Trump Warns Iran; Carrier Group Arrives as Protests Turn Deadly (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We start in the U.S., where President Trump has warned Iran that time is running out for it to negotiate a deal on nuclear weapons. He said the next attack will be far worse than the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last June. The warning came in a long post on Truth Social. Let's take a look at some of it. It says a massive armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm and purpose. Hopefully Iran will quickly come to the table. Time is running out. It is truly of the essence. As I told Iran once before, make a deal. Well, Iran's state media says the foreign minister has not been in contact with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff in recent days or requested negotiations. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are still high following the Iranian government's brutal crackdown on protesters. USS Abram Lincoln has arrived earlier, the aircraft carrier in the Middle East. And speaking in Iowa overnight, President Trump hinted at the military buildup in the region.

[00:00:59] Speaker 2: And in June, we obliterated Iran's nuclear capacity in Operation Midnight Hammer. You saw that. People have been waiting for 22 years to do that, and we were right at the end. They were about a month away from having a nuclear weapon. We had to do it. And just and by the way, there's another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now. So we'll see. I hope, I hope they make a deal. I hope they make a deal. They should have made a deal the first time they'd have a country.

[00:01:36] Speaker 1: Let's bring in Mikey Kaye, former strategic military planner and host of the BBC security brief. So the truth social post from President Trump, Mikey, talking about this armada that is heading towards the Middle East, it has now arrived. What do we know about it?

[00:01:52] Speaker 3: Well, I mean, it's he's using the term armada. What he actually means is the carrier strike group, the CSG, and at the center of gravity of that carrier strike group is the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is a Nimitz class carrier. And it's huge. And the weaponry on there, the aircraft on there is significant. We saw something similar on Venezuela. But that carrier is surrounded, Lucy, by a lot of warships and submarines. And we can see the carrier there. This carrier is the center of gravity of pretty much the U.S. military efforts, not the only thing that the U.S. has. It's got home basing. And on the security brief this week, we're really taking a deep dive into what military assets are there. But this this is the center of gravity of what he's talking about on this armada. Now, it's a it's a massively strategic asset. So those warships that follow it everywhere are basically providing a layered air defense system for it, because obviously the U.S. anything that happens to that carrier would be a major, a major significant problem for the U.S. And in terms of intelligence and location and what Iran is trying to do right up there on their intelligence feed, we'll be trying to understand where that carrier is accurate enough so they could feed any GPS data coordinates into any ballistic missiles or what they want to throw at that. And that's what Iran are doing at the moment. And we saw that yesterday. We saw a long range Iranian surveillance drone just south of the Straits of Hormuz. And it will be looking at where that carrier strike group is.

[00:03:32] Speaker 1: President Trump talked about Operation Midnight Hammer in his Truth Social post, Miyake, and referred to the major destruction that was already done to Iran and then said the next attack will be far worse. Do we actually know how much damage was done during that last U.S. operation?

[00:03:49] Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the primary target was the was the lifting of Maduro. And we know that that was successful. And we covered that on Security Brief a couple of weeks ago in terms of the components that went into that. And those components are no different, Lucy, to what will be required now. So if the U.S. were looking at a lift on the Ayatollah, that would require, as it did with Maduro, a significant amount of intelligence. You can split those down really into three things, human intelligence. So we know that the CIA had an asset inside the Venezuelan government. You're looking at imagery intelligence, which effectively comes from drones using cameras. And then you're looking at ELINT, which is electronic intelligence. And that's basically building up an electronic picture. SIGINT is a big part of that, signals intelligence, Lucy, where you can listen in the phone calls. And that's all about getting the location and the predictive patterns called pattern of life of what the primary target would be in this case. It would be the Ayatollah. But there are so many other options, Lucy, outside of, you know, taking out the Ayatollah. It could be softening up surface-to-air defense systems, taking out ballistic missiles so they're no longer a threat to Israel. There's all sorts of course of action. We call them in strategic military planning courses of action that the U.S. will be looking at right now. And not one of them would be off the table.

[00:05:12] Speaker 1: OK, Mikey, thank you so much. Mikey Kaye joining us there. The full scale of the casualties in Iran after the government's brutal crackdown on protesters is still not known. But one human rights group based in the U.S. has now confirmed that more than 6,000 people were killed in the unrest this month. The regime has imposed an Internet blackout. But during brief moments of satellite coverage, the BBC has managed to speak to several young Iranians about their ordeal. Our correspondent Caroline Hawley's report contains videos from the crackdown that you may find distressing.

[00:05:44] Speaker 4: The images emerging from Iran paint an ever more horrifying picture. Witnesses say security forces fired live ammunition from motorbikes and rooftops. They speak of massacres, a bloodbath.

[00:05:57] Speaker 5: No one was violent and no one clashed with the security forces. But on Friday night, they still opened fire on the crowd. We all know someone who was killed in the protests.

[00:06:08] Speaker 4: One human rights group has already identified more than 6,000 of the dead, almost all protesters, though dozens were simply bystanders and more than 90 were children. And the counting has barely begun. It's investigating reports from its activists on the ground of another 17,000 deaths.

[00:06:27] Speaker 6: I think we're looking at systematic mass killing on our hands. I mean, we have looked at preliminary evidence that shows us that there are bodies in morgues that have medical equipment on them, and yet they have bullet holes in the middle of people's foreheads.

[00:06:45] Speaker 4: Security forces have also raided hospitals searching for injured protesters. And among the tens of thousands arrested are doctors who treated the wounded. This surgeon reported to have been beaten up when he was detained from his home. No wonder many of those injured are too frightened to go to hospital. This woman was treated at home by volunteer medics after she and a friend were shot.

[00:07:09] Speaker 7: People helped us and we got into a car. I said, just don't go to a hospital. In the following days, we found doctors who looked at our wounds and gave us antibiotics.

[00:07:19] Speaker 4: Among those killed, some faces stand out, like that of this influencer known as Baby Rider. Her family is said to be under pressure from the authorities to say she died in an accident on her bike. But a close friend told the BBC the 19-year-old had been shot by the regime. One young woman who'd gone out onto the streets in hope and didn't come home. Caroline Hawley, BBC News.