The latest on the war in Iran

0:00And now we're into the seventh day of this Middle East conflict for the latest on the picture. One week on Sea of Ash Ardalan, BBC Persian journalist is on the line and Sea of Ash were nearly one week in. The state of play would appear to be that Israel and the USA have the upper hand with the damage they're inflicting on Iran and Lebanon. The tempo did it step up overnight on this morning? Absolutely. Just a few hour after US defense secretary said that the attacks will see a dramatic surge. The residents of the Iranian capital experienced one of the most intense bombardments last night. We got messages from various parts of the capital saying that buildings were shaking and glasses were being shattered. We're not exactly sure where it was hit this very morning. IDF, the Israeli Army released a picture showing that it had for the second time targeted the offices of the supreme leader and Iran's presidential compound is

1:05very close to that. So formally and officially they are targeting military and political infrastructure. But because all these are in a very urban landscape, inevitably the civilian population is being impacted. So the Iranian government today released its latest tolls, which is very difficult to verify because of the magnitude of the attacks. But saying that about 3,000 residential buildings have already been destroyed. And the latest figures that we had yesterday from human rights group indicated that over 1,000 civilians have also been killed. And Iran in response has been aiming to broaden the conflict by attacking many other Gulf states and beyond. And today we've had a stark warning from Qatar to the financial times about the risk that oil prices, high oil prices could bring down the world economy. Is that high parably or a real risk? Well as long as the straight of Hormuz remains close,

2:13there is a danger of that and not just for oil and energy, but also for fertilizers which will have an effect on food security all around the world. The Gulf states obviously are not very happy about the prolongation of this war. They would have rather seen it in one way or another. But the reality is that even if the war does end and the US and Israel somehow and now that they've achieved their objectives, even though we don't exactly still know what they are, the Gulf countries will have to deal with the aftermath of this, which may be a lot of human refugees, humanitarian crises and internal strife and chaos in Iran, which is bound to spill over into their territory as well. And no end to the side when we come. So far, no end in sight only because the objectives of this war has not properly been defined. On one hand, the US and President Donald Trump, just a few hours ago, said that he expects the

3:19Iranians to rise up against their regime. But at the same time, he said that he wants to have a say in who the next Supreme Leader of that very same regime is. Very mixed signals, both the Iranians who are hopeful that this war can bring about something good, maybe the downfall of the regime. But at the same time, leaving everyone confused as to exactly what the next step is. Well, thank you for your clarity. At least, Seyavash Ardalan, BBC Pression journalist.