How close is Trump to attacking Iran? | BBC News

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines. Today, we're looking at the. rapid buildup of US warships within. striking distance of Iran as Donald. Trump threatens to attack if Tehran does. not do a deal within 10 days. We're. joined by Merlin Thomas from BBC Verify. Merlin, you've been tracking this. buildup for days. What do we know? We've. been tracking this buildup of US. military assets in the region for weeks. now. Um, and now we've seen that they.

are within striking capability of Iran. And the latest asset we've seen arrive. into the theater is the USS Gerald R. Ford. Now, this is the world's largest. warship. Um, and early this week it. briefly broadcast its location off the. coast of Morocco, but today we've. actually confirmed that it's crossed. through the straight of Gibralta into. the Mediterranean. And we know that. because we've confirmed it using. pictures from someone who sent it to us. from Jibralta that we verified. You can.

see um the warship against the mountains. um of the Gibraltar as well. And then. we've also confirmed one of its. destroyers on marine traffic data as. well. So we know that it's arrived into. the theater as well. But this is the. second aircraft carrier that we've. confirmed the location of just this week. alone. So early this week we also found. that the Abraham Lincoln uh is in the. Arabian Sea. It's about 240 km off the. coast of Oman again within striking.

distance of Iran. So both the Gerald R. Ford and the Abraham Lincoln lead strike. groups of several large destroyer. warships with thousands of crew. personnel um as well as dozens of. aircraft as well. >> Of course, the Gerald Ford was the. aircraft carrier that was used in the. operation against Nicholas Maduro in. Venezuela. How different is this? It's a really. good question because in some ways it's.

like comparing apples and oranges. because that operation was completely. different and many people wouldn't even. have predicted that that was going to. happen in the way that it did. They were. using their own air bases. They were. relying on air bases on its own. continent. Um it's in the western. hemisphere and the intention of the. operation as well was to capture the. president. Um and that was a very unique. operation which experts have called. audacious in many respects. But this is.

a completely different level. Um because. the type of military capability that. experts say is in play is something. really really significant. So if you. compare it with the operation last year, Midnight Hammer, um that was a very. coordinated but very specific and. targeted attack which was very short and. limited. So that involved uh B2 bombers. flying over from air bases in Missouri. And at the time we were tracking that.

event there as well, that operation. And. initially we had been watching the space. to see what was in play. And so we were. looking at air bases in Diego Garcia. But in fact we we were looking in the. completely wrong place because it was an. unexpected attack that was um. coordinated in a very different way. This experts say is much more different. So this is a sustained attack with the. capability to go much deeper um and much. longer. So for example, we're seeing um. much more capability. Experts have said.

that it's possible that they could carry. out 800 strikes a day, which would. render any kind of Iranian response. essentially ineffective. >> Of course, we don't actually know what. they're planning to do. It could be an. all-out response of the sort you're. talking about, but could they also do. something similar to what they did in. Venezuela? Something much more surgical. >> It would be much more difficult for them. to do that. For example, they would have. to have possibly ground support. That's. what some experts have said. And there's.

no indication as of yet that that is. what's going to happen. But what is. clear is they have deployed in a way. that means that they can scale up or. down. So it could be that President. Trump is just doing using this as a. deterrent trying to say look we are able. to attack you and if you aren't willing. to come to the negotiating table and. give us what we want then we will carry. out some sort of strike. Unclear what. that may be but other way it could be. seen experts say is that they could.

launch a fullblown offensive and we. could see something much more. significant than the sort of strikes. that were carried out last year. just. tell us a bit more about the military. capability that is on board these. warships. >> They have several dozens of missile. destroyers and it's worth saying, you. know, we've only mentioned the aircraft. carriers, but there's also fighter jets. that have been deployed to Jordan. There. are um destroyers that have been. deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean, um Bahrain, several other air bases in.

the region. >> What has Donald Trump said about this? >> So, he's put a timeline on this now. So. he said that there is um they have a. probably about 10 days to decide whether. or not they come to the table and make a. nuclear deal or whether they carry out. military action. It's worth saying that. he said that previously as well. So he. said that just a few days ago and he's. repeated the 10 days um timeline again. Um Iran have responded and have said. that they will view any kind of attack. as complete aggression, any kind of.

strike as aggression as an attack. And. they are out in force trying to show. that they will respond. So they're. carrying out naval drills um practice uh. maritime drills um operations with. Russia uh in um and they've also done. practice kind of operations in the. straight of Hormuz to show that they. have the capability to respond. And do they? Because from the outside it. does look a little bit like David and. Goliath. >> That's what experts say too. I mean they.

don't many experts say they don't have. the capability to respond to the kind of. attack that's sustained that's has the. depth um and has the power um that the. US has so far kind of lined up and it's. not clear when it will happen. It's kind. of we've been talking about this for a. while now. It's a waiting game and it's. a it's a question of timing as well. President Trump said that he may. consider military action during the. protests that were carried out by. Iranian protesters in January. That that. was a few weeks ago. We're still waiting.

now and he's still saying the same. thing. Now those protests have appeared. to die down. That isn't happening. And. the intention for what President Trump. has for Iran has possibly changed. He's. talking about a nuclear deal. Previously, he said he wanted to carry. out an attack because he wanted to save. the protesters. So what President Trump. wants from this operation still remains. to be seen. >> Operation Midnight Hammer was supposed. to have destroyed the nuclear program. I. know you have tracking all sorts of.

data. Do we have any information as to. whether it did? >> We've looked at satellite imagery and. we've seen that a lot of those nuclear. sites that were in the initial attack in. Operation Midnight Hammer have now been. kind of sealed up. Those tunnels have. been um covered over with various forms. of protection. sand for example. Um and. so those nuclear sites are obviously. within the realm of possibility as. places of attack. But many are saying. that that isn't where this attack may.

go. this may be more focused on other. physical personnel um people of um high. value but also those nuclear sites could. be within realm of possibility but. clearly the Iranian government the. Iranian state have um they've planned. for that and they are protecting. themselves and they've already tried to. seal up those tunnels those entrances to. those facilities exactly in preparation. for that sort of thing. Thanks Merlin. Merlin Thomas from BBC Verify. We'd love.

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