of the armed forces, the demand of the people is to continue this effective

defense that is making the enemy regret its actions.

The leader of blocking the strait of Hormuz should definitely be used, regarding opening

new fronts in which the enemy has little experience and is vulnerable.

We have carried out assessments and we'll be putting them into action in case of the

continuation of the war, and they will be carried out taking into account our interests.

An excerpt from that statement on State TV in Iran, what else was in that message?

Is with the BBC's Persian service?

Well, it's a very good thing to him that you qualified it by saying it was attributed to him

because there wasn't a voice, because there wasn't any visuals, and it was just a text

that was read out by a female presenter, that seemed odd as well, on top of the fact

that the picture that was shown on State TV when they read the message was not a new picture.

What was said in that message, which were not even sure 100% whether it was from him

or not, what gives us some weight credence to the possibility that it might be him is that

a part of it was very personal.

He talked about the loss of his own mother, that loss of his daughter, of his wife, and

so on, and he also said that he had actually seen the corpse.

He had seen the body of his killed father, the late supreme leader.

So that's, you know, Len's weight to the fact that, okay, under what conditions that

he's seen, that he's seen before or after, that was just a personal part of it.

And then also in terms of the policy, he talked about revenge.

He talked about using the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a leverage.

And he said that we demand compensation.

If we don't get the compensation that's owed to us, we will inflict proportionate damage

on the enemy.

In terms of, you know, what is being said inside Iran about the state of his health, I

mean, the do seem to be all sorts of reports and rumors going around.

What are you picking up?

Well we did hear from our own sources that he was injured in that first wave of attack

that kills his father and the rest of his family.

We weren't sure whether that's true or not.

And then we read an interview, not an interview, but a telegram post from the son of the

president.

Well, someone very close to the higher echelons of power, which confirmed that he was injured.

And there were also some references to him in other internal literature by the regime,

which, you know, described him as a person who, you know, was injured during the war.

They had a specific term for that.

So we think he was injured.

We can say with a high level of confidence.

But the problem now is the question, rather, how injured was he, how well is he, is he

not showing himself because he is so injured that he doesn't want to be seen in that

way?

Is his mental faculties all functioning properly?

What are the nature of his injuries?

How is he being treated?

All those kinds of questions?

And when would it be?

Or whether all of this is speculation, his okay, he's doing fine?

And the reason he's not showing himself is because he doesn't want to be, give any clues

to the Israeli's very powerful and pervasive intelligence services to target, find him

and target him.

Sue Vashadlan from the BBC's Persian service.

As we've been hearing, there's plenty of debate over what shape Iran's new supreme

leader is in.

What's the official line?

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations and Geneva is Ali Bahraini.

He's been speaking to my colleague, Evan Davis.

The election of Sad Mustafa Hamani as the leader is the indication of both stability

and continuity in our country.

The fact that our country has been able to elect a new leader in this time of war and

the time that our country is under attacks, signals the stability in our country and the

fact that the political system is working very efficiently.

Everybody now in the country is happy with what has been done, particularly with not letting

the position of leadership to be empty for a long time and everybody is very confident

in the ability and wisdom of the new leaders.

Do you know whether he is in a fit state to take up his role though at the moment?

Is he physically injured?

Is he up and about?

Do you have any information on his condition?

Of course, he's safe and he's quite capable of leading the country.

I recommend you to read his message today so you will find out how much conscience he

is and how much wisdom you can see in his insights and message.

But it's a written message, so it was read by somebody else.

So it wasn't really clear whether he had written that or someone had helped him write

his or written it in form.

You can't confirm that he is conscious, but you don't know he is safe and he is leading

the country now.

OK.

And you say the whole country is glad about the continuity and the speed of the decision

to get the leadership situation clear.

We hear from many people, some leaving Iran, people in Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran, Iran,

many have been hoping that this would be a moment when the Iranian regime would fall.

I wonder if people wanted to resist the regime, come on to the streets and say we don't

want this, this new supreme leader, we don't like him.

Would that be allowed at this point?

Of course, there is divergence of views in our country like any other country, but the

election of new leader has been conducted through a democratic process.

It has been made by the assembly of experts who are the representatives of the people and

the reaction in our country, the feedback has been quite positive.

If you look at the presence of Iranian people in the streets nowadays, you can see that

they have supported the decision.

A lot of the major miscalculations which was made by Donald Trump and his ally Ben Yamin

Taniyahu was that, OK, they will attack Iran and then there would be a kind of collapse

in the Iranian political system and the things will change in the way they wish.

