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[00:00:00]

Israel confirmed it has launched several strikes inside of Iran with this message from the IDF spokesperson. Take a listen.

[00:00:08]

Right now, the Israel Defense Forces is conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran. Like every other sovereign country in the world, the state of Israel has the right and the duty to respond. Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized.

[00:00:32]

Are in response to months of attacks from Iran against Israel, including some 200 ballistic missiles fired earlier this month. Israel defense forces say it is conducting precise strikes, as you just heard, on military targets in Iran While Iranian state media is reporting a number of explosions that rocked the capital of Tehran, NBC news, military analyst Colonel Jack Jacobs is with us now. Colonel Jack Jacobs, thanks so much for being with us. First reactions to this news. We knew this was coming. We've been asking We're talking about it for weeks now, but a strike in the middle of the night. Do you think that this caught Iran at all off guard?

[00:01:07]

No, it didn't sound like they caught him off guard. I think they were prepared for it for a long time. It is interesting, as you mentioned, that it It's taken Israel a long time to retaliate. I think there's been a great deal of discussion inside Israel between the politicians on the one hand and the IDF on the other, about what kinds of targets to strike. The The original assumption was that they would go in quickly and that they would go in to strike oil transhipment points, oil storage facilities, and the like. And evidently, the decision was made instead to go after military targets. It'll be interesting to see whether or not any of those targets included facilities that are used by or house Republican Guard forces, which are the most dangerous, and they're the closest to the theocracy and keeps them in power. So further reports are necessary, but it looks like military targets, Gadi.

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Iran has repeatedly said that it will respond to Israel's retaliation with aggression. What do you think we could see there? What can we expect?

[00:02:22]

Well, the assumption is that they will respond, then Israel will respond. Again, there'll be a continuous escalation until there's a full-scale war. However, there are two things that Iran does not want to have happen. One of them is a full-scale war with Israel, a war which they would have a very, very difficult time winning. The second thing is that the war itself, if it escalates, will have a deleterious effect on what happens inside Iran. There's a great deal of concern by the government of Iran about civil unrest. And civil unrest inside Iran is not very far away. The only reason that the theocracy stays in business is because they're protected by the Republican guards. If there's a wholesale deterioration of peacefulness inside Iran, if there are huge demonstrations as a result of a large with Israel, then the regime is definitely in trouble, Gadi.

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