The UN is warning against escalating tensions between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2024
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Also on the programme, The US state of Hawaii has agreed to take action to decarbonize its transport by 2045 after a lawsuit was brought by thirteen young people – we hear from one of their representatives, and four members of the Hindujas, known as Britain’s wealthiest family, have been handed jail sentences for exploiting servants in their villa in Geneva.
(Picture: A fire blazes on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border following attacks from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in northern Israel June 18, 2024. REUTERS/Ayal Margolin )
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Newsar from the BBC World Service |
| 0:06.9 | coming to you live from our studios in Central London I'm Julian Marshall. |
| 0:11.6 | And we begin with today's warning from the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres |
| 0:17.0 | that the escalating tensions between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement |
| 0:22.0 | risk turning Lebanon into another Gaza. |
| 0:25.0 | The risk for the conflict in the Middle East to widen is real and must be avoided. |
| 0:31.0 | When rash move, when miscalculation, could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border and frankly beyond imagination. Let's be clear. The people of the region and the people |
| 0:47.9 | of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza. |
| 0:52.1 | Well the two sides have been fighting a low... Lebanon to become another Gaza. |
| 0:53.0 | Well, the two sides have been fighting a low-level conflict since last October, |
| 0:57.5 | when Hezbollah began firing missiles into Israel in support of Hamas, |
| 1:01.5 | and Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery's elbows inside |
| 1:06.0 | Lebanon. But this week Israel announced that operational plans for a Lebanon offensive had |
| 1:11.4 | been approved while Hezbollah has ramped up its bellicose rhetoric |
| 1:15.8 | with its leader Hassan Nasrallah, warning that nowhere in Israel would be safe from Hezbollah |
| 1:21.7 | rockets in the event of a war. The United States is sufficiently |
| 1:25.4 | concerned to have sent an envoy to Israel and Lebanon to try to diffuse tensions. |
| 1:31.2 | I spoke earlier to Dr Matthew Leavitt, the director of the Reinhard Counterterrorism |
| 1:35.6 | Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of the book The Global |
| 1:41.2 | Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. I asked him if the two sides were moving |
| 1:46.8 | closer and closer to all-out conflict. |
| 1:50.1 | I'm afraid they are. It's not a it's not a done deal yet but things are as tense now as perhaps they have ever been |
... |
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