But the reaction shown by our people was quite opposite.

Ali Bahraini, Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, speaking to Evan Davis, more

from that interview a little bit later in the program, Israel is tonight dramatically

expanding its military operations across Lebanon.

The military has targeted more sites in Beirut, it says they are associated with Hezbollah

and has issued a new and unprecedented evacuation warning telling all residents south of the

Zakhrani river to leave their homes immediately in order which covers hundreds of thousands

of people.

This week our correspondent, we're a Davis, has spent time with civil defence units in

the town of Nabatea, which is come under constant as ready attack and which is now part

of this new evacuation zone.

We're just about to leave at the end of the day and the two more massive explosions.

We've won a strike, hit the village here, that's on the edge of Nabatea and we are right

next to the hospital, another one in that direction over to my south.

Now there were some general evacuation warnings issued by the IDF before these airstrikes

but nothing too specific.

We are of course in an area north of the southern evacuation zone in Pauz, Israel, but such

is the intensity and the power of these Israeli airstrikes that many of these areas now are

depopulated because the risk of staying here is just too great.

When I now vehicle following an ambulance through the town of Nabatea to the scene of another

airstrikes, there have been four in the last 20 minutes, some of them very loud.

We're now with a squad from the civil defence league, they've gone into this building to

try and rescue disabled woman.

She's on the third or fourth story of this building right next to a building that's taken

a big hit and has been completely destroyed.

Her windows have been blown in, masonry has been blown in to her building.

There's no way she could have stayed here but it was a monumental effort to get it down the stairs

into an ambulance and to relative safety.

We've arrived now at the hospital with Intisar, the old woman who was evacuated from the house

because she couldn't get herself out.

Thankfully she's now getting treatment at the hospital.

I was very scared when the strike happened.

I've been living in fear and panic and my heart keeps pounding.

Your house has been badly damaged by the bombing this glass, there's stones everywhere.

Do you think you'll go back?

Where are you going?

The glass on my window shattered from the explosion.

I've lived in my home for 25 years, where am I supposed to go?

If the situation calms down, I'll go back to my home.

It's really really busy here because of all the bombing the Israelis are doing in their own

neighbourhood.

Down the hall there's a young family, a mother, a two very young children, a teenage nephew I think.

They're uninjured, but they had to stay in the neighbourhood because they simply couldn't afford to leave.

We didn't leave because we saw on the TV how people are stranded on the roads and sidewalks.

I didn't want that for my two kids, so I decided to stay and trust in God's will.

We were sitting on mattresses on the floor having lunch and watching television,

when suddenly half the house collapsed.

The glass on the windows shattered so we couldn't see a thing.

I grabbed my kids and went to hide in a small room until the responders showed up and took us out.

Well, it would be absolutely pure out to say that life goes on in despite this.

In fact, Navati is like a ghost town, but at some point the Israeli attacks will stop and people will return.

For now, some things are happening in the background you may be able to hear the call to prayer.

Above it is the omnipresent sound of the Israeli drugs.

We were doves with that report from us for us from Navati in Lebanon.

You're listening to News Air.

And coming up in the program, the new jazz album commemorating 100 years of one of the greatest names of jazz.

What we've seen from him throughout his life was change.

So I think he probably heard all of his great music being made and said,

you know what, this is great, but what else is there?

The simplicity and the brilliance of Miles Davis will hear much more in 30 minutes.

Our main headlines this hour are to find the statement attributed to Iran's new Supreme Leader has given no clue to his health.

But in it, the Supreme Leader was set to have vowed to keep blocking the crucial oil route, the Strait of Hormuz.

And Israel has ordered people in a new swath of southern Lebanon to leave immediately as it prepares to step up its fight against the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah.

This is News Air from the BBC with me Tim Franks.

Clearly for those of us who don't live in the Middle Eastern who aren't potentially in the line of fire,

the biggest concern out of this war is economic.

The ripples from the Iranian blockade are the Strait of Hormuz.

The choke point is driving up prices and fears of shortages around the world and in all sorts of ways

this tremendous pressure for transit to be resumed despite the Iranian attacks and the threats.

Danny McGahn is head of international relations at the Seafarers Union Nautilus International.

He says members stuck on ships in the region are consumed with anxiety.

Seafarers are in fear. Of course, those particularly that are in the area will have very real fears of being attacked.

