Shadowing Practice: The shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran is tested further | BBC News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Hello, I'm Lauren Taylor.
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Hello, I'm Lauren Taylor.
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This is the Iran War Today,
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our daily briefing,
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bringing you up to date with all you need to know on day 99 of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
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Let's start with some of today's key developments.
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The shaky ceasefire between the U.S and Iran is tested further,
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with Iran striking Kuwait and Bahrain, and U.S forces hitting Iranian radar sites and drones.
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The Lebanese army says several of its troops have been killed
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in an Israeli airstrike on a military vehicle in the south of the country.
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And Iran reacts angrily to the failure of the U.S to grant visas to some of its World Cup support staff.
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The shaky ceasefire between the U.S and Iran has been tested further,
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with American forces targeting Iranian drones and radar sites and Iran firing missiles at US bases in the Gulf.
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Latest exchanges have put further pressure on what's supposed to be
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a pause in hostilities to allow for negotiations for a peace deal.
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Bahrain and Kuwait have condemned the Iranian attacks on their countries,
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while the US said it had been responding to Iranian drone activity against ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
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Trump still says an agreement is within reach,
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but maintains that much of the Iranian military infrastructure has been destroyed.
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DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States of America,
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President of the United States,
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most of the drone factories have been knocked out.
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Most of the launching pads have been knocked out.
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And most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out.
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But they still have capacity.
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They have some missiles.
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They have some drones.
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I would say, percentage-wise, maybe 21,
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22 percent of their missiles.
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It's a lot of missiles.
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I want to speak to Tom Simons who is in Washington for us.
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So Tom, what have the US been saying about the latest strikes?
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Well, Lauren, the US has said that this is unwarranted Iranian aggression.
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And in response to that,
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the Iranians are saying that the US has breached the ceasefire.
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So let's just go over what's happened over the last 24 hours or so.
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This appears to have started,
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this latest tit for tat,
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with Iranian drones being sent towards shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
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The US responding by attacking radar bases along the coast of Iran.
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The Iranians responding to that by sending seven missiles towards Kuwait and Bahrain.
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And the US saying that six of those missiles were intercepted and the other one didn't reach its intended target.
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But no casualties, at least among US troops and no US bases affected, according to CENTCOM.
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So what's happened?
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Well, I think we can sum all that up as this is a ceasefire that is absolutely fraying at the edges.
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And given that, is there any progress or any word on any progress towards a peace deal?
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Well, Donald Trump gave an interview earlier this week to CNBC,
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one of those phone interviews.
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He now picks up the phone to reporters.
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And he said that, quotes about the talks with Iran,
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I don't care if they're over.
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Honestly, I really don't care.
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I couldn't care less.
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Now, only a week ago he was predicting a deal within days,
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and he does tend to say things like that in his many statements and tweets and posts.
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He did another interview yesterday on camera in which he said that,
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regarding the Iranians, that he believed they felt they had been virtually decapitated,
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but he said that they were a very proud nation and therefore were not seeking to reach a deal.
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So that's where we are.
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I think on the Iranian side,
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probably the events in Lebanon have had the biggest implication for the Iranian negotiators.
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There was a potential ceasefire in the last 24 hours,
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but it appears to have not really happened,
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partly because Hezbollah, which Iran backs,
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was refusing to agree to the ceasefire,
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was refusing to stop attacks and refusing to withdraw from areas of Lebanon that were part of that ceasefire deal.
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So that now seems to be dead, continuing hostilities there.
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And that does seem to be quite key when it comes to getting a deal between Iran and the US.
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Tom Simons, thank you very much indeed.
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And let's talk about Lebanon now.
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The Lebanese army says several of its troops have been killed
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in an Israeli airstrike on a military vehicle in the south of the country.
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One of those killed was an officer.
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Israel has continued to attack targets,
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it says, linked to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants,
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despite a ceasefire having been agreed on Wednesday.
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Here's our correspondent, Lina Sinjab, in Beirut.
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The attack that took place today on a military vehicle in the south that left several soldiers dead,
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including one officer, is really shaking any confidence in this ceasefire agreement and putting the Lebanese army at risk.
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The agreement dictates
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that there will be pilot zones in the south where the Lebanese army will be deployed to make sure
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that it is clear of any presence of armed militias,
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mainly to clear it from any presence of Hezbollah.
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Now, after this attack, they fear that they might be under attack from both the Israelis and Hezbollah.
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Hezbollah rejected categorically this ceasefire agreement,
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is rejecting these talks and calling them as shameless and humiliating for the country.
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There is a huge criticism to this agreement because it doesn't include a line about the withdrawal of the Israeli troops.
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But for the government, this is the only way forward.
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They said it repeatedly.
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The only way is for negotiations,
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for a gradual ceasefire to end this war and have a lasting agreement.
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And the president, Joseph Owen,
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yesterday even put the blame on Iran.
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He said basically that the Iranians are using Lebanon as a bargain trip in their negotiations with the Israelis,
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with the Americans.
