Donald Trump approves plans to attack Iran, CBS reports | BBC News – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.president Trump has approved plans for America to join Israel's attacks on Iran but is said to still be making a final decision on whether to go ahead with that Well the BBC's US partner CBS News says it's been told by two sources that the US president is waiting to see if Tehran agrees to abandon its nuclear program Well I've been speaking to CBS News correspondent Jared Hill to get the latest developments from the US So there there are a couple of things that we uh are learning from sources here at CBS News about President Trump's potential decision on what to do with Iran One of the factors from what we've learned from sources uh is that it is dependent upon whether Iran in some way shape or form decides to abandon its nuclear program Yesterday President Trump said that Iranian officials had been asking to come to the White House to talk about this Iranians though have said that they have not had any type of conversation about that and so we still don't know what the truth is there Uh the Iranians are also saying that they don't plan on surrendering The other factor here that we've learned is that President Trump is potentially waiting uh for more US military assets to arrive in the region before he makes a decision on whether there will be some type of physical strike uh on Iran We have seen uh some efforts from some Republican and Democratic lawmakers here uh in the US on Capitol Hill and Washington uh weighing whether they should push through a bill or a law that would prevent President Trump from acting on Iran without the approval of Congress That is in the early stages right now But all of this showcases just how divisive this issue is uh here in the States Indeed and perhaps even divisive in his government Jared because we heard a couple of months ago from Tulsi Gabbard who said uh something quite different in terms of how ready Iran was in terms of nuclear capabilities That's right So the the the argument here is that all of this is happening because Iran the the argument again is Iran is incredibly close to enriching enough uranium to have a nuclear weapon What we heard from Tulsi Gabbard the director of national intelligence just in March was that uh the assessment was that Iran was not close to having a nuclear weapon President Trump a couple of days ago said he doesn't care what Tulsi Gabbard said He believes based on his current knowledge or intuition uh that they are close to having a nuclear weapon and so there is that division within the Trump administration itself uh on the intel Well that's Jared Hill with the view from the United States as President Trump decides whether or not to join Israel in its military action And we are getting some response uh on Iranian state media from Iran's deputy foreign minister who said if the US wants to actively intervene in support of Israel Iran will have no other option but to use its tools to teach aggressors a lesson and defend itself As efforts to deescalate the tensions continue the British Foreign Secretary David Lambi is going to be meeting his US counterpart Marco Rubio in Washington today Well earlier I was speaking to our political correspondent Joe Pike in Westminster to get more of a sense of the UK's position on all of this The UK's position is evolving and evolving because the key message of escalation we've heard from UK government ministers does not seem to be being heeded uh in the White House David Lammy meeting Marco Rubio today and other uh key contacts in Washington DC We're told there has been some tension in the relations between the two countries over the UK's decision with some other nations like Australia and Canada to sanction two Israeli ministers in connection to their comments on Gaza Now the UK's position has sort of two key question marks around it Firstly over what the US ask to the UK might be if there is intervention How could the UK be involved a lot of speculation around the UK military base at Diego Garcia That's in the Chaos Islands in the center of the Indian Ocean because that's where it's certainly possible that American B2 stealth bombers uh could launch from if they are to take action in Iran Another possibility of course is the UK does what it did last October which is shoot down missiles being fired from Iran towards Israel The second big question mark for the UK government really is around the legal advice and certainly echoes of the legal advice and the and the sort of debates over legal advice around the Iraq war 22 years ago Suddenly the attorney general who's not a particularly prominent figure in UK politics comes to the four uh again in these sorts of um discussions Richard Herman the attorney general and his legal advice around different sort of roles for the UK government will be fascinating number 10 saying to me today he's closely involved but they do not want to comment on what that legal advice might be One other key point I think it's definitely worth making Regin and that is around how people are feeling in the UK government in particular in the foreign office diplomats do seem definitely anxious not just anxious about avoiding an escalation in the Middle East but also maintaining what so far seems to have been a pretty positive relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer There are UK diplomats and uh government sources within number 10 who believe they've really aced the first six months of the Trump presidency They point to this UK US trade agreement which is is limited It's not all enacted but it has they argue tangibly improved uh the uh access to the US markets of some UK companies and the UK got to the head of the queue with that And therefore there is this anxiety that that relationship between Star and Trump between number 10 and the White House between the UK and the US US is maintained whatever Donald Trump decides to do in the coming hours and days That's Joe Pike in Westminster there A short while ago we brought you reports that foreign ministers from the UK Germany France and the EU uh were planning to meet in Geneva on Friday to have talks to deescalate the situation They were planning to meet uh Iran Well that's now been confirmed according to Iranian state media Iran's foreign minister Abbaschi confirming that there will be a meeting between him and European counterparts in Geneva So of course efforts to deescalate the the situation continuing and that is of course significant because it's European leaders meeting with Iran