These are not faceless seafarers in a distant part of the world.

There are people's mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, and all have families who will naturally fear for them as well.

But there will also be those who will fear for their job security.

And they might feel pressured to stay on board in this area or even to take unacceptable risks such as transiting this area

under pressure from ship owners, operators or others in the industry.

Beyond the fear of shipwork is what about the financial risk to all this?

A senior official at Lloyds of London, the world's leading specialist insurance market,

has told the financial times newspaper that its insurers will still provide cover to anyone who asks for it in the Gulf region.

In which case, I asked the FT's insurance correspondent Lee Harris, what's the problem?

Well, the problem is that yes, they're offering insurance, but at prices that are many multiples of what they once were.

So yes, insurers are offering to cover big oil tankers and other ships that want to sail through the straight of hormones right now.

For millions of dollars for a single trip, those are the prices that they have been quoted.

That's as much as 12 times as much as what they would have been paying a few weeks ago.

So it's a lot more expensive, but given that everybody around the world seems to want to get their hands on this cargo

that is currently being blocked in the straight of hormones, can shipping companies simply not sort of assume the big extra cost of the insurance and then just pass it on?

Well, the point I would make is just that the elevated costs here are an issue, but they may not even be the primary issue.

And what we hear from ship owners and investors as well as insurers is that the reason ships aren't sailing is that Iran has threatened repeatedly and plausibly to strike any ship that sails through the straight.

So as you point out, I mean, it's not just about insurance costs.

It is about willingness for the ships to sail through what is obviously an extremely perilous stretch of water.

Indeed, we have just heard from a senior official at the seafarers union saying, you know, ship workers should not be put in the line of fire in this way.

But is there something do you think that can be done some sort of financial facility that can be put in place or some reassurance which would somehow unblock this system?

So the US government has proposed an up to $20 billion insurance scheme that it says could help restart trade and bring down insurance prices.

Now, it says that it would do this in coordination with the US Navy, which could potentially escort tankers through that really perilous straight.

But there are a lot of unanswered questions about this facility and whether it will really materialize.

I mean, insurers learned about this possible plan through Donald Trump post on social media and Trump's social media have not always turned out to be the most effective predictor of the White House's future actions.

I mean, do you think that this is the sort of, however, this episode resolves itself, this is the sort of thing that is going to remake political risk insurance.

Is it too early to say that it will be transformed as a result of what we've seen the last couple of weeks?

Not at all, I think you're exactly right.

I mean, of course, it's not just ships that buy insurance and need protection against risk in that region.

There are huge amounts of infrastructure being built out in the Gulf at the moment, partly because it's an area that's viewed as a place with plentiful land and cheap power.

Amazon and Microsoft and the big tech companies are building data centers at the moment in the Gulf to serve the huge energy needs of AI.

But a number of those data centers we understand have been rushing to buy insurance against political violence or the threat that they may be targeted by Iranian strikes and indeed at least two Amazon facilities have been targeted.

And so there are a number of international investors who are more fully appreciating the enormous geopolitical risks of operating in this region.

Lee Harris, insurance correspondent with the Financial Times.

Now, one of the world's top chefs, the head chef and co-founder of Nome is one of the most famous restaurants in the world, has resigned after allegations from former staff that he physically and verbally abused them.

Renee Red Zeppie made this tearful statement to his staff on social media.

I'm sorry everyone is in this situation.

I really, really am. I don't think this represents our team.

In order to make sure that you guys are 100% feeling safe, I'm going to step away.

News has changed when Endez has been speaking to the renowned Danish chef and food writer Trina Hanuman.

She's been in the restaurant business for more than 30 years.

What does she make of Renee Red Zeppie's decision to step down?

I mean, I think it's hard to me to have like an opinion about one restaurant.

This is a thing that goes for the whole industry, but I think they have worked to do at Nome as a collective.

And Renee, of course, have to figure out how he wants to be in the world.

I mean, it is a slightly odd one, isn't it?

I mean, I was reading a piece that he wrote, I mean, more than 10 years ago, where he basically owned up to this sort of behavior.

So one wonders why, you know, it's taken until now for him to step aside.

I mean, I don't know because I'm not working at Nome. I never worked at Nome. I had my own career.

So I mean, you could say that it was becoming too difficult for them right now.

I think to have him, he is a problem right now for them.

So if they want to continue, they probably had to do something that radical.

But, you know, we are not in the room with them.

So we don't know if the discussion has been behind it.