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JANE FERGUSONS, Iranian Foreign Minister,
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Well, the Iranian Foreign Minister has again pointed out that the situation in Lebanon is part of the overall conflict.
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SEBASTIEN ASHA, Iranian Foreign Minister,
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Iranian Foreign Minister, But in the recent war between Iran and the United States,
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Lebanon is an inseparable part.
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Therefore, we do not see the fate of Iran's war with America
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and Israel as separate from the fate of the war in Lebanon.
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They are connected.
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JANE FERGUSONS, Our correspondent Sebastien Asha is in Jerusalem.
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So Sebastian, tell us about what Israel is saying about the killing of Lebanese army troops in that Israeli airstrike.
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Well, there was a statement from the Israeli military essentially saying that it did carry out the strikes,
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but saying that the vehicle in which the three Lebanese soldiers,
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a very senior commander, an officer,
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and another soldier were in and were killed,
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was moving suspiciously in an active combat zone and that
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that essentially is why the Israeli forces took action and fired at it.
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I mean, it shows, of course,
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as we've seen before, we've seen this with members of the Lebanese army,
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which are not involved in the conflict,
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and we've seen it with the Unifil sort of the unifil source sorry the unifil force
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which has been patrolling the border zone between lebanon
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and israel for decades where they again don't get involved in any of the combat
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but they get caught up in the crossfire from time to time
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and the intensity of the fighting that's continued in south lebanon means
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that such incidents as this are more likely
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and will make i think as we really understood what lena was saying there make the lebanese army
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which is being asked to play the same role,
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to be honest, but it was asked after the war that Israel mounted against Hezbollah back in 2024.
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The Lemis army was meant to move and take all the positions that Hezbollah had been controlling down in himself.
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It did do that to some extent,
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but at a certain point,
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caught in a vice, essentially,
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between Hezbollah and the Israeli army,
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which didn't fully pull out,
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it wasn't able to fulfill that mission.
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Now, it's been tasked with a similar mission,
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but under, I think, even more difficult circumstances.
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Now, there's been a major Israeli ground incursion into the south of Lebanon.
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Just one other thing, I mean,
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briefly, when you talk about the ceasefire in Lebanon,
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this latest one, which was announced two or three days ago,
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agreed by representatives of the Israeli and Lebanese government in Washington.
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I mean, this is a staged process.
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It wasn't meant to see an end of all the fighting in the South Lebanon in one go.
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It was also meant to continue to forestall an extra escalation
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by Israel in terms of the Israeli military mounting new airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
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We haven't seen that happen since this ceasefire went into effect.
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And we haven't seen, as far as anyone has been able to judge,
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any serious attacks by Hezbollah on northern Israel,
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on the communities there, which,
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again, was part of the deal that was done to try and prevent that escalation.
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So that's a very, very small amount of progress to be made.
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But it is some.
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But the fighting, the Israeli incursion in South Lebanon,
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its airstrikes, its evacuation orders to villages down there,
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they have carried on apace.
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There was an IDF, an Israeli military statement just in the last hour or so,
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which said that more than 150,
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they have struck more than 150 what they call Hezbollah targets
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in the south of Lebanon just in the past couple of days.
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Thank you very much.
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Iran has accused the U.S of discriminatory treatment
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and violating its obligations as a World Cup host for refusing visas to some of its football team's delegation.
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It said 15 members of the Iranian party had been refused U.S visas,
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though not the players.
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I want to speak to Puriha Jafari, BBC World Service's Sports.
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So thank you for being with us.
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Tell us a little bit about this.
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The players have been granted visas,
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but not their entourage, by the sounds of it.
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Let me just bring you the latest.
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The flight has just taken off from Ankara,
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the plane which is carrying the Iranian football
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and those who are accompanying the team including those who have not been granted visas.
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On that list, there is the head of the Federation, the vice president.
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There are two caretakers, two media offices,
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two security offices, who some would have predicted,
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and also two analysts, which are part of the technical team who are accompanying Iran.
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And apparently, the plane is going to stop at Spain shortly and then go to Tijuana in Mexico,
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where the Iranian camp is based.
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I'm also hearing that there might be even more restrictions for those who got their visas
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and are traveling to the US during the World Cup.
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This is going to be something similar to the visas issued
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for those countries who do not have diplomatic relationships with the US
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when they go to the to the UN in New York in general General Assembly or other occasions.
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This visa is only for designated areas,
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meaning they can only go to the airport,
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the hotel, the stadium in this case,
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and like the the routes which are connecting them.
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So it's a special kind of visa.
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I'm still waiting for confirmation on this,
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but this is what we're hearing from sources uh close to the team
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and are the team at all concerned for their safety
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while they're over there um tijuana in mexico it's it's known for uh
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that connection of the drug trafficking and the mexican cartels
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and uh trafficking into california uh and
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and it's it's going to be difficult for the iranian team um in terms of in terms of the logistic
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and the travel but originally the camp they chose for
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that team was in arizona the uh and and let's not forget
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that california is home to
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so many iranian diaspora who do not have a good relationship with this team
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and see this team as a representative of the islamic republic and not the people of iran They have already,
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they are setting up rallies and protests against FIFA that is not letting them to carry any flags,
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but the official flags to the stadium.
