Iran had promised harsh revenge but not
given the time frame in the end
operation mutter Soleimani in
retaliation for the assassination of its
Kurds general came quickly in a salvo of
missiles on air bases housing American
forces in Iraq missiles launched from
inside Iran struck two air bases in that
will and Al Asad just west of Baghdad
Iran says 80 American terrorists were
killed but President Trump tweeted that
all was well and said casualties and
damage were being assessed he'll make a
statement at the White House later but
does this straw a line under hostilities
going forward middle-east editor Jeremy
Bowen is in Baghdad Iran had been
threatening severe retaliation and the
missiles were fired just after midnight
the Iranians seemed to be trying to
calibrate their response to satisfy fury
at home and not to provoke President
Trump into a particularly destructive
military retaliation the Iranian Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif said in a tweet
that's the battleground for this
diplomacy at the moment that Iran's
actions were rooted in international law
in article 51 of the UN Charter which
deals with estates right to self-defense
he seemed in that tweet to be trying to
draw a line under retaliation but then
quite a different message came from
Ayatollah Khamenei II Iran's supreme
leader he was speaking in calm a holy
city in Iran and he seemed to suggest
that the night's attacks were not enough
in Tamil you had for bastardy Yeti's
revenge that's something else what
happened last night was just a slap in
the face that's something else in
Maithili the yetis the Ayatollah said
the corrupting presence of the United
States had to be removed from the region
the crowd chanted god is greatest'
and death to America
even if this is the beginning of the end
of the crisis caused by the
assassination the long-term conflict
between Iran and the US continues to
edge towards war and that process won't
stop without some kind of diplomacy
leading to a political deal this seemed
to be won back in 2015 when they signed
the Iran nuclear agreement but president
Trump pulled out of that a couple of
years ago and since then this crisis has
grown and grown there remains a really
serious danger of war this remains one
of the world's most dangerous and
unstable conflicts Jared Burnham at
least ed ed is speaking to us from
Baghdad well in the past few hours
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei has demanded as we heard the
United States leave the Middle East he
had this to say about the attack itself
Yeti's revenge that's something else
what happened last night was just a slap
in the face that's something else
oenomaus led Gettys Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei let's s speak to our security
correspondent Frank Gardner as Jeremy
was saying Frank I mean slightly
different messages coming from the
supreme leader and from iran's Foreign
Minister what are you reading to that
well really I think it's symptomatic of
the two iran's there is what i call the
front of house the fairly sort of
emollients statements relatively mild
and moderate coming from people like the
foreign minister Javad Zarif who says
you know we've concluded this that let's
draw a line on this that's the end of it
but the deep State the security
intelligence and Revolutionary Guards
establishment in Iran the hardliners
they're not going to let it rest are
there what we've seen now is the end of
phase 1 this is the overt Iranian
response very much for domestic
consumption there we've hit a slap in
the face to America we've punished them
the domestic narrative is that 80
Americans have been killed I don't think
anything like that is true
we haven't even heard of any casualties
but that isn't the end of it over the
next few weeks and months they will
continue to harass and hairy US forces
in the region not just in Iraq but in
other places as well and the aim being
to drive the u.s. out of the wider
Middle East but particularly out of Iraq
and Syria clearing away for a swathe of
Iranian dominated territory all the way
from the Afghan border to the
Mediterranean coast what's striking
there in the immediate aftermath
president Trump's tweet pretty neutral
really I mean things seemed okay you
know he's gonna speak in a few hours
time it's as if both sides are trying to
keep a lid on this I mean is that your
sense as well I mean it's there any
suggestion that America could have been
tipped off about this there's no
suggestion but I think it's perfectly
possible I mean it is extraordinary that
22 ballistic missiles and these are
powerful missiles accurate as well could
be aimed directly at two bases housing
coalition and you know us and other
forces and yet there's not a single
casualty reported it's extraordinary so
if you look as well at the attack that
took place in Saudi Arabia in September
25 missiles crews and drones hit precise
bits of machinery in the Saudi oil
refinery infrastructure that crippled
that output half the knocked out half
the output in just the space of a few
minutes so when the Iranians want to do
so I mean they denied that they say it
was the Houthis but most experts say the
Houthis weren't capable of doing that
when the Iranian want to do something
they're pretty accurate they think very
carefully about it and remember that the
Kurds force that Qasem Soleimani
commanded this is their bread and butter
this is what they do they are expert at
covert operations and military
operations very carefully planned often
deniable what's called black ops what
should we read into the fact also that
the the hard lines of Revolutionary
Guard have admitted being behind this
because that is new isn't it because
normally this has all been played out in
some do a shadowy proxy proxy fight I
think there is an acceptance in
Washington that given that the the
massive impact that the killing of Qasem
Soleimani has
had on Iran and the huge crowds the
outpouring of not just grief but calls
for vengeance that we saw they had to do
something pretty big and overt and say
yes we've struck back at it so yes
you're right it's a it's unusual it's
exceptional for them to do it I don't
think we're gonna see unless there is an
American retaliation I doubt we're going
to see another overt Iranian attack but
we will see some mysterious attacks that
properly have the hand of Iran behind
them but it's be hard to actually pin it
to its door right so Frank for now thank
you very much indeed