But for me, it's much more a sign of very, very big structural problems that we have in the hospitality industry

that we should all have a really serious conversation about.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting.

Because I mean, in the piece, he talks about how he trained in a sort of abusive kitchens and that fed through into his own behavior.

But he said, you know, he wanted to change and thought that the industry was changing.

I mean, from what you're suggesting, it hasn't changed that much.

It has changed some, but not enough.

We are talking about an enormous, enormous, enormous big, big ship.

I mean, we all go to restaurants. We all know how big this industry is and hotels and everything.

And it has been going on for generations.

And we have to own up to a lot of different things.

I think the 50 best has responsibility.

The Michelin star system has responsibility.

Everybody, you know, around it, who has power has responsibility.

I'm not saying that the staff who works in these places have responsibility at all.

But everybody who has power has to own up that things need to change.

And this whole idea that we can cook food with no mistakes that we have to have.

I mean, if we really think about this is about eating and this is about food, how can it come to this?

That it is so important that we get something without any mistakes on a plate

that you will treat other people like this to get there.

So it's the question for perfection, is it?

Yeah, but if that is the question, maybe you should give up the question, not have perfectionism.

What is perfectionism?

Sometimes, you know, the perfect burger could be a nice meal.

I mean, I think there's so much into discussing this about why fine dining can get away with this.

But it doesn't only happen in fine dining.

These structures can be found in many different restaurants.

But there's also a lot of restaurants who have really nice kitchen and really nice leadership

and is doing really well.

But there's more toxic and it is still going on.

And we have to face up to it.

The Danish chef and food writer, Trina Hanuman, and she was speaking to James Menendez.

This is Neuser.

Welcome back to Neuser.

A British man has been arrested in Dubai for filming missiles hitting the city.

The tourist was detained under a law in the United Arab Emirates that prohibits publishing

or sharing material deemed to disturb public security.

The 60-year-old is reported to have deleted the video immediately when asked, but was still detained.

Radistirling is CEO of the campaigning organisation detained in Dubai and has been looking at his and similar cases.

He looked up, saw a missile, took a video and he's been charged under the UAE cybercrime laws,

along with 20 other people.

So I read a copy of the charge sheet and it was actually very vague, but ultimately it's for recording a video.

And since then we've had other people come forward and so my sister's been arrested, my brother's been arrested.

So we're talking about at least dozens of people, but possibly hundreds.

They released some people after 48 hours, but these ones it looks like they have actually lodged official charges

and that will possibly be referred to prosecution.

If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison, a hefty fine of perhaps 70,000 euros and deportation.

But worse than that is if they get charged with additional crimes and then you could have a cumulative sentence.

Although unlikely because of the media spotlighting this issue, most of the photographs and videos of missiles

that people are taking and being arrested for and detained for are photos and videos that are already circulating social media

that also made it into the worldwide news coverage.

You know, let's say the CNN publishes a missile photo, it's also illegal to share that news article.

So you've got a lot of confusion I think with X-Pats looking up at the sky and going,

well, I've seen this missile, I've seen this all over the place. So why am I being singled out?

Under the U.S. cybercrime laws, almost everything is criminalized.

So anything that's critical of the government, anything that is potentially misinformation or negative information

or information the government doesn't like, it's pretty much anything online.

It can be anything that you say, text or share, and it can be shared privately as well with a family group

and that's still illegal, even having it on your phone is illegal.

That was rather sterling from detained in Dubai.

So why such a stringent stance over information sharing or even potential information sharing in the UAE?

This is what one of the country's ministers for foreign affairs, Lon and Asabe, had to tell the BBC.

In order for everyone to feel safe, it's important at this time that the information is credible and the sources are reliable.

That is the basis of the legislation that has come into play in this state, which is obviously a tense time.

I am aware there have already been some violations of this law.

My best advice to everyone here, who we welcome being here, citizens, residents, tourists, journalists, is follow the guidelines.

The guidelines are there for your safety and for your protection.

In the last 13 days, we've had over 1,800 drones and missiles projected at the UAE.

We've deterred all of them. There is falling debris that has caused some damage.

The last thing we want is while our UAE armed forces are engaged in the defence of this country for people to be injured by such falling debris.

So follow the guidelines, follow the rules and stay safe.

Lon and Asabe, a minister of state for the UAE.

You're with the BBC and this is NewsHour, live from London, with me Tim Franks.