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So in a way, being in Tijuana,
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maybe it has its own negative side,
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but it's going to keep them safe from those Iranian diaspora who probably would have caused them some problems
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if their camp was on the soil of the United States.
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Now it's going to be difficult for them to make
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that border crossing go to Mexico apparently every time you want
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to come back to the US there is heavy traffic a few hours you need to wait on
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that checkpoint before you come back to the US
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and perhaps many Iranians they find it too difficult to go
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and make themselves heard outside the training camp in Tijuana for
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your Jeffrey thank you very much indeed tomorrow Sunday will mark
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a hundred days since the start of the Iran war despite numerous suggestions that moves towards peace are imminent.
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The ceasefire is still being tested,
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as we've seen with the tit-for-tat attacks over the last 24 hours.
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I want to look at this in more detail.
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I'm joined by Kazran Aji from BBC Persian.
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Thanks for being with us.
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So, tell us first of all about the reaction in Iran to these latest tit-for-tat strikes,
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which are really putting the ceasefire at threat.
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Yes, and they're all blaming each other.
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The Iranians are blaming the U.S for starting it, and the U.S is blaming Iran for starting this.
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But this has been going on for some time now.
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For example, this kind of skirmish,
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serious skirmish between the U.S and Iran is the third time in about 10 days,
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less than 10 days.
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And it's the second time that Iran attacks with ballistic missiles, Kuwait and Bahrain.
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So it's, as you say,
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it's testing the ceasefire in a big way,
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in a very serious way.
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And how long this might go on,
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we have to wait and see.
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But obviously, it's pretty fragile, this peace process.
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And given that it's nearly 100 days tomorrow, Sunday, what would you.. how would you describe the impacts,
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not just on Iran, but globally, of this war?
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I think it has changed the sort of power relations in the region.
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The U.S and Israel, when they started this attack on Iran,
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they had certain ideas.
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They haven't sort of achieved those, their aims.
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They wanted to get rid of the regime change.
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They wanted to undermine the security forces to the point
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that Iranians will rise and take over their power and change the regime.
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All of that didn't happen at all.
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In fact, what happened was the reverse of it,
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in a sense that the security forces,
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the hardliners got even more emboldened.
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They became more stronger.
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They became more entrenched.
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So the change of top,
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a change at the very top,
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from Ayatollah Khamenei to his son,
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we don't know whether that is a qualitative change in terms of,
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you know, how much the new man is a hardliner.
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Is he as hardline as his father?
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We still don't know, because we haven't seen him in the last three months since he has been appointed.
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But, nevertheless, Iranians, the hardliners who are driving this bus in Iran,
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are feeling pretty much emboldened.
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They think they have the upper hand,
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and they think that they have won the war,
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and they can dictate the terms of peace.
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And that might be their weakness,
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in a sense that they might lose the chance of achieving something achievable.
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JUDY WOODRUFF.: Kasser Nagy, thank you very much indeed for that analysis.
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Thank you.
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Whether you're joining us on YouTube,
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TikTok, sounds, radio or TV, thanks for your time.
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We'll be back at the same time tomorrow with a special
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Iran war today to mark 100 days since the start of the conflict.
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Engaging with the video titled "The shaky ceasefire between the US and Iran is tested further" not only enriches your understanding of current events but also provides an excellent opportunity for English speaking practice. By listening to fluent speakers like Lauren Taylor and Donald Trump discussing recent developments, you can immerse yourself in authentic dialogue that reflects complex ideas in a real-world context. This practice can significantly enhance your shadow speech abilities by replicating not only the sounds of English but also the emotional undertones and subtleties of political discourse.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Within the transcript, several key grammatical structures and expressions emerge that are useful for learners:
- Present Perfect Continuous: "This is the Iran War Today, our daily briefing..." Illustrates ongoing action or states that continue into the present.
- Conditional Clauses: "If they’re over..." This form is vital in discussing hypothetical situations and outcomes, which is frequently used in news analysis.
- Passive Voice: "Most of the drone factories have been knocked out." This structure allows the speaker to emphasize the action rather than the subject, useful in formal reporting.
- Reported Speech: "Iranians are saying that the US has breached the ceasefire." This form is essential for discussing perspectives in a dialogue, especially in news contexts.
Practicing these structures will enhance your fluency and comprehension in discussing complex topics, making your conversations more engaging.
Common Pronunciation Traps
While practicing with this video, pay special attention to certain tricky words and accents that can be challenging. Words like "ceasefire" and "unwarranted" may pose pronunciation challenges due to their syllable stress and unique vowel sounds. Additionally, the accents of speakers can vary significantly, impacting how words are articulated. Listening and repeating using the shadowing technique can help you master these pronunciation hurdles. By utilizing a shadowing app or practicing through direct imitation of the audio, you can fine-tune your accent and improve your overall command of the language.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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