We're going to return to that insight into Iranian government thinking now with the Ambassador Ali Bakrani,

Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, whom you heard earlier in the programme, speaking to my colleague, Evan Davis.

How can Iran justify attacks not against its direct antagonists in this war, Israel and the US, but against its Gulf Arab neighbours?

This is a message that we have given to our neighbouring countries, that we don't fight against them.

We don't have any war against those countries. We are friends, we belong to the same family.

In fact, we appreciate the role they have played before the start of war to give contribution to the diplomatic process.

But unfortunately, we have quite evidences that the bases located in their countries are operational against our country.

And we expect our neighbouring countries to understand the fact that we cannot sit and watch our country being attacked from those bases and do not have any reaction.

You have sent pretty well as many weapons that the United Arab Emirates do by Abu Dhabi as you have against Israel.

It's perplexing from afar to see Iran attacking United Arab Emirates and then saying we want to be your friends and we want to reach out and be good neighbours.

We expect our neighbouring countries not to provide any facility or any space to United States to attack our country.

What we are doing is not to attack the United Arab Emirates or any other country in our region.

We are exclusively attacking those bases which are used by the United States Army to attack our country.

And just to be clear, when you hit civilian targets in Dubai, a hotel for example, or the airport, the main airport,

that is just an accidental strike by Iran because you are only aiming at the actual bases, the American bases.

So you are not intending any attack on civilian targets in Dubai?

No, our military forces have been instructed and they are very careful about this instruction, not to attack any non-military location or place.

But sometimes the Australian tactics of our enemy, United States is changing.

Sometimes they are using their official bases in those countries in order to attack our country.

And sometimes they are using some other places which are not recognised as military bases but they are used for military purposes.

Another important tactic of the Iranians ambassador is to shut the straight of Hormuz or to shut it to a lot of traffic.

Can you just tell us at the moment what your approach to the straight of Hormuz is?

Are Chinese ships cargo ships allowed through? Are Indian tankers allowed through? Is anything allowed through?

Just give us a summary of what your approach to the straight of Hormuz is.

The straight of Hormuz in our view is the straight of peace and should be the straight of peace.

And this time again Iran has not intended to block the straight of Hormuz.

The straight of Hormuz is affected by war situation. For that reason nobody can expect the transit to be normal in the straight of Hormuz.

But Iran is not against the peaceful use of a straight of Hormuz. What we are doing is to not let the United States and Israel to create any threat against us in that region.

But Iran is very supportive for the peaceful use of a straight of Hormuz.

And we have announced it very publicly that those countries who do not have any involvement in the war against Iran, they shouldn't have any problem in using the straight of Hormuz.

We are well aware about the impacts of war on the global economy, but that is something that we shouldn't be blamed for.

It is the United States and Israel, which should be blamed for.

Iran's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Ali Bakhrani, speaking to Heaven Days.

From the rationale around the war as far as Iran is concerned, the argument out of the United States.

Over the past 12 days, the lines at times been rather confusingly communicated by the White House and the Pentagon with contradictory rationales, timetables and objectives.

The wars also seem rising, petrol or gas prices across the United States, causing both Americans and President Donald Trump no small amount of anxiety.

Public approval for this war with Iran appears to be the lowest at the start of any conflict going back to World War II with polls suggesting about 40%.

Thinking it was right for the U.S. to attack Iran. The BBC's North America editor Sarah Smith has been in Kentucky, speaking to Americans about the decision to go to war.

I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, walking down Muhammad Ali Boulevard. He was a son of the city in the street that bears his names now lined with sports bars and pizza joints.

Muhammad Ali was not just a world championship boxer. He was also possibly America's best known conscientious objector. He refused to fight in the Vietnam War.

With the U.S. now engaged in another controversial conflict in Iran, it felt like a good place to meet a modern anti-war activist David Worm.

Any time that a country starts a war like the one that's being waged against the Iranian people that is wholly unjust and has no real purpose to serve the people in this country or that country is just a horrific travesty.

We have seen some flag drape coffins coming back to the United States with service members who've been killed. What does that do to how people in America feel about the conflict?

You know, it can be pretty dividing. I think for some people to see service members coming back in coffins, it makes them buy into these conflicts more because they feel that they need revenge.

There are enough bars along Muhammad Ali Boulevard to create a Kentucky bourbon tasting trail, which is exactly what Randy Tim and all were doing until they were interrupted by the BBC.

Of course, I support it. They're all backing the attacks on Iran. They believe Donald Trump knows exactly what he's doing.

Bad people are going to do bad things no matter what. There's a big plan. The master plan and the average person not going to understand it is everybody is about what are you going to do for me today or what's affecting me today.

I mean, I hate that they're there, but I definitely understand the logic of why we're doing what we're doing.

Let's get in and out. Do your job for getting things from happening that we don't want to happen.

Kentucky is famous for his love of horses.

Work with me, son. Work with me.

On this farm in Taylor'sville, working with the animals is part of a therapeutic program for American army veterans.

Do a wide turn here.

Jeremy Harrell served in the Iraq war and saw firsthand how American military adventures in the Middle East can spiral out of control.

He is a Trump supporter who believes action against Iran is justified.

I think this is probably 45 years later than it should have been.

Are you concerned about this dragging on and possibly even involving troops going into Iran?

You're talking about human lives, right? You're talking about the very people that we want to protect, right?

And then the family members who then would have to go on and live and see pictures of their father or mother and never interact with them again.

That is a heavy cost. And I think any responsible leader in this country would consider that above all.

Donald Trump is strongly suggesting this attack on Iran may be over soon.

He knows that fears of a prolonged conflict could have been driving up global oil prices and increasing costs for Americans at home.

Last night he claimed most people say it's already been won.

But then he said he still needs to finish the job.

You can't conceive of what I came up with.

Finishing this fight.

The White House has been accused of treating war like a video game

as they have been releasing edited clips of movies, TV shows and games like Call of Duty

spliced together with real-life footage of US strikes on Iranian targets.

Any US victory in Iran may not look like it does on a movie screen.

I met Lynn Romans in the quiet of the Jefferson Town War Memorial.

And she knows exactly what the cost of conflict can be.

Her son Darren was killed in the early months of the Iraq war.

I don't feel like I know that we're there.

Are we there to change their leadership?

Are we there to make their country better?

You know, these countries have been fighting since the beginning of time.

And why do we think that we have the right answer for everything?

President Trump has been very unclear about his objectives about what he's trying to achieve in Iran.

That may give him the flexibility to declare mission accomplished when every chooses.

But may not convince Americans it was worth the cost.

Sarah Smith and Kentucky.

Many Iranians have been trying to leave the country to escape the war.

Our correspondent Dan Johnson has caught up with people who have made it to the Turkish border

from the nearby town of Var.

The train from Tehran was running late, but its passengers were just relieved to reach Turkey.

After a journey of 26 hours, weary families hauled their luggage down

onto the icy cold platform of Van Station.

We saw some bomb in, was very horrible.

Mustafa led his wife and kids to safety, leaving Iran behind, but still carrying the stress of war.

All of Iranian people don't support the war, but the United States and Israel put us into this war.

You wanted to stop?

Yes, yes.

So you can go home?

We have a plan for our home, and if the ceasefire is going, we'll return home.

Hussein, an accountant who's heading to Canada, told me he was exhausted from the journey,

but the train was his only route over the border after flights were cancelled.

I don't believe they can win.

I mean, it's a very difficult situation.

I hope the war will be in the soon.

You see, my country is beautiful country.

They are destroying the country.

For last reason, I don't know.

Many of these passengers are too afraid to talk openly in fear of reprisals if they return to Iran in future,

and even being targeted overseas if they don't.

This man was one who quietly said he wanted the regime to go, but he wouldn't give his name.

People have their normal life.

Of course, I go to work, but we have this fear that the explosion would be near us or near the target.

But nobody wants bombing continue, nobody.

Even though those people who do not agree with the regime, I'm not sure that they want their country to be under attack.

Their houses, their people, even though they want some changes.

We met a science graduate from Canada who was visiting relatives in Iran when she was trapped, first by protests, then the war.

We've used a different voice to protect her identity.

There are bombs from midnight until the early morning, close to us.

There is nothing to warn us, the bombs are coming.

There are no facilities to protect people, to save their lives.

It's very stressful, but we are really optimistic about the end of the war.

There is hope here of a brighter future, and there's also defiance.

Hussein said he'd return soon.

Iran is my country, I love my country.

So you will be back?

I will be back, sir.

Do you know when?

Within two or three weeks, Simon.

Even if the war's still going on.

Even if the war.

I lose the same route going back to my country.

Whether that is possible, and what sort of country the train heads back to, will be determined by the course of this conflict.

And that was Dan Johnson on the Turkish Iranian border.

You're listening to News Air.